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diff --git a/old/67284-0.txt b/old/67284-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 5206f3b..0000000 --- a/old/67284-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6422 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Bee-Keeping, by John Cumming - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Bee-Keeping - -Author: John Cumming - -Release Date: January 30, 2022 [eBook #67284] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Tom Cosmas produced from materials provided by The Internet - Archive and placed in the Public Domain. - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEE-KEEPING *** - - - - - - - BEE-KEEPING. - - - BY - - "THE TIMES" BEE-MASTER. - - - * * * * * - - - - - BEE-KEEPING. - - - BY - - "THE TIMES" BEE-MASTER. - - - WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. - - - LONDON: - - SAMPSON LOW, SON, & MARSTON. - - 14, LUDGATE HILL. - - - 1864. - - [_The right of translation is reserved._] - - - - -LONDON: - -PRINTED BY EDMUND EVANS, - -RAQUET COURT, FLEET STREET. - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -PREFACE - - -My apology for writing a Bee-Book is as follows:--I sent _The Times_ -an account of a very successful honey harvest about the end of July, -containing some observations on the treatment of bees, and the profits -that might accrue to the cottager were he to take the right and humane -way of taking honey from his hives. This communication appears to have -interested many, for in consequence of it, persons desirous of information -wrote to the Editor of _The Times_, requesting in confidence the name of -the Bee-master, in order that they might correspond with him. The Editor -declined to give it up without my consent, which I felt it expedient -to withhold. But to satisfy those who took so warm an interest in the -subject, I addressed a series of letters to _The Times_, explanatory -of some of the simplest elements of apiculture. These excited so great -interest, that I received multitudes of letters addressed to "_The Times_ -Bee-master," which it was physically impossible to answer. But most of my -correspondents complained of the obscurity and complexity of bee-books in -general, and earnestly begged me to prepare a work they could understand -and translate into practice. I have attempted to do so, strengthening my -own observations by valuable extracts from the works of others. I am not, -however, insensible to the great value, wide research, and real usefulness -of the works I have carefully and long read. The first and most useful, -as well as most beautiful modern work on bees, is "My Bee-Book," by the -Rev. William Charles Cotton, M.A., student of Christ Church, Oxon. It is -profusely illustrated, and is the most genial and instructive work on bees -it has been my lot to read. I have felt so great an interest in this good -clergyman, that it often occurred to me to try to ascertain where he was -and what he was doing. My own communications to _The Times_, among many -interesting letters, brought me one signed "An Australian," which, though -long, contains amid much interesting matter some notice of the author of -"My Bee-Book." The reader will not, I am sure, complain of its length. - - Sir,--It may be interesting to you, whose letters in _The Times_ have - so delighted me, to hear that my experience in _Australia_ of the - habits, instincts, and affections (if I may so apply the word) of your - little favourites is identical with your own. From early childhood I - shared my father's interest in his pets; and at one time I could have - counted upwards of ninety hives in the two apiaries which he kept for - his own amusement, and for the encouragement of those who were willing - to keep bees. Everyone was welcome to a swarm who cared to ask for - one. I may give some curious facts as to the sagacity and gratitude - of these insects. During the prevalence of the hot winds, it sometimes - happens that the delicate comb melts, and the first indication is a - stream of melted honey and smothering bees. I have been called to the - rescue, and have taken up honey and bees in my hands, placed them - in a basin of tepid water, and spread my fingers as landing-stages - until all capable of restoration have plumed their wings and buzzed - gratefully away, and so on until order and comfort was restored to the - disturbed hive. I _never_ was stung on any occasion whilst working - amongst the bees, and only twice that I remember, and then by meeting - an angry bee accidentally in the garden. The buzz of an angry bee - is quite well known to their lovers. On one occasion a swarm met my - sister, and actually began to settle on her hand and arm. She knew - their ways, and walked very slowly on (of course surrounded by bees) - until she found what she considered a comfortable bough, under which - she held her hand. The queen adopted the suggestion, and after a few - minutes' patiently standing amidst the confusion, she quietly retired, - and, as you _will_ believe, unharmed. - - Of course we could not house all our swarms, so they went off to the - woods and found habitations in gum-trees hollowed out by the action of - fires through the bush. I recollect one swarm, however, belonging to - a neighbour, which preferred its old quarters, and actually built the - combs and filled them with honey _suspended_ from beneath the shelf - upon which the hives were ranged in the open air. Its ultimate fate I - do not remember. - - Bees have many enemies in Australia; the greatest is probably the - sugar-ant. To protect them from these intruders, we had the hives - ranged on shelves, the supports of which stood in wide vessels of - water, alike a protection against other foes. The apiaries were - built open in front and ends, against a wall, with thatched roof and - overhanging eaves; and there was a space between the shelf on which - the hives stood and the wall, where one could sit or stand and watch - them; for most of our hives were square, made of wood, with glass - sides and wooden shutters; and the bees were so accustomed to be - looked at, that they kept their side of the glass quite clean, and - generally built a smooth surface of comb next the glass, leaving space - to move between the comb and the glass; and I have often seen the - queen, surrounded by her admiring subjects (exactly as you describe) - making her progress across the comb, each attendant bee with its head - next her majesty, fanning with its wings, and one could hear a _purr_ - of satisfaction. - - The antipathies of the bee are very curious. I have known one - individual who was chased perpetually round the garden, and I have - seen him obliged to rush through a hedge to escape his little - tormentors. Their feuds were sometimes most violent, and I have had to - remove a hive from one apiary to the other, a distance of half a mile, - to preserve the bees. Your plan of the super-hives is excellent. Most - of our hives were square, and all of wood. The straw hives proved a - harbour for insects, and deprived us of the pleasure of watching the - bees at work. We used large confectioners' glasses as supers, turned - upside down. They were speedily filled, and we could ensure honey - flavoured with the different blossoms, by placing the glass during the - season of the orange-blossom, or heliotrope, &c., &c. - - Our chief guide in the management was a book written by the Rev. Mr. - Cotton, called "My Bee-Book;" and it may be interesting to mention, - that when in after years that gentleman accompanied the Bishop of New - Zealand to that country, via Australia, he was my father's guest. Mr. - Cotton's delight at finding his favourites so appreciated was only - equalled by our pleasure in meeting the author of "My Bee-Book;" but, - sad to say, _our_ bees conceived a dislike to their visitor; and upon - his exhibiting his fearlessness in handling bees, he was stung (much - to the amusement of some _small_ bystanders) by two wicked bees. A - relation of my own kept her bees in the verandah of her drawing-room; - and she has frequently cut out of the hive a large piece of comb, - taking care not to break it, and merely cutting through the little - connecting links of wax which support the layers of comb; and this she - could do with impunity from the super of a busy hive, simply because - she lived amongst her bees. Hoping that this letter may not have - wearied you, - - I remain yours faithfully, - - An Australian. - - _London, 12th August, 1864._ - - P.S. I have never had an opportunity of keeping bees in England. I - shall look for your promised manual, as I hope some day I may be - able to have some of my favourites to care for. I may add, my father - procured our original stock from Tasmania, in the common straw hive, - a bit of pierced tin fastened over the entrance. One system I do not - see alluded to, which we found answer very well, when we wished, for - any cause, to take the old comb and start the bees afresh. We used in - the early dawn to place the full hive over an empty one, covering all - with a large cloth, and then beat the top hive steadily, not roughly, - with a stick. Very soon the queen would take refuge in the lower box, - when a board was slipped between, and the upper old hive removed. The - bees (the few that loitered behind the queen) soon left the honey to - join their friends: at night the new hive was carried to the site of - the old one, and turned up upon its own board. We always had cross - bars of wood on the hives, upon which the swarm at first clung. - -Taylor's and Wood's "Manuals of Bee-keeping" are exceedingly good. -Richardson's is very full. Lardner's Treatise in the "Museum of Science -and Art" well deserves the attention of the reader. - -I do not profess to have struck out any original methods of constructing -hives or treating bees. To the science of apiculture I have contributed -nothing. All I profess to do is to give plain, practical directions -for the successful management of bees, chiefly from observation and -experience. - -I am persuaded there has been much useful and instructive matter in my -letters, because I have received a few very ill-natured communications. -One of them (not the worst) I insert, as a specimen of the reception my -little work is doomed to expect. But perhaps the writers may repent of -their intentions, and recover the sweet temper they seem to have lost. - - August 15. - - Sir,--I have read very attentively the letters in _The Times_ about - bees, and am convinced that the American gentleman is _right_, - and that much of what _you_ say is mere old woman's twaddle. Your - nonsensical rant about loyalty to the queen-bee (in _these_ days, when - loyalty to _kings_ and _queens_ is utterly and very properly extinct), - and your raving against radical reform (so much wanted in _all_ - matters), both give evidence of anility and failing intellect. - - I shall act on my conviction by ordering the _American_ book on bees - for myself and friends, and I shall use all my literary influence - (which is _considerable_) in preventing the circulation of _your_ - poor trumpery twopenny-halfpenny bee-papers. - - A Non-believer in the "Bee-master" - of Tunbridge Wells. - - P.S. I am no American, but I sympathise with Messrs. Bright and - Cobden. I rejoice at the downfall of the Danish monarchy; and I would - not fight, _under any circumstances_, either for king, queen, princes, - or peoples--not foreign peoples at least, I look on _loyalty_ as rank - humbug. Kings must behave better before we can respect or love them! - -In this work I have purposely left out all notice of a variety of hives -as ingenious as they are disliked by bees. Some apiarians have expended -all their talent in making tortuous entrances, worrying homes, and elegant -residences for the queen and her subjects. They seem to estimate their -success by the extent of their departure from simplicity. They merge -the useful and convenient in the elegant and complex. But the less the -bees are plagued by intricate and arduous arrangements in the interior -of their residences, the more comfortable and contented they feel, and -the more efficiently they work. It is on this account I have written -so favourably of the Ayrshire hive. It is simple in structure, and the -parallel openings in the roof of the stock hive introductory to the super -are far more liked by the bees than a round central hole, while the -facility of removing a super in the honey harvest is perfectly charming. -The comb in the super is never or rarely connected with the comb in -the stock hive, and, therefore, needs no cutting with zinc plates. A -screw-driver gently introduced loosens the propolis, or a table-knife -may be employed to cut it all round the lower edge of the super, and the -proprietor has only to lift it off and carry it away on a deal board. - -I can easily see that had I praised several ingenious contrivances for -the residence of bees, I should have provoked fewer charges of ignorance -of modern apiculture. I repeat, I have read much on the subject; but my -recommendations are not the results of theory or imagination, but of -practical knowledge and of careful watching. - -The best hop-garden is that which grows the most and best hops; the best -mill is that which grinds most corn; and the best hives are those in which -is deposited the largest amount of the best honey. - -By all means let us have observatory hives for scientific investigations; -but what the cottager requires is plenty of produce, with the least tax -on his toil and pocket. Hence this work is drawn up, not for scientific -apiarians, but for all who wish to enjoy a pleasant and profitable -employment. - -I must tender my best thanks to Messrs. Neighbour, of Regent-street, -London, and to Mr. Pettitt, of Snargate, Dover, for their permission to -copy such of their woodcuts as I thought it useful to describe or to -suggest amendments on. - -I may also add, that in using the name, "_The Times_ Bee-master," I avail -myself merely of the title given me by the countless correspondents who -did me the honour to write me either directly or indirectly through the -editor of _The Times_. - -In reprinting my letters to _The Times_, I must here notice an alteration -I think expedient. I felt it right to reply to a very injudicious and -extreme letter which appeared in that paper. I did so playfully, and with -kindly feeling. But the correspondent I thus replied to seems to have -viewed it as a personal attack. Under the inspiration of very irritated -feelings he wrote another letter to the Editor of _The Times_, which -was very properly refused admission. But he was kind enough to send -it to several papers, in which he published it, prefacing it in one -with controversial remarks so far removed from the courtesies of fair -correspondence, that it ceased to be possible to hold any further argument -with him. I am really very sorry that a gentleman I never saw, and do not -yet know whether he is a clergyman or layman, should have so passionately -interpreted remarks made by me in perfect good-humour. I offer him every -apology that is due for being misunderstood. In order to avoid any such -contingency again, I have omitted his name, and have substituted "Your -Correspondent." - -I may also add, that when I sent my letters to _The Times_ I had not -the remotest idea of composing a book on the subject. Having other and -absorbing work to attend to, I have been able to devote spare hours only -to a very pleasant work, undertaken at the request of many, and dedicated -to the service of all. - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - - CONTENTS - - ----<>---- - - PAGE - - Introduction 1 - - Bee-keeping Money-making 3 - - Bee-keeping a source of Enjoyment 6 - - How to begin Bee-keeping 10 - - The Bee-house, and how to place it 21 - - Hives and Bee-boxes 35 - - How to get Bees 59 - - The Inmates of the Hive 87 - - Bee Enemies 104 - - The Bee-master's Letters to "The Times" 116 - - Bee Things in general 169 - - Letters from Correspondents 200 - - * * * * * - - Erratum.--Page 45, line 18--For "inches" _read_ "degrees." - [Transcriber's Note: This WAS corrected!] - - - - - BEE-KEEPING. - - - BY - - "THE TIMES" BEE-MASTER. - - - ----<>---- - -This work is not a speculative or philosophical treatise on bees. Its main -interest consists in its usefulness; and its author's greatest reward will -be the greatest measure of his success in promoting among cottagers and -others a means of paying their rent, at once interesting, civilising, and -remunerative. Next to this, I hope I may contribute toward the extinction -of the savage and unprofitable, but almost universal, habit in this -country of burning the bees with sulphur in August, in order to collect -honey richly flavoured, and much deteriorated by sulphurous acid. It is a -fundamental principle in my bee-management, that no bee shall be burned, -or, if possible to avoid it, crushed or killed. No man deserves the name -of a Bee-master, or should attempt to keep bees, who has not resolved, -with all his might, to avoid bee-murder. Bee-cide, like homicide, may -accidentally occur, but it must be accidental, not designed and culpable. -That system of management which combines the safety and health of the -bees, with the production of the largest amount of pure honey available -to the proprietor, while providing generously for the inmates of the hive -during the winter months, deserves the greatest patronage. - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -I.-BEE-KEEPING MONEY-MAKING. - - -We live in a practical age. Proposals of all sorts are too often, right -or wrong, weighed against gold:--"How much will it bring? Can I turn a -penny by this business?" I do not pretend to say bee-masters are rich -men, or that the way to a fortune is through a bee-hive; but I do assert -that a poor parish minister, vicar, or curate with a little glebe--a -cottager who works all day for the squire--or maiden ladies who desire -to engage in very delightful and loving labour--may add to their little -income or stipend or dividend from ten to twenty pounds a year. To -half-pay officers I would earnestly recommend bee-keeping. It would keep -them out of those wild speculations into which, from their inexperience -in business matters, they are so frequently and ruinously drawn, by -giving them an interest, which would soon become a passion, in studying -and conferring with a new family, besides yielding them a few spare -sovereigns for personal use or charity. For white cells filled with honey -in glasses--than which nothing more elegant or picturesque can be placed -on a breakfast-table--one can obtain in June two shillings, and even two -shillings and sixpence, a pound. For honey later in the season one and -sixpence a pound may be easily had; and where the proprietor prefers to be -his own consumer, he may dispense with bacon and butter, and take what is -far more wholesome--honey--at breakfast. It is a fair average to calculate -on fifteen pounds of surplus produce from each hive, if properly attended -to. I do not see why our country should not be a "land flowing with milk -and honey," or why we should import so much honey and wax from abroad, -exporting good money in return, when so many flowers lift their beautiful -blossoms, waiting and longing to be kissed and rifled by visitors they -love so well. It should not be forgotten, too, that bees do immense good -to flowers; some think they introduce one to another, and celebrate the -marriage of the flowers. This, however, is certain: flower-gardens are -immensely benefited by bees, and therefore every lover of flowers and -proprietor of gardens should never drive away or destroy a bee; for the -visitor is not only collecting honey for his bee-master, but adding to the -variety, fragrance, and beauty of the flowers of their owner. - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -II.--BEE-KEEPING A SOURCE OF ENJOYMENT. - - -When pleasure and profit can be combined, time runs swiftly and the heart -feels happy. - -It is enjoyment to stand by one's bee-hives and watch the intense and -untiring work of one's bees. It is like standing at a window in Cheapside, -and watching the counter-currents of human beings that ceaselessly -traverse its pavement; only, instead of faces grooved with cares and pale -with anxieties, we do not see issuing from their hives or returning home -a single bee that seems bowed down with trouble or fretful about the -future. Each bee, from the queen down to the sentinel at the gate, seems -to have heard the Master's words,--"Take no thought" (_i.e._, irritating -care) "for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of -itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." - -Bees rarely fail to become acquainted with a kind and affectionate master. -I have stood in the midst of thousands returning home after their day's -work, and seen them resting on me, brushing their wings and bodies, and, -thereby refreshed and recruited, they enter their home and deposit their -sweet burdens. They do not forget little acts of kindness shown them, and -rarely fail to show gratitude,--an example Christians would do well to -copy. I have sat for hours by my hives with glass windows, and watched -the orderly and beautiful array in which some give wax, others build it -into forms of strength and beauty, others clear away incidental dirt, -others pour honey into the warehouses, others carry out their dead, and -all reverently and loyally attend to the instructions of their queen. -Relays of ventilators, joining the tips of their wings and making -fanners, take up their position at the doors, and send in currents of -fresh air. Others are placed as sentries on the bee-board, who, like -faithful soldiers, repel wasps and moths, and die rather than desert the -post of duty. There is not an idle bee in a hive, if one may except the -drones after their mission is ended. _Fruges consumere nati_; they meet -with the consequences which all idle and unproductive citizens provoke. -They, however, may be regarded as the exceptional inmates. The bees do not -fail to understand their relations, and therefore they get rid of them as -soon as they cease to contribute to the wealth or comfort or protection -of the hive. They become in June and July the mere hangers-on--the fat, -lazy monks, who believe that everybody is made to work for them, while -they are excused helping anybody. But the bountiful Creator has left no -place for indolence in this world of ours; it would be too disastrous an -example to be permitted with impunity. The bees accordingly turn them out -to starve, or garrote them as they catch them, and at all risk get rid of -the incumbrance. Do idle young men deserve better treatment? - -A hive in June is a perfect study, a model of order, work, neatness, and -beauty; it is rich in interest to everyone who has an hour to spare. About -nine o'clock at night you cannot do better than listen for a quarter of -an hour by your hives, and you will hear an oratorio sweeter and richer -than you ever heard in Exeter Hall. Treble, tenor, and bass are blended -in richest harmony; sometimes it sounds as the distant hum of a great -city, and at other times as if the apiarian choristers were attempting -the hallelujahs which will swell from earth to heaven when all things are -put right, and bee and bird and every living thing sing joyously together -the jubilant anthem peal, "Great and marvellous are thy works. Lord God -Almighty. Just and true are thy ways, thou King of nations." - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -III.--HOW TO BEGIN BEE-KEEPING. - - -Your garden may be very small, and its flowers few and far between; but as -your bee-pasture is an area two or three miles round on all sides yours -for the use of your bees, though entered in other peoples' title-deeds, -your own little plot need not much trouble you. Bees seem to prefer to -feed at a little distance from the hive, but have no objection to pasture -close at hand. In the beginning of August, when the honey-yielding flowers -begin to fail, I have found Broadwater Common, near Tunbridge Wells, which -grows the finest heather south of Braemar, covered with my bees, and have -lain down amid the heath-blossoms, watching and listening to my young -friends, immensely enjoying their work. - -But if you have any spare space--and there are always nooks and spots -available in the smallest garden--sow on these lemon-thyme in abundance, -rosemary, lavender, salvia, borage, mignonette, and crocus. Apple-trees, -gooseberry and currant-trees, and above all, raspberry-plants, are great -favourites with bees; and as their blossoms come early in spring, they -are most seasonable and productive. But your chief reliance must be -on neighbouring acres of bean-fields and buckwheat or clover meadows, -heather and furze, and hedge-blossoms. Lime-trees are very valuable; -I wish people would allow thorn-hedges to blossom. Let me urge the -cottager to use for the edging of his garden lemon-thyme instead of box -or daisies. Do not fear keeping a dozen stocks. I think many apiarians -talk nonsense when they allege that a district may be overstocked with -bee-hives. If the surrounding country be wholly arable, with little -common, and with too good farming, it may be overstocked. But there are -still left commons unenclosed, woods and heath, and clover and tiny weeds, -which farmers persecute and bee-masters love; and far off are gardens -of all sorts and sizes, in which flowers are cultivated for the owners' -pleasure, constituting admirable bee-pasture. I only regret there is such -a wide-spread rage for double flowers, for bees never touch them. On -that magnificent standard rose, so rich in delicious perfume and so very -lovely, a bee never alights; but the briar and hedge-rose are favourites -and much frequented. On the Clyde, it is usual for bee-proprietors to -carry their hives to Arran, Dunoon, and Kilmun, as soon as the heather -comes into blossom; and cottagers take charge of them at a shilling -apiece. The hives often therefrom receive great and remunerative -additions. - -Dr. Bevan states:-- - - "In Lower Egypt, where the flower-harvest is not so early by several - weeks as in the upper districts of that country, this practice of - transportation is carried on to a considerable extent. About the - end of October the hives, after being collected together from the - different villages, and conveyed up the Nile, marked and numbered by - the individuals to whom they belong, are heaped pyramidally upon the - boats prepared to receive them, which, floating gradually down the - river, and stopping at certain stages of their passage, remain there a - longer or a shorter time, according to the produce which is afforded - by the surrounding country. After travelling three months in this - manner, the bees, having culled the perfumes of the orange flowers of - the Said, the essence of roses of the Faiocum, the treasures of the - Arabian jessamine, and a variety of flowers, are brought back about - the beginning of February to the places from which they have been - carried. The productiveness of the flowers at each respective stage - is ascertained by the gradual descent of the boats in the water, and - which is probably noted by a scale of measurement. This industry - procures for the Egyptians delicious honey and abundance of bees'-wax. - The proprietors, in return, pay the boatmen a recompense proportioned - to the number of hives which have thus been carried about from one - extremity of Egypt to the other." - -Richardson sensibly remarks:-- - - "Water carriage, when procurable, is the best, as it shakes the hives - least, but when land carriage must be resorted to, the hives should - be carried on poles slung on men's shoulders. The journey should be - pursued at night only, and the bees suffered to go forth and feed - during the day. Such is their instinct, that they will readily find - their way back; but they should not be suffered to go forth until at - the distance of upwards of ten or eleven miles from their original - home, otherwise they will be lost in endeavouring to regain it--a - moderate distance induces them to abandon the idea, and to become - reconciled to their new quarters. If travelling by canal, the hives - should be removed from the boat, and placed on stands at some distance - from the bank, ere the insects are let out, otherwise they will be - lost in thousands by falling into the water on their return. The - charge made by shepherds for taking care of the hives during a season - is from one shilling to eighteen-pence each. It is better to pay a - trifle over and above the usual fee, in order to prevent your hives - being placed too near to each other, or to those of other parties; - for if your weak stocks happen to be placed near the strong ones of - some one else, you will stand a fair chance of having them all killed - in encounters with their more powerful neighbours. It would be well - also to see that your hives are placed in a situation where they will - be safe from the attacks of cattle or other foes. Before fetching the - hives home again from the heath, it will not be amiss to ascertain - their condition and weight, and to take from them what honey they can - spare. I must here inform you how to ascertain the state or wealth of - a hive." - -On the subject of removing bees to the heather in August, Mr. Briggs makes -the following useful and practical remarks:-- - - "In the vicinity of extensive heaths, the bees are removed to them - about the beginning or middle of August, according to the season. The - usual practice is to raise each hive with small wedges in the evening, - to induce the bees to congregate together at the top of the hive. - The hives are then firmly fixed to the bottom boards, or tied up in - cloths, and conveyed in the night, or very early in the morning, to - the garden of a shepherd or other person whose residence adjoins the - heath. All hives and swarms are taken, including old and young ones, - and the persons who receive them usually charge a shilling for each - hive during the season. The hives are thus very frequently crammed - together as close as they can stand, and the consequences are that - much fighting and loss of life is often caused, and the weak stocks of - one person are frequently partly destroyed and robbed of their stores - and killed by the stronger ones belonging to other persons. When - the blooming of the heath is over, the old stocks are, in general, - suffocated on the spot, to obtain possession of the fruits of their - labours, and those intended for winter stocks are conveyed home by - their respective owners. - - "The above system of managing bees at the heather is susceptible - of material alterations and improvements. I would suggest that it - would be of great advantage to the owners of bees residing within - twenty miles' distance, if the proprietors or occupiers of residences - adjoining the heath were to extend the accommodation by enclosing a - larger extent of ground which is suitable for the purposes desired. It - might be cheaply and expeditiously performed by hiring a few dozen of - stout stakes, &c., from the neighbouring farmers for the season, and - having the bars of them full of coarse thorns, briars, furze, or other - convenient or suitable materials, to prevent the inroads of cattle and - other depredators. - - "I would recommend that none but strong stocks be taken to the heath, - until arrangements are made for their convenience and accommodation; - and that the collateral system of side hives, &c., be practised with - them whilst they are at the heath, as well as on other occasions." - -Where there is no water conveyance, a hive may be suspended from each end -of a long pole, which may be carried on the shoulder to the neighbourhood -of a common, in August, not less than four miles from your garden, and put -in charge of a reliable cottager. - - "In Yorkshire," says the Rev. Mr. Cotton, that prince of bee-masters, - "it is the regular custom of the country to send the stocks to the - moors for change of pasture in August and September. Cotters, who have - a little garden by the moorside, take in dozens every year, and get a - shilling a stock for their trouble. The trouble is a mere nothing--at - least not one shilling's worth in all--and the pleasure is surely very - great; for what can be a greater pleasure than to have ten additional - stocks of bees on a visit to your own, and to cheer you with their - glad music whenever you are walking in your garden? To say nothing of - the pleasure you must feel at their honied stores, by playing the - part of a kind host to these busy bees; and then, what is more, you - may have the still greater pleasure of showing your friend (for all - bee-masters are, or ought to be, friendly) how to take up his bees - who have been your guests so long, as I trust you do your own, that - is, without killing them. You and he may do so, if you try; and I, a - bee-master like yourself, beg you most earnestly to try. What I have - found a very good way with my bees you cannot find a very bad one. The - stocks are taken up in the old way as soon as the heather goes out of - flower. I hope many a man will learn by my letter to take them up by - the fingers, instead of the sulphur match, that ready instrument of - bee-murder. In France they put their hives into a boat, some hundreds - together, which floats down the stream by night, and stops by day. The - bees go out in the morning, return in the evening, and when they are - all back and quiet, on the boat floats. I have heard they come home - to the ringing of a bell; but I believe they would come home just the - same whether the bell rings or no. I should like to see this tried on - the Thames, for no river has more bee food near its banks: willows, - the best bee food in spring; meadows, clover, beans, and lime-trees, - in different places and times, for summer. A handy man, who could - make his own boxes, though not up to hard work, might, I am pretty - sure, gather _through the mouths of his many thousand bees enough to - fill his own one mouth_, though it be somewhat larger. He might float - softly _down_ the river, as the flowers go off at one place and come - on at another; and any bargeman would be glad, for the small price of - one pound of Thames honey, to give him a tow _up_ when he wishes to go - back. I should like to see it tried." - -But all this is supererogatory at present, and temporary removals are -undesirable, unless where surrounding pastures entirely fail in August. It -is, at best, supplemental. - -Taylor, in his useful _Bee Manual_, says:-- - - "It is almost needless to say, that in the nature and extent of - the vegetable production following in succession in the immediate - neighbourhood of an apiary, must mainly depend its prosperity. After - every care has been bestowed on all points of housing and management, - it is in vain to expect a large harvest of honey where Nature has - limited the sources of supply, or restricted them to a particular - season of the year." - -Payne observes:-- - - "I have always found the advantage of planting in the vicinity of - my hives a large quantity of the common kinds of crocus, single blue - hepatica, helleborus niger, and tussilago petasites, all of which - flower early, and are rich in honey and farina. Salvia memorosa (of - Sir James Smith), which flowers very early in June, and lasts all the - summer, is in an extraordinary manner sought after by the bees, and, - when room is not an object, twenty or thirty square yards of it may - be grown with advantage. Origanum humile, and origanum rubescens (of - Haworth), and mignonette may also be grown. Cúscuta sinensis is a - great favourite with them; and the pretty little plant anacampseros - populifolium, when in flower, is literally covered by them. Garden - cultivation beyond this, exclusively for bees, I believe, answers very - little purpose." - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -IV.