The production of honey in the United Kingdom is quite trifling, and nowhere is bee-keeping so little understood, and so little practised as an industry, though the conditions for its success are almost everywhere present, and the profits very large. On the other hand, it must not be supposed that the present high prices of honey would be maintained in the face of a greatly increased production, such as would result from anything like universal bee-farming. Of course, if hOney could be produced at a price to compete with fruit preserves, its consuinption would immensely increase. But this is very doubtful, considering the long period during which the bees would need feeding, and the uncertainty of our summers. In our tropical colonies, there is much wider scope and better prospect for the industry. Everywhere the indirect benefit conferred by bees in fertilizing the flowers of various crops is of great importance.
Omitting all questions relating to the natural history of the bee, which will be found discussed at length in the works cited at the end of this article, the following remarks relate to the con struction of hives, and the management of apiaries, with a view to the most economic production of honey. The swarm is first hived in an ordinary straw "skep"; in the evening, the settled bees are suddenly shaken down into one of the modern improved hives now to be described.
The " Woodbury " hive is the first English adaptation of the principles advocated by Dzierzon and Langstroth. It consists of a square wooden box, 141 in. inside diameter, 9 in. deep, with a movable cover having a feeding-hole 21 in. wide, closed when not in use. The floor-board is 18 in. square, with an entrance 4 in. long x in. deep, with a step projecting 3-4 in. for the bees to alight upon. The interior space is equally apportioned to 10 frames, for supporting the combs. These frames are of thin lath, tl in. wide ; the top bars are 151 in. long x in. thick, and the sides and bottom rails are in. thick. The space alternating with the bar is thus 1 in. A movable upper storey or "super," 3-5 in. high, is added as a honey-store; this is separated from the hive by replacing the cover or " crown-board " by a thin board or " adapter," having long slits A- in. wide near each end, for admitting the workers, while excluding the queen and drones. The whole is crowned by a wooden ridge-roof. A much improved modification of this is the "Cheshire" hive. The natural heat of the inmates is conserved by double walls with an sir space between. Woodbury frames are retained, but rested upon zinc edges, to prevent the bees fixing them. The floor-board moves in grooves, and the entrance is provided with sliding-shutters. The old straw
skep is very inferior ; it should at all events have a round hole 2i in. in diameter in the centre of the crown, to admit the bees to the super, and facilitate feeding them. Glass hives are admissible only for purposes of observation; one of the best forms is that known as the "Woodbury unicomb." The first essential condition in all hives is that they shall exclude the wet, and afford protection against changes of temperature. The next consideration is the existence of every facility for the construction of the combs and the rearing of the young bees, as well as the inspection and removal of the combs when required.
During had weather immediately following the hiving of a swarm, the latter must be fed. A wide-mouthed bottle is filled with syrup, and closed by a double thickness of fine muslin, or by inversion over a perforated support, placed above the feeding-hole in the crown-board. In cold weather, this food is replaced by a sweet produced by boiling 1 lb. of loaf-sugar in 1 pint of water, and adding a little vinegar to prevent crystallization. Plentiful and judicious feeding is most necessary for successful bee-keeping. Abundance of water, fresh or stale, is equally essential.
The objects of the apiarian are threefold :—(I) the prosperity and multiplication of the colonies, (2) stimulation to increased production, and (3) the easy removal of the products without incon venience to the bees. A rapid increase of stocks and a large production of honey are incompatible, and one of the two objects must be made subservient to the other by suitable management. The former is favoured by artificial swarming, i. e. by hastening the departure of the swarm. In the ease of frame-hives, which are the only proper kind, this is effected in the following manner :—The frames are first removed, and the queen is sought for ; when found, she is transported with the frame to the centre of a new hive, and is flanked on each side by a comb containing sealed brood. Both hives are then filled with fresh frames and empty combs, or even guide-combs; sufficient bees to form a large swarm are then shaken into, or at the entrance of, the new hive, where all the young ones will remain. This (the queen-) hive is then removed to a distance, and the old one is reinstated ; into the latter, will come such of its former occupants as did not remove to the new hive. Feeding on syrup in early spring stimulates the queen to lay, and thus swarms may be thrown off early and rapidly. If a young fertile queen be supplied immediately after a swarming Las taken place, the hive will soon be ready to repeat it.