HINTS ON THE MANAGEMENT OF BEES. By the Rev. W.C. Cotton, m.a. (Continued.)

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 169, 12 January 1848, Page 2

HINTS ON THE MANAGEMENT OF BEES. By the Rev. W.C. Cotton, m.a. (Continued.)

Y. TAKING HONEY. Ido not advise you to put on any bee-dress such as you trill find rrcommended in many of the old Beebooks, masks, veils, thick worsted sha vis, stockings and gloves of the same material, are all spoken of, so that one of these old bee-masters must have looked like Mr. Bruin, when full dressed, Tnis would be all well, if yon were to begin operations in his violent way —but I shall show you how to take away from your bees the desire to sting, and you I trust hare no intention of hurting them, which is the only thing which would rekindle their angry feelings. Least of all should you put on gloves with the idea of protecting your fingers from the sting — a man might as well try to play the ft idle with his hands muffled up, for the success of all bee-operations mainly depends upon delicacy and softness of touch — you may tickle your bees and they will rather be pleased than otherwise, but if you press them roughly they will iting — if you crush one, the peculiar odour which arises from the bruised carcase, has a very irritating effect upon all his brethren, and they prepare to avenge his death, though with the certain loss of their own lives. One precaution alone I recommend tie your trowsers tightly round your ancles with a piece of string (if knee-breeches and gaiters are your common wear so much the better, you want no extra dressing), for iuch bees as fall on the ground will often crawl up the operator's legs, and when pressed between, his clothes and flesh sting him in self-defence. A lady's dress I cannot pretend to regulate. And now for the time fit for the operation : it should be the middle of a sunshining, calm day, between 1 1 tad 12, when the number of workers who are abroad is greater. You will so be in less danger of crushing a number of Bees as you cut out the combs. Besides, if it is later, such bees as may be daubed with honey may not have time >o get themselves to rights by their fellows. A damp, cold day, or one when showers may be expected, should not be chosen, as those bees which fall to the ground will be chi'led and unable to rise again to their hive, and so will perish miserably ; and I am sure that you would sooner put off your operations, even though you are about to begin, than risk such a result. So much for the needful praparation, and for the hour of the day to be chosen. But one of my pupils may say, — bow am I to know when my bees have honey to spare if they are in hives of the candle box construction ? you cannot look in upon them as you may in properly made boxes which are furnished with windows. But you have tbeir weight to guide you. It is a very good plan to weigh each of your hives and bottom boards before you put bees into them. Mark the weight of the contents on the outside and then simple subtraction will, at any time, give you the weight of the contents. Even if you have not, as yet, taken this precaution, you may give a tolerable guess by lifting it a little in your hand, bottom boards and all, jutu t before sundown. In the autumn and winter when the breeding season is over, the weight of the box will give you the actual weight of the honey and comb more nearly than in spring and summer. In the latter seasons a great part of a heavy hive is filled with brood, a comb from which the young beei are just about to issue forth, is nearly as heavy at apiece of honeycomb of the same Bize. So do not in summer expect a large quantify of honey from your candle-box, though it may be almost as heavy as when it is full of its original contents. But I will not any longer delay to give you the method of taking honey. I will reserve what I have to say about the seasons when the greatest quantity may be taken, in different parts of this land. I.—When all is ready, blow a few puffs of imoke into Ihe doorway of the hive which you are going to take honey from. If you turn up the hive without so doing, the sentinel-bees will most likely iy up into your face, and if you do net take it quietly, you may chance to get stung. The smoke drives the sentinels Hp amongst the combs, aad deprives the whole swarm of its combativeness. How it affects that organ Ido not pretend to say, but so it is. Have an empty hive ready to put down in the exact spot on which the full hive is standing, in order that the bees who are at work may have some home to go into as they return — they will be mrpriied indeed to find no comb in it, no cells in which to deposit their loads, you wiil lee them running about in great anxiety, but as the numbers increase, they will gradually cluster inside more readily, if you put a single comb in the hive to attract them and remain tolerably quiet till you have done your work, and are ready to return them to their own home. This substitution of the empty hive for the full one is of great importance, as it gives the homeward-bound bees a place of refuge, and prevents their straying into neighbouring hives, where they are instantaneously apprehended and put to death, then turn up the hive, taking particular care to turn the combs in their own places as I told you before, in my second letter, place the hive quietly down on a table— if the box is not all full of comb begin to cut out as much as the bees can spare, at the side where the vacant space is, because it is easier to drive the bees from this end of the box than from the other. Do this with a few puffs of smoke, and as the bees have left the first comb quite clear, cut it from the top of the box by means of the lancet-shaped bee-knife, which is made just kmg enonffh to cut through the combs. Don't let the comb fall down in the box, but support it with one hind, and wh n it is quite free, lift it gently out letting it lie on your hand with the side downward which is quite free from bees, and brush off wii h feathers into the hive, any stragglers which may be remaining on the upper side. A good deal of dexterity is required in handling so heavy and yet so fragile a thing as a piece of virgin honeycomb full of honey, and yet such is the strength of the form made uieof, that it is possible to lift a full comb without damaging a single cell. The art seems to be in spreading the fingers as much as poiiible, in order to support the comb in niany different parts. If the thumb and finger alone of a clumsy hand are used, to seize a comb, and lift it out of the box, they will meet in the middle, and make a great wound in the honeycomb without getting it out— repeat this, and you will ■oon make a complete mess of the most lovely combsit will be reduced to one great mash. So remember, you must handle the combs tenderly, as though you loved them, and as though they had feeling. By aid of the bee-knife, honey may be taken in the same manner from a common straw hive, if made of a proper shape. Those which are straight-sided and