--THE BEE-HOUSE, AND HOW TO PLACE IT. - - -Having decided on the furniture of the garden and the flowers it should -grow, and the best kind of neighbourhood for pasture, we must now discuss -(and it is done from very considerable experience) the structure and -aspect of the bee-house under shelter of which your hives are to stand. -Taylor remarks:-- - - "The common wooden bee-houses, as usually constructed, open in - front, and closed altogether behind, retaining the sun's heat as an - oven, are objectionable. These are frequently the receptacles of - dirt and vermin, and most inconvenient to operate in. It would be an - improvement to make them deeper backwards; or with a falling front, - moving on hinges, so that the hives can be recessed behind it, away - from the influence of weather. At the back should be folding doors, - opening from top to bottom, allowing a good access to the hives. For - greater convenience, it is best to have them only in a single row, - with good head room. But a still more desirable plan is to board up - the front of the house entirely, making oblong openings through for - a passage to the bees, with an exterior alighting-board, a good deal - slanted downwards (the bees preferring this to a flat surface). The - hives are arranged immediately behind, upon a shelf, the further apart - the better, as the bees occasionally mistake their own homes, and fall - a sacrifice in consequence." - -The following is a sketch of the shed proposed by Dr. Bevan. It is -extremely picturesque. My only objection to it is his use of thatch, which -shelters vermin--the pests it is hard to keep away in the most favourable -circumstances. Dr. Bevan's shed or bee-house is seven feet square in the -clear, with three hives on the upper shelves and three on the under. - -[Illustration] - -A very picturesque and efficient bee-shed is presented by Dr. Lardner, -about twelve feet long and about nine feet high. - -[Illustration] - -My objection to this bee-house is, that the hives are exposed too much to -wind and weather; if of straw, they will soon rot--if of wood, wet and -sunshine will rend and split them. Besides, tier above tier is not good, -and it need not be adopted. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - -The shed I prefer is as follows:--Let it be twelve feet six inches in -length, six feet in height, and two feet six inches in depth. Let it be -made of good, strong, smooth deal. Divide it into six equal compartments, -divided off from each other. Let the roof be also of smooth deal, covered -first with Croggon's patent felt; and laid over the felt, and nailed down, -let there be zinc plates, projecting six or eight inches in front. Let an -opening three inches wide extend along the front from end to end, with a -continuous landing-board projecting beneath it, and sloping down at an -angle of twenty-five degrees. The floor should be about a foot or eighteen -inches above the level of the ground, and perfectly smooth. Behind let -there be three doors, with hinges attached to the floor, falling back when -open, and thereby forming a pleasant platform, when laid down and resting -on the ground, for the bee-master to watch and study, and deprive, and -otherwise fulfil his mission. When closed, there must be a good padlock, -as bee-hive lifters are still too common in every part of the country. In -very hot weather, open the doors behind, but only in very hot weather. I -have found from experience that the smoother the surfaces of the bee-shed -inside, the less they are liable to the operations of the spider, one of -the greatest pests of bee-houses. I have unfortunately, and too often, -seen a dozen bees entangled of a fine May morning in a spider's web, and -most of them excavated in the cleanest manner. Wasps and spiders I have no -mercy on; they are thieves and murderers and beasts of prey, as well as -vermin. To the former, extermination by brimstone is a just recompense, -and to the latter the application of a hard dry brush is a daily duty. - -I prefer three of these bee-sheds, located in different parts of my -garden, to one very large shed with under and upper tiers of hives: this -makes less likelihood of confusion in swarming. I do not like the sheds to -be placed under large trees, the drippings of which tend to create damp. -Shrubs, raspberry-plants, and even gooseberry-bushes, not nearer than ten -or twelve feet, form nice resting-places to the heavy-laden bees. Under -and immediately around the hive should be closely-mowed grass. The front -of the hive is best due south, and, if convenient, with an inclination to -the east. From the east and west a rising ground, or shrubs tolerably -high, are a desirable protection; they break the force of the gales. Do -not place your bee-shed at a great distance from the house: bees are -civilised and domestic, and delight to see children at play while they are -at their work; kept out of society, they grow savage. Having selected the -position, do not change it, unless imperatively and unavoidably necessary. -Gelieu justly observes:-- - - "I have seen people shift about their hives very inconsiderately; - but change of place invariably weakens them, as the bees will return - to their old residence, the environs of which are so familiar to - them. A hive should remain as fixed to the spot as the ancient oaks, - in the hollows of which they delight to establish themselves; where - they have their young, their companions, their beloved queen, and - all their treasures. When the young bees take wing for the first - time, they do it with great precaution, turning round and round, and - fluttering about the entrance, to examine the hive well before taking - flight. They do the same in returning, so that they may be easily - distinguished, conducting themselves nearly after the same manner - as the workers of a newly-hived swarm. When they have made a few - excursions, they set off without examining the locality; and returning - in full flight, will know their own hive in the midst of a hundred - others. But if you change its place you perplex them, much the same as - you would be if, during a short absence, some one lifted your house - and placed it a mile off. The poor bees return loaded, and, seeking in - vain for their habitation, either fall down and perish with fatigue, - or throw themselves into the neighbouring hives, where they are - speedily put to death. When hives are transported to a considerable - distance, there is no fear that the bees will return. But this - inconvenience would be sure to take place if they were removed only a - few hundred paces from the spot they have been accustomed to. The hive - may not perish, but it will be greatly weakened. In my opinion, if the - situation is to be changed at all, they should be taken at least a - mile and a half." - -Richardson, who has offered many sensible suggestions on bee-culture, -makes some very sensible remarks on this. But I do not agree with him -in one of his opinions--that a south-westerly aspect is best, or that -a south-eastern aspect is likely to be prejudicial, from its tempting -the bees to go out in too cold spring mornings. The early sun in early -spring is not excessively seductive. Besides, bees are very good judges -of temperature, as they are infallible prophets of weather, and may be -safely left in this matter to the exercise of their own good sense. It is -also worthy of notice, that the main work of bees is over by four o'clock -in the afternoon, and the setting sun is therefore less important. They -are early risers, and go early to bed. But his remaining observations on -bee-sheds are thoroughly good:-- - - "Some recommend high trees for the purpose of keeping the air calm, - lest the bees should be blown down when returning home. High trees - are not advisable; they form an evil themselves of greater magnitude - than that which they may be designed to remove. Bees are seldom blown - to the ground by mere wind; but even when they are, they can, in a - great majority of cases, recover themselves. Whereas, if blown amongst - trees, they will be sure to be whipped so violently by the branches, - that they are absolutely hurled to the ground with such force as to - render their recovery hopeless. The bees also fly low on their return, - when they arrive at the immediate neighbourhood of their stand, and, - consequently, high trees would be not only useless, but absolutely - inconvenient. Whatever trees you wish, therefore, to plant in the - immediate vicinity of the hive should be of low size, planted at the - sides of the hive, so as to leave the entrance quite free. Wildman - recommends them, and, I think, very judiciously, to be 'of the dwarf - kind, with bushy heads, in order that the swarms which settle on them - may be more easily hived.' Now, although by judicious management - swarming will generally be prevented from taking place, yet, despite - of our utmost care, it may accidentally occur; or the bees may quit - their boxes in a body, from various causes--some of which I shall - endeavour hereafter to explain--and, under such circumstances, Mr. - Wildman's suggestions will be found valuable. The garden, therefore, - in which you fix your stands should be thus planted; and I further, - for the same reasons, recommend wall fruit trees and espaliers. - - "Avoid a site near mills or other noisy places, or the neighbourhood - of bad smells, as factories and the like; and if, as occasionally may - happen, your stand be placed against your garden wall, behind which - is the farm-yard, let not a dunghill be built against the opposite - side. I have witnessed this before now, and in one instance found the - consequence to be a desertion of the boxes. Do not place your stand - where you see rat or mouse holes, and let your shed be all of wood, - never thatched with straw, as that substance harbours mice, moths, and - other similar enemies to your stock. - - "Water is essential to the well-being of your bees; it must, however, - be presented to them judiciously, or it will prove a greater evil than - a good. If you can coax a shallow rippling brook through your garden, - so much the better; if not, place near the stand small, shallow, - earthen pans of water, and put some pebbles in them. This water must - be changed daily. It is highly objectionable to have a pond or canal - in your neighbourhood: you will lose thousands of your bees through - their means every season, as they will be constantly blown into them - when returning heavily laden to the hive, especially in the evening, - when wearied after the toil of an industriously spent day. The pebbles - in the troughs are for the bees to rest on while drinking, and are the - recommendation of Columella. I have seen tin plates perforated with - holes, and placed over the pans just on the surface of the water, used - for drinking-vessels for bees; I, however, prefer the pebbles." - -I have found it a very good plan to place two or three soup-plates -filled with pure water mixed largely with round pebbles in front of -the bee-house; they thus find water to drink and stepping-stones for -their tiny feet, which keep their wings out of water. In long-continued -dry and hot summers, I have also been in the habit of using a common -garden-squirt, with the end perforated by a dozen pin-holes. The water -thus showered on the bee-house at noon cools it, and does not strike down -the bees, and seems most acceptable to them all. - -The shed should be kept scrupulously clean and dry. Earwigs, snails, and -spiders will all try hard to establish their quarters under the warmth of -the hives, and must be repelled. Nothing but the bee-master's frequent but -quiet and undemonstrative use of a good hard painter's brush, perfectly -dry, will keep these pests at a distance. I am no advocate of killing a -single living thing, but if these unproductive creatures will prey on the -most productive of insects, and kill and steal, there is no help for it. -The bee-master must keep his bee-sheds particularly clean; and as spiders -and earwigs love dust and dirt, and are inseparable from it, they must go -with it. At all events, I cannot give them hospitality in my bee-house. - -For people to whom expense is no object, the bee-houses of Messrs. -Neighbour are perfect--as ornamental as they are efficient. - -Their two-hive shed is as follows:-- - -[Illustration: Bee-house to contain two hives. - -Front view of bee-house, price £3 10_s._, _well painted_, constructed to -contain two hives. 3 ft. 6 in. high, 4 ft wide.] - -The back view is given on the following page. - -[Illustration: Back view of the preceding, showing the interior. The top -hive or cover for the glasses is balanced by a weight, so as to be raised -easily for the purpose of inspecting the bees at work in the super hives.] - -I have already said, what I repeat, that I do not think one row of hives -above another in the same bee-shed at all expedient. - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -V.--HIVES AND BEE-BOXES. - - -The inveterate use of the common straw hive, with its fire and sulphur -application in autumn to its unhappy inmates, is deeply to be deplored. -No humane man can look on the straw hive, rotting on a stand, wasted and -worn by wind and rain, covered with a brown earthenware basin, under which -vermin breed and multiply, and doomed to brimstone and bee-cide, without -feeling it is a penal settlement, or cell of doom, for subjects unworthy -of it. There is nothing picturesque or pleasant about it, and the moss of -age and usage even of a thousand years fail to beautify it. - -A bee-shed is an absolute necessity; it may be rough and coarse, and badly -put together, but it cannot and must not be dispensed with. I will assume, -in the first instance, that the cheapness of a common straw hive--a -rough one costing sixpence, a better a shilling, and a very excellent -one eighteen-pence--brings it within the reach of a very poor cottager. -On this assumption I proceed to show how he can make the best of a bad -house. Placed in his shed with a good swarm in May, it is likely in a -good year to be full by the end of June. He must then have ready a good -thick board--say three-quarters of an inch or an inch in thickness and -twelve inches square, with a round hole in the centre about three inches -diameter, perfectly smooth and bevelled in the lower edge of the hole. On -this he must have ready a small straw hive with a piece of glass, four -inches by three, fastened into the side, in order to see inside; but if he -can afford it, still better, a bell-glass or garden-glass, with a woollen -nightcap drawn over it, to keep out the light and keep in the warmth. Let -this stand ready by him behind the bee-house, about twelve o'clock at -noon. He must then take a sharp table-knife, and quietly and fearlessly -cut a hole in the top of the hive, about three inches in diameter, and -having removed the top by taking hold of its straw loop, he is to place -the board with its super over his hive. The smoother he makes the cutting -the less trouble will the bees have, and the sooner they will ascend. -If the weather still proves friendly, he may have five or six pounds of -beautiful honey before the middle of August, and there will be abundance -for his bees in the stock hive during winter. The way to remove the super -is this:--Get a zinc plate, with sharp edges, some fourteen inches square, -press it quietly between the super and the board, laying the left hand -on the super and pressing with the right, taking care not to disturb the -board on the hive, which the bees will have fastened down. Carry off -the super with its bees and honey, laying another board over the hole. -Place your super, with the zinc plate below it, at fifty or a hundred -yards' distance from your bee-shed; edge up the super about two inches -from the plate after it has stood still an hour. The bees will fly out in -succession and make their way straight home, and not one will turn on you -to sting you. It seems then and there, and in so new circumstances, to -dawn on their minds for various reasons, that their proprietor is merely -taking his portion in consideration of the care he has bestowed; or, like -a mob without a head, they lose all sense of order, self-possession, and -organisation, but, unlike a Belfast mob, they rush home out of harm's way. - -[Illustration: The Common Straw Hive.] - -[Illustration: The same hive, with central hole and perforated board, and -small straw super or cap.] - -[Illustration: A small straw super, with glass window, to be placed on the -common straw hive.] - -[Illustration: Common straw hive, with top cut off for board and -bell-glass.] - -From Mr. Pettitt's catalogue--a very sensible one--I take the following -models and prices of bell-glasses for supers. - -[Illustration: Bell-shaped Glasses, for working on the top of any of the -hives. Price, 10 in. 4_s._; 7 in. 2_s._ 6_d._; 6 in. 1_s._ 6_d._; 4 in. -1_s._] - -Neighbour's are still better. - -[Illustration] - -I prefer Taylor's glasses to either. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration: A bell-glass nearly filled with honey.] - -But supposing you can afford to buy a straw hive with a hole already -worked at the top--and it will not cost above a shilling more--you are to -place the board with a corresponding hole on the top of this, and, till -the middle of June, a small board over, or bung in the hole of the board. -Then take it out as before, and place over it your bell-glass or small -straw hive, and act thenceforth as already described. - -If, however, you can invest a little in apiculture, as people do in -agriculture or market-gardening, only on a very much smaller scale, -I strongly recommend wooden hives or boxes. These, well made, are -necessarily expensive. The objections commonly urged by those I have -talked with are, first, that they split and twist, and get out of gear. -This may occur in the best in a slight degree, but it arises generally -from having unseasoned wood and bad workmanship. Green wood is utterly -worthless. Bad workmanship is dearest, when done at the very lowest -rate. The best workmanship and the most seasoned wood, I have invariably -found in the workshop of Mr. Pettitt, Dover. They never cast, and are -beautifully smooth, and all the fittings play easily. Such wood and -workmanship, no doubt, may be had of any sensible and honest carpenter. My -reference to Pettitt is merely the record of my own experience. In every -case the entrance should be cut, not out of the hive, but out of the board -on which it rests. - -The second objection is, that wood is not sufficiently equable in -temperature. I answer, if protected by a bee-shed, which I regard as -an essential part of bee-furniture, this objection, so far as summer is -concerned, is at once disposed of. Neither rain nor the direct rays of the -sun can affect it. But in winter, I am persuaded from thorough experience, -that in all hives under sheds additional shelter is required to keep out -the searching north and east winds, and to keep in the vital warmth of the -bees. For this purpose, I regard good brown paper, or a newspaper after -you have read it, as the cleanest, neatest, and really warmest protection. -Vermin gather less about paper than woollen material, and brown paper is -less palatable to insect pests than any other. Let the back and ends of -your bee-boxes inside the bee-shed be covered over in October--the front -being left uncovered, unless by the bee-shed, and you will find every -objection to wooden hives disposed of by facts. - -The first illustration I will present is that of one by Pettitt, made -of the best seasoned deal, unpainted, of course; for paint, however -necessary to the shed, must on no account be suffered to pollute the -hives. - -[Illustration] - -On the top of this hive, of which I give a back view, are four apertures, -each about three inches by two; zinc dividers, D D, being pushed in before -receiving a swarm, shut off all egress, and on being withdrawn in May, -allow the bees to ascend into the bell-glasses E E, of which there are -four, each, of course, covered with its nightcap. - -B is a glass window, with a thermometer inside. By the window you can -examine progress, taking care when you leave to shut the lid. - -In very dry, hot weather, when the thermometer rises to ninety-five, draw -out the drawer A about two inches, and open the little door C, withdrawing -at the same time also the zinc plate F, pushing in its place a -perforated zinc plate, precisely the same in size as F, but perforated. -A current of air is thus introduced, and in a short time the thermometer -will fall five degrees. - -Though I do not like the square shape as much as the octagonal or -hexagonal, yet I regard this as a very valuable hive-box. - -Instead of bell-glasses, Pettitt has substituted boxes for supers, about -ten inches in height and seven inches in breadth; the front having glass -instead of deal board, with a shutter ready to be put on. - -It is in this way:-- - -[Illustration: OPEN SHUT] - -Mr. Pettitt has provided, for those who can afford it, a very elegant and -ornamental house, which he calls "The Temple Bee-hive." It forms a very -suitable ornament on a lawn, and when three guineas can be spared, nothing -can be better. It is, however, more adapted to the garden surrounding a -gentleman's residence than to circumstances in which it is desirable to -obtain large profits from little outlay. But as I wish proprietors of -estates to take an interest in bee-keeping, I would try to tempt them by -specimens of ornamental bee-furniture. - -I give the drawing of it shut, with Mr. Pettitt's description. - -[Illustration: Temple Bee-hive, closed. (Showing the entrance).] - - "Temple Bee-hives, for the humane treatment of honey-bees, are got - up in a tasteful and substantial manner; and when placed upon a - lawn, in a flower-garden, or on a balcony, have a most picturesque - appearance. They need no shade or shelter from extreme solar heat - in summer, or from humidity and cold during winter, but afford of - themselves a sufficient protection to the industrious tenants. Each - hive is furnished with four bell-glasses, from which the drones are - effectually excluded, and the temperature of the interior can be - so regulated by the use of the ventilators and thermometers, as to - prevent the necessity of swarming." - -I add also a drawing of the same Temple opened from behind, with his -observations. - -[Illustration: Temple Bee-hive, open. (Showing the interior.)] - - "This plate shows the interior of the Temple Hive on the preceding - page, with four glass supers upon the top. Owing to the difficulty - some persons have experienced in getting the bees to work in the - glasses, we have introduced small wooden boxes with glass windows; - and it is quite certain that the bees will collect a larger quantity - of honey in these small supers than they will in the glasses, - particularly in uncertain and unsettled seasons." - -Pettitt also constructs a wooden hexagonal hive; but he uses the top as -a mere cover to the glasses, and of course perforates the top with four -holes, on which he places the glasses. If he will adopt my amendments, he -will give us a hive in all respects perfect. First, he must use the top -half purely as a super for the honey available to the master. Secondly, -he must make half-a-dozen parallel slits from front to back, with -corresponding removable slides, made by a rabbet-plane, to be withdrawn -in May, when it is desirable that the bees should ascend, and to be -reintroduced when the super is full and is to be removed. From this hive I -would banish glasses entirely. - -I have introduced six slides into this hive, the ends of which are shaped -as shown in the following drawing. On removing the slides, very small -ones, about an inch long, must be substituted, to prevent bees coming out -at the apertures. On removing the super or top half in July, the little -slides are removed in succession, and the long ones introduced, in -order to shut off the connection between the upper hive, or bee-master's -portion, and the lower, or the queen's. When you remove your portion, a -zinc plate eighteen inches square is pressed in between the upper and -lower boxes, and the upper carried away on it. But this is not always -necessary, as I will subsequently show in describing the Ayrshire hive. - -[Illustration] - -I prefer the hexagonal shape, not from any theory, but from practical -experience; and if this hive can be constructed at less expense, it -will prove alike popular and profitable. Its price maybe reduced by -substituting a plain glass window in each section, with a slide shutter -instead of door and hinges, retaining all its seasoned wood and thorough -workmanship, while lessening its merely decorative features. - -The hive-box I have found unfailing in results is the Scotch or Ayrshire -hive. It is octagonal in shape; the lowest box is six inches high, and -rather wider than a large common straw hive. There are three octagonal -boxes in all, the top of each having parallel slits from back to front, -with slides corresponding, and withdrawn when required. In May, you place -your first super box on the top of the lowest or stock hive, fitting -and corresponding in all respects; you withdraw backward each slide, -introducing as you do so a little slide about an inch in length, to -prevent the egress of the bees behind. There is no possibility of escape -in front, from the end of each slide being filled up by the wood of the -box. - -As soon as this first super is filled, you place on it another, or third; -withdraw the slides on the top of the second as you did from the top of -the first, and let the bees ascend still higher. A small glass window in -each, with a sliding shutter, enables you to report progress. At the honey -harvest, you remove each super as I have previously directed; and it must -be a very bad summer that does not end as the bee-master would prefer. - -[Illustration] - -Of all straw hives. Neighbours' is the most beautiful and lasting. With -the super hive lifted up, you see three bell-glasses on the flat top -of the stock hive, the zinc slides being withdrawn. The cost is thirty -shillings. Preferable to three glasses is one flat glass, about six or -eight inches deep. Bees prefer united to separate action in treasuring up -their stores. But either with three small glasses or one large one, it is -a very elegant and serviceable hive. - -The collateral system of bee-hives has, however, many able and -enthusiastic advocates. Nutt is the great advocate, if not the inventor, -of this bee-box. As a system for ventilation and facility of deprivation -it is unrivalled. His collateral hive, suitable to be placed in a -bee-shed, is as below. - -[Illustration] - -A is the stock hive, into which the swarm is introduced and the queen -resides; the glass window is open. B B are the side boxes, right and left, -having, either in the sides nearest the central box or in the floor, -extending right and left, a subterranean communication. C is the cover of -a bell-glass: so far in deference to the storifying system. D D D D D are -means of ventilation,--above by perforated zinc cupolas, and beneath by -drawers, which may be opened or shut as required. - -But for every excellence and capability of which the collateral hive is -susceptible, Pettitt's is undeniably the happiest and best. I give his own -description and woodcut:-- - - "A is a block front to open for ventilation, also for the egress - of the bees from the box F when filled. B Feeding apartment. C C - Ventilating slides. D D D Dividers. E 'Pavilion of Nature.' F Surplus - box. G G G Ventilators. H H H H Glass surplus hives. The finest - specimen of glass honey in the Great Exhibition was taken from one of - these hives. They are of such easy and safe access, that they can be - approached at the back at mid-day, when the bees are in full work, - without giving them any disturbance whatever. The parent hive is - provided with apertures for four glasses upon the top, through which - the drones cannot pass. These hives are intended for the inside of the - apiary, gentleman's library, or attic." - -[Illustration] - -The apertures on the top, which is the retention of the storifying system -grafted on the collateral, are all he describes, and a real and valuable -device. The price, two guineas, is, for so excellent a bee-box, most -reasonable. I can testify from experience that the material is thoroughly -seasoned, and the workmanship perfect. - -But I still retain my conviction that the collateral system is not -productive. The objection to the storifying system, that the bees have -more fatigue in climbing than in travelling on the same level, is not -tenable. The bee prefers to ascend; it traverses the roof as easily as -the floor; it begins its work on the roof, and evidently ignores the -difficulty which Nutt and others have invented. The side boxes, also, are -too cold; the heat of the pavilion, or stock hive, ascending more easily -than radiating sideways. Comb-building requires a certain temperature, -without which it is impracticable. Hence, in storifying and collateral -hives both, when the weather is cold and ungenial, I cover up as much as -possible with brown paper, in order to keep in all the heat generated by -the bees. Taylor, the most sensible and practical of apiculturists, thus -describes his experience of collateral hives:-- - - "Another point on which Nutt laid much stress may be mentioned, viz., - the supposed advantage to the bees in working on one level, without - the necessity of _climbing_, as in storified hives. I long thought - this was indisputable. Further consideration led me more minutely to - examine the habits of the bee in this respect, and I became convinced - that nature had given it equal facilities for moving in every - direction. A scientific correspondent thus writes on this subject:--'I - once propounded the question to a very eminent mathematician, and his - reply was, that, if any, the difference was too minute to admit of - calculation between the horizontal and the perpendicular movement; it - was, in the language of the present day 'infinitesimal.' Although few - of Nutt's positions have been found to stand the test of practice, it - ought not to be said that his crude speculations and rash assertions - have been altogether without useful results, as they undoubtedly led - to farther investigation, and several modern improvements had thus - their origin." - -I do not wish to take up space by explaining the nether or nadir system. -The simplest description would be:--The common straw hive placed on a -square box, six inches in depth and twelve inches square, having a window -behind for observation. An aperture is in the floor of the box, having a -movable zinc slide, to be withdrawn when the bees are required to descend. -This they will do when room is denied above. But the nadir-box is apt to -be cold, and the queen is apt to treat it as part of the stock hive when -it becomes warm, and to lay her eggs and rear her young in it, and so -spoil your harvest. - -[Illustration] - -A is the nadir-box, on which the hive B--the common straw hive--stands; C -is a pane of glass, and A is a moveable zinc slide for opening or shutting -communication between the nadir and the hive. It is not a wise or useful -plan. - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -VI.