Read Ebook: Bee-Keeping by Cumming John

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Ebook has 130 lines and 20991 words, and 3 pages

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.

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.

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.

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 , that as mine is a late swarm , 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

For Ayrshire hive, write to "Mr. Bruce Taylor, Post-office, Mauchlin, Ayrshire, N.B."

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.

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.

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 . 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.

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