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

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 176, 5 February 1848, Page 3

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

This was a drink frequently used among the ancient Romans, who, I mppose, fint taught the ordering of feeei, and brought this wholeiome liquor into our island. We find by history, it wu the approved and common drink of our ancestors— even of our Kings and Queens, who in former ages preferred the liquors of the product of this island, before tboie imported from foreign ■countries, as did the famous and renowned Queen Elizabeth, who every year had a veisel of Metheglin made for her own drinking. A receipt of this Queen's Metheglin coming to my hands, I shall oblige the reader therewith as follows : Take a bushel of s\f eet-briar leave*, as much of thyme, half a bushel of rosemary leaves, and having well wathed them boil them in a copper of fair water ; icE them boil the space of half an hour or better, and then pour out all the water and herbs, into a vat, and let it stand till it be but milk-warm— then strain the water from the herbs, and take to every gallon of water, one gallon of the finest honey, and beat it together for the space of an hour, then let it stand two dayi, straining it well twice or thrice a day, then take the liquor and b >il it again, and skim it as long as there remains any scum — when it is clean put it into a vat as before, and let it stand to cool ; you must then have in readiness, a kive of new ale or beer, which as soon as you have emptied suddenly, presently put in the metheglin, and let it stand three days a-Workinj, and then tuun it up inbirrels, tying at every tap-hole, by a pack, thread, a little bag of beaten cloves and mace, to the value of an ounce. It must stand halt' a year before it be drank.

ROYAL MB A b. In six gallons of watei put six quarts of honey, stirring it till the honey is thoroughly mixed, then •et it before the fire, and when ready to boil, scum it very well — add one quarter of an ounce of mace, as much ginger, half an ounceof nutmeg, some sweet marjoram, thyme, and sweet-briar— together a handful — Qoil it in the liquid, let it stand till cold, set it working with a little yeast in a barrel, putting the bung lightly on and filling it up from time to time with some of the same liquid. When it has done working, bung it up tight, and leave it in the cask several mouths before bottling off. When it has been bottled for 6omr time it will effervesce like the best English gooseberry wine, and will keep, I have no doubt, for years.— Probatutn ttt! N.B.— One quart is equal to H>3£ of strained honey.

SACK MEAD. Put one gallon of water to four pounds of honeyboil it three quarters of an hour, and scum it well; for every gallon of the liquor add an ounce of hopi— boil it half a hour and let it tuud till next day — put it into a caik, and for every thirteen gallons of liquor, add a .quart of brandy. Put the bung on lightly till the fermentation ii over, then stop it very close. If you make a large caik, keep it a year before you bottle it. BOTTLED BEER, LIKE SCOTCH TWO-PENNY* To fourteen gallons of water, add a pound of hops, previously steeped in a little water— boil it half an feour, strain it and let it run upon the boney, about a pound and three quarters to each gallon of liquor, more or less. When cool put it in a barrel, and ferment as before. This i| an excellent summer drink; as is the following-*

GINGER WINK. To right quarts of water, put eight ounces of ginger, twenty-four pounds of honey, and eight lemons. Work and bottle as before. In the two last receipts, the strength of the wort may be increased or diminished by varying the proportion of honey.

HONEY-VINEQAR. Put a pound of honey to a q-iart «f water, mix well, and then expose in the greatest heat of th<J tUn, without wholly closing the bung-hole, which must be covered with coarse linen to keep out insecti. In about six weeks it will be changed to Vinegar of an excellent quality. A spoonful or two of this vinegar mixed with cold water, is a very agreeable summer drink — it may be either vied plaiu, or made to effervesce by a little ■oda. A cunning home wife, doubtless, would improve upon many of these receipts ; her main difficulty in supplying a family with theie beverages, will be in straining the honey, which runs very slowly when of a thick quality. T hit I think may be obviated by boi'ing clean honey-combi in a due proportion of water, and then letting the liquor stand till cold, when the wax will have formed on the top, and may be taken off— then proceed as above. A less agreeable, though not less useful application of honey is in the form of a cough mixture. Fill a quart bottle three-parts full of clarified honeymix well witht his a tea-spoonful of Ipecacuanha— then fill up with sharp vinegar. A spoonful or two of this, whenever the cough is troublesome, will have a very good effect.