--HOW TO GET BEES. - - -The best and most effective plan is to buy a swarm as early in May as -possible. The farther off from your bee-garden the swarm is brought the -better. I have invariably found that a swarm from a hive a mile or two off -is preferable to a swarm from one of your own hives. - -Send your bee-box or hive to some cottager who keeps bees, about the -end of April. Explain to her or him how the hive is to be adjusted on -receiving the swarm, and request that it be carried by hand, if possible, -the evening of the day on which the swarm was hived. Let a piece of gauze -be placed over the entrance of your hive, in order that the bees while -prisoners on the journey may have plenty of air; and when it arrives -place it quietly on your bee-shed, remove without noise the gauze, and -next morning, if it be fine, the bees will make themselves masters of the -situation, and make up their minds and arrange themselves to work in that -place in which their bee-master sets them. - -Should the weather, the day after you have placed the hive containing -your swarm in your bee-shed, turn out wet and cold, push into the hive -through the entrance-hole a couple of sticks of barley-sugar, or more. -Half-a-pound only costs sevenpence, and you will get it all back in due -time; thereby the bees will start with renewed strength, as soon as the -weather clears up, most grateful for a little help when help is most -required. You need not fear lest by so doing you will encourage idleness -or mendicancy. Bees are not like street beggars. They do not want to be -dependent. All they ask is a little help at the beginning, to be able then -to help themselves. As soon as the sun shines the swarm will work hard -and without cessation, and by the middle of June you may find it right to -open communication with a super, or at least with a bell-glass, and find -yourself very soon rewarded with honey of exquisite flavour, in cells of -unrivalled whiteness. - -Richardson and Wildman thus teach how stocks are to be obtained:-- - - "A stock of bees is usually to be obtained by purchase, although it - may indeed chance that you get an opportunity of hiving a 'vagabond' - swarm which may have settled in your garden or orchard. In the latter - instance, indeed, I think your property in the stragglers somewhat - questionable, and perhaps scarcely more so than it would be in a stray - ox or sheep, which accident had driven into your premises. - - "You may procure stock either in the spring or autumn. I should prefer - the former period, because that is the fitting time for removal of - stocks from the old-fashioned awkward hives to the more improved - modern receptacles; but it is more difficult to ascertain the exact - condition of the stock you are about purchasing in spring than it - is in autumn. I am sorry to say, that unless you purchase your - stock from a friend, or from some one, at all events, that you can - confidently depend on, you are very likely to be taken in, and must - therefore be upon your guard against imposition. As some writer (I - forget who) quaintly enough remarks, 'Let it be with the bees as with - a wife--never _take them on the recommendation of another party_' - If you would purchase a stock in early spring, just after the bees - have been removed from their winter quarters, you need not attempt it - unless from a person on whose honour you can positively depend. During - the months of May or June, you can form some judgment for yourself, - and, if you act cautiously, may perhaps bid defiance to trickery. In - this case, you should visit the garden or other locality in which the - hive stands that you intend purchasing, about mid-day; stand opposite - to it, and observe attentively the actions of its inhabitants. If they - crowd busily in and out of the hive, giving evidence of their industry - by the laden appearance of their legs, and altogether exhibiting a - busy _earnestness_ in their toils, you may safely buy the hive; and - if you obtain this hive before swarming has taken place, you may look - upon yourself as a fortunate man. - - "If the object of your intentions be an autumnal hive, you had - better ascertain that the massacre of the drones has taken place: an - observation of the stand and of the ground around the hive will tell - this. Observe the actions of these bees--see that they are lively and - industrious; and if, on your too near approach, one or two bees dash - at your face, do not be alarmed, but rather regard their pugnacity - as a sign of vigour, and buy the hive. Some writers speak of the - necessity of purchasing only such stocks as are in nice new hives. - This is an advice very necessary to be attended to; but it would not - be so, were you sure that the interior of the hive were filled only - with honey-comb, and with no old worn-out comb, the accumulation of - years. If you are in doubt on the subject, you should _fumigate_ the - hive in the evening, in the manner hereafter to be described; then, - turning up the hive, you can readily ascertain the character of its - contents. If the comb be black, have nothing to do with the stock. The - genuine colour of the comb is white, and, consequently, the lighter it - is, the more the stock is to be esteemed. - - "Never, unless you can depend on the party, _send_ your hive to - receive a swarm: for you may, if you do, have a _second_ swarm - imposed upon you for a _first_--a comparatively valueless stock for - just the very thing you desire. The first swarm begin the formation - of the combs at the _middle_ of the apex of the hive; the _second_ - does so at the _side_. These are the only criteria I can furnish, - for neither weight nor bulk are to be depended upon. It is to the - obstinate use of the old-fashioned hive that these difficulties, and - these opportunities for fraud, are attributable. Were the improved - system once established, these cautions would be no longer called for. - For old Wildman I entertain a very high respect, although in some - instances I am compelled to differ from him; yet I always investigate - closely the point at issue between us ere doing so, and, if I doubt, I - suffer the weight of his authority to act as a 'casting vote.' Wildman - has given some good advice as to the purchase of stocks; and in this - advice he speaks like an oracle. Attend to him:-- - - "'The person who intends to erect an apiary should purchase a proper - number of hives at the latter end of the year, when they are cheapest. - The hives should be full of combs, and well stored with bees. The - purchaser should examine the combs, in order to know the age of the - hives. The combs of that season are _white_; those of a former year - are of a _darkish yellow_; and when the combs are _black_, the hives - should be rejected, because old hives are most liable to vermin and - other accidents. - - "'If the number of hives wanted have not been purchased in the autumn, - it will be necessary to remedy this neglect, after the severity of - the cold is past, in the spring. At this season, bees which are - in good condition will get into the fields early in the morning, - return loaded, enter boldly, and do not come out of the hive in bad - weather, for when they do, this indicates that they are in great want - of provisions. They are alert on the least disturbance, and by the - loudness of their humming we judge of their strength. They preserve - their hives free from all filth, and are ready to defend it against - every enemy that approaches. - - "'The summer is an improper time for buying bees, because the heat of - the weather softens the wax, and thereby renders the comb liable to - break, if they are not very well secured. The honey, too, being then - thinner than at other times, is more apt to run out at the cells, - which is attended with a double disadvantage--viz., the loss of the - honey, and the daubing of the bees--whereby many of them may be - destroyed. A _first_ and strong swarm may indeed be purchased: and, if - leave can be obtained, permitted to stand in the same garden until the - autumn; but, if leave is not obtained, it may be carried away in the - _night_ after it has been hived. - - "'I suppose that, in the stocks purchased, the bees are in the hives - of the old construction. The only directions here necessary are, that - the first swami from these stocks should be put into one of my hives; - and that another of my hives should, in a few days, be put under the - old stock, in order to prevent its swarming again.'" - -But perhaps you have a swarm from one of your own stock-hives,--not so -desirable as the purchase of a swarm from a neighbour. A swarm will -occasionally emerge from hives and bee-boxes, in spite of every plan of -preventing it. The signs of swarming are some of them appreciable by the -most expert bee-master only. A common sign of the emergence of a swarm -is inactivity in work, and about the hive clusters hanging from the -bee-board--arising, probably, from the old queen finding no princess ready -to take her throne--and a high temperature within. If, in addition, the -weather is moist and warm, the issue of a swarm may be expected. From -ten o'clock to three has been stated as the period within which swarming -occurs. Every swarm I have had for twelve years has issued between twelve -and three. - -A strong swarm will consist of from ten thousand to twenty thousand bees; -a caste, or second swarm, of five thousand. Two thousand bees fill a pint -measure. Scouts are generally sent out to select a residence for the -young family. House-seeking is an arduous work for human tenants, and no -doubt the pioneer bees find great difficulty in fixing on what seems to -them suitable. I have seen them settle under the leaves of a standard -rose, sometimes on the bough of an apple-tree, and at other times in a -sheltered recess in a laurel-hedge. No sight is more exciting than that -of a swarm of bees. The air is clouded with the circling bees--vocal with -their united music, while the eyes of the bee-master quietly watch their -descent. As soon as the queen settles, the bees cluster around her and -hang from the branch on which she has settled. As soon as the great mass -has settled, take your bee-box or hive, hold it with one hand, mouth or -bottom upward, beneath the swarm, enclosing as many of the pendent bees -as the situation will allow. With the other hand shake the bough from -which they hang, and on the great mass tumbling into the hive, carry it -away half-a-dozen yards; set it upright on the bottom board, or a white -sheet previously spread on the grass; raise the edge of the hive with a -piece of wood or stone a few inches from the ground, and cover the hive -with a branch or two to keep off the direct rays of the sun. - -[Illustration] - -If the queen be inside the hive, the bees that are already inside -will remain, and you will find the bees that linger about the branch -on which they first settled steadily enter, and by sunset they will -all be within. If the queen has not been caught, and still remains on -the bough or branch on which the swarm first settled, the bees will -leave the hive and re-cluster as they were. You must then repeat the -process. You need not be afraid of stings. But if your nerves do not -respond to your convictions, begin by spreading a square of gauze over -your hat, the brim of the hat keeping it from your face; push the -ends and corners under your coat, buttoning it to the chin. This will -protect your face, ears, and neck, and a pair of worsted gloves will -protect your hands. But practice will dispel fear, and save you from -the necessity of such defences. If this homely and cheap defence seem -to you insufficient, you can purchase at Neighbours', in Regent-street, -for five shillings, a perfect fit. - -It is thus represented by its inventor in Messrs. Neighbours' list. - -[Illustration: "Is made of light net, called _Leno_, fits over the hat or -cap, with sleeves tied at the wrists, and strings at the bottom to draw -and fasten round the waist, the sleeves being made of a stronger material. -Price 5_s._; by post, 6_s._"] - -If you have more than one bee-shed, do net place the young colony in the -shed in which its mother hive stands. - -A few straggling bees often hang about the branch next day. Lay on it a -few nettles, and they will speedily forsake it, and return to the hive -from which they issued, where, of course, their labours are not lost to -the bee-master. - -Sometimes a caste, or second swarm, will issue from the same hive. -These are occasionally feeble in comparison of the first swarm. Are we -to preserve it, and make the most of it? or are we to unite the weaker -and later caste to a stronger one? Almost all apiarians recommend the -uniting of two weak castes, in order to make one strong family, or uniting -the feeble swarm to an old stock. Mr. Cotton, the most affectionate of -bee-masters while he lived, advocates the use of the usual anesthetic, -fuzz-ball or puff-ball, or frog's-cheese; and while the bees are in a -state of insensibility pouring the one family into the hive of the other. -The instrument employed for this purpose is made of tin plate. - -[Illustration] - -The ignited puff-ball, which may be gathered and dried, or purchased for a -trifle from Neighbours' in London, or Pettitt in Dover, is placed in the -box A. The part B is then fitted into A. The orifice D is introduced into -the hive, a little rag or clay is packed round it to keep in the smoke. -The mouth is to be applied to the end C, and thus the smoke is driven into -the hive. The bees will soon become still as death. The queen had better -be picked out and removed from the caste. - -The tube of an ordinary bellows may be introduced for this fumigation, as -perhaps more effective and less troublesome. It will then appear thus:-- - -[Illustration] - -Richardson describes another plan:-- - - "Some persons may conceive it to be a difficult matter to come - at the queen. When fumigation is resorted to, she is, of course, - easily discovered; but even when it is dispensed with, and the - practice adopted which I have yet to describe, she is not so very - difficult to come at; for, on a hive being turned up and _tapped_, - the queen is among the first, if not indeed the very first, who - makes her appearance, as if to discover the occasion of the unwonted - disturbance; and recollect, that although the _dusk_ of an _autumnal - evening_ answers best for this purpose, I say nothing indicative of - my disapprobation of the use of a _lantern_. The queen usually lodges - near the crown of the hive, and is, when fumigation is resorted to, - one of the last to fall; she will consequently, in this case, be found - amongst the uppermost bees. In practising fumigation (with a view to - the union of weak stocks), two persons should act in concert, each - taking a hive and operating upon it, in order that both stocks should - be simultaneously in a similar condition as to _intoxication_. I may - add, that in fumigation the hive must be well covered with a cloth, to - prevent the escape of the smoke. When you have united the two stocks - in the manner I have described, it is advisable to confine the insects - to their hive for that night and the following day. Do not, however, - wholly deprive them of air in doing so, or you may smother them." - -Taylor, who is always judicious, proposes what I regard as a preferable -plan of uniting weak swarms:-- - - "Like most other operations on bees, the mode of uniting swarms admits - of variety, according to choice and circumstance; and some apiarians - prefer to drive them, in the way for which general directions have - already been given; a plan that may be resorted to almost at any - time. Another mode of junction can be effected by the aid of a sheet - of perforated zinc, inserted between the two hives about to be united. - There is little reason to doubt that the members of each colony of - bees are distinguishable amongst themselves by a certain peculiarity - of odour, which, if assimilated, appears to have the effect of - preventing mutual dissension. When the construction, therefore, of the - hives admits of their being brought into juxtaposition, the perforated - zinc allows a free circulation of scent between them, without - permitting actual contact of the bees. After leaving matters in this - position for two or three days, I have usually found, on withdrawing - the zinc divider, that no disturbance has ensued." - -But may it not be preferable still to follow the course indicated by the -bees? When pastures fail and turnips perish, from an extreme dry season, -we feed cattle with artificial food. Why not try an analogous system with -bees? Barley-sugar, I admit, is expensive. But I venture to assert, that -if the caste issue not later than June, four pounds of barley-sugar, -costing about five shillings, will supplement its own industrious -gatherings sufficiently to carry it over the winter into spring, and a -pound in spring will start it into vigorous work. If you take from it a -super next June or July, weighing ten or twelve pounds, you receive good -interest, and your outlay for barley-sugar is returned, and you escape the -troublesome and disagreeable process of fumigation. Barley-sugar, I admit, -is more costly than cottagers prefer. If you have no arrangement in your -hives for feeding, you may boil a pound of common brown sugar--which may -be had for fourpence a pound--in a pint of ale; pour it when cool into a -soup-plate. Take a circular thin board, the size of the inner bottom of -the soup-plate, pierce it with a good-sized gimlet in every direction till -it is covered with holes, each through and through. Let it float on the -plate. Set the plate opposite your weak swarm day after day for a week. -The other bees, strong and busy in June, will rarely touch it, and your -destitute family will gladly visit it. The weight of the float will make -the sugared ale ascend by the holes, and the bees will sip _ad libitum_, -without the risk of clogging their wings or being drowned. But if, what -is more to be desired, you have one of Pettitt's single-box hives, you -have only to fill one of his wood feeders, in which there are grooves and -parallel edges of wood for the bees to walk on; place it in the drawer -beneath the stock, draw out the zinc slide, and the bees will descend and -feed with profit and pleasure. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - -If you have one of Neighbours' hives, already referred to, fill the -following zinc pan with the ale and sugar. Put over it the plate of glass, -and fix it on the top of the hive. The bees will ascend by the orifice A, -the plate-glass cover on the top preventing their escape, while it is so -constructed that without moving it you can replenish it by the entrance B. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - -Taylor thus describes one of his feeding-pans:-- - - "When there is a hole in the centre of the top of the hive, a trough - may be used, made of tin or zinc, seven or eight inches square, and - one inch and a quarter deep; having a circular two-inch hole in the - middle of the bottom, with a rim round it, standing up half an inch, - through which the bees enter the pan from below. Another circular - rim or partition, as large in diameter as the square of the pan will - admit, is soldered down within it at the four points where it touches - the sides. It must not go down to the bottom, but a space should there - be left of nearly an eighth of an inch, as a passage for the food, - which is poured in at the four angles. A perforated thin wooden bottom - or float is fitted loosely into the pan, between the circles, removing - an objection sometimes made against the chilling effects of metal upon - bees. The float should be a little raised by means of two thin strips - of wood, appended below, to allow the liquid to flow beneath. A cover - is made by a piece of glass, resting on the larger circle, but cut - nearly octagonal in form, so as to leave the corners open. The circle - on which the glass rests should be an eighth of an inch lower than the - outer rim." - -Ingenious bee-masters, who estimate the excellence of their treatment by -its tortuous ingenuity, are sure to deride every such homely and easy -treatment. But you must disregard their learned and, as they phrase it, -scientific talk. In fact, the sulphur-and-match treatment is scarcely -worse than the protracted torture of apiarian inquisitors, inflicted -on bees by means of their ingenious hives. Experimental investigations -are, of course, legitimate. But keeping up queer and twisted and zigzag -bee-houses, as monuments of their talent and nothing else, is nothing less -than vivisection of bees. - -Should the weather prove fine, and the stock hive, as inspected by the -glass window, show the honey-comb reaching downward to the floor, place a -super on the top. A glass is by far the most elegant, and, of the shape -recommended by Taylor, it is the most useful. It is about ten inches -wide, six inches high, and straight on the sides, with or without a zinc -circular perforated tube. - -[Illustration] - -But it is essential to cover it with a fitting woollen nightcap, the -neglect of which is the cause of the unpopularity of bee-glasses. - -No additional room ought to be given after the middle of July, even in -heath counties; but that supplied in the beginning of June, or toward the -end of May, should be large. This is the safe side to err on. Either one -good large glass, or, what is less useful, two or three middle-sized, -should be used. - -In the case of the Ayrshire hive, the rabbet-slides should be drawn out -from the top of the bottom box, the super box being previously placed on -the top. - -During June and July frequently visit your bees. Stand in front of the -bee-shed. Study them through your observatory windows. They are too -busy to be annoyed. They love company. They are essentially social and -friendly, and fond of visitors. Their music will charm your ear, and their -industry delight your eye; and their wonderful work will give you many an -illustration for sermon, essay, or speech. - -The longest summer ends in autumn. The honey harvest comes on. - -Pass your zinc plate under the full glass. Detach it, and lift it off -the stock hive, of which close up the hole, or place on it a very small -bell-glass, just sufficient to cover the aperture, not forgetting the -nightcap. Take your glass to a little distance, let it rest for half an -hour, then edge up one side, and the bees will rush home to their hive in -the bee-shed. Cover the bottom of the glass, when the bees have left, with -parchment or thick writing-paper. - -Mr. Taylor's directions are as follow:-- - - "If the queen is not in the super (and she seldom is there after it - is filled), the silence that at first prevailed will be exchanged - for a murmuring hum, attended by a commotion among the bees; and they - shortly after begin to quit the super, without attempting any attack. - Should the queen be present, however, a very different scene would - ensue, and a hubbub would then commence in the stock hive; though the - loss of their queen is sometimes not discovered by the bees for a - considerable time. In such a case, the box must be reinstated in its - former position, and the communication reopened till some other day. - The process might happen to be complicated by the presence of brood, - for this the bees leave very reluctantly, and often not at all. In - an emergency of this kind, it is best to restore matters to their - previous state, and let the super remain till the brood is perfected. - A little patience is sometimes necessary; but all attempts at ejection - of the bees by tapping, smoking, or driving, usually do more harm than - good. So long as they continue to leave the super, it may remain where - it is, for on these occasions young bees are sometimes numerous; and - if the super is removed, though only to a short distance, these are in - part lost, not having become sufficiently acquainted with the position - of their home; or, if they enter a wrong hive, they pay the penalty - with their lives. This freedom from disturbance has the further good - effect of preventing in a great degree the intrusion of robber bees, - readily distinguishable from the others by their hovering about the - box, instead of flying from it. These are strangers from various - quarters, immediately attracted by the scent attending the removal of - a full box or glass. Should a few of these plunderers once obtain a - taste or sample of the honey, they speedily convey the good news to - their associates, when large reinforcements from every hive in the - neighbourhood will be at once on the alert, and quickly leave nothing - behind but empty combs. Let the separated super, therefore, not be - left or lost sight of, but if scented out by robbers, be conveyed - into some room or outbuilding, to prevent a general battle, and which - might extend itself to all the neighbouring hives. The remaining bees - may here be brushed out, escaping by the window or door. Mr. Golding - has sometimes found the advantage of using for the purpose a darkened - room, with the exception of a very small aperture, to which the bees - will fly and make their exit. Others like to remove a super at once to - a short distance from the stock hive, leaving it shut up in perfect - darkness for an hour or two. Its edge is then raised up, when the bees - will evacuate it." - -A good plan is, to take the detached super into a room with a window that -closes and opens on hinges. On edging up the glass, the bees will fly to -the window. Open it for a minute, and they will escape. Shut it again, and -repeat the opening. The advantage of this is that wasps and strange bees -are excluded, such corsairs careering everywhere in autumn. - -Honey is always best preserved in its own sealed and air-tight cells. It -will keep throughout the winter. If you separate the honey from the wax, -cut the combs into inch-wide pieces, and lay these in sieves over glazed -earthenware vessels, and they will yield the choicest honey. It drops from -the comb spontaneously. - -Take the combs and squeeze them through a cloth. This will yield a -second-class honey, admirable for feeding your bees. Carry the remainder, -or refuse, in a dish, and place it before your bee-shed, and thousands of -your bees will make a good meal from it. If you prefer to save the wax, -bring back what the bees have licked clean. Put it into a vessel in which -there is as much water as floats it. Place the vessel on a clear fire, -stirring till the combs are thoroughly melted. Strain the whole through a -fine canvas bag into cold water. Mr. Nutt says:-- - - "Have ready then a piece of smooth board of such a length that, when - one end of it is placed in the tub of cold water, the other end may - be conveniently rested against, and securely stayed by, your breast. - Upon this inclined plane lay your dripping, reeking strainer, and - keeping it from slipping into the cold water by bringing its upper - part over the top of the board, so as to be held firmly between it and - your breast. If the strainer be made with a broad hem round its top, - a piece of strong tape or cord passed through such hem will draw it - close, and should be long enough to form a stirrup for the foot, by - which an additional power will be gained of keeping the scalding-hot - strainer in its proper place on the board; then, by compressing the - bag, or rather its contents, with any convenient roller, the wax - will ooze through and run down the board into the cold water, on the - surface of which it will set in thin flakes. When this part of the - operation is finished, collect the wax, put it into a clean saucepan, - in which is a little water, to keep the wax from being burned to the - bottom; melt it _carefully_; for should it be neglected, and suffered - to boil over, serious mischief might ensue, liquid wax being of a - very inflammable nature; therefore, melt it _carefully_ over a _slow - fire_, and skim off the dross as it rises to the top; then pour it - into such moulds or shapes as your fancy may direct, having first well - rinsed them, in order that you may be able to get the wax, when cold - and solid, out of them, without breaking either the moulds or the wax; - place them, covered over with cloths or with pieces of board, where - the wax will cool slowly; because the more _slowly it cools_, the - _more solid if will be_, and free from flaws and cracks." - -To those who have a taste for very ancient drinks, Richardson's -instructions will prove valuable:-- - - "Mead.--Some persons may feel desirous of making for themselves this - once-famous drink, and I shall accordingly furnish them with simple - directions for so doing. Common mead is formed by mixing two parts of - water with one of honey, boiling them together, and taking off the - scum. - - "_Fermented_ mead is formed of _three_ parts of water to one of honey, - boiled as before, skimmed, and casked. The cask is to be left unbunged - and exposed to the sun, or in a warm room, until it ceases to _work_. - It is then bunged, and in about three months it is fit for use. The - addition of a _ferment_ is of course necessary, taking care that it be - _sound_, _sweet_, and _good_. - - "Hops are an improvement to mead, taking from its extreme sweetness; - and so is the addition of chopped raisins boiled with it, at the rate - of six pounds of honey to each half-pound of raisins; also some lemon - peel, a few glasses of brandy, &c. - - "Metheglin is only another name for mead, altered by the addition of - various ingredients, according to the taste of its preparers. These - liquors may be _racked_, _fined_, &c., like other wines, and will, if - properly managed, keep for years." - -I have never tasted these celebrated wines. I have no doubt they are -pleasant and wholesome. But I prefer the honey in the honey-comb at -breakfast, and mean to recommend it to others also. - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -VII.--THE INMATES OF THE HIVE. - - -In every hive there are three distinct inmates, very easily -recognised--the Queen-Bee, the Working-Bee, and the Drone; each essential -to the other, and all to the very existence and prosperity of the hive. - -[Illustration: The Queen.] - -[Illustration: The Working-Bee.] - -[Illustration: The Drone.] - - -THE QUEEN. - -The Queen is very elegant. Her symmetry of person, and relative -proportions, and greater length of figure, distinguish her from the rest -of the community. Her death is followed by a cessation of all labour till -a princess ascends the throne. She is the creature of treatment. The egg -from which she emerges seems in all respects identical with those from -which her subjects issue. On the sides of the tier of comb from which -drones and working-bees are developed, large vertical combs, from two to -five, are constructed. Woodcuts representing these are found in every -bee-book. Taylor gives the following accurate picture:-- - -[Illustration] - -The upper portion of the comb contains honey, with the exception of the -dark cells, which contain pollen. The lower are drone cells; and the large -cells, three in number on each side, are royal palaces. Her majesty is fed -with royal jelly till she is ready to show herself; and everything that -love and reverence and hope can supply, the bees delight to offer. But it -is a curious entomological fact, first discovered by Schirach, an eminent -apiarian of the last century, that the bees can supply the loss of their -queen by an artificial process--a process confirmatory of the position -that every working-bee egg has in it the component elements of royalty, -and that development according to a definite treatment is all that is -requisite to constitute a queen. On being deprived of their queen by -death, the bees select a common grub, not above three days old, break down -the wax partitions between it and at least three contiguous cells, forming -a vertical pear-shaped chamber. They feed her with the daintiest food, -called royal jelly. In five days the grub becomes a nymph, and in fifteen -she emerges a royal princess, ascends the vacant throne, and receives the -homage, loyalty, and love of fifteen or twenty thousand subjects. Kirby -exclaims:-- - - "What! you will ask, can a larger and warmer house, a different and - more pungent food, and a vertical instead of an horizontal posture, - give a bee a different-shaped tongue and mandibles; render the surface - of its under-legs flat instead of concave; deprive them of the fringe - of hairs that forms the basket for carrying the masses of pollen,--of - the auricle and pecten which enable the workers to use these legs or - feet as pincers,--of the brush that lines the insides of the feet? - Can they lengthen its abdomen; alter its colour and clothing; give - a curvature to its sting; deprive it of its wax-pockets, and of the - vessels for secreting that substance; and render its ovaries more - conspicuous and capable of yielding worker and drone eggs?" - -In spring, she moves among the combs laying her eggs. Ladies-in-waiting -accompany her, who always turn their faces toward her majesty, clear the -royal route, and clean out the cells in which she deposits her eggs. - -Of this Lardner gives the following representation:-- - -[Illustration] - -The Reverend Charles Cotton, while he lived the prince of bee-masters, -thus represents the queen and her attendant ladies:-- - -[Illustration] - -The queen is the central bee; the surrounding bees are her -ladies-in-waiting, and the white specks the eggs she has deposited. - -The queen-bee is a model keeper at home, rarely leaving the hive. Most -apiarians are interested at present in the habits and acclimatisation of -the Ligurian bee--the _Apis Ligustica_, or Italian bee. It is found easy -to substitute an Italian for a British queen, in a British hive which -has been deprived of its native sovereign. The bees refuse to constitute -themselves into a republic, and therefore they will accept even a foreign -queen, who, no doubt, takes the oaths and obligations of the realm over -which she is to reign. There is a red tinge in the rings that surround the -abdomen of this foreigner; and, contrary to what we should expect in an -Italian temperament, the Ligurian bee is more gentle and conciliatory than -our native queen. I speak from report, not from personal knowledge. But I -hope one day to be present at a _levée_, and become better acquainted with -the royal foreigner. - -Lardner gives the following account of two queens, from Huber. Huber -placed a piece of comb having three royal cells in a hive in which the -queen was laying eggs. The moment she saw them she attacked them, laid -them open, and commanded her attendants to destroy them. These instantly -tore out the royal nymphs, and devoured the food destined for their use. -He then introduced a stranger queen, pregnant with eggs, marking her so as -to be able to identify her. - - "Immediately on her appearance the workers collected in a crowd around - her, and formed as usual a circle of which she was the centre, the - heads of all the remaining crowd being directed towards her. This very - soon became so dense that she became an absolute prisoner within it. - - "While this was going on, a similar ring was formed by another group - of workers round the queen-regnant, so that she was likewise for the - moment a prisoner. - - "The two queens being thus in view of each other, if either evinced - a disposition to approach and attack the other, the two rings were - immediately opened, so as to give a free passage to the combatants; - but the moment they showed a disposition to fly from each other, - the rings were