PRACTICAL TREATMENT OF BEEs.—We have thus traced the natural history of the honey bee from its origin until attaining perfection, and shown how the various species form one great colony, where labours are carried on for the common good. We have ex plained also, that, at a certain season, bees desert their habitation in quest of another, which, in a do mesticated state, the cultivator is careful to provide ; and we shall now proceed to tlie practical treatment of bees, and point out bow their labours are to be converted to utility, profit, and pleasure.
All the circumstances above related having taken place, the new swarm is lodged in a hive, there to I commence the collection of honey, the fabrication of) wax, and the perpetuation of the species. Much has been said of the fittest size and figure of a hive, and of the substance of which it should consist : wood, straw, and oziers, have all been recommended ; and round, square, oblong, and hexagonal hives have had their particular partisans. These things, we apprc. bend, do not merit the importance bestoWed upon them ; and our reason for saying so is, from having seen the most ample products of honey, under condi tions almost diametrically opposite. At one time we have seen large straw hives, of the ordinary fashion in this country, full to the brim of rich honey comb; at other times we have seen them almost empty, with out any sensibkcause, and where circumstances seem ed to favour the reverse. We are thence induced to conclude, that less depends on the shape and capaci ty of the hive, than on the kind and quantity of the swarm introduced into it, and on the season in which their collections are made. Examples have come un der our notice, where a swarm, lodging in the roof of a house, has produced a great quantity of honey in combs only four or five inches broad : another swarm also in the roof of a house we have known to fill combs above eighteen inches in breadth. Exposure to the north or south has not affected the bees : their provi sion has been equally abundant. And here we may remark, that in all instances that have fallen within the sphere of our observation, the products of swarms; lodged in the roofs of houses, have invariably been abundant. We do not pretend to account for this. Perhaps it may partly result from their labours be ing performed without any disturbance or interrup tion ; partly from the greater heat preserved in a roof during summer. Heat is the soul of insects : their action and exertion are directly in proportion to the temperature, of the atmosphere ; and cold is the bane of their existence. It is not unlikely, also, that the same cause promoting the hatching of the brood, contributes to render the colony more numerous : and if their swarming is at all dependant on want of room, large portions of them have not an equal in ducemcnt to seek another dwelling. Pallas tells us, that the Russian peasants, in remote parts of the em pire, hollow out a part of the trunks of trees, 25 or 30 feet from the surface of the earth, for the purpose of hives; and cover the opening with planks, ha ving small apertures for the bees. At Cazan, Mr Bell saw hives of a similar form, which the inhabi tants bound to the trees at the side of a wood, in or der to secure them from the bears.
As abundant collections of honey are often made in the common straw hives, we cannot affirm that they are unsuitable for the purpose ; but they arc at tended with the disadvantage of preventing the owner,* from an early appropriation of the labours of the bees., One convenience, indeed, lies in the facility of con..., struction, which always merits due appreciation in; every branch of rural economy ; and, also, that the, o st is inconsiderable. Though neither the size nor' figure of the hive be important, all modern cultiva tors seem agreed that it should be susceptible of ad ditions. In the ordinary straw hive, the addition is made by raising it on a circular ring or hoop, either of wood or of the same materials ; a clumsy and auk ward expedient, which commonly leads the bees to waste much of their labour in filling up crevices. Notwithstanding this, it is adopted in Brittany with some little difference, and there called the Scotch hive. The hive itself consists of two pieces, each twelve in ches wide, and eleven high, made of rolls of straw. The under one is divided from the other ; but a com munication hole, fifteen or eighteen lines in diameter, is left for the bees. As they work downwards, the under part, which is nothing but one of our common eeks, or broad hoops, is next filled.—Pyramidal hives have been made several feet in height, and divided in to different stages, or compartments ; which the bees, after being lodged in the highest, would successively fill on removal of the floors or stages.—Boxes of con venient size and form, placed above each other, have likewise been recommended, and which we should suppose well adapted for enabling the cultivator, at all times, to take the honey with ease. Such boxes are made of well seasoned wood, nine inches long, the same in breadth, and eight inches high ; but from what we have said, there is no necessity for a rigid adherence to these dimensions. In the roof there is a commu nication hole three inches square, on which is placed another box pf similar structure ; others may be rai sed above this to an indefinite height ; • and the bot torn of each is open like the mouth of a common hive. When a swarm is lodged in a box, if only two be used, it is immediately to be put over an emp ty one, as the bees must have more room ; and if more than two are used, a new one is successively to be supplied below. The bees, beginning from