hafe a conical top, rising to a point, are the very worst pattern. The purest honey is deposited in the very crown of the hive, which should be nearly flat, that each comb may be as nearly square as passible : beside* the bee-knife will not work to advantage in a hive of this shape, a large piece of honey-comb will always be left in the top, whilktin a box, or in a flattopped straw hive, it will make clean work. Those also which are contracted at the bottom are very difficult to get honey from— they are made so, I believe, from a mistaken idea of giving support to the comb, but trust your bees to know how to fasten their comb securely to the top of a hive — they are no bunglers, and make sure work of it It is utterly impossible to get a comb out of one of these bungling hives without previously cutting it down the middle, and t-very such cut spills honey and daubs your bees. Crosssticks are equally pernicious — many persons iusist on putting them into their hives from the same mistaken idea of supporting the comb The advocates of this skeweriug system will also tell you that they are useful for a new swarm to hang upon, but it is no such thing — a new swarm hangs from the very top of the hives, and form live ladders, as it were, of their own bodies, up which the laborers mount without needing the cross-sticks. Whenever lam asked to take honey from a straw hive which is fitted up with these cross-sticks I always pull them out, which may be done by twisting them round and round ; if any of the skewer projects through the outside, I then leave the bees to repair the damage, and lick up the honey which is unavoidably spilt, and then next day proceed with the operation. In describing the wooden boxes which I recommended in my second letter, I said that their chief advantage was in the ease with which honey may be taken from them — when a top box is quite full and the cells sealed over, remove the cover, blow smoke with the fumigating bellows, down the bars now exposed, when the greater part of the bees have gone into the lower boxes, remove the top one steadily ou to your operation-table. If it is quite full of pure virgin honey, and you wish to keep it until you use it, you may get rid of the few bees which linger about their stores, by removing it a short distance from the hive; cover it over with thick cloths soas to darken it entirely; prop up one side of the hive so as to leave free exit to the remaining bees, they will naturally cometothe light and fly straight home to their parent hive, so that in a short time you will be left in undisputed possession of your spoil. If the bees cling obstinately to the box which you have removed., you may suspect that the Queen is there, you must then cut out the combs one by one, driving out of the way of your bee-knife by your smoking-bellows, aod taking care not to cruth any of them. When you have got to the last comb, you will find all the bees collected about it and on the side of the box — smoke the bees off this comb, remove it, aad then shake all the bees with a smart blow on a broad board — a ja» panned tea tray does very well — hold it close to the mouth of the parent hive, and you will see what I think is, next to swarming, the most beautiful sight which falls in the way of a bee practitioner — gently tap the under part of the tea tray, the bees will not take wing as you might expect, the noise will only rouse them from their half torpid state, and as at beat of drum, they will march up in straight lines to th» mouth of their hives, which they will enter, making the same buzzing noise with their wings which they do when swarming— now is the time to keep a look out for the Queen, you may often see her returning iti triumph to her royal residence in the midst of her attendinti. I was perfectly amazed at the order and regularity which the bees keep under these circumstances, when I first accidentally hit on this method of returning the bees to their hive, and I have since delighted very many people with the sight— it must be seen to be credited. If you find that the box which you remove from the •tock has tome brood in it, cut out the combs till you come to those which are thus filled, and then return the box to iti own place. I never return drone-combi, which you may know by the cells being of a larger size, or there is no lack of these non-producori but terrible consumers in every large apiary, during the breedingseason, but keep them to feed up young chickeni or turkeys who relish them highly. Returning a box with some brood-comb iv it to its own position has this good effect, that it induces the bees to take immediate possession of the bsz so returned. They cluster upon the brood-comb, and straightway proceed to fill the vacant space with honey-comb. Even if there is no brood to return, I generally tempt the bees to re-enter the top box by placing in it a piece of honeycomb, and here is the great advantage of having all your boxes made to the same gaje — the bars will then fie all your hives indifferenty, and you may transfer one with a piece of comb attached to it from a full hive to an. empty box which you wish the bees to occupy. After the breeding-season it over, that is about the end of February or March, the bees will fill the empty brood-comb with honey, and when the cells are sealed over, will often almost entirely desert the rich.y-stored box which may then be taken with very little trouble. During the breeding-season the loss of the Queen, should any accident happen to her during the operation is easily supplied. There will generally be young "Queen-grubs ready to take her place, or if there happens to be none in the hive, the common egg may have its prospects in life changed from that of a maid of allwork to a reigning Queen. After the breeding-season of course this cannot be done, and the loss of the Queen, is necessarily followed by the gradual extinction of the wholehive. The season of the year at which the greatest quantity of honey may be taken, will vary of course in the different parts of these islands, as tbey extend over so many degrees of latitude. In the northern districts they woik during the entire winter (though iv the English sense this is not an appropriate word,)— the Queen rests from her maternal toils though the workers make no pause in their honey-gathering. So the very purest honey may be taken during the winter months. In the latitude of Auckland the work of a hive is bus* pended for a month or so, varying of course witb the season, whilst in the South I think their sUte of torpor will be found to extend over a longer period, and the habits of the bee will differ less from those of their English brethren— experience, therefore, must teach bee-masters what season is the best for a great take of honey. (To be continued.)