again closed, so as to retain them on the spot they - occupied. - - "At length the queen-regnant resolved on the conflict, and the - surrounding crowd, seeming to be conscious of her decision, - immediately cleared a passage for her to the place where the stranger - stood perched on the comb. She threw herself with fury on the latter, - seized her by the root of the wing, and fixed her against the comb so - as to deprive her of all power of movement or resistance, and then - bending her abdomen, inflicted a mortal stab with her sting, and put - an end to the intruder. - - "A fruitful queen full of eggs was next placed upon one of the combs - of a hive over which a virgin queen already reigned. She immediately - began to drop her eggs, but not in the cells; nor did the workers, by - a circle of whom she was closely surrounded, take charge of them; but, - since no trace of them could be discovered, it is probable that they - were devoured. - - "The group, by which this intruding queen was surrounded, having - opened a way for her, she moved towards the edge of the comb, where - she found herself close to the place occupied by the legitimate virgin - queen. The moment they perceived each other, they rushed together with - ungovernable fury. The virgin, mounting on the back of the intruder, - stabbed her several times in the abdomen, but failed to penetrate the - scaly covering of the segments. The combatants then, exhausted for - the moment, disengaged themselves and retired. After an interval of - some minutes they returned to the charge, and this time the intruder - succeeded in mounting on the back of the virgin and giving her several - stabs with her sting, which, however, failed to penetrate the flesh. - The virgin queen, succeeding in disengaging herself, again retired. - Another round succeeded, with the like results, the virgin still - coming undermost, and, after disengaging herself, again retiring. The - combat appeared for some time doubtful, the rival queens being so - nearly equal in strength and power; when at last, by a lucky chance, - the virgin sovereign inflicted a mortal wound upon the intruder, who - fell dead on the spot. - - "In this case, the sting of the virgin was buried so deep in the flesh - of her opponent, that she found it impossible to withdraw it, and any - attempt to do so by direct force would have been fatal to her. After - many fruitless efforts, she at length adopted the following ingenious - expedient with complete success. Instead of exerting her force on the - sting by a direct pull, she turned herself round, giving herself a - rotatory motion on the extremity of her abdomen where the sting had - its insertion, as a pivot. In this way she gradually unscrewed the - sting." - -Another very interesting incident is related by Huber. It is described by -Lardner:-- - - "The first work which the population undertakes, after being assured - of the loss of its queen, is directed to obtain a successor to her. If - there be not royal cells prepared, they set about their construction. - While this work was in progress, and in twenty-four hours after their - queen had been taken from them, Huber introduced into the hive a - fruitful queen in the prime of life, being eleven months old. Not - less than twelve royal cells had been already commenced and were in a - forward state. The moment the strange queen was placed on one of the - combs, one of the most curious scenes commenced which was probably - ever witnessed in the animal world, and which has been described by - Huber. - - "The bees who happened to be near the stranger approached her, touched - her with their antennæ, passed their probosces over all parts of - her body, and presented her with honey. Then they retired, giving - place to others, who approached in their turn and went through the - same ceremony. All the bees who proceeded thus clapped their wings - in retiring, and ranged themselves in a circle round her, each, as - it completed the ceremony, taking a position behind those who had - previously offered their respects. A general agitation was soon - spread on those sides of the combs corresponding with that of the - scene here described. From all quarters the bees crowded to the spot, - and each group of fresh arrivals broke their way through the circle, - approached the new aspirant to the throne, touched her with their - antennæ and probosces, offered her honey, and, in fine, took their - rank outside the circle previously formed. The bees forming this sort - of court circle clapped their wings from time to time, and fluttered - apparently with self-gratification, but without the least sign of - disorder or tumult. - - "At the end of fifteen or twenty minutes from the commencement of - these proceedings the queen, who had hitherto remained stationary, - began to move. Far from opposing her progress or hemming her in, as in - the cases formerly described, the bees opened the circle on the side - to which she directed her steps, followed her, and, ranging themselves - on either side of her path, lined the road in the same manner as is - done by military bodies in state processions. She soon began to lay - drone eggs, for which she sought and found the proper cells in the - combs which had been already constructed. - - "While these things were passing on the side of the comb where the - new queen had been placed, all remained perfectly tranquil on - the opposite side. It seemed as though the bees on that side were - profoundly ignorant of the arrival of a new queen on the opposite - side. They continued to work assiduously at the royal cells, the - construction of which had been commenced on that side of the comb, - just as if they were ignorant that they had no longer need of them; - they tended the grubs in those cells where the eggs had been already - hatched, supplying them as usual, from time to time, with royal jelly. - But at length the new queen in her progress arriving at that side of - the comb, she was received by those bees with the same homage and - devotion of which she had been already the object at the other side. - They approached her, coaxed her with their antennæ and probosces, - offered her honey, formed a court circle round her when she was - stationary, and a hedge at either side of her path when she moved, and - proved how entirely they acknowledged her sovereignty by discontinuing - their labour at the royal cells, which they had commenced before her - arrival, and from which they now removed the eggs and grubs, and ate - the provisions which they had collected in them. - - "From this moment the queen reigned supreme over the hive, and was - treated in all respects as if she had ascended the throne in right of - inheritance." - - -THE WORKER-BEE. - -The Worker-Bee is an imperfectly developed queen or female. The -worker-bees vary in number in a prosperous hive from ten to twenty -thousand. They are divided into orders or sections. Some produce wax; -others build combs; others feed the young; others ventilate the hive; -others, as sentinels, guard the entrance; while the great body traverses -gardens and commons, gathering honey for themselves and the bee-master. -There are various estimates of the age of the worker-bee. Dr. Bevan thinks -the limit of their life is six or eight months. Probably this is the -average, from taking into account the accidents of a laborious life, the -battles they must wage with enemies, and the wear and tear of ceaseless -toil. About the end of August they appear exhausted; their wings become -ragged, and the stroke of the sting feebler. - - -THE DRONE. - -The Drone is a male bee, fat, round, and lazy, like an old abbot in -mediæval times, who preferred the cellar to his cell. Huber remarks:-- - - "Naturalists have been extremely embarrassed to account for the number - of males in most hives, and which seem only a burden on the community, - since they appear to fulfil no function. But we now begin to discern - the object of nature in multiplying them to such an extent. As - fecundation cannot be accomplished within the hive, and as the queen - is obliged to traverse the expanse of the atmosphere, it is requisite - that the males should be numerous, that she may have the chance of - meeting some one of them. Were only two or three in each hive, there - would be little probability of their departure at the same instant - with the queen, or that they would meet in their excursions; and most - of the females might thus remain sterile." - -The queen selects a drone for her husband, who dies invariably at the end -of the honeymoon or wedding-trip in the air. But the widowed queen does -not marry a second husband. Her whole mind from that day to her death, -though surrounded by two thousand suitors, is devoted to the interests -and order and government of her realm. During May, and not later than -June, the massacre of the drones takes place. They have become at this -date encumbrances only. Their mission is ended, and their extermination -becomes the duty of the industrious bees. I stated, in my letters to _The -Times_, that I believed the drones had a value additional to that usually -assigned to them--viz., that they sustained the temperature of the hive -during the chief breeding season. Mr. Cotton--no mean authority--states -what substantially confirms all I said:-- - - "I have watched the drones for many years very attentively, and I will - freely give you the result. I will tell you, in the first instance, - the facts I have seen, and what I have drawn from them. The drones are - hatched just before the new swarms rise; very few go off with them. I - for a long time thought that none did; but I am free to confess that I - was wrong. They do not fly out early in the day, but about two o'clock - they go out to take the air, and make a fine buzzing, which joins very - prettily with the milder hum of the bees. Many people kill the drones - directly they see them; but they are quite wrong, as the bees know - best when they have done their duty, and so we may leave to them the - unpleasant task of killing them, though they do not do it in the most - merciful way. - - "Why do the drones stay in the hive all the morning? Most of the bees - are then out gathering honey, so the drones have to stay at home to - keep up the heat of the hive by their great fat bodies, just as a - gadding wife leaves her husband to look after the children, while she - is out taking her pleasure." - -It does seem a too great excess of provision to furnish two thousand -drones out of whom the queen may select her consort. It looks like unusual -waste. It leads to a massacre on a larger scale than is necessary. - -The average number of excursions made by each bee is probably ten or -twelve, over an area of half a mile; but fewer, of course, in proportion -to the greater distance of suitable pasture. Kirby calculates that during -a good season a hundred pounds of ponderable material is carried by these -tiny workers into their hive. He justly observes:-- - - "What a wonderful idea does this give of the industry and activity of - those useful little creatures! and what a lesson do they read to the - members of societies that have both reason and religion to guide their - exertions for the common good! Adorable is that Great Being who has - gifted them with instincts which render them as instructive to us, if - we will condescend to listen to them, as they are profitable." - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -VIII.--BEE ENEMIES. - - -The toad is a lazy, ugly-looking enemy of the bee. His capabilities, -however, are not equal to his will and wants. He squats under the bee -landing-board, and seizes every too heavily laden or wing-weary labourer -that accidentally drops. This is really very cruel. The bee that has -finished the longest journey, and gone through the hardest work, and borne -the heat and brunt of the hot, long summer day, takes a rest on a leaf -just before entering the hive, or comes short of the door of his home by -an inch, and is seized by the unclean monster and devoured. The only way -of getting rid of this unfeeling destroyer, who sits "seeking whom he may -devour," is to pay a visit to your hives soon after sunrise and an hour -before sunset; and on finding him on his wicked watch, seize him by the -hind leg and throw him to as great a distance across your hedge as you -well can. But if the "bee-master" be a lady--if I may use the phrase--let -her empty on him a snuff-box full of strong snuff, and he will reflect a -few days before he returns to his old quarters. I give this prescription -to ladies, because they do not like to seize the cold-blooded creature and -fling him to a respectable distance. How favoured our Irish bee-masters -must be in this matter!--they have no toads. I also wish they had no -riots. But troubles must come in some shape. Still, I would rather have -toads than Belfast navvies and ship-carpenters, and any day I would prefer -being _The Times_ Bee-master to be Mayor of Belfast. - -We are also exempt in this island of ours from the bear, unless one -should break loose from the strolling menageries that occasionally infest -Tunbridge Wells Common. "The bear," remarks a Yankee, "is the knowingest -varmint for finding out a bee-tree in the world. They'll gnaw for days -together at the trunk, till they make a hole big enough to get in their -paws, and then they'll haul out the honey, bees and all." - -The moth is a dangerous enemy. During the day there is no risk of his -attacks. But during the night he is, like other thieves and burglars, -alive and active. "He loves the darkness rather than the light, because -his deeds are evil." As no bee-master can do without sleep, I cannot -expect of the most enthusiastic and devoted that he will watch his hives -the whole night. The only preventive measure of a mechanical sort I can -recommend is that of lessening the entrance door. For this purpose he must -apply a zinc slide, such as Mr. Neighbour, in Holborn, will supply, which -will keep out the moth and yet let out the bees. Besides, the narrower -the door, the more closed up the rank of the bee-sentinels becomes, and -the more able they are to repel the death's-head moth, or any similar -intruder. But the most vigorous prophylactic measure you can take is -to keep your bees in full strength; and as the time selected by these -depredators is the early autumn, you cannot do better than give your -bees a cup of good strong ale, boiled up with sugar, which will cheer up -your whole family, and enable them to put forth their whole strength in -grappling with their enemies. Don't mind teetotal objections. These are -all very good for drunkards; but for sober, industrious bees, determined -to defend their property, a cup of good ale is as kind as it is useful. -The _Acherontia Atropos_, or death's-head hawk-moth, not only robs the -hive of its honey, but frightens and all but paralyses the bees. Huber -gives an account of the exertions of his bees to guard against this -formidable foe. It is here quoted from Lardner:-- - - "When he found his hives attacked and their store of honey pillaged - by these depredators, he contracted the opening left for the exit and - entrance of the bees to such an extent as, while it allowed them free - ingress and egress, it was so small that their plunderers could not - pass through it. This was found to be perfectly effectual, and all - pillage was thenceforward discontinued in the hives thus protected. - - "But it happened that in some of the hives this precaution was not - adopted, and here the most wonderful proceeding on the part of - the bees took place. Human contrivance was brought into immediate - juxtaposition with apiarian ingenuity. - - "The bees of the undefended hives raised a wall across the gate of - their city, consisting of a stiff cement made of wax and propolis - mixed in a certain proportion. This wall, sometimes carried directly - across and sometimes a little behind the door, first completely - closed up the entrance; but they pierced in it some openings just - large enough to allow two bees to pass each other in their exits and - entrances. - - "The little engineers did not follow one invariable plan in these - defensive works, but modified them according to circumstances. In - some cases a single wall, having small wickets worked through it at - certain points, was constructed. In others several walls were erected - one within the other, placed parallel to each other, with trenches - between them wide enough to allow two bees to pass each other. In each - of these parallel walls several openings or wickets were pierced, but - so placed as not to correspond in position, so that in entering a bee - would have to follow a zigzag course in passing from wicket to wicket. - In some cases these walls or curtains were wrought into a series of - arcades, but so that the intervening columns of one corresponded to - the arcades of the other. - - "The bees never constructed these works of defence without urgent - necessity. Thus, in seasons or in localities where the death's-head - moth did not prevail, no such expedients were resorted to. Nor were - they used against enemies which were open to attack by their sting. - The bee, therefore, understands not merely the art of offensive war, - and can play the part of the common soldier, but is also a consummate - military engineer; and it is not against the death's-head moth alone - that it shows itself capable of erecting such defences." - -A correspondent of _The Times_, writing on naval guns, who signs himself -"Z," alluded to my letters, and drew a happy illustration from them. -Let me here inform the Admiralty of a new arm which in extremity--for -otherwise it would be the sacrifice of too many bee combatants--may be -used in naval warfare. But perhaps Lord Clarence Paget may find some -difficulty in securing its adoption. It is related in "The Naturalist's -Library:"-- - - "A small privateer with forty or fifty men, having on board some - hives made of earthenware full of bees, was pursued by a Turkish - galley manned by five hundred seamen and soldiers. As soon as the - latter came alongside, the crew of the privateer mounted the rigging - with their hives, and hurled them down on the deck of the galley. The - Turks, astonished at this novel mode of warfare, and unable to defend - themselves from the stings of the enraged bees, became so terrified - that they thought of nothing but how to escape their fury; while the - crew of the small vessel, defended by masks and gloves, flew upon - their enemies sword in hand, and captured the vessel almost without - resistance." - -But as many of my recent correspondents in _The Times_ were clergymen, I -can recommend to the ministers of Belfast an admirable prescription for -the extreme case of a Belfast mob sacking their rectories and manses. The -Mayor of Belfast also might take it into his grave consideration, should -the citizens, instead of trying to convert each other by arguments or -Scripture, have recourse to those fashionable weapons which they lately -wielded with so much effect:-- - - "During the confusion occasioned by a time of war in 1525, a mob of - peasants assembling in Hohnstein, in Thuringia, attempted to pillage - the house of the parish minister, who, having in vain employed all his - eloquence to dissuade them from their design, ordered his domestics to - fetch his bee-hives and throw them in the middle of this furious mob. - The effect was what might be expected; they were immediately put to - flight, and happy to escape unstung." - -Is not this worthy of the consideration of every peaceful vicar in Belfast? - -The spider is also a very mischievous pest in bee-houses. He builds his -web in nooks and corners, under the eaves and about the landing-boards, -and in the track of the outgoing and incoming bees. When a bee is -inveigled, its efforts to extricate its captive limbs serve only to -involve it in the toils more hopelessly. I have seen half-a-dozen -working-bees thus caught and scooped out by the ravenous jaws of the -spider. These webs are constructed so rapidly, that nothing short of daily -attention will get rid of them. The best thing is, to have the bee-house -as smooth inside as it can be made, with as few projecting edges and -points as possible; and in the next place, the daily use of a hard, -dry painter's brush will sweep them away as fast as they are made, and -probably their weavers with them. - -Finally, the worst enemy of bees is man. There is the barbarous, cruel, -and ungrateful treatment of the brimstone match. The little innocents -have toiled all the summer. They have thrown off a swarm--after the -example of the Church of Scotland, which, by way of showing its internal -strength, threw off a capital swarm in 1843--they have recovered all the -effects of their secession, and amassed abundance for future days. The -bee-cide felon, called man, digs a pit, lights four ounces of brimstone -inside of it, and deliberately sets fifteen thousand bees, queen and -all, above its really and truly infernal fumes--suffocates and burns the -unhappy martyrs, and then subscribes to various charities in winter, and -calls himself a philanthropist! He ought to be sent to the treadmill. -Why does the Society for Preventing Cruelty to Animals take up the case -of cab-horses, and overlook the murdered bees? But there are regular -inquisitors who do not use sulphur. Those scientific crinkum-crankum -hives, from which bees with difficulty get out, and with more difficulty -get in, are little purgatories, over which the inquisitors preside. -Vivisection is no worse. Yet these men complain that all who advocate -simple, easily accessible, and comfortable homes for bees are behind the -age, and ignorant of apiarian progress! There are not more than three -sorts of hives that are humane. All the others bewilder the brains, weary -the legs, and spoil the tempers of the best bees that ever dwelt in a -hive. I have no objection whatever to ornamental bee-sheds; but the hives -which are the dwelling-places of my bees should be as plain as possible, -comfortable, warm, and easy of exit and entrance. A very gifted preacher -said it took all his learning to make his sermons plain: it ought to take -all a bee-master's to make his hives simple. When I hear a fine preacher -expressing himself in grand words and glittering figures, I always feel--I -hope not uncharitably--that he cares more about displaying himself -than serving his Master or feeding his flock. Even so I am tempted to -think of the ingenious inventors of intricate labyrinths they intend for -hives,--that their own fame as apiarians is their chief thought, and the -comfort of their bees their last and least consideration. A careless, -inattentive bee-master is criminal. He ought to see that his bees have -a sufficiency of food at the close of the year. In fine October weather -he may place several soup-plates filled with ale and sugar well boiled -together, and covered with perforated wooden floats, which sink as the -bees sip the contents, opposite his hives. I never find any quarrel ensue, -though I have seen thousands of bees from different hives feed together -for hours. After October till March no liquid food should be offered; -but a stick of barley-sugar may be thrust in now and then. The bees will -not descend to taste it in too cold weather, and during a warm day they -will enjoy such a dessert. In case of damp within the hive, which, when -a glass is retained, may be seen inside of it, select a warm day, remove -the glass, and close the aperture in the hive. Wipe the interior of the -glass with a linen cloth till perfectly dry, and replace it as before. But -a little artificial ventilation on a dry, warm day is still better. - -Do not let your bees find by painful experience that their bee-master is -their worst enemy. - -For an account of wasps, see my letter to _The Times_, page 157. - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -THE BEE-MASTER'S LETTERS TO "THE TIMES." - - -So many and so urgent have been the requests of my correspondents to -reprint these letters, that I have carefully gone over them, corrected -clerical errors, and reproduced them. They may amuse as well as teach. I -append them in the order of their appearance. They were unfortunate enough -to provoke the wrath of two or three hive-inventors or patentees, the -merits of whose crooked and uncomfortable productions the writer could not -appreciate; but they have received the warmest eulogies of great numbers -to whom they conveyed new and interesting information. - -It is a pity that petty jealousies should distill their poison on so -pleasant a theme, and that bees should in this case turn wasps. - -A very curious coincidence occurred in the course of the correspondence -on bees which appeared in _The Times_. A succession of letters appeared -in various more or less obscure newspapers, beginning at Exeter and -moving northward to the Orkneys, each, _mutatis mutandis_, the repetition -of the first. They invariably began by a laborious attempt to prove -that the writer knows nothing of apiculture or prophecy, but in no one -instance disproving a single position or showing the author's ignorance -of apiculture, but in more than one instance deploring the writer's -oversight of this or that hive. Every one of these writers--plainly under -the inspiration of one--assumes that because the writer did not allude to -his mode of treatment, he was ignorant of bee-management. The Bee-master -had no idea there was such concert among bee-keepers, or that, in giving -an account of his intercourse with his bees, he was putting his hands into -hornets' nests. But wasps have been a terrible plague this autumn. - -One writer in a Scotch paper, who gives bees no credit for any ordinary -virtue, and regards them purely as mechanical toys, writes thus:-- - - "This Bee-master says that 'the bee leaves her house, traverses a mile - or two distant, and returns to her home--one amid twenty contiguous - ones--with unerring certainty.' This was the general opinion up till - lately--that the bee always returned to its own hive--in fact, there - was no means of proving the contrary until the introduction of the - Ligurian variety of bee. For the information of 'A Bee-master,' I must - tell him that they do not at all times go back to their own home, - but make a mistake and enter their neighbour's. This fact I soon - ascertained after I got the Ligurians, as in a short time I saw them - going into all my other common hives, more or less, and a neighbour - nearly a mile away from this found the Ligurians had joined one of - his swarms when in the act of swarming. These are facts which cannot - be controverted, and prove that 'A Bee-master' ought to make himself - master of his subject before he attempts to teach others. Queens, too, - are frequently killed by entering into other hives when placed near - each other, through their mistaking the one for the other; but these - facts were not known to the generality of bee-keepers until they used - the bar hives, when all the economy of the interior could be examined - at pleasure." - -This foolish logician introduces foreigners to an English hive. They -do not act like English bees--in short, they are not acquainted with a -country in which they are not acclimatised; and from the blunders of the -Ligurian foreigners he infers the ignorance of the British bee. This is a -specimen of the rubbish printed from Devon to Haddington. - -Another position of this Scotchman with a bee in his bonnet is as -follows:-- - - "In removing a super--that is, a top or bonnet--he says they should - be taken one hundred yards away from the hive, and the bees will fly - back to the hive in about an hour. This I think a very bad plan. In - the first place, if taken off in a fine day the bees would not leave - it in an hour, and if there were any bees near, they would find it out - in that time, their scent or sense of smell being so strong, and he - would never get them away; and, besides, he would be very apt to take - the queen away also, she being often found in the top, and she might - not be able to fly back. It is certainly a bad plan in this part of - the country, especially when the weather is cold in the autumn. When - removing the heather honey, blow a few puffs of smoke from a burning - rag into a super, and take it off, turning it upside down, putting - on it another empty super of the same size, with cloth wrapped round - where they meet, to keep out light. Next give the super containing the - honey and the bees a few taps with a piece of stick at intervals. The - bees, when filled with honey, which they will do as soon as disturbed, - will ascend into the empty super, and if the queen should be there she - will lead them at once, and they can all be put back into the hive. - Any top can be emptied of bees in fifteen minutes by doing it in this - way, and without running risk of losing the queen." - -Now, in ninety-nine cases in a hundred the queen is not in the super, and -an intelligent bee-master can take care she is not there before he removes -the super; and, in the next place, _The Times_ Bee-master expressly stated -his entire aversion to smoking bees for such a purpose; and earlier than -August there is no risk of corsair bees. Besides, preference of one plan -to another is not necessarily proof of ignorance. - -This mere copyist of Devon remarks:-- - - "What can be the necessity for subjecting sugar to the temperature of - 300 degrees, and rendering it so hard that weak hives are not able to - take as much as keep them alive, when the same amount of sugar made - to the consistency of their natural food would enable them to live? - Common sense would indicate to anyone that in artificial feeding the - nearer we approach their natural food the better; but it may be that - it is hard honey which this wiseacre's bees gather for him, and that - the flowers in Kent give different food than those in Scotland! Let - anyone observe the time a bee takes to fill itself on barley-sugar and - the time from sugar Syrup, and the labour spent on the former to that - of the latter, and he will soon see the difference between the two. - And the only reason the writer gave, in answer to a correspondent, - for giving the barley-sugar is, 'that the other clogged the feet and - smeared the wings of the bees.' Now, everyone must be aware that a few - straws in the dish prevents this. Again, he says that 'the only vice - among bees is their passionate liking for rum and strong ale; but the - tee-totallers would fairly reply that they never care about either - unless it is pressed upon them.' And I say they would reply truly, for - I maintain that the bees will not touch either rum or ale unless they - are saturated with sugar or honey. But why be at the expense of the - one or the other, when they will take it made with pure water before - either?" - - * * * * * - -He must be in the habit of bolting his oatmeal pottage, or he never would -have inferred that sipping its food in ten minutes is more conducive to -the health and digestion of the bee than sipping it in half an hour. His -remarks on ale and rum are merely a translation of the nonsense spoken by -his original. But, in common with his co-partners in criticism, he thinks -the Bee-master's sole design in writing the letters in _The Times_ was -to puff his forthcoming work on bees. This mean and contemptible charge -is best met by the simple and truthful answer, that the Bee-master had -no more idea of writing a book on bees than of describing Mount Radnor -or Yester Gardens. His purpose to do so arose from the urgent request of -literally hundreds of correspondents. - -On my suggestion as to the purpose and object of two thousand drones or -male bees being produced, when there is only one perfect female--the -queen--the writer observes:-- - - "In one of his letters in answer to correspondents, 'Why there are - so many drones in a hive, and only one princess?' he confesses it a - hard problem. But one part seems to him very clear--'When the queen's - countless eggs come to be hatched, the temperature of the hive must - be raised to 85° or 95°. The fat, round, and lazy drones are really - the fuel. They accordingly give out great heat.' Had the writer really - known anything about bees, he could never have made such a statement. - If the drones are the fuel to keep up the heat, why is it that they - are never found in the hives till May or June--in this part of the - country, at least--after thousands of bees have been hatched? If they - were the fuel, surely one would expect them to be the first eggs which - were laid by the queen, according to his theory; but a queen will - begin laying workers' eggs in January, and yet lay no drone eggs till - May, just when the warm weather commences. Now, if they were required - for heat, naturally Ave would expect them to be found before May, and - they commence killing them in August, when the cold weather begins." - -Now, the fact is, it is in May and June that drones are wanted to keep -up the heat. Half the bees are out at work, the means of maintaining the -temperature are therefore diminished. The drones remain at home, unless -during the noonday heat, when they take an airing, and can best be spared. - - * * * * * - -My first letter to _The Times_ was a report of the prospects of the honey -harvest, as follows:-- - - I have ten stock-hives. I never destroy or kill my bees. I look on the - system of the sulphur match as barbarous and unprofitable. I leave - each family on an average not less than twenty-five pounds of honey - for their winter stores, and the surplus only I take away. Should any - hive swarm, which I can generally prevent, and the remaining stock - be therefore deficient in provision for the winter, I feed them in - the course of the early spring with barley-sugar. This and other - little attentions endear the bee-master to his bees, as they are very - susceptible of gratitude and have long memories. - - - A hive is very like a church: when, in May, it increases rapidly in - numbers and the temperature rises inside, you either increase their - accommodation in area or in height, or you will have a secession. - Should a secession take place, bees set an example ecclesiastics might - copy. The new church never falls out with the old one. Side by side - they work in perfect harmony, believing there is plenty of food for - both. The only incidental mischief-maker is the wasp; whether he be - prelate or presbyter I cannot say, but I know well he is a thief and - intruder, and after a fight, the bees, who in this matter are rigid - non-intrusionists, eject, maim, or kill him--and he deserves it. - Queen Victoria's Court is modelled on the apiarian queen's. You may - see the queen-bee, by means of my glass windows, going her rounds and - giving orders, with her royal ladies, who never turn their backs on - her majesty. The exceptional instance occurred on one occasion when it - became necessary to give a rather sickly establishment rum and sugar, - of which they drank to excess and got drunk. As long as the stimulus - lasted, the monarchy became a fierce democracy, and queen and subjects - were confounded in the _mélée_. - - The only vice among bees is their passionate liking for rum and strong - ale. But the teetotaller would fairly reply, that they never care - about either unless it is pressed upon them. - - My bees at present have begun the massacre of the drones. These are - a sort of Benedictine monks, who, like Brother Ignatius, prefer - enjoyment to hard work. They are round, fat, and lazy, making much - noise, and eating of stores to which they do not contribute.... But - you want to hear about the harvest? - - In one square box there are forty pounds of honey, and in a - corresponding super rapidly filling up, there is likely to be for me - as much more. - - In three Scotch or Ayrshire octagonal hives, which I have found to - answer best of any, the three supers are in two almost full; and in - one there is at least forty pounds weight in the super, and over the - super is a bell-glass with seven or eight pounds additional. - - In one of Neighbours' very beautiful straw hives I have two - bell-glasses almost full, and a month ago I removed from this hive a - very beautiful glass of honey. - - In one of Pettitt's lateral hives, the bees passed through the - subterranean archway a month ago, and have nearly filled this - compartment. On this, also, I have placed a super bell-glass, which is - beautifully stored. - - From a common cottage straw hive I removed a bell-glass super three - weeks ago weighing eighteen pounds. - - This season I shall have nearly two hundred pounds weight of surplus - honey, and yet leave in each hive more than enough to last the - producers till April, 1865. Why should not cottagers cultivate bees? - There is nothing to pay for pasture, very little labour is required, - and that labour amusing, in taking care of them, and for very early - virgin honey there may be had one shilling and sixpence or two - shillings and sixpence a pound. The poor cottager might thus easily - pay his rent. If landlords could only convince them that the old - system of burning the bees in order to get the stock honey--which - is at best inferior--is not only cruel but unprofitable, they would - do an essential service. The poor peasant would have an interesting - amusement after his day's work, and a contribution towards his rent on - the year's end. - - * * * * * - - -Bees and Bee-hives. - -_To the Editor of "The Times."