The Honey-Bee: Its Natural History, Physiology and Management

+The Bee+ is considered by Naturalists as belonging; to what are called perfect societies of insects, and, in entomological arrangements, is placed in the order Hymenoptera, gen...

An apiary would not be well situated near a great river, nor in the neighbourhood of the sea, as windy weather might whirl the bees into the water and destroy them.

No one that could afford to purchase bee-boxes, and to construct a bee-house, or to convert to that use some building already constructed, would hesitate, I should think, to giv...

It is of the first importance to the success of an apiary, that it should be in a neighbourhood where the bees can be supplied with an abundance of good pasturage, as upon that...

The term +honey-dew+ is applied to those sweet clammy drops that glitter on the foliage of many trees in hot weather. The name of this substance would seem to import, that it is...

Every one who meditates the establishment of an apiary, should be able to distinguish a good from a bad hive of bees, that he may detect imposition, if it should be attempted, w...

There has been some difference of opinion as to _the most suitable dimensions of bee-boxes_. I prefer those of Keys, which are twelve inches square and nine inches deep, _in the...

+Bee-hives+ have been formed with various materials, the selection of which has depended partly upon the country or district in which they have been used, and partly upon the fa...

Most of the writers who have instituted a comparison between hives and boxes, have decided in favour of the former. But it is to be recollected that when forming this decision,...

Narrow hives, with large glazed doors on each side, have been recommended by apiarian writers, for exposing the operations of bees. That of +Reaumur+ was too wide: it allowed th...

The apiarian who adopts the storifying plan, should have _Keys's dividers_, which consist of two copper or brass plates, about the sixteenth of an inch thick, fifteen inches wid...

+Storifying+ means the piling of hives or boxes upon each other, as shown in the above plate, and preserving a free communication between them; a method which enables the apiari...

However populous a stock of bees may be in the autumn, its numbers are greatly reduced during winter, perhaps about six or seven eighths. This loss is more than replaced in the...

From what has been said in the two last chapters, a comparative estimate may be made of the advantages which storifying possesses over single-hiving; and they appear to be the f...

"See where with hurry'd step, th' impassion'd throng Pace o'er the hive, and seem with plaintive song T' invite their loitering queen; now range the floor, And hang in cluster'd...

In every apiary there should be a stock of hives, boxes, &c. always ready before-hand, either for storifying or for single-hiving; a neglect of this precaution will often be pro...

Many plans have been suggested for transferring bees from hives to boxes; but excepting in the case of a recent swarm, I would not recommend any, but an experienced apiarian, to...

When one hive or box is to be raised upon another in a bee-house, the operation may be performed at any time; the best time is about ten or eleven o'clock in the morning, when a...

The union of swarms with their stocks, and of swarms or stocks with each other, in case of their being or becoming weak, has been attempted in various ways, and with various suc...

It should be an invariable rule with the apiarian, never to remove an upper hive or box, till an under one be quite full; and even then, it should be ascertained that the conten...

After having noted the utility of Dividers, in adding fresh _empty_ boxes, the reader will readily perceive their importance in the removal of _full_ ones, when the period arriv...

The Storifying system, when conducted with proper precaution, in a bee-house, renders a bee-dress quite superfluous to the apiarian, as all his operations may be safely performe...

A stock of bees will, generally, consume a pound of honey per month, betwixt the 1st of October and the 1st of March: from this time to the end of May, they will consume two pou...

I suspect that much which has been written upon this subject is fanciful, and that most of the ailments of bees originate from want of cleanliness or want of food; for if bees b...

The most destructive enemies of the bee, in this country, are _wasps_, whose superior strength, boldness and number, enable them to commit great ravages in a hive. One wasp is s...

Bees are, in all probability, the most universal of all animals; and notwithstanding their impatience of cold, they seem adapted to live in all climates. They are accordingly to...

After deprivation, the box or hive containing the combs should be kept in a warm room, till it is convenient to drain it of its contents, as the more fluid the honey, the sooner...

+Wax+ is a solid compact unctuous substance, generally of a yellow colour. It is secreted by animals and vegetables, but the vegetable secretion of it is often combined with resin.

+Honey+ is a well known, sweet, tenacious, substance, which in fine weather is continually secreting in the nectaries of flowers, chiefly from certain vesicles or glands situate...

Prior to the introduction of agriculture into Britain, mead was the principal cordial beverage of its inhabitants. In other northern nations also it was formerly in high estimat...

Having given in detail the instructions necessary for the domestic management of the Bee, and treated of such parts of its physiology as that detail naturally suggested; I shall...

In considering the phænomena of insect sensation, little advantage can be derived from analogy; the physiology of the senses of bees, and other insects, is therefore but imperfe...

All creatures, of whatever size, that live together in large communities, have long been observed to display more knowledge and ingenuity than those that do not congregate: this...

The combs of a bee-hive comprise a congeries of hexagonal cells, formed by the bees, as receptacles for honey or for embryo bees. A honey-comb is allowed to be one of the most s...

It has long been very generally and implicitly believed, that the yellow matter (in other words, the pollen or farina of flowers,) which bees visibly collect upon their thighs,...

+_Pollen_+ and _Farina_, in the language of Botanists, are terms applied to the powdery particles discharged by the anthers of flowers in warm dry weather, and which hang about...

Besides the honey and pollen which are gathered by bees, they collect a resinous substance, that is very tenacious, semitransparent, and which gives out a balsamic odour, somewh...

Honey is regarded by modern naturalists as of no other use to plants but to allure insects, which, by visiting the nectaries of their flowers to procure it, become instrumental...