THE BRES' STING. A good deal of the craft of bee-keeping is different in New Zealand from that which is useful in England. The length of the summer, the mildness of the winter, and the greater, consequently, increase of the bees, all these make the odds, and so I hare compiled this little manual, which I believe will give you more practical hints than any European Bee-book would do, not excepting my own. If any other manual could give you the needful information, this never would have been written— but a Bee-«ting ii the tame all over the world. The pain is sharp for a minute or two, and it ii not pleasant to have an eye entirely cloied, or a nose twice as large as nature intended it. At the sting of the bee it the lame here as it was in England, I can have nothing more to say on the snbject, and will only quote what I wrote acme ye»ri ngo. Ido not think, however, that the bees are near so irascible here m they are in England : and I account for it in this way— they have not so mnny enemies to contend with ; the absence of wasps in particular, enables them to preierve a more equal temper. I wish all Englishmen were ai much improved in this respect as their bee 1 : are— remember that a man's sting is not so easily cured at a bee's. So, if you are ever inclined to use your own in the shape of a sharp or angry word, subs stitute for it the honey of kindness, and then you will gain a lesson from your bees Worth learning, but now for my quotation :— " Many people who would otherwise keep bees, are afraid of their itinps, and so will have nothing to do with them. There are some people it it true, to whom a sting is really dangerous : let them have nothing to do with them, unless they love their bees so much as rather to brave all consequences than to give up keeping them. There are some people who if they get a sting in the finger, straightway swell up to the thoulder, or even farther— this it certainly not pleatant, though I believe no great harm comet of it. The wont place in which you can be stung is the inside of the throat— l have heard of a man dying of swallowing a wasp, which was inside a peach that he bit in half—it stung him in the throat, which, as he did not know what to do to cure himself, closed up the passage of tbe breath, and so stifled him. If he had been an unhappy bee-murderer, he would then find how unpleasant it is to be stifled. He ought to have run straight off to a Doctor, who would, 1 believe, have put a small pipe down his throat, to keep the passage for the wind open. I myself was once blowing into a door to drive the bees out, (N.8., this w»s in my dayt o» ignorance, I know better nowj when, in drawing iv my breath sharply, I swallowed a bee ; I prepared myself for a run to the Doctor's, had I felt it's sting in my throat, or lower down in my " inside pocket," but the bee passed so rapidly down, that he had not time to sting when he got to hit journey's end, no doubt not a little surprited at the path he had travelled ; be resigned himself to his fate like a good bee and did not revenge himself by stinging me. Many remedies have been given for a sting, above all pull the sting completely out, at it is barbed like a fith-hook, and will work into the flesh — then squeeze the poison out with the pipe of a small key as you would a thorn, and put a little honey on the place just to keep the air away. If this it done at first, the swelling will generally be a mere nothing. The pain only lasts two minutes — at worst it is only a awellid eye for a day or two. Another very common nostrum for rubbipg on the place, aftar the poison it squeezed out with a key, is the washerwoman's bluebag ; it is well to keep a lump of indigo in your bee-home. Other people recommend the application of « drop of sweet oil, laudanum, or rau de luce — you may try each and all of these till you find the once boit suited to your temperament. The strangest cure of all is that recommended by an old Bee-book, printed in the year 1792, by Robert Sydseof, who says —"If I am stung in the face, I generally swell till almost blind. If on the back of the hand, the swelling ascends to the tops of my fingers — but if lam ktung by two bees near the same place, the swelling is not to much — and if I am stung by tea or more bees, the swelling is very little or none at all. I would not of choice be stung by them, if it can be avoided, but after I have been ttung once, I have no objection to being 6tung twice, and after I have been stung twice or three times, I do not mind if lam stung fifty or a hundred timei.'' He then gives several instances in which this strange mode of cure was effectual, in his own perion, which if true would be a curious addition to a list of homeopathic remedies, and adds as the result—" From these circumstances I come to the conclusion never to be siung by one bee alone, unless another is not to b* had." He speaki not a little contemptuously of one of his bee-apprentices, because, sooner than take my advice, and make use of my infallible, speedy remedy, he would be content to be swollen almost blind, by blinking like an owl for near a week together. But, after all, prevention is better than cure. Listen to the words of an old writer who lived two hundred years ago—" If thou wilt have the favor of thy beet that they tting thee not, thou must avoid some things which offend them— thou muit not begunchatte and uncleanly, for impurity and sluttiness (themselves being most chaste and neat,) they utterly abhor — thou muit not come among them smelling of sweat or having a stinking breath, caused either through eating of leeks, onions and garlic, and the like, or by any other meant the noisomeness whereof is corrected by a cup of beer — thou must not be given to surfeiting or drunkenness, thou must not come puffing and blowing unto them, neither hastily stir among them, nor resolutely defend thyself when they teem to threaten thee, but softly moving thy hand before thy face, gently put them by— and lastly thou muit be do stringer unto