_ - - Sir,--Since my letter appeared in your columns on "the Honey Harvest," - I have received from yourself various communications from rectors, - vicars, curates, &c., who feel a very great interest in bee-keeping - as a social and commercial question. I have also received letters - addressed to me as "_The Times_ Bee-master," which the postman, - guided by some remarkable instinct, has placed in my hands. Most - of these letters invite confidential and personal communication on - this subject, and record a variety of questions, difficulties, and - perplexities which have injured or arrested the apiarian enterprises - of the writers. I prefer to answer some of their inquiries through - your columns, believing that the interest and importance of all - that tends to benefit the cottager will ever find a place or a - defence in _The Times_. The most urgent questions in the letters of - my correspondents refer to the hives I employ, and which I briefly - described in my letter. The first I mentioned is the Scotch or - Ayrshire octagonal hive. It is made of thoroughly seasoned deal, in - the form of a hexagon, about eight inches in height, and sixteen - inches diameter. On the top is a series of parallel slits, extending - from front to back, which I open or shut by a series of corresponding - deal slides. On receiving a swarm in April or May, I introduce the - slides, and thereby close up the top of the box. On finding--as in - fine weather I am sure to find in three or four weeks--that the box is - full, I place on the top another hexagonal box, in all respects the - same in size and shape, and draw out the slides, and thereby introduce - the bees to the vacant upper chamber. As each box has a window, I - am thus able to ascertain progress. When this upper box is filled - with honey, I may place on the top of it another precisely the same, - drawing out the slides on the top of the second box, and introducing - the bees to a third story But usually I prefer, for the sake of the - beauty of it, a bell-glass, greater or less as the season may suggest. - I have found this hive by far the most successful. It seems the bees, - who construct their cells in the form of hexagons, prefer the house - in which they work to be very much of the same shape. A cottager may - very easily make these boxes in the long winter evenings. The second - kind of hive I alluded to is made of straw, and may be purchased at - Neighbours', in Holborn. The greatest disadvantage is its expense, - costing, as it does, thirty shillings. But it is so well made that - it will last very long. I have had one in constant use during ten - years, and it is still as good as when it was bought. Its top is - flat, with three longitudinal apertures, closed till full with zinc - slides. About the end of May, in a good year, I draw out the slides, - after placing over each a good-sized bell-glass; and in July I have - often had in each glass seven or eight pounds of honey. The reason - of the failure of this hive is the coldness of the glass, which - Neighbours' additional super straw hive or cover does not mend. But - if my correspondents will get a piece of thick Scotch plaid made like - a nightcap, and case each glass with this, they will find the bees use - it as readily as a wood or straw hive, and there will be no moisture - from condensation of the bees' breath inside. - - The third sort of hive is Pettitt's, of Snargate, Dover. It is worked - on the lateral system, and of its kind is a perfect gem. Two boxes - are placed on one floor, with a subterranean communication between - them. On stocking the box on the right, a zinc slide is introduced, - which shuts off the communication. As soon as the box is full, the - slide is withdrawn and the communication laid open. The bees take - possession of the other box on the left, and fill it with pure honey. - When my harvest comes, I shut off the communication, and remove the - left-hand box full of honey. You will perceive that my principle of - action proceeds on the notion that the bottom box of the Ayrshire - or Scotch hive, the straw box of Neighbours', and the right-hand - box of Pettitt's, are each the sacred property of my bees, which I - feel it larceny to lessen or disturb, and that the surplus is the - tithe or portion of the bee-master. The ruinous blunder of country - bee-keepers is their taking honey from the former--honey, too, mixed - with brood and bees' bread and the films of the young grubs. In - this, the department I never touch, the queen presides with her - ladies-in-waiting; and in any one of these, if the bees have filled - the additional supers or laterals, there is abundance for all her - subjects during the winter. - - In some of the letters you have been good enough to send me, the - expense of these hives is urged as a fatal objection as far as the - cottager is concerned. Let me therefore explain my last and cheapest - plan--not best, but cheapest. - - Place the swarm in a common shilling straw hive. When you ascertain, - either by its weight or the busy working of the bees, that it is - full, take a square board, about a foot square; cut in the centre - of it a round hole three or four inches in diameter; place on it a - bell-glass, or what is cheaper, a smaller straw hive. Take a sharp - table-knife, and go to the hive about twelve o'clock at noon, when - most of the bees are out working; cut out the top of the straw hive, - making a round aperture of four or five inches in diameter, and place - on it the board with the bell-glass, or lesser straw super, covering - the glass with its nightcap, and you have everything you can desire. - If, in cutting the hole on the top of the stock hive, you hesitate or - lose your self-possession, the watcher bees will attack you. Decision - invariably paralyses them for the moment, and secures your safety. - These glasses or supers are removed by cutting through between the - board and the lower edge of the super with a zinc plate, on which you - carry off the super full of surplus honey, placing over the hole at - the top of the stock a flat board or an empty super. From one straw - hive treated in this way I carried off eighteen pounds of honey at - the beginning of July this year. I ought to add, that I keep my hives - of every sort under cover of wooden sheds, accessible from behind by - means of doors that let down. During the winter, I cover up the hives - in the sheds each with paper, and thereby I keep them warm. As the - spring approaches, I give the lightest an occasional half-pound of - barley-sugar. This barley-sugar I get at Kilner's, in Hanway-street, - Oxford-street, before it is mixed with scent or lemon-acid. Common - sugar is of no use. To be available to the bee, to suit a lambent - insect, it must have been exposed to a heat of 300° Fahrenheit, in - order to reduce crystallisable to uncrystallisable sugar. As I am - answering your and my correspondents, I had better add a few useful - hints. - - Get acquainted with your bees; they are naturally very affectionate. I - have frequently hived swarms, filling each hand with clusters of bees, - and rarely have I received a sting. I have sat in the midst of them - for hours, and weary bees have rested on me, and have entered their - homes singing a song of thanks. - - They have several bitter enemies besides the wasp. I used to see - toads frequently sitting under the landing-board, and only recently - discovered they were there "seeking whom they could devour." On one - of these ugly visitors being laid open, his maw was found filled - with bees which he had sucked into his ugly jaws. The tom-tit, also, - is a dangerous little enemy. He perches on the landing-place of the - bees on a wet day, taps with his bill, apparently inquiring after - the health of the inmates; a watcher bee comes out to reconnoitre, - and is instantly snapped up by the wicked hypocrite. The spider, - also, catches weary bees in his web; but the occasional use of a - brush disposes of this peril. The snail, attracted by the warmth, - occasionally creeps in. The bees successively attack him, but find - their stings blunted and broken by the shell, as shot is by our - iron-sides. Failing to injure or remove the intruder, they have - recourse to a plan which indicates more than instinct They cover - him up with propolis, a kind of gum which they use for stopping - up crevices; and not only does he die from want of air, but he is - prevented from giving forth offensive odour by the air-tight case or - shroud. - - The most attentive bee-master occasionally gets stung. I have - discovered a cure not found in the pharmacopœia. Press a watch-key - hard on the place after removing the sting--this prevents the poison - from spreading; then apply moist snuff or tobacco, rubbing it well in, - and in five minutes all pain is gone. This is a never-failing remedy. - - I have entered into these details, because from the correspondence - you have sent me, and from letters that have reached me, it is - evident that a great interest has been excited by my communication, - and because it is of great social importance. Many a poor curate and - ill-paid vicar, and many a cottager with time to spare and his rent - to pay, may thus add to their income. My bees feed over an area of - six miles, improving every flower they touch, and robbing nobody. - Tunbridge Wells is one of the best bee-districts in England, and this - alone is evidence of its being a healthy district. Bees never get on - in unhealthy places. - - Apologising for this long communication, I am, &c., - - A Bee-master. - - Tunbridge Wells, July 27. - - * * * * * - - -Bees and Bee-hives, - -_To the Editor of "The Times!"_ - - Sir,--The letters that reach me addressed to "_The Times_ Bee-master" - are legion. I can now form some idea of the weight of the load that - must press on your shoulders every day; but I confess I had no notion - of the extent of the interest that these letters prove to exist in - apiarian culture. I select such difficulties from the letters before - me as I have not disposed of, and these I would endeavour to overcome. - - A very often repeated question is--What is the best way of hiving bees - or securing a swarm? Let me at once state that the old and inveterate - habit in Kent of beating a kettle, striking the tongs with the poker, - and raising similar discordant sounds, is utterly absurd. They do not - affect the bees. In swarming, the old queen abdicates and heads the - swarm, and a young queen mounts the throne in the hive. The outgoing - queen, followed by five thousand or six thousand bees, either _ex - proprio motu_, or guided by pioneer scouts, selects a rose-bush, or a - cozy opening in a laurel-hedge, and all her subjects hang on, forming - a cluster of bees as large as the largest bunch of grapes. As soon as - they have nearly all settled, take your empty hive or bee-box, which - must be thoroughly dean, as bees hate dirt and slovenliness; turn - the hive or box bottom upwards, hold it in your left hand under the - cluster of bees, lay hold of the branch on which the bees hang with - your right hand, and shake down the swarm into your empty hive. Place - the hive bottom downward on a bee-board laid on the grass close by, - raise up the edge by inserting a wedge or stone about two inches in - size, and cover the top of the hive with a cloth or a few branches to - keep off the sun heat. If the queen is inside, which is usually the - case, the bees will steadily enter and remain. If by your awkwardness - you have left her in the hedge with her ladies-in-waiting, the bees - will return to the hedge, and you will have all to begin anew. As soon - as they are comfortably housed, carry the hive to the shed under which - it is to stand, and do not look at it or touch it for three days. - - You need not be afraid of stings unless you rudely and violently - meddle with the queen. If you thus interfere with her, the watcher - bees will sound the alarm, and a thousand stings, like swords, will be - unsheathed; but, otherwise, they are so absorbed with her majesty that - they do not fly at a prudent and fearless bee-master. - - A very important inquiry, repeated in several letters, is, on removing - the super, whether of glass or straw, how are the bees to be - expelled, that the honey alone may thus be secured? - - All the plans of tapping, beating, and smoking are bad. Tobacco-smoke, - and smokers generally, bees have a mortal hatred to. Bees have - other personal antipathies, but the horrid scent of a tobacco-pipe - in a visitor's pocket either induces them disdainfully to shun all - acquaintance, or provokes them to make an attack. - - Your best way of removing a super full of honey, with bees, of course, - in the spaces not full of comb, is to carry it about one hundred - yards away from the hive. Wedge up the glass on one side from the - zinc plate on which you have carried it, and the bees will leave in - the course of an hour or two, and fly home. They very soon discover - their separation from their queen, and under this feeling they lose - all courage, and give up defending the very property they would have - died fighting for when connected with the parent hive. The exceptional - case is where there may be, what is very rare in a super, a portion - of young brood--always in such cases drone-brood. This they refuse to - desert. They do not attack, but, as if placed sentries by their queen, - they insist on continuing at their post. The only course in such a - case is to cut out the brood cells and put them away, as they are not - likely to be wanted, and the bees will then return to the stock hive, - report, I suppose, and receive future orders. In removing a super in - August, when the bee ceases to accumulate in Kent, you must take care - not to do so on the windward side of your hives, as the scent of honey - will bring your visitors from every hive, who will rob you of all. - - If in this month you find it difficult to escape the robbers, carry - your super into your cottage, near a window, and expose one side of - the super to the window--the side having egress for the bees. Very - soon great numbers will fly to the window-panes, and by opening it for - a few minutes they will rush out, and robber bees will have no time to - enter. - - I have been asked--Who and what is the queen, and who are those lazy - abbots I referred to as drones? The queen is nearly twice the length - of the common bee, of elegant proportions and shape. On seeing her, - you would at once pronounce her a duchess or a queen. But it is a - singular fact, and well worthy the consideration of sanitary students, - that she rises originally from the ranks, and that treatment makes - all the difference. The egg deposited seems the same as that of - the ordinary bee, but we find it always laid in a cell three times - the size of common cells. As soon as the young queen comes from - the egg, numbers of nurse bees wait on her; she receives finer and - more delicate food, more air, a warmer, larger, and nicer house, - and apparently she is the creation of circumstances. She is the - only female bee. The working-bees are neuters, really imperfectly - developed females; the queen's husband is a drone. With queenly - prerogative and dignity she selects her consort, and off they fly on a - wedding-trip, and spend the honeymoon amid sunshine and flowers. But - it is asked--Why are there so many drones in a hive, if there is only - one wife? This is a very hard problem. But one part of it seems to me - very clear. When the Queen's countless eggs come to be hatched, the - temperature of the hive must be raised to 85° or 90° Fahrenheit. The - bees must go out of doors to work. The fat, round, and lazy drones are - really the fuel. They accordingly give out heat when most wanted. Mr. - Cotton holds this view also. This year I had two stock-hives during - breeding that stood, from 10 to 4 o'clock, at 95° Fahrenheit. We thus - learn that fat old gentlemen are of use, and that Mr. Banting's system - is not always wise or expedient. There are in a good hive three or - four royal cells; consequently, three or four queens will turn up. - What follows? If the heat be great and additional room withheld, the - old queen will abdicate and head a secession--in apiarian language, - a swarm--and the next senior queen will ascend the throne. If there - be still no increase of room allowed, she, too, will secede and head - a second secession--in apiarian phrase, a caste--usually feeble, - requiring when hived to be fed, and rarely a desirable issue. But - when increased space is given, and a drawing-room is added to the - dining-room, and boudoirs to the nursery, I am asked what follows. Do - the princesses live together in harmony? My answer, from very careful - observation, reveals a sad fact--a fact I cannot suppose to have been - instituted in Paradise. If two queens turn up in a hive with plenty - of space, but related space, they fight it out till one alone lives. - So settled is this law, that the bees hound on the more timid and - cowardly of the two queens, and insist on victory with supremacy or - death. This is to me a very melancholy trait in a favourite study; but - I suppose some higher law requires it. - - It has been urged as a commercial question that honey is not now of - the same importance as it was before the sugar-cane was discovered, - and that gas has superseded wax candles. I am satisfied from many - considerations, that if people would eat honey at breakfast instead - of rancid London butter and nasty greasy bacon, not only would - their health be better, but their temper would be sweeter. I find - invariably that people who like honey are persons of genial and - affectionate temper. If Mr. Cobden and Mr. Roebuck had only taken - honey at breakfast, or a very choice fragment of virgin honey at - dessert, they would never have given utterance to those vinegar and - acetic-acid speeches which did them no credit. I wish somebody would - send Mr. Spurgeon a super of good honey. Three months' diet on this - celestial food would induce him to give up those shockingly bitter and - unchristian tirades he has been lately making against the clergy of - the Church of England. The producers of honey never draw their stings - unless in defence of their homesteads, and the eaters and admirers of - honey rarely indulge in acrimonious language. I believe a great deal - of bad feeling is not moral or mental, but physical, in its origin. - If you have in a congregation, or in a school, or in a convocation, - some one who sets everybody by the ears, treat him to a little honey - at breakfast for six months, and the "thorn will blossom as the rose." - People that can't eat honey--"_hunc tu caveto_"--they can't ever fit - "a land overflowing with milk and honey." - - I have not answered half the letters I have received; but because you - have been so good as to take an interest in this very interesting - subject, I intend to send you, as an expression of my thanks, a - small glass super of honey filled from heath during July. If you - do not eat honey, which I hope and, indeed, am sure is not the - fact, you can give a portion to any inmates of your great hive in - Printing-house-square who may be prone to use their stings too freely. - - I am, Sir, your obedient servant, - - A Bee-master. - - Tunbridge Wells, August 2. - - * * * * * - -The origin of the following letter was a very foolish letter which a -correspondent sent to _The Times_. His cannot be the deliberate conviction -of anyone acquainted with bees. Perhaps he was offended that no notice was -taken of a very unsatisfactory hive patented by him. But as I could not -praise, I thought it unnecessary to blame. - - -A Hornet Among the Bees. - -_To the Editor of The Times._ - - Sir,--It is well that bees have not learnt to read _The Times_. Did - they see all that your correspondent says about them, they would send - a battalion to his residence, and ere they returned to Tunbridge - Wells they would make their calumniator exhaust all his remedies - for bee-stings. Had this good gentleman eaten more honey and drank - less vinegar he would have written a more affectionate letter; and - had he watched the habits of bees as I have done, or studied the - results of the investigations of Huber, he would not surely have - written with ignorance so crass. I am not irritated with him, but I - am immensely jealous for the honour and good name of my bees. It is - said of some crotchety people, "they have each a bee in his bonnet," - but I venture to think of your correspondent, "he has a wasp in his - bonnet." The only philosophical way by which I can account for the - absurdities of this letter is that it was written, as he observes, - "for our continental and transatlantic brethren," neither of whom have - any precedent or encouragement for recent Austro-Prussian misdeeds, - or American democracy and its recent excesses, in the habits and - instincts of bees. - - "First," says your correspondent, "with regard to remaining at peace - with each other, as soon as honey-gathering is over, should any stocks - betray weakness, the war of Germany against Denmark is enacted, and - the invaders take all. Whatever virtues bees possess, honesty or even - the slightest respect for _meum et tuum_ is not among them." - - A grosser libel on the apiarian race was never perpetrated. Their - respect for _meum_ is so intense that they will defend their queen and - home to the death. Their respect for _tuum_ is so entire that they - never touch the property of their neighbours, unless in circumstances - which would justify men as well as bees in seizing the property of - another. - - Your correspondent perhaps robs one of his stocks of its stores, or - takes away for the market or his table too much of their accumulated - wealth. Winter threatens its arrival. Can this irritable old apiarian - expect that 6,000 or 10,000 bees will lie down and die martyr deaths - in order to confute his libellous theory of _meum et tuum?_ Or he - has neglected to feed a caste of 4,000 bees; or, instead of giving - them barley-sugar, he offers them the miserly mess he recommends, and - the unhappy, famished bees, like a Highland clan, set out "to lift" - the means of existence. He starves his bees, and when they forage he - denounces them as thieves. If a bee-master does his duty by protecting - his hives, feeding the unfortunate and weak, no such freebooters will - be found among his bees. - - 2. Your correspondent, for once, is gracious. He acquits bees of - habits of intoxication. He forgets that I stated they never get drunk - unless the bee-master supplies the intoxicating element. But if he - will place a feeding-pan full of good Scotch ale before the hives, I - will eat pan and beer and bees if they do not sip every drop, and give - very unmistakable proofs that they have done so. - - 3. Your correspondent says: "Mr. Harbeson, a sturdy citizen of - the American Republic, considers the queen a simple machine for - laying eggs, absolutely under the workers' control. I do not go - these lengths, but Mr. Harbeson is far nearer the truth than your - correspondent." - - There can be no doubt that this "is written for our transatlantic - brethren." It is a fine illustration for Abraham Lincoln. I hope your - correspondent will not be offended if I suspect in him a machine for - speaking nonsense. He has only to extend this free philosophy, to - see in rose-bushes machines for growing roses, and in birds machines - for building nests; in Tennyson a machine for spinning poetry, and - in Lord Palmerston a machine for turning out speeches. This wretched - materialistic philosophy may please the "sturdy American citizens - and transatlantic brethren;" but how a sane Englishman can dare to - ventilate such arrant rubbish, I know not. - - His exaggerated talk about bees being regicides would electrify Red - Republicans, but it is not true. That the queen, who has precedence - of birth, destroys the princess next to her that might be her rival, - I admitted and deplored in my letters as sad. But that bees are - regicides is not fact. They never kill their queen; they love and are - loyal to her, and obey her commands. I said they hate republicanism, - and so they do, and so do I. No doubt your correspondent's - discoveries will charm his transatlantic brethren. But if ever a - people were in want of a queen, they are. Your correspondent may like - Abraham Lincoln; I infinitely prefer Queen Victoria. He says cottagers - cannot make Ayrshire hives. They do cleverer things. At all events, - they can try. The Ayrshire hive is octagonal, I admit; but all I said - was, that my success as a bee-master led me to suspect they prefer - a box similar to their combs, and therefore I intend this winter to - have several hexagonal bee-hives. A suspicion of preference was all I - ventured to state. - - Your correspondent says: "Common sugar (lump-sugar is best) does not - require to be exposed to a heat of 300° to be available to bees." No - wonder his weak stocks plunder his strong ones, for bees cannot eat - and do not eat lump-sugar or brown sugar. Their lambent organisation - renders it impossible. I spoke of feeding with pure sugar, and stated - that it is available alone in the shape of barley-sugar only. That it - can be presented boiled up in beer or water, I taught when I alluded - to its being dissolved in ale. But whether in water or ale, it smears - their wings, clogs their feet, and is vastly inferior in all respects - to barley-sugar. - - Your correspondent objects to rubbing the wound of a bee's sting - with tobacco-juice. I speak from experience. I have tried every - prescription, and most assuredly I will not try his. He says:-- - - "If anyone has a swarm consisting of only 5,000 or 6,000 bees, let him - not take the trouble of hiving it. A good swarm will weigh 4 lbs., and - I have known one weigh 8 lbs. Now, 5,000 bees are computed to go to - a pound, and this is not too many, for a friend of mine counted and - weighed 5,020 freshly-killed bees this spring, and they only weighed - 12-1/2 ounces. Let any one, therefore, do a simple sum in mental - arithmetic, and say if 15,000 to 30,000 are not within the mark, even - allowing for the weight of honey earned off by the swarm." - - I mentioned 5,000 or 6,000 bees as a swarm. It is the lowest, I - freely allow. But I will add to your correspondent's knowledge. I - had a caste thrown off last year, at the end of June. I despaired - of its weathering the winter, but I resolved to feed it richly with - barley-sugar till March. The maximum number of bees was 5,000. It had - filled the lower box with at least 40 lbs. of honey by the middle - of June this year. The bees had increased immensely. I opened the - communication with a large super. This super has in it now not less - than 26 lbs. of the whitest cells and honey I ever saw. I have shown - it to many whose mouths watered for a slice of it. I never join - stocks. We feed cattle on oil-cake: why not feed weakly stocks with - barley-sugar? What your correspondent proposes as his explanation of - 2,000 drones in a hive where there is only one queen, with, perhaps, a - couple of princesses, is, like his whole philosophy, very absurd, and - unworthy of a serious answer. - - Your correspondent says:-- - - "Bees are never nursed by other bees. They are strict utilitarians, - and totally devoid of sympathy. 'Those who cannot work shall not eat,' - is a law applied with stern impartiality alike to the disabled worker - and the useless drone. He, therefore, who would teach or learn a - lesson in charity must look elsewhere." - - My reply to this is, I have seen the disabled bee tended with - exquisite and unwearied attention, rolled in the sunshine on the - bee-board, and carried or helped into their homes. His testimony is - negative, mine is positive. - - He concludes his letter by informing us-- - - "As it is, I am very desirous of making it known to our continental - and American friends that these letters [in _The Times_] do not convey - an adequate idea of the amount of knowledge of the subject possessed - by British bee-masters." - - His letter, he reiterates, was written for the American market. I - only hope they will not suppose that his crotchets are the measure of - the amount of knowledge possessed or of the affection felt by English - bee-masters. - - If in his next he will mix a little honey with his ink, and eat a - little at breakfast, he will do greater justice to himself. - - I am, &c., - - A Bee-master. - - Tunbridge Wells. - - * * * * * - - -Bees, Bee-hives, and Bee-masters. - -_To the Editor of "The Times."