above, will soon fill the upper bo3t with honey ; and it is then to be separated from that beneath it, by drawing through a long thin pliable knife to cut the comb. The communication hole of the lower box must then be covered with a board, and the box se parated cat ried to a distance, where the bees remain ing in it may be dislodged, by turning it up and rap ping on its sides with a small stick. The proper time to perform this operation is at sunrise.—Colla teral boxes have also been suggested, from the belief of their being attended with greater advantages to the bees. The size is nearly the same with that above mentioned. There is a communication hole in the side, and an op"ening low and wide below in the sides applied to each other, to allow the bees more ready passage. Collateral hoops of twisted straw or wood were long ago invented, by which means the inventor enlarged his hives to an unlimited extent ; and these he kept, with great advantage, in a garret near the roof of his house.—.Madame Vicat invented a kind of hive, composed of hollow frames of three sides, which are connected together, and can be separately ta ken out at pleasure. Each frame is ruikclotof three pieces of plank, half an inch thick. -"the two pieces are eleven inches high, and five and a half broad ; the piece connecting them above is seven in ches lung, and they are ten inches asunder at the bot tom. The sides of these open frames are applied to each other, and if one of four be taken away, an empty one can be introduced, or the remaining ones can be closed together.—Somewhat analogous to this is the leaf or book hive, invented by M. Huber, some of which construction have recently been adopted in Scotland, after the description he gives of it. This consists of twelve hollow frames, twelve inches high, nine or ten in breadth, and fifteen lines in width, as it is intended each shall receive only a single comb. These twelve frames, laterally applied to each other, form the whole hive. All are connected by means of hinges at the back, so that they divide asunder in opening like turning over the leaves of a book. The ten intermediate frames, between the first and twelfth, are hollow ; the outside of these two are covered ; in them, also, is an entrance for the bees ; there should be one in all the rest, to open at pleasure. On first lodging a swarm in one of these hives, a small piece of comb should be fixed in a division, to guide the di rection of those built by the bees, which will be pa rallel to it ; and as each frame contains but a single comb, it is extremely well adapted for observation, and it also admits the removal of that comb without af fecting or deranging the rest. The whole contents are exposed to view, the queen is easily found, and whatever should be removed or altered can be select ed with great convenience. The inventor conceives," that the book hive has the property of rendering the bees more tractable ; for on opening any of the divi sions, the bees rather testify fear than anger, by reti ring into the cells as if to conceal themselves. This he ascribes to the effect which the sudden introduc tion of light has on them ; for they are less tractable after sun-set and during night than through the day, The divisions must be separated slowly, and care ob served to avoid wounding the bees. If they cluster too much on the combs, they must be brushed off. with a feather, and breathing on them cautiously guarded against. The air which we expire seems to excite their fury ; and it certainly possesses some ir ritating quality, for if bellows be used the bees are more disposed to escape than to sting. Another ad vantage attends the leaf hive, which eonsias in the power of the operator to make the bees work in wax, or, which is the same thing, to construct new combs. All that is here required is to separate those already built so far asunder as to leave an interval in which. additional ones may be constructed. Suppose that a swarm be lodged in a leaf hive consisting of six divi sions, each containing a comb. If the young queen be as fertile as she ought, the bees will be very active in their labours, and disposed to make great collections in wax. To induce them towards it, an empty frame, or division, should be placed between two others, each containing a comb. From the necessity which nature has imposed on these insects of never leaving more than four lines between their combs, they will soon begin to build a new one in the empty space, which will be parallel to the others. The number of vacancies left' may be proportioned to the strength of the swarm,. and the goodness of the season ; but they should 'not be forced too much to work in wax.—M. Feburier, the most recent observer on this subject, and who, we believe, is just about to publish a work regarding it in Paris, has recommended a hive to the National In stitute of a quadrangular pyramidal figure, with move d able sides. Its principles are said to be founded on those of M. Schi•ach and Huber ; but, as yet, they are not sufficiently detailed to enable us to explain them. If wood be used, it must be extremely well seasoned, and perhaps covered with some thin var nish on the outside, else it is apt to decay. Sir Tor bern Bergman ascribes the scarcity of bees in Sweden principally to employing wooden hives.