Storifying means the piling of hives or boxes upon each other, as shown in the above plate, and preserving a free communication between them; a method which enables the apiarian to take wax and honey without destroying the lives of the bees.
Attempts have been made to accomplish this object in different ways. Thorley placed empty hives or boxes over full ones, Wildman and Keys placed full boxes over empty ones, White and Madame Vicat placed them collaterally.
Hives and boxes for storifying, as well as for observing the operations of the bees, have been made of various forms and dimensions, and of different materials: such as straw, osiers, glass, and wood.
Aristotle, Pliny, and other ancient writers, speak of contrivances for taking honey, and inspecting the operations of the bees. Modern writers, particularly Mouffet, ridiculed the ineffectual schemes of their brethren of antiquity, and indeed they were very soon abandoned. The way in which they endeavoured to accomplish their objects, was by the introduction of transparent substances into the sides of the hives or boxes, such as isinglass, horn (cornu laterna), pellucid stone (lapis specularis), probably talc, which is still used in the Russian navy for cabin windows, on account of its not being liable to break by the percussion of the air during the firing of cannon, or in tempestuous weather.
Mr. Hartlib’s Commonwealth of Bees, published in 1655, contains the first account, I have seen, of bee-boxes being employed in this country. He speaks of “an experiment of glassen hives invented by Mr. W. Mew, Minister of Easlington in Gloucestershire: his boxes were of an octagon shape, and had a glass window in the back.” Soon after, in the year 1675, Jno. Gedde, Esq. published, “A new discovery of an excellent method of Bee-houses and Colonies,” which was intended to preserve the lives of the bees: he obtained a patent for his boxes from King Charles.
Gedde’s boxes were considerably improved by Joseph Warder, a physician at Croydon, who published an account of them in his work entitled “The true Amazons, or the Monarchy of Bees.” Dr. Warder enriched his account with several curious circumstances respecting bees; some of which will be detailed in a future chapter. The method of these gentlemen seems not to have been generally known; for even Swammerdam, who published in 1680, makes no mention of it. Had Swammerdam known it, he would have been informed of many circumstances, respecting which he was evidently ignorant. This want of Dr. Warder’s information is to be lamented, for Swammerdam was an accurate observer, and a faithful reporter of what he did observe.
Gedde and Warder were succeeded by the Rev. John Thorley of Oxford, who published “An Enquiry into the Nature, Order, and Government of Bees;” and by the Rev. Stephen White of Halton in Suffolk, who wrote on “Collateral Bee-boxes, or an easy and advantageous method of managing Bees.” Collateral boxes have been objected to, because bees, when the boxes are on a level, have laid their eggs promiscuously in both; moreover side boxes occupy a great deal more room than storifying boxes.
Mr. Thorley’s son improved the method of his father. The indefatigable Mr. Wildman devoted much of his time to the same subject: to him we are principally indebted for the present perfection of bee-boxes, and particularly for obtaining fresh honey throughout the season, by means of small glasses ranged upon a flat-topped hive. Vide pages [93] and [99].