_ - - Sir,--I have been so annoyed at your correspondent's attack on the - good name of my bees, that I cannot resist the temptation of saying a - word or two of additional defence. - - That the queen is not a mere egg-laying machine obedient to mere - mechanical impulses, nor her subjects mere mechanical creations - obeying similar impulses with no instructive appreciation, will be - evident from the following facts:-- - - Reaumur, the eminent naturalist, observes that after the queen-regnant - has become a mother-- - - "The bees are constantly on the watch to make themselves useful to - her and to render her every kind office. They are for ever offering - her honey. They lick her with the proboscis, and wherever she goes - they form a court to attend her. Even the body of a dead queen is - the object of tender affection to the bees. I took a queen out of - the water seemingly dead. She was also mutilated, having lost a - leg. Bringing her home, I placed her amid a number of working-bees - recovered from drowning also by means of warmth. No sooner did the - revived workers perceive the queen in her miserable plight, than they - appeared to compassionate her, and continued to lick her with their - tongues until she showed signs of returning vitality, when they set up - a general hum as of joy at the event." - - Huber writes:-- - - "I have seen the workers lavish the most tender care on such a queen, - and, after her decease, surround her inanimate body with the same - respect and homage as they had paid to her while living, and in the - presence of these beloved remains refuse all attention to young and - fertile queens who were offered to them." - - These are two facts noticed and recorded by the two most eminent and - careful apiarian naturalists. They are, in the judgment of everyone - able to appreciate weight of evidence, conclusive disproofs of the - material and mechanical theory, and no less decisive confirmations of - all I ventured to state in your columns. - - The senses of the bee are no less clear protests against the - mechanical theory so acceptable to "our transatlantic brethren." - - The bee leaves her house, traverses fields a mile or two distant, and - returns to her home--one amid twenty contiguous ones--with unerring - certainty. - - The sense of touch through its antennæ is so exquisite, that in total - darkness it carries on its architecture as perfectly as by day. - - Its smell is possessed of unrivalled sensibility. Odours from afar - are directly scented. Huber thinks it is the scent, not the colour of - flowers, that attracts them. - - Their power of memory is illustrated by Huber. He placed a supply of - honey on the sill of an open window in autumn. The bees feasted on it - for weeks. He removed the honey and closed the window during winter. - Next spring the bees came to the same window, looking for supplies. - Here was memory of place and circumstances lasting during half a bee's - lifetime. - - Huber mentions a species of moth that attacks and plunders bee-hives; - it is called the death's-head moth. Finding out its daring - depredations, he lessened the apertures of some of his hives, leaving - sufficient room for the exit and entrance of the bees, but not for the - entrance of the moth. This succeeded perfectly. But several hives he - left undefended. In each of these undefended hives the bees raised a - Avail of wax and propolis right behind their doors of entrance, making - embrasures for exit and entrances through the solid wall. As soon as - spring arrived and all danger was at an end, these Royal Engineers - threw down their fortifications. - - I need not refer to the perfect and well-known geometrical - construction of the cells of a hive as evidences of design and - high instinct; they combine the maximum of strength with the least - expenditure of substance and the largest capacity in a given space. - The equilateral triangle, the square, and the hexagon, were the only - three forms of tubular cells that would leave no interstices: in the - first there would be lost space in each angle; a similar disadvantage - would be found in the second. The bees, by an instinct surely Divine, - or in the exercise of engineering powers demonstrative of mind, have - adopted the last. - - Having thus disposed of your correspondent, will you allow me to - select one or two of the most important practical inquiries which - I have received in upwards of twenty additional letters addressed - to "_The Times_ Bee-master?" Your universal circulation is the - cause of my extraordinary visitation of correspondence, and this - unexpectedly-wide practical interest in bees will justify you to your - readers. One asks, "How am I to begin an apiary?" Let me tell him. - Buy a stock this month or next for 20_s._, taking care that it is not - old, and weighs (inclusive of straw hive) not less than 30 lbs. Erect - a shed with sloping roof projecting sufficiently to carry the rain - beyond the alighting-board of the bees. The length may be 12 feet, the - height about 6 feet, and width 2-1/2 feet. Divide it into six equal - sections or chambers. Make an exit in each, three inches long by two - inches high. Place each hive in the centre of one of them, with its - opening directly opposite the opening in the chamber. Fix below each - opening in the shed a bees' landing-board sloping at an angle of 25°. - If you can afford it, buy six stock-hives. Next May cut out the top - of each, as I directed in a previous letter. Place on it a board with - circular hole, and a bell-glass rather narrower at the lower part than - at the centre; cover each with its plaid nightcap, and you will have - plenty of delicious honey in 1865. - - If, however, you do not mind loss of time, build your shed this - autumn, make it smooth inside to discourage spiders, and next April - send round the country to cottagers keeping bees, and engage six good - swarms, which ought not to cost more than 10_s._ each. In carrying - them home, pin over the entrance-hole a piece of gauze, tie a towel or - napkin underneath, fastening the four corners at the top, and do not - jolt the young family unnecessarily. If the swarms can be had in May, - and if it prove a fine summer, you may place a glass on each about the - end of June. Do not forget the old adage-- - - "A swarm in May - Is worth a load of hay; - A swarm in June - Is worth a silver spoon; - A swarm in July - Is worth a fly." - - If your swarm is an early June one, you may save it by pushing three - or four sticks of barley-sugar into the hive by the exit aperture once - a fortnight till next March. Any little expense in feeding introduces - you to your bees and helps them wonderfully, and is never a loss. - - If you want to tempt the bees to feed in your own garden, sow - mignonette, salvia, and sanfoin; plant plenty of raspberry, - gooseberry, and currant bushes. They like lime poplars, - apple-blossoms, thyme, and, above all, borage. Bees never touch - double flowers. Should the early summer prove very dry, place near - your bee-shed two or three soup-plates half-full of water, taking - care to put in as many pebbles as each will hold. The bees require - stepping-stones for their tiny feet, and otherwise they are necessary - to save them from drowning. - - I am giving directions to those who desire to work economically. - But if you can lay out a little as an investment, and you desire - to combine interest and pleasure with profit, you cannot do better - than call on Neighbour, either in Regent-street or Holborn, where - I have seen many varieties of hives of different prices and all of - good workmanship. In answer to numerous inquiries about the Ayrshire - hives, I am sorry to be obliged to answer that I have to send to - Scotland for them. They may be had of Air. Bruce Taylor, Post-office, - Mauchlin, Ayrshire; or of Messrs. Craig, Stewarton, Ayrshire. The - three boxes in the lower or stock hive, with two supers exactly - corresponding, cost me 20_s._ But they last for ever. Their chief - value is their productiveness. Neighbours' and Pettitt's are far more - interesting for experimental uses. The collateral system is the most - elegant, but least productive; its bee-boxes are also expensive. - Your correspondent's hive (which I ought previously to have referred - to) is no improvement, and its architect has so bad an opinion of - the moral character of bees, that were they to know it was his, they - would desert it. There are people to whom bees never take, and there - are hives they invariably sicken in. I do not like the nadir system - recommended in _The Times_ by "A Rector." Bees naturally ascend or - traverse the same plane, but mostly preferring ascent. "Excelsior" - is their favourite aspiration. In answer to another inquiry, do I - approve using stupifying fumes, as of puff-ball, &c., in order to - expel the bees from supers full of honey?--I say, certainly not. It - may not injure the bees if judiciously administered. Some highly - recommend it. But it is not necessary. The bees will leave the super - on its being detached from the hive and carried to a little distance, - and will return in an hour or two to their home and their queen. The - only case in which I have recourse to fumigation is when any portion - of the comb, through accidental admission of wet, has become mouldy. - A few whiffs of puff-ball may be injected, by means of an instrument - sold for this purpose, during five minutes. As soon as the humming - noise ceases, lift the hive and cut out the mouldy portion of the - comb, replace it, and in twenty minutes the bees will again be at - work. This is the only case in which I like to employ either this or - tobacco-smoke, which answers as well if not too long continued. - - Your apiary or bee-shed should be placed as near your dwelling as - possible, sheltered from the north and northeast winds, and at the - greatest possible distance from poultry. Frequently, but quietly - and unobtrusively, visit your bees, watch them at work in your - bee-glasses, or by windows in your bee-boxes. Let your children - play beside them. They are fond of children, and unless violently - irritated they will not injure them. I can state this from very ample - experience. At the same time, it is proper to state, that some few - persons are so offensive to bees that they must not approach them. - Plenty of soap and water and fastidious cleanliness are essential to a - bee-master's continued popularity with his apiarian family. - - I am, &c., - - A Bee-master. - - Tunbridge Wells. - - * * * * * - - -About Wasps. - -_To the Editor of "The Times."_ - - Sir,--There is no sweet without a bitter. Every bee-master feels - the plague of wasps this autumn of 1864; for fifteen years, the - range of my experience as a bee-master, I have not seen so fierce - and multitudinous bands of wasps descending on my bees on predatory - incursions. I do not mean to insinuate that the wasp has no mission, - I believe he has his use. He is the scavenger of our gardens, and - clears off decay, putrescence, and filth of every sort. For this I - give him credit, but I cannot extend to him either the affection - or respect I feel for my bees. Wasps often remind me of a class of - critics not found in Printing-house-square, but by no means rare in - other quarters. Like wasps, they ignore or pass by ripe, fragrant, - and beautiful fruit, and select and gloat over incidental decay. - The wasp-critic does not touch a beautiful thought in Tennyson or - Longfellow; he can neither appreciate nor digest it. But if he can - only discover a word misspelt or a word misprinted, or the word - "octagon" accidentally used for "hexagon," he buzzes about it for - hours, and feeds on it with waspish delight. Should the editor of a - respectable paper or periodical refuse his contribution, he flies - to a congenial refuge, and there pours out what wasps have nearly a - monopoly of--the venom identified with and peculiar to that insect. - - There is also the wasp ecclesiastical. He contributes no sweet - honey to the Church, and takes little interest in its good. But in - Synods, Presbyteries, Convocations, he flies about, driving his - sting sometimes into a bishop and sometimes into a presbyter. A sin - in another he scents from afar. A virtue in a brother he cannot - appreciate. He lives on decay. He sings while he feeds on it. It is - his nutriment and his joy. - - There is also the political wasp. He has no fixed principles, but, - instead, he has a furious temper. He makes great noise, and attacks - everybody right and left that comes within scent, eyesight, or - earshot. His delight is proportionate to the degree in which he can - sting. He cares nothing about party, or side, or leader. He spurns all - organisation. He revels in wrath and fierce words and keen invective, - unsweetened by a grain of genial feeling, or an expression softened - by the humanities and amenities of debate, and unillumined by wit or - humour. - - There is the wasp social. He is impersonated in the burglar. Were - you to see the wasps this autumn rushing into my hives, sometimes - by a sudden dash, at other times by stealth, you would instantly - acknowledge in them the type of the thief and the burglar. But my bees - are better prepared for the wasp's reception than London house-holders - for thieves. He runs the gauntlet every time he enters. Through my - glass observatory windows I watch the conflict. One bee, half his - size, seizes him by the throat, another gives him a taste of his - sting, and two or three watchers seize him by the legs and drag him - out. I have hit on an admirable plan of keeping him off, well worth - disclosing to every bee-master. I place at the entrance of the hive - a stick of barley-sugar a couple of inches long. This brings to - the entrance a dozen of bees, who thankfully feed on it. There is - thus secured an additional guard at the gates. The moment the wasp - alights, the whole _posse_ fly at him and drive him away. Another plan - is to fill half-full a wine-bottle with beer and sugar. Incidentally - a bee may look in, but the wasps, whose scent is perfect, rush in - and are drowned. It is a sacred duty devolving on every bee-master - to exterminate these Arabs, Bedouins, and corsairs. They lay up no - stores for themselves--they do nothing for the support or enjoyment - of man. They use their stings, not like bees, in self-defence, but in - sheer wickedness. They are professional thieves. Like the bees of a - correspondent of yours, they have no respect for _tuum_, and having no - _meum_, they care nothing. Living at the expense of others, without - consulting the convenience or goodwill of anybody, they richly deserve - what their extermination will pay for--sulphur, gunpowder, and boiling - water. Let every bee-master give sixpence to every boy who destroys a - wasps'-nest. - - The wasp builds its nest generally underground. Their cells are - hexagonal. The house is built of paper, fabricated by this insect long - before its manufacture was discovered by man. With their powerful - jaws they tear off decayed wood, which they moisten with a sort of - gum or glue secreted from themselves. They form this into a kind of - pulp and spread it out into thin sheets, with which they roof in and - surround their cells. So far they are good paper manufacturers; but - I have not heard of their paper being used in the service of man. - They seem also to understand the laws of heat. Everybody knows that - double windows are warmer than single ones, the atmospheric air being - a good non-conductor. The wasps surround themselves with several walls - of paper, leaving spaces between, and thus not only keep out the - cold, but render the entrance of damp all but impossible. The combs - of the wasp are built in horizontal tiers, supported by pillars. In - this respect they are builders as well as papermakers. They are also - admirable sappers and miners. They tunnel a covered way from their - nest to the open air, and very often, instead of using a deserted - mole or mouse hole, they excavate a round chamber of really fine - proportions. It is truly matter of regret that so much capable talent - should be prostituted to so much dishonesty. Unhappily, thieves and - pick-pockets are generally very clever. Yet reformatories do operate - real transformations of thieves; but no plan that philanthropy has - yet devised has turned a wasp into a kind, honest, and respectable - member of society. He is incapable of transmutation. He is worthy - of the special study of Darwin. The death penalty, I unhesitatingly - affirm, is due to every wasp that enters a bee-garden. The razing - of his house, the desolation of its furniture, and the dislodgment - and destruction of the whole clan, have become a sacred duty. Even - the Quaker, who objects to the sentence of death on murderers, would - consent to the doom of the wasp. I cannot believe there were wasps in - Paradise of old. Though no prophet, nor prophet's son, I confidently - predict there will be no wasps in Paradise that is to be, nor will - there be waspish tempers, or passions, or propensities. Of all ugly - things on earth, next to the serpent, a hornet is the ugliest, the - most thievish, and the most dishonest You can neither tame nor - turn the wicked imp. He is a thief from his birth--a bee-cide by - habit; feeding on corruption, and full of wickedness. If, instead of - killing sparrows and blackbirds and thrushes, because they take a few - currants, while they destroy slugs and vermin, and many of them regale - springtide with song, the farmers would set about destroying wasps, - they would find as much amusement, and do vastly more good. I have a - lurking suspicion that some of those apiarians who speak against bees, - and call them thieves and regicides, must have wasps, not bees, in - their hives. Let me beg of these irritable gentlemen, who never cease - buzzing, to examine their hives. Let me remind them that wasps are - bigger and longer than bees; are surrounded with concentric yellow - circles, emit a subterranean sort of hum, neither treble, tenor, - nor bass, and, after a little study on their part, may be easily - distinguished from bees. Above all, let me intreat them to give up - feeding on wasps' food, and, if they have no honey of their own, let - me offer them half a bar, in order to elevate their taste or improve - their temper. - - Let me also beg all that value their lives to examine well every - apple, pear, and peach they eat; for these venomous insects may be - seen this year ensconced under the skin, and if admitted within the - mouth they will sting the throat, and, as in several recent cases, - the sufferers will die. Do not conclude I am uncharitable; I am not - so. It is no charity to connive at theft and murder. I am satisfied - that killing wasps is no murder. Had Peter the Hermit or Walter the - Penniless lived in my garden, and witnessed these wicked vagabonds - trying every hive, worrying my bees and stealing my honey, they - would have preached a crusade against wasps. In one respect they are - unfortunate; they have no queen, no subordination or reverence for law - and order. They are genuine Red Republicans--Marats and Robespierres, - and richly deserve the worst they get. - - I am, Sir, your obedient servant, - - A Bee-Master. - - Tunbridge Wells. - - -The Bee-master's Sermon. - -_To the Editor of "The Times."_ - - Sir,--The object of my letters has been to open up to the cottager - a means of revenue very agreeable, but very much neglected or - mismanaged. I have directed your attention to bee-keeping, not as a - fancy pursuit, or as an interesting entomological investigation, but - as a practical and real work. Hence I have not discussed a variety of - toys used as bee-hives, very pretty and very tasteful to the eye of - a sentimental aparian, but so bothering to the bees that they wish - such houses were at the bottom of the sea. Simplicity of structure, - directness of use, and availableness for deprivation of honey, and yet - preservation of the honey-makers, ought to be the guiding law. Bees - don't like to be paid too many, too obsequious, or too patronising - attentions. I want, however, in this closing letter to turn my largest - hive into a pulpit, and to preach a short apiarian homily to English - cottagers, which I know they will read, and hope they will "mark, - learn, and inwardly digest." - - 1. They may carry from the hive to the cottage-hearth a lesson of - industry. During work the bees are so intensely absorbed in their - duty, that they ignore every distracting and diverging object and - interest. They have learnt well a text their masters would do well to - copy: "Not slothful in business." There is no getting on in this world - of ours without hard work. It is not work and plenty of it that kills - people, but worry. - - 2. Bees teach a lesson of loyalty. They are monarchical by conviction - and in practice. They love a queen, whose sovereignty is motherhood, - and whose service is perfect freedom. They detest your republics, and - democracies, and radicalism in all its phases. - - 3. Bees are immensely attached to their homes. They are "keepers at - home." No mother of a family gets on by gadding about and gossiping - from house to house. - - 4. Bees are models of cleanliness. The care with which they remove - filth of all kinds is something remarkable. They plainly believe - what many Christians say, "cleanliness is nearest to godliness." The - cottager cannot in this matter do better than follow the example of - these admirable sanitary philosophers. - - 5. Bees set a beautiful example of Christian sympathy. I have seen a - wounded bee, accidentally hurt, carried out from the hive and laid - tenderly on the bee-board in the warm sunshine. One bee would lick - the sufferer with his tongue from head to foot; another would roll - him over and over in the sunshine; and at sunset they would carry him - in to his sick bed. I do not complain of want of such sympathy among - the poor. I have seen much of it in the homes of the most destitute, - and witnessed personal attentions and sacrifices and services in a - district surrounding Brewer's-court ragged schools, which have never - been exceeded, if equalled, in the houses of the great. - - 6. Bees are very fond of fresh air. A hive is one of the best - ventilated homes; and I have some doubt about the wisdom or success - of the various arrangements made by some bee-masters for increasing - the ventilation of their hives. In a hot and sultry day I have seen - successive lines of bees take up their position at the mouth of the - hive, and, joining the tips of their wings, work these fanners for ten - minutes, and then retire and let the second parallel line come to the - front and continue the same process. This example is not efficiently - followed in city or cottage. People who are most careful about what - they eat and drink and put into their stomachs, are utterly careless - what they allow to enter their lungs. Now, the truth is, it is easier - to poison a man through his lungs than through his stomach. My bees - would die in a London bed-room in twelve hours. - - 7. Bees are very early risers. The first ray of sunshine is their - matin bell, and by seven o'clock P.M. they are most of them at home. - People that live long and are healthy differ in many of their habits, - but generally agree in being early risers. Early light has sanitary - as well as photographic influences, which post-meridian light is a - stranger to. "Early to bed and early up" is an admirable maxim--an - axiom among bees, and it should be a habit among rational men. - - 8. Bees are peaceful and peacemakers. This will appear a hasty - statement to all who remember that bees have stings. But a little - thought will justify what I say. Bees never give way to aggressive - warfare. They never attack those who do not attack their queen or - their homestead. Their stings are purely defensive. This is a very - curious fact, and very suggestive also. If they had no stings at all, - they would be an argument for the Peace Society. But as it is, they - prove that the best defence of home is a good preparation to repel the - aggressor. When, therefore, Mr. Bright preaches the duty of breaking - up the navy and disbanding the army, it would be the conduct of a - great hornet impressing on bees the duty of extracting their stings. - Were the bees such simpletons as to listen to his plausible logic, and - give up their stings, they would be surrounded by swarms of wasps, who - would very soon make them give up their honey. As if to teach the bees - that their weapons are to be used only in the last extremity, every - bee knows that the use of his sting is followed by its inevitable loss - and his destruction. It sticks where it strikes, and the violence - done to the bee ends always in death. While admiring Mr. Bright's love - of peace, I hope every bee-keeper in England will prefer the bees' way - of maintaining it. So sweet and short is a bee-master's sermon. - - I think I have shown in these letters that morals, money, country, and - enjoyment may all be helped a little by keeping bees; and, therefore, - that I have done some good by directing attention to these "great and - marvellous works" of One who still gives his care to a bee-hive and to - Buckingham Palace. - - I am, Sir, your obedient servant, - - A Bee-Master. - - Tunbridge Wells. - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -IX.--BEE-THINGS IN GENERAL. - - -As this work does not profess to be an entomological essay but a practical -bee-master's directory, I have omitted those erudite questions about which -apiarians wrangle, and unfortunately lose their temper and employ their -stings. - -But there are some interesting bits of instruction scattered over -bee-books which it may interest the reader to lay before him. If they -contribute nothing to the amount of the honey harvest, they may increase -the pleasure of the bee-master in the long winter evenings. - - -THE INSTINCT OR INTELLIGENCE OF BEES. - -Huber relates:-- - - "He put under a bell-glass about a dozen humble-bees, without any - store of wax, along with a comb of about ten silken cocoons, so - unequal in height that it was impossible the mass should stand firmly. - Its unsteadiness disquieted the humble-bees extremely. Their affection - for their young led them to mount upon the cocoons for the sake of - imparting warmth to the inclosed little ones, but in attempting - this the comb tottered so violently that the scheme was almost - impracticable. To remedy this inconvenience, and to make the comb - steady, they had recourse to a most ingenious expedient. Two or three - bees got upon the comb, stretched themselves over its edge, and with - their heads downwards fixed their fore-feet on the table upon which it - stood, whilst with their hind-feet they kept it from falling. In this - constrained and painful posture, fresh bees relieving their comrades - when weary, did these affectionate little insects support the comb - for nearly three days. At the end of this period they had prepared a - sufficiency of wax, with which they built pillars that kept it in a - firm position; but, by some accident afterwards, these got displaced, - when they had again recourse to their former manœuvre for supplying - their place; and this operation they perseveringly continued, until M. - Huber, pitying their hard task, relieved them by fixing the object of - their attention firmly on the table." - - Lardner quotes from Kirby the following curious illustration of the - habits of the clothier-bee:-- - - "Kirby mentions the example of nests of this kind found by himself and - others, constructed in the inside of the lock of a garden-gate. - - "A proceeding has been ascertained on the part of these insects - in such cases, which it is extremely difficult to ascribe to mere - instinct, independent of some intelligence. Wherever the nest may be - constructed, the due preservation of the young requires that until - they attain the perfect state, their temperature should be maintained - at a certain point So long as the material surrounding their nest is - a very imperfect conductor of heat, as earth or the pith of wood is, - the heat developed by the insect, being confined, is sufficient to - maintain its temperature at the requisite point. But if, perchance, - the mother-bee select for her nest any such locality as that of the - lock of the gate, the metal, being a good conductor of heat, would - speedily dissipate the animal heat developed by the insect, and thus - reduce its temperature to a point incompatible with the continuance of - its existence. How then does the tender mother, foreseeing this, and - consequently informed by some power of the physical quality peculiar - to the metal surrounding the nest, provide against it? How, we may - ask, would a scientific human architect prevent such an eventuality? - He would seek for a suitable material which is a non-conductor of - heat, and would surround the nest with it. In fact, the very thing - has occurred in a like case in relation to steam-engine boilers. - The economy of fuel there rendered it quite as necessary to confine - the heat developed in the furnace, as it is to confine that which - is developed in the natural economy of the pupa of the bee. The - expedient, therefore, resorted to is to invest the boiler in a thick - coating of a sort of felt, made for the purpose, which is almost a - non-conductor of heat. A casing of sawdust is also used in Cornwall - for a like purpose. By these expedients the escape of heat from the - external surface of the boiler is prevented. - - "The bee keeps its pupa warm by an expedient so exactly similar, that - we must suppose that she has been guided either by her own knowledge, - or by a power that commands all knowledge, in her operations. She - seeks certain woolly-leaved plants, such as the _stachys lamata_ or - the _agrostemma coronaria_, and with her mandibles scrapes off the - wool. She rolls this into little balls, and carrying it to the nest, - sticks it on the external surface by means of a plaster, composed of - honey and pollen, with which she previously coats it. Thus invested, - the cells become impervious to heat, and consequently all the heat - developed by the little animal is confined within them. - - "The name of _upholsterers_ has been given by Kirby to certain species - of bees, who, having excavated their nest in the earth, hang its - walls with a splendid coating of flowers and leaves. One of the most - interesting of these varieties is the _megachile papareris_, which has - been described by Reaumur. It chooses invariably for the hangings of - its apartments the most brilliant scarlet, selecting as its material - the petals of the wild poppy, which the insect dexterously cuts into - the proper form. - - "Her first process is to excavate in some pathway a burrow cylindrical - at the entrance, but enlarged as it descends, the depth being about - three inches. After having polished the walls, she next flies to a - neighbouring field, where she cuts out the oval parts of the poppy - blossoms, and seizing them between her hind legs returns with them - to her cell. Sometimes it happens that the flower from which she - cuts these, being but half-blown, has a wrinkled petal. In that - case she spreads out the folds, and smoothers away the wrinkles, - and if she finds that the pieces are too large to fit the vacant - spaces on the walls of her little room, she soon reduces them to - suitable dimensions, by cutting off all the superfluous parts with - her mandibles. In hanging the walls with this brilliant tapestry she - begins at the bottom, and gradually ascends to the roof. She carpets - in the same manner the surface of the ground round the margin of the - orifice. The floor is rendered warm sometimes by three or four layers - of carpeting, but never has less than two. - - "Our little upholsterer having thus completed the hangings of her - apartment, fills it with a mixture of pollen and honey to the height - of about half an inch. She then lays an egg in it, and wraps over - the poppy lining, so that even the roof may be furnished with this - material. Having accomplished this, she closes the mouth of the - nest.[A] - -[Footnote A: Reaumur, vi. 139 to 145.] - - "It is not every insect of this class which manifests the same - showy taste in the colours of their furniture. The species called - leaf-cutters hang their walls in the same way, not with the blossoms - but the leaves of trees, and more particularly those of the rose-tree. - They differ also from the upholsterer described above, in the - external structure of their nests, which are formed in much longer - cylindrical holes, and consist of a series of thimble-shaped cells, - composed of leaves most curiously convoluted. We are indebted likewise - to Reaumur for a description of the labours of these. - - "The mother first excavates a cylindrical hole in a horizontal - direction eight or ten inches long, either in the ground or in the - trunk of a rotten tree, or any other decaying wood. She fills this - hole with six or seven thimble-shaped cells, composed of cut leaves, - the convex end of each fitting into the open end of the other. Her - first process is to form the external coating, which is composed of - three or four pieces of larger dimensions than the rest, and of an - oval form. The second coating consists of portions of equal size, - narrow at one end, but gradually widening towards the other, where the - width equals half the length. One side of these pieces is the serrated - edge of the leaf from which it was taken, which, as the pieces lap - over each other, is kept on the outside, the edge which was cut being - within. - - "The little animal next forms a third coating of similar material, - the middle of which, as the most skilful workman would do in a like - case, she places over the margins of those that form the first side, - thus covering and strengthening the junctions by the expedient which - mechanics call a break-joint. Continuing the same process, she gives a - fourth and sometimes a fifth coating to her nest, taking care at the - closed end, or narrow extremity of the cell, to bend the leaves so as - to form a convex termination. - - "After thus completing each cell, she proceeds to fill it to within - the twentieth of an inch of the orifice with a rose-coloured sweetmeat - made of the pollen collected from thistle-blossoms mixed with honey. - Upon this she lays her egg, and then closes the orifice with three - pieces of leaf, one placed upon the other, concentrical and also - so exactly circular in form, that no compasses could describe that - geometrical figure with more precision. In their magnitude also they - correspond with the walls of the cell with such a degree of precision, - that they are retained in their situation merely by the nicety of - their adaptation. - - "The covering of the cell thus adapted to it being concave, - corresponds exactly with the convex end of the cell which is to - succeed it; and in this manner the little insect prosecutes her - maternal labours until she has constructed all the cells, six or seven - in number, necessary to fill the cylindrical hole. - - "The process which one of these bees employs in cutting the pieces of - leaf that compose her nest, is worthy of attention. Nothing can be - more expeditious, and she is not longer about it than one would be in - cutting similar pieces with a pair of scissors. After hovering for - some moments over a rose-bush, as it were to reconnoitre the ground, - the bee alights upon the leaf which she has selected, usually taking - her station upon its edge, so that its margin shall pass between her - legs. She then cuts with her mandibles, without intermission, in such - a direction as to detach from the leaf a triangular piece. When this - hangs by the last fibre, lest its weight should carry her to the - ground, she spreads her little wings for flight, and the very moment - the connection of the part thus cut off with the leaf is broken, she - carries it off in triumph to her nest, the detached portion remaining - bent between her legs in a direction perpendicular to her body. - Thus, without rule or compass, do these little creatures measure out - the material of their work into ovals, or circles, or other pieces - of suitable shapes, accurately accommodating the dimensions of the - several pieces of these figures to each other. What other architect - could carry impressed upon the tablet of his memory such details - of the edifice which he has to erect, and, destitute of square or - plumb-line, cut out his materials in their exact dimensions without - making a single mistake or requiring a single subsequent correction? - - "But of all the varieties of this insect, that of which the - architectural and mechanical skill is transcendently the most - admirable is the bee-hive. The most profound philosopher, says - Kirby, equally with the most incurious of mortals, is filled with - astonishment at the view of the interior of a bee-hive. He beholds - there a miniature city. He sees regular streets, disposed in parallel - directions, and consisting of houses constructed upon the most exact - geometrical principles, and of the most symmetrical forms. These - buildings are appropriated to various purposes. Some are warehouses - in which provisions are stored in enormous quantities; some are - the dwellings of the citizens; and a few of the most spacious and - magnificent are royal palaces. He finds that the material of which - this city is built is one which man with all his skill and science - cannot fabricate, and that the edifices which it is employed to form - are such that the most consummate engineer could not reproduce, much - less originate; and yet this wondrous production of art and skill - is the result of the labour of a society of insects so minute, that - hundreds of thousands of them do not contain as much ponderable matter - as would enter into the composition of the body of a man. _Quel abime - aux yeux du sage qu'une ruche d'abeilles! Quelle sagesse profonde - se cache dans cet abime! Quel philosophe osera le sonder!