THE HONEY BEE.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 4, Issue 63, 22 May 1851, Page 3

THE HONEY BEE.

No. 5. (From the Family Economist.) The question is frequency asked, by the defenders of the old system of bee management, —"But if we prevent swarming, by giving the bees room, how ore we to keep up our stock ?" To litis we reply, " Keep a few storks from which to obtain Iresh swarms, but never take more than one sw.mn from each hive during the season.'* If .a cast should come forth, the readiest way of returning it to the parent stock, ii to take the bees when they are quietly hived, and suddenly dash them into a large tub or pan of Jtr&ter, placed just before the hive from which they came. Then put a board sloping upwards from the tub to the mouth of the hive, take out the bees with a skimmer, lay them on the board, and as they dry in the sun, they i will ascend to their old habitation, apparently none the worse for their rough treatment. | This is a plan we have frequently followed, and always with perfect success, and have generally been Able to make the queen a prisoner, in her upward march with her now discom- ' foried guards, to her former domicile. J There will be no dilKculty in recognizing, the queen from her greater size, and more taper body. When we linve not been successful in securing her majesiy, no inconvenience has followed, for, according to Ilubor, should a young queen return to the hive, she it speedily destroyed by tho reigning moiiitrcli. "The clus'er of bees that surrounded her, having allowed her some freedom, she seemed to advance towards that part of the comb where her rival stood ; then all receded before her, the multitude of workers separating, the two adversaries gradually dispersed, until only two remained ; these also removed, and allowed the queens'to conn: in sight. At this moment the reigning queen rushed on the stranger, with her teeth, seized her near the origin of the wing, anil succeeded in fixing her against the comb without any possibility of motion or resistance. Next curving her body, she pierced her unhappy victim with a mortal wound." It will lie frequently found in tho Autumn, that some of your stocks which have swarmed or some of your new swarms, are too weak to stand the winter. This will especially be the case after a cold, wet summer, or otherwise bad honey ye.-ir. Instead, however, of doing as you would formerly have done, by taking up these light hives, and smothering the bees with brimstone, let the injunction before given, i weigh upon your minds, Never kill your ; Bees, tot there is not the slightest necessity ] for continuing that barbarous practice, as you may take tho hooey and yet do some good beside, by uniting your weak stocks of bees, to stronger ones, by the method we shall now describe. j The hives should first be weighed, and those which do not weii»h as much as '2olbs. should bo selected for deprivation. " You may find in datnp meadows," 6avs Cotton, " a funyos which children call ' frog's cheese' and ' puiF balls.' "When quite ripe if you pinch them, a dirty powder, like smoke, will come out. l'ick them when half ripe, put them in a bag, and when you have squeezed tliem to lia'f the size, dry them in nn oven, or before the fire. The (lingua is fit for use when it will hold fire like tinder; keep this dry till the time you take your bees.

" There is another kind of funeus found I growing in vaults or cellars, which burns wiUiout previous dryinu» fl nd will answer the | required purposes as well ns the oilier; or rags soakeil in a solution of saltpetre in water, and then dried, will do. We have sometimes used common blotting-paper, in the absence of other materials. " A round box made of thick tin. without any solder mnst be provided. This box must be about two inches iu diameter, and an iiu-h and a half deep, wilh n conical, moveable, top about an Inch and a half high, perforated with holes.' There must also be some botes at the bottom to admit air, and it must be supported on legs made of wire. "This box, and a piece of the fungus lighted within it, must be put into an empty hive, turned up-ide down ; the full hive which you wish to lake must theu be placed upon it, and a wet cloth thrown over all, to pre.vent either the bees, or the smoke fiom escaping. In a few minutes you will hear the bees dropping inio the lower Ji i r#, and the upper one may then be tapped gently, to make them fall the quicker. When all is still, lift off the hive and you will sre the bees lying apparently dead below, 11 as if ihey had been burned with brimstone ; but the fungus does them no harm; it only makes them drunk, which >s verv good for bees, though bad for men, as they pet well in twenty minutes, have no headache next morning, and are all the merrier afterwards, and it was not their fault that they were so overtaken. Look for the queen hee, nine times out of ten she does not fall down, but holds fast to the top of the hive, in the very middle." Supposing you cannot find her among the stupid bee?, proceed to cut out the comb, and you will most likely discover her in the centie comb, at the vciy top. Place her under a glass wilh a small bit of honeycomb, keep her as long as she " ill live, as if any accident deprives a hive of ils queen, you may substitute this one in her place. Then sprinkle the intoxicated bfes with honey or syrup made of sugar boiled in ale. The liivc to which you intend to unite them must tht n be placed upon thai in which they are lying itupified, in the same manDer S9 the hive was, from which they have just fallen. The bees in the upper hive, attracted by the scent of the honey, soon begin to descend, and to clean the sprinkled bees wilh their tODgues. Ilnir helping them in their troubles makes them friends, they soon become mingled together and ascend with their companions to the hive above. They must be left quiet all night,| and in tbemorniog may be placed onlhc board in their former position. In a day two, another addition may be made to the hive in a similar way if required. 1 The most wonderful tiling is this, —that A Doubled Hive will eat no more Honey in tiie Winter than a single one. The tea>on of it seems to be, ti at where there are many bees in a hive, they can keep warm by keeping close together, instead of eating ; so that in a full hive, the same quantity ot honey goes fuither thnn in a weak one, as each bee eats less. They keep themselves warm from the outside, and so do not requite to be heated in the inside; as a man who, by keeping bees, or any other honest way, can hnve a good coat on his hack, is warm enough without a brandy bottle.'" ... Another wav of uniting stocks, is by having the tin box fitted to a pair ol bellows and adapted with a tube, instead of the conical top. Late in the evening, a piece of lighted fungus being put into the box, introduce the tube into the mouth of the hive which you intend to take, blow gently with the bellows untilfthe bees fall down upon the board. Perform the same operation to the hive to which they are to be united. Alter taking away ®lie queen from the first bive, sweep the bees care-j fully on to the cluster which has just dropped from the other, and after well intermingling them, sprinkle them plentifully with syrup.. Support the hive on e'lge, over the heap of beeß, that they may not he crushed, and by the morning they will have become friends, and gone up into the hive which may then be lowered to iU proper position. In this way you mav unite, und strengthen y.mr stocks without the loss of n single bee, and in the ensuing spring you will reap the reward of your mercy, in the honied stores your littlt- j labourers will treasure up lor you. The same methods may be adopted for uniting swarms | and casts in summer, while there is yet lime for honey-gathering, but nothing but the union of weak swarms with strong ones must j be attempted in the autumn.