them. In a word thou must be chaste, cleanly, tweet, sober, quiet and familiar, 10 will they love thee and know thee from all other." Above all, never blow on them, they will try to sting directly if you do. If they come allabout you making the noise which you will soon learn to know! as a sign of anger, go quietly away, and put your head into a thick tcrub if any U near— this will bruih them- off. If you want to catch any of the bees, make a bold «weep at them with your hand, as though there wat no Buch thing as a sting in the world; the bee will be so astonished that she will not sting at first, then hold her in your closed hand without preiiing her, and she will not sting. 1 hare so caught three or four at a time. If you want to do anything to a single bee, catch her " at if you-loyed her," between your finger and thumb, where the tail joint on to the body, she then cannot sting you. By handling a bee dexterously, you may make her push out her sting, down which a drop of poison will be teen to trickle ; you may cause her to deposit this drop on the back of your thumb-nail, and if you are so disposed, may taste what it is like, as I have done many a time. You will find it a very «our and bitter acid, unlike any other taste I know, and by no meant agreeable, so that you will be sure to Bpit it out again. Even if you were to swallow it, I do not think it would hurt you. Though it produces so violent an effect when introduced into the system through a sting, it is quite harmleis when taken internally. I believe it is a substance in itself called Meleitic Acid by the chemists. Formic acid (thac of atUs ) is nearly like it, and is equally harmless taken internally. I have read somewhere, though I cannot recollect the book, that our sofdiefs in the Peninsula* when parched with thirst, relieved themselves by eating a number of ants which they fell in with. A curious sort of travelling lemon-acid-machine is an ant. Ido not fancy you will make the tame use of your beei. The poiion of a bee though very powerful in its operation on men, it sMU more so on bees. A bee stung by another, seems immediately paralyzed, loiing the entire use of her l.wt* r extremities, which she drags after her in a piteous way, and then diet. I have seen one bee dragging by her sting another bee whom she had wounded, so that it is entirely untrue that one bee never stings another. People have argued a priori that il is so : because, say they, she would in that case lose her sting and perish. But the argument, a posteriori, which is in thii case the argument in point, proves that the does tometim'es sfrng other beei, though very rarely — for a forcible ejectment is the usu«l method Which she uses with intruders. If she stings a man, the loses her sting and dies— for our skin it of acompsct nature, like leather, but she has power to retract her weapon, although it be barbed, from the softer membranes of a sister bee. Dronei too, are sometimes put to death by a iting, though the usual m thod employed for killing the«e non-producers is by biting them about the root of the wing, Wheq they fall on the ground and perish miserably. In England, I have leen the watpt, who are villains in relatnn to the beet, eating out theimides of drones, who were crawling about the ground in front of thehivet from which they had been forcibly expelled. The Queen has a stinir, though it it more deeply seated in her body. I have often made her protrude it, though I believe she never mes it on a man* reierving this pouoned dageer for the rivals of her throne— thit is alluded to in Gwillen's Heraldry, which tayi— " Louit entered Geneva, bearing a coat studded with a swarm of beet, or, a King in the middle bearing thii motto— Rex non utitur aculco to show tbat he pardoned the rebellion of the Genoese." And we learn in tbe tame curious record, that Pope Urban 111, had for hit bearing, azure, three ,beet, or A Frenchman who regarded him at more attached to his nation than to the Spaniards, wrote this lme — " Gallis mella dabunt Hispanis spicula figunt," to which the Spaniard answered— " Spicula si figant, emorientur apes" This Pope was made to answer in an jngeniou* way, and in a manner perfectly consistent with his office of Pastor to the Church— 11 Cunctit mella dabunt, sed mellit spicula figunt — Spicula res etenim figere neicitapum." (To be continued.)