_ Nor has - the problem thus solved by the bee yet been satisfactorily expounded - by philosophers. Its mysteries have not yet been fathomed. In all - ages naturalists and mathematicians have been engrossed by it, from - Aristomachus of Soli and Philiscus the Thracian, already mentioned, to - Swammerdam, Reaumur, Hunter, and Huber of modern times. Nevertheless, - the honey-comb is still a miracle which overwhelms our faculties." - -Kirby writes:-- - - "Besides the saving of wax effected by the form of the cells, the bees - adopt another economical plan suited to the same end. They compose the - bottoms and sides of wax of very great tenuity, not thicker than a - sheet of writing-paper; but as walls of this thickness at the entrance - would be perpetually injured by the ingress and egress of the workers, - they prudently make the margin at the opening of each cell three - or four times thicker than the walls. Dr. Barclay discovered, that - though of such excessive tenuity, the sides and bottom of each cell - are actually double, or in other words, that each cell is distinct, - separate, and in some measure an independent structure, agglutinated - only to the neighbouring cells; and that when the agglutinating - substance is destroyed, each cell may be entirely separated from the - rest. This, however, has been denied by Mr. Waterhouse, and seems - inconsistent with the account given by Huber, hereafter detailed; but - Mr. G. Newport asserts, that even the virgin-cells are lined with a - delicate membrane." - -Dr. Bevan relates of Mr. Knight, an acute and accurate apiarian:-- - - "On one occasion he observed from twenty to thirty bees paying daily - visits to some decayed trees, about a mile distant from his garden; - the bees appeared to be busily employed in examining the hollow parts, - and particularly the dead knots around them, as if apprehensive of - the knots admitting moisture. In about fourteen days these seeming - surveyors were followed by a large swarm from his apiary, which was - watched the whole way, till it alighted in one of these cavities. It - was observed to journey nearly in a direct line from the apiary to the - tree. On several similar occasions the bees selected that cavity which - Mr. Knight thought best adapted to their use." - - "Insects give proofs without number of the possession of the faculty - of memory, without which it would be impossible to turn to account the - results of experience. Thus, for example, each bee, on returning from - its excursions, never fails to recognise its own hive, even though - that hive should be surrounded by various others in all respects - similar to it. - - "This recognition of home is so much the more marked by traces of - intelligence rather than by those of instinct, inasmuch as it depends - not on any character merely connected with the hive itself, whether - external or internal, but from its relation to surrounding objects; - just as we are guided to our own dwellings by the recollection of - the particular features of the locality and neighbourhood. Nor is - this faculty in the bee inferred from mere analogies; it has been - established by direct experiment and observation. A hive being removed - from a locality to which its inhabitants have become familiar, they - are observed, upon the next day, before leaving for their usual - labours, to fly around the hive in every direction, as if to observe - the surrounding objects, and obtain a general acquaintance with their - new neighbourhood. - - "The queen in like manner adopts the same precaution before she rises - into the air, attended by her numerous admirers, for the purpose of - fecundation."--_Lardner_. - - "The attention," says Lord Brougham,[B] "which has been paid at - various times to the structure and habits of the bee, is one of - the most remarkable circumstances in the history of science. The - ancients studied it with unusual minuteness, although being, generally - speaking, indifferent observers of fact, they made but little progress - in discovering the singular economy of this insect Of the observations - of Aristomachus, who spent sixty years, it is said, in studying the - subject, we know nothing; nor of those which were made by Philissus, - who passed his life in the woods, for the purpose of examining this - insect's habits; but Pliny informs us that both of them wrote works - upon it. Aristotle's three chapters on bees and wasps[C] contain - little more than the ordinary observations, mixed up with an unusual - portion of vulgar and even gross errors. How much he attended to - the subject is, however, manifest from the extent of the first of - these chapters, which is of great length. Some mathematical writers, - particularly Pappus, studied the form of the cells, and established - one or two of the fundamental propositions respecting the economy - of labour and wax resulting from the plan of the structure. The - application of modern naturalists to the inquiry is to be dated from - the beginning of the eighteenth century, when Maraldi examined it - with his accustomed care; and Reaumur afterwards, as we have seen, - carried his investigations much farther. The interest of the subject - seemed to increase with the progress made in their inquiries; and - about the year 1765 a society was formed at Little Bautzen in Upper - Lusatia, whose sole object was the study of bees. It was formed under - the patronage of the Elector of Saxony. The celebrated Schirach was - one of its original members; and soon after its establishment he - made his famous discovery of the power which the bees have to supply - the loss of their queen, by forming a large cell out of three common - ones, and feeding the grub of a worker upon royal jelly; a discovery - so startling to naturalists, that Bonnet, in 1769, earnestly urged - the society not to lower its credit by countenancing such a wild - error, which he regarded as repugnant to all we know of the habits of - insects; admitting, however, that he should not be so incredulous of - any observations tending to prove the propagation of the race of the - queen-bee without any co-operation of a male,[D] a notion since shown - by Huber to be wholly chimerical. In 1771 a second institution, with - the same limited object, was founded at Lauter, under the Elector - Palatine's patronage, and of this Riem, scarcely less known in this - branch of science than Schirach, was a member. - -[Footnote B: Vol. i. pp. 333-36.] - -[Footnote C: Hist. An., lib. ix., cap. 40, 41, 42.] - -[Footnote D: Œuvres x., 101, 104.] - - "The greatest progress, however, was afterwards made by Huber, whose - discoveries, especially of the queen-bee's mode of impregnation, - the slaughter of the drones or males, and the mode of working, have - justly gained him a very high place among naturalists. Nor are his - discoveries of the secretion of wax from saccharine matter, the - nature of propolis, and the preparation of wax for building, to be - reckoned less important. To these truths the way had been led by John - Hunter, whose vigorous and original genius never was directed to the - cultivation of any subject without reaping a harvest of discovery." - - -Bee Industry. - - "The industry of the bee may be estimated by the average number of - its daily excursions from the hive to collect provisions. According - to Reaumur, if the total number of excursions be divided by the total - number of bees in a hive, the average number daily made by each bee - would be from five to six. But as one-half of the bees are occupied - exclusively with the domestic business of the society, either in - nursing and tending the young, packing and storing the provisions, - or constructing the combs, the total number of excursions must be - divided, not between the whole, but between only half the total - number of bees, which would give ten excursions to each individual of - the collecting class; and if the average length of each excursion - be taken at three-quarters of a mile, this would give the average - distance travelled by each collector as fifteen miles! It is estimated - by Kirby that the quantity of ponderable matter thus transported - exceeds a hundred pounds." - -The Rev. Mr. Wood, in his little manual--the most sensible of its size -that has yet appeared--writes:-- - - "No noticeable capital is required to commence; no noticeable amount - of time is necessarily consumed in their management, and they may be - kept almost anywhere, though not with equal profit. One apiarian, - whose authority may be depended upon, gives the profits of eight - stocks only as averaging about 20_l._ in three successive years. - Another, who was regularly engaged from six to six daily in other - avocations, cleared nearly 100_l._ in one year by his bees. The - quantity of honey that may be obtained from a hive is exceedingly - variable, but offering, therefore, only the greater assurance of - due rewards for able management. Fifty or sixty pounds have not - unfrequently been obtained from a single hive in a season, and - occasionally as much as 100 lbs.; whilst from a set of collateral - boxes, 100 lbs. is mentioned; and Cotton states that as much as 210 - lbs. have really been stored in a single season, by a single stock - similarly situated in a roomy trebled habitation. The prices of honey - in London are stated to be generally as follows:-- - - _s._ _d._ - - Minorca, which is the best per lb. 2 6 - Narbonne " 2 0 - Pure native honey in the comb " 1 0 - Other native honey " 0 8 - - "But pure native honey in the comb, obtained in glasses, is sought - for the table, and therefore often sells for double the price - above-mentioned. We shall only add, that Mr. Smart, a well-known - apiarian, considers hundreds of stocks may be kept where only tens are - now to be found, so far as regards the capabilities of support, the - main point to be considered. To that subject, therefore, we now turn." - -A rather exaggerated account of the excellence of honey is given by -Butler:-- - - "Honey cutteth and casteth up phlegmatic matter, and therefore - sharpeneth the stomachs of them which by reason thereof have little - appetite; it purgeth those things which hurt the clearness of the - eyes; it nourisheth very much; it breedeth good blood; it stirreth up - and preserveth natural heat, and prolongeth old age; it keepeth all - things uncorrupt which are put into it; and therefore physicians do - temper therewith such medicines as they mean to keep long." - -In an article in the _Quarterly Review_ it is stated:-- - - "In such esteem was it held, that one of the old Welsh laws ran - thus:--'There are three things in court which must be communicated - to the king before they are made known to any other person:--1st - Every sentence of the Judge. 2nd. Every new song. 3rd. Every cask of - Mead.' Queen Bess was so fond of it, that she had some made for her - own especial drinking every year; and Butler, who draws a distinction - between Mead and Metheglin, making Hydromel the generic term, gives - a receipt for the latter and better drink, the same used by 'our - renowned Queen Elizabeth of happy memory.'" - - -A PRAIRIE HUNT. - -A bee-hunt in the prairies is thus described by Washington Irving:-- - - "We had not been long in the camp, when a party set out in quest of a - bee-tree, and being curious to witness the sport, I gladly accepted - an invitation to accompany them. The party was headed by a veteran - bee-hunter, a tall lank fellow in homespun garb, that hung loosely - about his limbs, and a straw hat, shaped not unlike a bee-hive; a - comrade, equally uncouth in garb, and without a hat, straddled along - at his heels, with a long rifle on his shoulder. To these succeeded - half-a-dozen others, some with axes, and some with rifles; for no - one stirs from the camp without fire-arms, so that he may be ready - either for wild deer or wild Indian. After proceeding some distance, - we came to an open glade on the skirts of the forest. Here our leader - halted, and then advanced quietly to a low bush, on the top of which - I perceived a piece of honey-comb. This, I found, was the bait or - lure for the wild bees. Several were humming about it, and diving - into its cells. When they had laden themselves with honey, they would - rise up in the air, and dart off in one straight line, almost with - the velocity of a bullet. The hunters watched attentively the course - they took, and then set off in the same direction, stumbling along - over twisted roots and fallen trees, with their eyes turned up to the - sky. In this way they traced the honey-laden bees to their hive, in - the hollow trunk of a blasted oak, where, after buzzing about for a - moment, they entered a hole about sixty feet from the ground. Two of - the bee-hunters now plied their axes vigorously at the foot of the - tree, to level it with the ground. The mere spectators and amateurs, - in the meantime, drew off to a cautious distance, to be out of the - way of the falling of the tree and the vengeance of its inmates. - The jarring blows of the axe seemed to have no effect in alarming - or agitating this most industrious community. They continued to ply - at their usual occupations--some arriving full-freighted into port, - others sallying forth on new expeditions, like so many merchantmen in - a money-making metropolis, little suspicious of impending bankruptcy - and downfall; even a loud crack, which announced the disrupture of the - trunk, failed to divert their attention from the intense pursuit of - gain: at length down came the tree with a tremendous crash, bursting - open from end to end, and displacing all the hoarded treasures of - the commonwealth. One of the hunters immediately ran up with a wisp - of lighted hay, as a defence against the bees. The latter, however, - made no attack, and sought no revenge; they seemed stupified by the - catastrophe, and, unsuspicious of its cause, remained crawling and - buzzing about the ruins, without offering us any molestation. Every - one of the party now fell to, with spoon and hunting-knife, to scoop - out the flakes of honey-comb with which the hollow trunk was stored. - Some of them were of old date, and a deep brown colour; others were - beautifully white, and the honey in their cells was almost limpid. - Such of the combs as were entire were placed in camp-kettles, to be - conveyed to the encampment; those which had been shivered in the - fall were devoured upon the spot. Every stark bee-hunter was to be - seen with a rich morsel in his hand, dripping about his fingers, and - disappearing as rapidly as a cream-tart before the holiday appetite - of a schoolboy. Nor was it the bee-hunters alone that profited by the - downfall of this industrious community. As if the bees would carry - through the similitude of their hahits with those of laborious and - gainful man, I beheld numbers from rival hives, arriving on eager - wing, to enrich themselves with the ruins of their neighbours. These - busied themselves as eagerly and cheerily as so many wreckers on an - Indiaman that has been driven on shore--plunging into the cells of the - broken honey-combs, banqueting greedily on the spoil, and then winging - their way full-freighted to their homes. As to the poor proprietors - of the ruin, they seemed to have no heart to do anything, not even to - taste the nectar that flowed around them, but crawled backwards and - forwards, in vacant desolation, as I have seen a poor fellow, with his - hands in his pockets, whistling vacantly and despondingly about the - ruins of his house that had been burned. It is difficult to describe - the bewilderment and confusion of the bees of the bankrupt hive who - had been absent at the time of the catastrophe, and who arrived, from - time to time, with full cargoes from abroad. At first they wheeled - about in the air, in the place where the fallen tree had once reared - its head, astonished at finding all a vacuum. At length, as if - comprehending their disaster, they settled down in clusters on a dry - branch of a neighbouring tree, from whence they seemed to contemplate - the prostrate ruin, and to buzz forth doleful lamentations over the - downfall of their republic. It was a scene on which the 'melancholy - Jaques' might have moralised by the hour."--Tour in Prairies, ch. ix. - - -BEE TEMPERS. - - "Bees, however, as we have already observed, are not usually - ill-tempered; and, if not molested, are generally inoffensive. Thorley - relates, that a maid-servant who assisted him in hiving a swarm, - being rather afraid, put a linen cloth as a defence over her head - and shoulders. When the bees were shaken from the tree on which they - had alighted, the queen probably settled upon this cloth, for the - whole swarm covered it, and then getting under it, spread themselves - over her face, neck, and bosom, so that when the cloth was removed, - she was quite a spectacle. She was with great difficulty kept from - running off with all the bees upon her. But at length her master - quieted her fears, and began to search for the queen. He succeeded, - and expected that when he put her into the hive the bees would follow. - He was, however, in the first instance disappointed, for they did not - stir. Upon examining the cluster again, he found a second queen, or - probably the former one, which had flown back to the swarm. Having - seized her, he placed her in the hive, and kept her there. The bees - soon missed her, and crowded into the hive after her, so that, in two - or three minutes, not one remained on the poor frightened girl. After - this escape she became quite a heroine, and would undertake the most - hazardous employment about the hives."--_Lardner_. - - -BEES IN THEIR CLERICAL CHARACTER. - - "But connected with this, another important purpose of nature is - fulfilled, which must not here pass without special notice. The - principle, so fruitful in important social consequences among animals, - that the offspring owes its parentage jointly to two individuals of - different sexes, or, in other words, must always have a father and a - mother, equally prevails in the vegetable kingdom. There also are the - gentlemen and ladies, there also are the loves which unite them, loves - which, as well as those of superior orders of beings, have supplied a - theme for poets. Now, among the many other interesting offices with - which the Author of nature has invested the little creatures which - form the subject of this notice, not the least singular is that of - being the priests who celebrate the nuptials of the flowers. It is the - bee literally which joins the hands and consecrates the union of the - fair virgin lily and the blushing maiden rose with their respective - bridegrooms. The grains of pollen which we have been describing are - these bride and bridegrooms, and are transported on the bee from the - male to the female flower; the happy individuals thus united in the - bands of wedlock being the particular grains which the bee lets fall - from its body on the flower of the opposite sex, as it passes through - its blossom. - - "And here we find another circumstance to excite our admiration of - the wise laws of that Providence, which cares for the well-being of - a little flower as much as for that of a great lord of the creation. - If the bee wandered indifferently from flower to flower without - selection, the gentlemen of one species would be mated with the ladies - of another, hybrid breeds would ensue, and the confusion of species - would be the consequence. But the bee, as knowing this, flies from - rose to rose, or from lily to lily, but never from the lily to the - rose, or from the rose to the lily."--_Lardner_. - - -GENERAL. - -A popular acquaintance with the habits of bees is very important. Such -an accident as the following, related in the Scotsman newspaper, could -scarcely have occurred if the victim had learned a little on this -subject:-- - - "On Thursday, while Dr. Bonthron, of West Linton, Peebleshire, was - being driven along the road leading from Garvald to the railway - station at Dolphinton, he was attacked by a swarm of bees, apparently - newly 'cast-off,' and so severely stung on the face and head as to - be unable to attend to his duties for the present. His face and head - became dreadfully swollen and disfigured an hour or two after the - occurrence, the eyes being firmly closed, and the face and throat - greatly swollen and discoloured, while a considerable amount of fever - has set in from the effects of the poison--in fact, but for the - precautions taken, it is probable that the case would have proved - fatal. The driver of the vehicle was also severely stung on several - parts of the head and neck, and only escaped further mischief by a - timely use of whip and rein. The queen-bee of the caste must have - flown directly on Dr. Bonthron's head, from the instantaneousness - with which he was perfectly covered by the bees: and it is supposed - that the motion of the vehicle must have irritated the insects to - use their stings. Upwards of thirty bee-stings were taken out of Dr. - Bonthron's face, neck, and head." - -Had Dr. Bonthron remained perfectly still, the bees would not have been -irritated, and they would have discovered there was no room for a swarm of -bees in his hat; and if the driver could have distinguished the queen-bee, -and quietly removed and laid her on the hedge-side, no catastrophe would -have occurred. Bees are perfectly harmless in swarming. But of course any -attempt to drive them off from their queen by violence never can be made -with impunity. - -But in the swarming season it is most expedient that nobody but their -bee-master should take any share in hiving a swarm; for so nervous are -most people at the presence of ten thousand stings, that they will -indiscreetly and ignorantly irritate such members of the young family as -may accidentally alight on them. - -A far more delightful incident is recorded by Thorley:-- - - "In or about the year 1717, one of my swarms settling among the - close-twisted branches of some codling-trees, and not to be got into - an hive without more help, my maid-servant, hired into the family - the Michaelmas before, very officiously offered her assistance, so - far as to hold the hive while I dislodged the bees, she being little - apprehensive of what followed. - - "Having never been acquainted with bees, and likewise afraid, she put - a linen cloth over her head and shoulders, concluding that would be a - sufficient guard, and secure her from their swords. A few of the bees - fell into the hive; some upon the ground; but the main body of them - upon the cloth which covered her upper garments. - - "No sooner had I taken the hive out of her hands, but, in a terrible - fright and surprise, she cried out the bees were got under the - covering, crowding up towards her breast and face, which immediately - put her into a trembling posture. When I perceived the veil was of - no further service, she at last gave me leave to remove it. This - done, a most affecting spectacle presented itself to the view of all - the company, filling me with the deepest distress and concern, as I - thought myself the unhappy instrument of drawing her into so great - and imminent hazard of her life, which now so manifestly lay at stake. - - "It is not in my power to tell the confusion and distress of mind I - was in, from the awful apprehensions it raised; and her dread and - terror in such circumstances may reasonably be supposed to be much - more. Every moment she was at the point of retiring with all the bees - about her. Vain thought! to escape by flight. She might have left the - place, indeed, but could not the company, and the remedy would have - been much worse than the disease. Had she enraged them, all resistance - had been vain, and nothing less than her life would have atoned for - the offence. And now to have had that life (in so much jeopardy) - insured, what would I not have given! - - "To prevent, therefore, a flight which must have been attended with so - fatal a consequence, I spared not to urge all the arguments I could - think of, and use the most affectionate entreaties, begging her, with - all the earnestness in my power, to stand her ground, and keep her - present posture; in order to which, I gave encouragement to hope, in a - little space, for a full discharge from her disagreeable companions; - on the other hand, assuring her she had no other chance for her life. - I was, through necessity, constantly reasoning with her, or else - beseeching and encouraging her. - - "I began to search among them for the queen, now got in a great body - upon her breast, about her neck, and up to her chin. I presently saw - her, and immediately seized her, taking her from the crowd, with some - of the commons in company with her, and put them together into the - hive. Here I watched her for some time, and as I did not observe that - she came out, I conceived an expectation of seeing the whole body - quickly abandon their settlement; but instead of that, I soon observed - them, to my greater sorrow and surprise, gathering closer together - without the least signal for departing. Upon this I immediately - reflected, that either there must be another sovereign, or that the - same was returned. I directly commenced a second search, and in a - short time, with a most agreeable surprise, found a second or the - same; she strove, by entering further into the crowd, to escape me, - which I was fully determined against; and apprehending her without - any further ceremony, or the least apology, I reconducted her, with a - great number of the populace, into the hive. And now the melancholy - scene began to change, and give way to one infinitely more agreeable - and pleasant. - - "The bees, presently missing their queen, began to dislodge and repair - to the hive, crowding into it in multitudes, and in the greatest hurry - imaginable. And in the space of two or three minutes the maid had not - a single bee about her, neither had she so much as one sting, a small - number of which would have quickly stopped her breath. - - "How inexpressible the pleasure which succeeded her past fear! What - joy appeared in every countenance upon so signal a deliverance! and - what mutual congratulations were heard! I never call to mind the - wonderful escape without a secret and very sensible pleasure. I hope - never to see such another sight, though I triumph in this most noble - and glorious victory." - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - - LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS, - - ADDRESSED TO - - "THE TIMES" BEE-MASTER. - - ----<>---- - - -I have selected a few of the countless letters addressed to me by those -who read my letters in _The Times_, and I have appended such replies -as seemed to me expedient. I have not printed several anonymous and -very acrimonious letters. One writer of two anonymous letters says, his -connection with the press is very great, and that in the _Saturday Review_ -and other periodicals he will write "scorching critiques;" that he will -warn the publishers that they will earn a loss; and that he will influence -_The Times_ to receive no more communications. One letter has the -post-mark "Ampthill;" but I suppose its real date ought to be Colney Hatch -or Hanwell. - -I cannot otherwise explain the extraordinary language. - -But I am able to add, that the letters of the Bee-master in _The Times_ -have done good service; and I hope this little work will survive these -threats of one or two irritable hornets. - -I once thought quarrels and angry controversies were confined to -ecclesiastical denominations--churches and chapels. But I have learned -what I did not expect, that not a few apiarians so devoutly believe each -his own patent hive to be the only way to a honey harvest, that if you do -not notice it, you are denounced as ignorant of the progress of science, -and if you disapprove of it, you must know nothing about bees. - -I hope they will all improve in temper as they advance in experience, and -agree to differ while they cease to quarrel. I have made up my mind on two -or three subjects, from thought and reading, and personal observation; -and though open to argument, evidence, and facts, I am not in the least to -be moved by intemperate criticism or ill-natured ridicule. - - * * * * * - - _August 1st._ - - The "Bee-master" is respectfully requested to publish his letters to - _The Times_ in a pamphlet by themselves. - - It is suggested that the paragraph about "Brother Ignatius" be omitted. - - The "Bee-master" must have forgotten to have taken his usual allowance - of honey at breakfast when he penned those harsh words. - - Did he know "Brother Ignatius," he would soon discover he was - - No Drone. - -That he is no honey-bee is plain. If not a drone he must be a spider or -earwig, creeping by stealth into the old Romish Benedictine hive, to which -he does not really belong. - - * * * * * - - _Stoke-upon-Trent, July 29th._ - - Dear Sir,--I have long been hoping against hope, and trying to - persuade my friends to interest themselves in that courageous little - insect, the _apis mellifica_; but the drawbacks appear to me to be - rather disheartening. In the first place, the ladies dread the stings - of my little friends; and in the next place, they lose the pleasure - of investigation into the habits of the bees by not being enabled to - procure hives that will enable one to observe the operations of the - industrious little creatures. Your letter, however, in yesterday's - _Times_ enlightens us somewhat as to where the best-constructed - hives may be obtained; and I am sure you have my hearty thanks for - the information you have so kindly spread abroad through the medium - of _The Times_. The common straw hive may not be very conveniently - "tolled" without being in mortal fear of an accident; and to destroy - the bees seems very cruel and wasteful, in order to take the honey - from them. For my part, I have never yet had the courage to attempt to - interfere with a straw hive, nor have I ever yet destroyed one, but - kept them for my amusement and observation. Last year I constructed a - wooden hive--say a square box, divided in the middle by a slide--and - I introduced a young swarm into it, and they soon filled the bottom - half of the box. This year they have had one swarm only, which I have - put into a newly-constructed hive with a moveable bottom and front, - with glass to look through and doors to protect the glass: the size - is 12 by 14 and 16 inches, and they have very nearly filled it since - they were swarmed, on the 6th June. It contains ten large parallel - combs or plates, which are beautifully full of virgin honey, carefully - covered with fine films of wax, to prevent it from either running out - or becoming damaged, I presume, from the atmosphere. I have a small - box _to fit underneath_ the full one; but I cannot induce the bees - to come down by easy means--that is, by shaking the box or drumming - upon it: the vibrations only cause them to run about, but they will - not descend. Pray what means would you adopt to cause them to leave - the spaces between the combs, and go into the lower box, to enable me - to take a portion of the combs and their contents without destroying - or injuring the queen or the other bees? With regard to the box-hive - first named, and which is divided in the middle by a wooden slide, - which has a hole cut into its centre about 6 by 4 inches, and which - was covered by a zinc slide, which I removed in June, after the swarm - came from the box. In a few days after I could only observe about a - dozen which had passed into the top part of the hive. I then tried to - frighten them by shaking the box, in order to induce them to leave - the combs in the bottom half, and pass through the hole into the top, - but without success. I afterwards reversed the box, thinking that I - might induce them to descend, and so shut them out; but they would not - budge an inch. I afterwards placed the box in its proper position, - and closed the entrance-holes for two days, thinking by that means - to cause them to ascend in order to find a way out, but without any - result, save the destruction of _eight hundred_ drones in those two - days, from the anger of the little workers; for, as they could not go - abroad to collect food, the drones cleared every comb that contained - any honey, and now I can see them all as empty as when just made; so - you see I am really nonplussed. Pray what would you do? for if I smoke - them, they will come down, not go up; and I am afraid that brimstone - or tobacco would destroy them. - - Yours very faithfully, - - T. H. - -This family of my correspondent has been, I fear, very ill-used. Bees have -a will of their own, and a way too. You may lead and draw, but you cannot, -and should not, drive. - -Had Mr. H. given them more barley-sugar, or ale and sugar, and practised -less manipulation, I think they would have behaved as well as he could -wish. - - _Stamford, July 29th._ - - Sir,--I feel compelled to ask you to answer one or two queries of - mine, for without answers I shall be unable to follow out your - admirable instructions in the letter of yesterday's Times. I can only - say, that if you will take the trouble to give me a line I shall feel - greatly obliged. - - I am, Sir, yours faithfully, - - J. B. S. - - - Queries. - - 1.--Which is the best plan of hiving bees? - - 2.--How are the bees to be persuaded to descend from the _upper_ - hives, so as to allow of the honey being extracted? - - 3.--Should the sheds face any particular aspect? - - 4.--Is it necessary to stop up the entrance-hole to the hive in - winter, when covering them up with paper? - - 5.--Are the hives (Ayrshire hexagonal) _bottomless?_ I judge so, as - they are put one on the top of the other, and the bees rise - through the slits? - -I fear I must own myself totally ignorant about bee-keeping, so I trust -you will excuse these queries. - - J. B. S. - -The writer will find 1, 2, 3, answered in the body of the work. In reply -to 4, No. In reply to 5, Yes. - - * * * * * - - _Cheltenham, July 30th._ - - Sir,--I have been much interested with your letters in _The Times_ - about bees; and having just commenced keeping them, am anxious for - further information. Your kindness in writing so fully induces me to - trouble you. - - I purchased a swarm on June 17th, and have them in a common straw - hive. I am told by the cottager from whom I bought them (who, by the - way, takes his honey by stupifying the bees with a fungus), that as - mine is a late swarm (though a first), I ought not to take any honey - from them this season; but noticing in your letter of 27th your mode - of obtaining honey from a straw hive by cutting a hole in the top and - placing a bell-glass on a board over, I shall be much obliged if you - will inform me if you think I might now adopt this mode, or is it too - late in the season, and ought they to be left undisturbed till next - season? - - Will you kindly tell where the Scotch hexagonal hive is to be - procured? I like your account of it so much, that I shall certainly - try it as soon as I can. Will you excuse this trouble? - - I remain, Sir, yours obediently, - - C. H. H. - - To the Gentleman who writes in _The Times_ under the signature of "A - Bee-master." - -If a good swarm take place in May, and in a good year, you may hopefully -put on a super. For Ayrshire hives, see p. 213. - - * * * * * - - _July 30th._ - - - Sir,--We have read your letters in _The Times_ with the greatest - interest, partly because we have been for some years bee-keepers on - the more sensible plan of saving the little creatures' lives, and - partly because we are anxious to induce our neighbours (poor cottage - folks) to follow our example, and give up the disgusting smothering - process. We have taken off a glass of honey weighing full twenty - pounds, and have another equally well filled to remove; but should be - very grateful for your advice as to the means of getting rid of the - bees from the super when it is withdrawn, a part of the process not - described in your letters, and one which we cannot manage without much - trouble, and the murder of many insects. We use, for stock, common - straw hives, with flat tops, and a hole in the centre, which we cover - with a piece of zinc or slate, easily removed when we wish to put on - the super. But the bees always continue the comb up through this hole - into the glass; then, when the latter is removed, there is always - broken comb and running honey, to which the bees cling, and to which - they return again and again, and we find the greatest difficulty in - dislodging them. - - You likewise recommend covering the stock-hives in winter with paper, - for warmth. Will you kindly tell us whether you consider it best to - close the entrance also? - - My only apology for thus intruding on you must rest on our ignorance, - and on your benevolent and enlightened zeal for the good of the poor, - and for the lives of the much ill-treated insects. - - I am, Sir, yours obediently, - - H. C. - - I enclose a stamped envelope, in case you prefer writing to me rather - than again to _The Times_. - -Press a zinc plate between hive and super, and on removal substitute a -very small empty bell bee-glass, and cover it with woollen cap. On no -account close the entrance to the hive. - - _August 1st._ - - My dear Sir,--I have read with much interest your letters in _The - Times_ respecting our little friends the bees, and as one of your - many readers, I beg to thank you for your valuable hints. Will you, - however, complete the matter by giving us one hint more, and that is, - as to how you manage with the bees which may remain in the compartment - which you remove? I have used the lateral wooden hive, but have always - found a difficulty in getting rid of the bees which remained in the - box which I have taken away. One year I took a lateral box full of - honey, but lost it in consequence of the bees having taken it all away - again. I, by the advice of a neighbouring bee-master, had it placed in - a cool part of the garden. If you will kindly tell us how you manage - in this respect, you will greatly oblige. - - Yours, faithfully, - - W. B. J. - -Carry your super, or side-box, if yours is the collateral system, to a -little distance from the hive. Raise one side of your box, and they will -gradually escape and go home. If it be August, when wasps and corsair-bees -are abroad, remove it about 7 P.M. Few, if any, thieves will arrive, and -your bees will equally go home. - -Or if you take it into a room or closet with a window on hinges, they will -fly to the light and cover the window. Open the window smartly, and all on -it will fly away. Shut it again till covered with bees, and repeat opening -it. No thieves can thus get in, and your bees will all get out, if you -have patience. - - * * * * * - - _Stokenchurch, August 1st_ - - Sir,--I hope you will pardon the liberty I take in addressing you; but - having read your letter in _The Times_, entitled "Bees and Bee-hives," - and wishing to gain information on those subjects, I venture under the - circumstances to write to you. - - There have been for many years a quantity of bees under some leads - that cover a bow added to this house. About eighteen years ago the - leads were removed, the honey taken, the bees destroyed, and all the - entrances (as was supposed) stopped up. Notwithstanding this, fresh - swarms arrived in the course of the following year, forced their - entrance, and again took possession of the leads. Since then they have - not been disturbed, but now my father expresses a wish to take the - honey and get rid of the bees, as we suffer some inconvenience in the - spring, on account of the bees entering the bed-room. - - As I think it a pity that all the bees should be destroyed, and also - have a great wish to keep them in common hives, I should feel much - obliged could you give me any information as to when and how to take - the honey without destroying the bees, and to place the latter in - common straw hives. I regret much that I did not see your letter in - _The Times_ on the "Honey Harvest," nor do I know the day it appeared, - therefore I cannot refer to it. Apologising for troubling you, - - I remain, yours faithfully, - - A. P. - -I do not think it possible to remove the bees. The only alternative is -to lessen, if possible, the area and contents of their residence, and -thus force them to swarm. If you can lay open their residence, you might -stupify the bees with fungus smoke, and abstract a portion of their honey. - - * * * * * - - _Bath, August 1st._ - - A lady having read in _The Times_ a Bee-master's letter of the 27th - July, on "Hives," would feel greatly obliged if he would inform - her where the Ayrshire hexagonal hive is to be had, its price, and - likewise the cost of setting up the establishment with one hive - to commence with; where to obtain the best bees, and how many are - necessary; and the time to commence keeping them. Would a book on - Bees be of much use to a beginner! An answer will be esteemed a great - favour, if not entailing too much trouble on the "Bee-master." - -For Ayrshire hive, write to "Mr. Bruce Taylor, Post-office, Mauchlin, -Ayrshire, N.B." - - * * * * * - - _Brighton, August 3rd._ - - Sir,--I have just been reading your excellent and interesting letter - in _The Times_ of this morning, and am induced to write you a second - letter, having despatched one to you last week, soliciting you to be - kind enough to reply to my queries and inquiries therein contained, - and not having received any reply thereto. I can readily imagine you - could not answer all your correspondents, and that your letters in - _The Times_ would contain the information that most of them sought. - Although I have perused them with the greatest pleasure, I do not - find they tell me whether you would be kind enough to sell me any of - the _virgin_ honey which your bees have made this year, which was the - principal point I wished to have solved in my former communication. I - am quite sure you are a gentleman of position, and from your language - I am inclined to believe are a member of the clerical profession; and - as I am unwilling to trespass unreasonably on your valuable time, I - do earnestly beg, if you are unable or unwilling to sell me any of - your _virgin honey of 1864_, you would be so truly obliging as to - furnish me with the name and address of some respectable party in your - locality or neighbourhood, on whom I could depend to purchase what - I might require. I never eat "rancid London," or indeed any "butter - for breakfast," or any other meal, and am not fond of "nasty greasy - bacon;" but as I cannot find any substitute of which I approve but - pure "virgin honey," and know not where I can procure and purchase the - latter from the "grower," I am constantly obliged to eat my dry toast - and bread without any agreeable addition thereto. I am exceedingly - desirous to cultivate a good temper and "sweet disposition;" and - if you would kindly aid me in this by supplying my "honeyed - requirements," or inform me where I can purchase what I wish for, I - shall be most grateful for your reply, if it contain only the name and - address of some respectable person to whom I can make application for - the "pure, unadulterated, virgin honey of 1864," and for which purpose - I enclose you a stamped envelope. - - Hoping you will oblige me, and apologising for trespassing on your - valuable time, - - I remain, yours most obediently, - - E. L. B. - -Pure honey, taken by deprivation, and in the most charming white wax -cells, may be had of Neighbour, in Holborn, London. - - * * * * * - - _Sundridge, August 3rd._ - - _To "The Times" Bee-Master._ - - Sir,--In reference to your interesting letter on "Bees and Bee-hives," - in _The Times_ of last Thursday, I take leave to explain to you how I - prevent tom-tits and other birds from molesting my industrious little - friends, if so they should feel inclined. - - I affix before the door of the hive a piece of wire-work, resembling - the half of a round mouse-trap, and by this very simple means a bee is - permitted to return to its house, or take wing as it pleases, without - "let, stop, or stay," from your "wicked hypocrite" and his companions. - - This precaution being taken, I endeavour to encourage all mischievous - birds to abide with me, feeding the several tom-tits, to each of - whom our gardens are so largely indebted, throughout the winter with - walnuts, and even providing them with sleeping-places. - - I have the honour to be, Sir, - - Your very humble servant, - - G. S. S. - -This is a very sensible letter, and well worth the attention of every -bee-master. - - * * * * * - -From the Hon. and Rev. Orlando Forrester. - - _Dover ridge, Derby, August 26th._ - - Sir,--Last autumn I saved from a cruel and unnecessary death a very - old stock of bees belonging to a neighbour, the parent one of all his - colony, full of black comb; I gave him seven or eight shillings for - it. I fed it, and it just lived through the winter. I gave it a box on - the lateral plan, which it filled with a quarter of a hundredweight of - honey,--so rewarding my interference. - - At the time I took my box from this stock, a neighbour destroyed two - of his hives, bees, &c., for the honey (I think he will not do so - ungrateful a thing another year). Happening to go into his garden the - morning after, he told me he had found the queen that morning dead. On - showing her to me, we found she was alive, but of course none the more - lively for the sulphuring of the previous night. - - I begged her, took her home, and put her under a finger-glass with - a little honey. I then got down from my store-closet my box of - honey-comb untouched, cut away a good bit of honey, leaving sixteen - or seventeen pounds. I carried it back to its old spot, opened the - communication, and soon had a good number of the little manufacturers - in their old quarters. Towards night I closed the communication again, - stopped them in, and carried the old hive away about fifty yards. This - done, I opened the ventilator at the top of the box, and inserted - the strange queen, and put the inverted finger-glass over to see - the effect. They seemed in a moment to be in a strange commotion, - apparently receiving her majesty with hurrahs, as the popular - candidate at an election is received. - - The next morning they seemed quite satisfied, and I noticed pollen - taken in, and a struggle once or twice with a drone which had - remained--there may have been seven or eight of these gentlemen in - my experimental colony. Of course, the carrying in pollen was soon - discontinued, as there was no brood to feed; the material, weighing - sixteen pounds, being all honey and wax. I also saw them active in - defence of their homes against the wasps; and although some wasps - contrived to enter, I have seen the bees bring out their corpses now - and then since, showing that they appear right. - - To-day, the sun shining very bright and the temperature being warm, I - am flabbergasted by seeing crowds of drones going in and out, and no - slaughtering of these now unnecessary mouths. I say, can all be right? - Is the queen still alive? My little friends fight the wasps, and go in - and out; but what meaneth this crowd of drones? - - Will you excuse my putting my case to you? for I am a lover of bees, - but not very learned in the matter. - - I should like to make my one cast-off stock two for next year by this - artificial means, besides getting my honey; and so be in a good - position to preach to the bee-killers the folly as well as cruelty of - bee-murder. - - I enclose a stamped envelope, and remain, Sir, - - Yours faithfully, - - Orlando William Forrester. - -This is a very interesting letter. Is it possible that the drones arriving -from other hives, and entering when the queen was alone, were really -suitors for her majesty's choice? - -I do not like artificial swarming. I prefer to follow the instinct of the -bees, not to create new relations: others think otherwise. - - * * * * * - - _Brighton, August 30th._ - - Sir,--I trust you will excuse the liberty I have taken in addressing - you on purely personal matters. Your kindly, genial letters in _The - Times_ have induced me to do so. We wish greatly to increase a very - small income, and you have so strongly advocated the care of "bees," - as both remunerative and agreeable, that we wish to try on rather a - large scale. I should not have troubled you on this subject, as you - have intimated your intention of publishing, but that I feared the - season for procuring stock would be over before the book appeared. - We wish to commence with not less than fifty hives; and, as many of - the authorities we have consulted are very conflicting, I have taken - the liberty of begging your aid in our dilemma. Might I trespass upon - your kindness so far as to ask your opinion as to the best method of - purchasing _bees_; also the best description of hives? With regard - to their care during winter, and their general management, we shall - doubtless be fully informed in your book. - - Again apologising for thus troubling you, - - I am, Sir, yours obediently, - - A. A. M. - -If you buy stock-hives this autumn, you must see to it that-- - - 1. They are not very old. - - 2. That they weigh from twenty to thirty pounds. - - 3. They must be transported by water, or carried one at each end - of a pole on a man's shoulder. - - 4. Let them swarm next summer, and thus multiply your stock. - - 5. If you wait till spring, buy swarms, which is the best way. - -Fifty swarms, gathered from cottagers, would cost 25_l._ - -Begin with fewer, and increase gradually. - - _Faringdon, August 11th._ - - Sir,--I have bees in the common cottage hive, the honey of which I - wish to take without destroying the bees. I am told I can fumigate - them with puff-ball. I tried doing so, but killed my bees. I was - afterwards told I could fumigate them with chloroform; this I also - tried, but--whether the chloroform was good or bad I cannot say--I - failed again. - - Three or four years since I heard that a person offered a friend to - take his honey for him, if he would give him the bees. The offer being - accepted, the person fumigated the bees, took the honey from them for - his friend, and carried the bees to his own home, where, in the end of - October following, after giving them six pounds of moist sugar in ale, - they contrived to fill the hive with comb and honey, and the whole - weighed nearly twenty-five pounds. - - Some people think it a good plan to drum the bees; but I should fear - to rely on it. And if you did not object kindly to advise me, as you - have had so much experience, what plan you consider best to deprive - them without destroying them, I should esteem it a very great favour; - and hoping you will not consider me very impertinent in seeking your - advice, - - I remain yours truly, - - J. H. - -You must have depriving hives. You must take from the bees their surplus -honey, only leaving them twenty or twenty-five pounds of honey for the -winter. To take the honey out of a common skep, you must either burn the -bees or leave them to perish of hunger--alternatives too barbarous to be -thought of. - - * * * * * - - _Gravesend._ - - Sir,--Having read with interest your letters in _The Times_ about - bees, I thought you might like to see the following extract, which I - met with the other day. I always think that the cottagers waste much - honey, and my husband and I have frequently thought that it might be - made quite a productive source of income to them; but I fear that in - these parts the plan of supers, nadirs, &c., would be above their - comprehension. If you think that clay hives are suitable to this - climate, you might give a hint in _The Times_. - - Obediently yours, - - F. Q. - - "The production of honey is one of the chief sources of wealth to this - place, and the bee-hives deserve a passing notice. Each household - possesses some sixteen or twenty hives, arranged with marvellous - economy of space. The hive consists of a tube, of the diameter of a - large gas-pipe, about four feet long, made of sun-dried clay, and - laid longitudinally on the ground, four or five abreast. On these - are piled, according to the wealth of the owner, a cone of twelve or - fifteen more, forming a pyramid, and the whole plastered over with - mud. The apertures at each end of the tubes are likewise closed with - mud, leaving a small opening for the bees, exactly in the centre. A - bush is stuck into the ground at each end, to shade the hives and to - assist the bees in alighting. The produce of these spacious hives - must be enormous; and the bees are never killed, the hives being - simply robbed twice a year by the removal of the plaster at each end, - when the honey is drawn out by an iron hook. All portions of comb - containing young bees are carefully replaced; and on these hills, with - their short winter and abundance of aromatic herbs, nothing more is - required. Of course we invested in Palestine honey, which has all the - aromatic flavour of that of Hymettus or Hybla."--_Extracted from "A - Winter Ride in Palestine, by the Rev. H. B. Tristram," contained in - "Vacation Tourists; or, Notes on Travel in 1862-1863_." - - [Illustration] - - - LONDON; PRINTED BY EDMUND EVANS, RAQUET COURT, FLEET STREET. - - - * * * * * - - - =A List of Books= - - PUBLISHING BY - - _SAMPSON LOW, SON, and MARSTON._ - - _MILTON HOUSE, LUDGATE HILL, LONDON._ - - [Illustration] - - [Asterism] _When the price is not given, the work was not ready at the - time of issuing this list._ - - [May 1, 1866. - - -=NEW ILLUSTRATED WORKS.= - - THE GREAT SCHOOLS OF ENGLAND. A History of the Foundation, Endowments, - and Discipline of the chief Seminaries of Learning in England; - including Eton, Winchester, Westminster, St. Paul's, Charterhouse, - Merchant Taylors', Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury, &c.; with notices of - distinguished Scholars. By Howard Staunton, Esq. With numerous - Illustrations. One volume 8vo., handsomely bound in cloth, price - 12_s._ - - "_The book is as full of solid matter as of gossiping narrative - and pleasant anecdote. 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By the Author of "The Stories that Little Breeches told." - With 16 large Engravings on Steel, Plain, 5_s._; coloured, 7_s._ - 6_d._ - - "_Among all the Christmas bookmen Mr. Charles Bennett ranks first, - for he who best pleases children has the best right to priority - in a notice of Christmas books, and to all his productions we - venture to prefer 'Noodle-doo;' it will make the youngsters crow - again with delight._"--Standard. - - _Also, now ready, same size and price, and full of Illustrations._ - - Great Fun for our Little Friends. By Harriet Myrtle. - More Fun for our Little Friends. By the same Author. - The Book of Blockheads. By Charles Bennett. - The Stories that Little Breeches told. By the same Author. - Mr. Wind and Madame Rain. Illustrated by Charles Bennett. - - Paul Duncan's Little by Little; a Tale for Boys. Edited by Frank - Freeman. With an Illustration by Charles Keene. Fcap. 8vo. cloth - 2_s._; gilt edges, 2_s._ 6_d._ Also, same price. - - Boy Missionary; a Tale for Young People. By Mrs. J. M. Parker. - Difficulties Overcome. By Miss Brightwell. - The Babes in the Basket: a Tale in the West Indian Insurrection. - Jack Buntline; the Life of a Sailor Boy. By W. H. G. Kingston. - - The Swiss Family Robinson; or, the Adventures of a Father and Mother - and Four Sons on a Desert Island. With Explanatory Notes and - Illustrations. First and Second Series. New Edition, complete in - one volume, 3_s._ 6_d._ - - Geography for my Children. By Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Author of - "Uncle Tom's Cabin," &c. Arranged and Edited by an English Lady, - under the Direction of the Authoress. With upwards of Fifty - Illustrations. Cloth extra, 4_s._ 6_d._ - - Stories of the Woods; or, the Adventures of Leather-Stocking: A Book - for Boys, compiled from Cooper's Series of "Leather-Stocking - Tales." fcap. cloth. 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By the Author of "The Picture Alphabet" - and "The Picture Primer." With 120 Pictures. 1_s._ - - The Picture Alphabet; or Child's First Letter Book. With new and - original Designs. 6_d._ - - The Picture Primer. 6_d._ - - -=HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.= - - The Conspiracy of Count Fieschi: an Episode in Italian History. By M. - De Celesia. Translated by David Hilton, Esq., Author of a "History - of Brigandage." With Portrait. 8vo. [_Shortly._ - - A Biography of Admiral Sir P. B. V. Broke, Bart, K.C.B. By the - Rev John Brighton, Rector of Kentstown. Dedicated by express - permission to His Royal Highness Prince Alfred. Toned medium 8vo, - cloth extra, 20_s._ - - A History of Brigandage in Italy; with Adventures of the more - celebrated Brigands. By David Hilton, Esq. 2 vols, post 8vo. - cloth, 16_s._ - - A History of the Gipsies, with Specimens of the Gipsy Language. By - Walter Simson. 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But if he - has gone he has left us his vastly entertaining volumes, which - contain much valuable information, as we have said, concerning - the Esquimaux tribes. These volumes are the best that we have - ever met with, concerning the people and things to be found - among the thick ribb'd ice.'_"--Standard. - - "_The pen of Wilkie Collins would fail to describe in more - life-like terms of horror the episode of the cannibal crew - escaped from a whaler who boarded the 'George Henry' on the - outward passage of that ship. We are tempted to relate how - an Innuit throws a summersault in the water in his kyack, - boat and all, and to introduce our readers to our Author's - dogs, including the famous Barbekerk; but we must pause, and - refer to this most interesting work itself, which will repay - perusal._"--Press. - - A Winter in Algeria, 1863-4. By Mrs. George Albert Rogers. With - illustrations. 8vo. cloth, 12_s._ - - Ten Days in a French Parsonage. By Rev. G. M. 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Post 8vo. cloth - extra, 8_s._ 6_d._; cheap edition, small post 8vo. 5_s._ - - _This edition, as well as its immediate predecessor, includes all - the researches and observations of the last three years, and is - copyright in England and on the Continent._ - - "We err greatly if Lieut. Maury's book will not hereafter be - classed with the works of the great men who have taken the lead - in extending and improving knowledge and art; his book displays - in a remarkable degree, like the 'Advancement of Learning,' - and the 'Natural History' of Buffon, profound research and - magnificent imagination."--_Illustrated London News_. - - The Structure of Animal Life. By Louis Agassiz. With 46 Diagrams. 8vo. - cloth, 10_s._ 6_d._ - - The Kedge Anchor; or, Young Sailor's Assistant, by William Brady. - Seventy Illustrations. 8vo. 16_s._ - - Theory of the Winds, by Capt. Charles Wilkes. 8vo. cl. 8_s._ 6_d._ - - Archaia; or, Studies of the Cosmogony and Natural History of the - Hebrew Scriptures. By Professor Dawson, Principal of McGill - College, Canada. Post 8vo. cloth, cheaper edition, 6_s._ - - Ichnographs, from the Sandstone of the Connecticut River, - Massachusetts. U. S. A. By James Dean, M.D. One volume, 4to. with - Forty-six Plates, cloth, 27_s._ - - The Recent Progress of Astronomy, by Elias Loomis, LL.D. 3rd Edition. - Post 8vo. 7_s._ 6_d._ - - An Introduction to Practical Astronomy, by the Same. 8vo. cloth. 8_s._ - - Manual of Mineralogy, including Observations on Mines, Rocks, - Reduction of Ores, and the Application of the Science to the - Arts, with 260 Illustrations. Designed for the Use of Schools - and Colleges. By James D. Dana. A.M., Author of a "System of - Mineralogy." New Edition, revised and enlarged. 12mo. Half bound, - 7_s._ 6_d._ - - The Ocean Telegraph Cable; its Construction, &c. and Submersion - Explained. By W. Rowett. 8vo. cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._ - - Cyclopædia of Mathematical Science, by Davies and Peck. 8vo. Sheep. - 18_s._ - - -=TRADE, AGRICULTURE, DOMESTIC ECONOMY, ETC.= - - RAILWAY PRACTICE, European and American; comprising the economical - generation of Steam, the adaptation of Wood and Coke-burning - Engines to Coal Burning, and in Permanent Way, including - Road-bed, Sleepers, Rails, Joint-fastenings, Street Railways. - &c. By Alexander L. Holley, Joint Author of Colburn and Holley's - "Permanent Way," &c. Demy folio, with 77 Engravings, half-morocco. - 3_l._ 3_s._ - - Hunt's Merchants' Magazine (Monthly). 2_s._ 6_d._ - - The Book of Farm Implements, and their Construction; by John L. - Thomas. With 200 Illustrations. 12mo. 6_s._ 6_d._ - - The Practical Surveyor's Guide; by A. Duncan. Fcp. 8vo. 4_s._ 6_d._ - - Villas and Cottages; by Calvert Vaux, Architect. 300 Illustrations. - 8vo. cloth. 12_s._ - - Bee-Keeping. By "The Times" Bee-master. Small post 8 vo. numerous - Illustrations, cloth, 5_s._ - - "_The Bee-master has done a good work, which outweighs a cartload - of mistakes, in giving an impetus to bee-keeping throughout the - country. Here is a simple and graceful amusement, which is also - a profitable one. The keeping of bees needs no great skill and - but a small outlay. The result, however, besides the amusement - which it accords is a store of honey that in the present state - of the market may make a considerable addition to the income - of a poor cotter, and may even be worthy the ambition of an - underpaid curate or a lieutenant on half-pay._"--Times, Jan. 11, - 1865. - - The English and Australian Cookery Book. Small post 8vo. Coloured - Illustrations, cloth extra, 4_s._ 6_d._ - - The Bubbles of Finance: the Revelations of a City Man. Fcap. 8vo. - fancy boards, price 2_s._ 6_d._ - - _The Times of May 21st in a leading article referring to the above - work, says:--"We advise our young friends to read some amusing - chapters on accommodation' and 'borrowing' which have appeared - within the last two months in Mr. Charles Dickens's_ All the - Year Round." - - Coffee: A Treatise on its Nature and Cultivation. With some remarks - on the management and purchase of Coffee Estates. By Arthur R. W. - Lascelles. Post 8vo. cloth, 2_s._ 6_d._ - - The Railway Freighter's Guide. Defining mutual liabilities of Carriers - and Freighters, and explaining system of rates, accounts, - invoices, checks, booking, and permits, and all other details - pertaining to traffic management, as sanctioned by Acts of - Parliament, Bye-laws, and General Usage. By J. S. Martin. 12mo. - Cloth, 2_s._ 6_d._ - - -THEOLOGY. - - The Land and the Book, or Biblical Illustrations drawn from the - Manners and Customs, the Scenes and the Scenery of the Holy Land, - by W. M. Thomson, M.D., twenty-five years a Missionary in Syria - and Palestine. With 3 Maps and several hundred Illustrations. 2 - vols. Post 8vo. cloth. 1_l._ 1_s._ - - Missionary Geography for the use of Teachers and Missionary - Collectors. Fcap. 8vo. with numerous maps and illustrations, 3_s._ - 6_d._ - - A Topographical Picture of Ancient Jerusalem; beautifully coloured. - Nine feet by six feet, on rollers, varnished. 3_l._ 3_s._ - - Nature and the Supernatural. By Horace Bushnell D.D. One vol. New - Edition. Post 8vo. cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._ Also by the same Author. - - Dr. Bushnell's Christian Nurture. 1_s._ 6_d._ - Dr. Bushnell's Character of Jesus. 6_d._ - Dr. Bushnell's New Life. 1_s._ 6_d._ - Dr. Bushnell's Work and Play. 2_s._ 6_d._ - - Five Years' Prayer, with the Answers: comprising recent Narratives - and Incidents in America, Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland &c. - By D. Samuel Irenæus Prime. 12mo. cloth, 2_s._ 6_d._; and a Cheap - Edition, price 1_s._ Also by the same Author. - - The Power of Prayer. 12mo. cloth. 1_s._ 6_d._ - - The Light of the World: a most True Relation of a Pilgrimess - travelling towards Eternity. Divided into Three Parts; which - deserve to be read, understood, and considered by all who desire - to be saved Reprinted from the edition of 1696. Beautifully - printed by Clay on toned paper. Crown 8vo. pp. 593, bevelled - boards, 10_s._ 6_d._ - - A Short Method of Prayer; an Analysis of a Work so entitled by - Madame de la Mothe-Guyon; by Thomas C. Upham, Professor of Mental - and Moral Philosophy in Bowdoin College. U.S. America. Printed by - Whittingham. 12mo. cloth. 1_s._ - - Christian Believing and Living. By F. D. Huntington, D.D. Crown 8vo. - cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._ - - "_For freshness of thought, power of illustration, and evangelical - earnestness, these writers [Dr. Huntington and Dr. Bushnell] are - not surpassed by the ablest theologians in the palmiest days of - the Church._"--Caledonian Mercury. - - Lite Thoughts. By the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. Two Series complete - in one volume, well printed and well bound. 2_s._ 6_d._ Superior - edition, illustrated with ornamented borders. Sm. 4to. cloth - extra, 7_s._ 6_d._ - - Dr. Beecher's Life and Correspondence: an Autobiography Edited by his - Son. 2 vols, post 8vo. with Illustrations, price 21_s._ - - "_One of the most real, interesting, and instructive pieces of - religious biography of the present day._"--Nonconformist. - - "_We have waited for the publication of the second and last volume - of this interesting, we may well say entertaining, biography, - before introducing It to our readers. It is now complete, and - furnishes one of the most various and delightful portraits of - a fine, sturdy, old representative of ancient theology and - earnest piety, relieved by very sweet and engaging pictures - of New England society in its religious circles, and the - ways and usages of the men and women who lived, and loved, - and married, and had families nearly a century since.... And - now we must lay down these very delightful volumes. We trust - we have sufficiently characterized them while there are, of - course, reminiscences, pictures of places and of persons we - have been unable even to mention. It was an extraordinary - family altogether; aglow of bright, affectionate interest - suffuses all in charming sunshine. It was a life of singular - purpose, usefulness, and determination and ice think ministers - especially, and of ministers young students especially, might - read it, and read it more than once, to advantage.... Without - attempting any more words, we hope we have sufficiently - indicated our very high appreciation of, and gratitude for, this - charming and many-sided biography of a most robust and healthy - life._"--The Eclectic. - - "_All that the old man writes is clever and sagacious._"--Athenæum - - "_If the reader can imagine the Vicar of Wakefield in America, - this memoir will give a very good idea of what he would be - among Yankee surroundings. There is the same purity, sincerity, - and goodness of heart, the same simplicity of manners and - directness of purpose in Dr. Primrose and Dr. Beecher, though - the go-ahead society in which the latter divine lived failed not - to impress its character upon him. This is as instructive and - charming a book for family reading as can be taken up for that - purpose._"--Daily News. - - "_A hundred pleasant things we must pass by; but readers of these - charming volumes will not do so._"--Wesleyan Times. - - Life and Experience of Madame de la Mothe Guyon. By Professor Upham. - Edited by an English Clergyman. 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