HIVING OF SWARMS.
The hiving of bees is a proceeding so well known that it seems unnecessary to offer any observations on the particular method of effecting it.
In every apiary there should be a stock of hives, boxes, &c. always ready before-hand, either for storifying or for single-hiving; a neglect of this precaution will often be productive of great inconvenience and confusion.
It is always desirable to have swarms put into new hives, as old ones often contain the larvæ of moths and other embryo insects, which may prove injurious to the bees. If straw be the material with which they are made, every rough straw should be removed from the interior, otherwise the bees will lose that time in rendering it smooth, which they could employ to greater advantage in gathering honey and constructing combs. For a similar reason, if boxes be preferred, these should be made air-tight with putty or other cement, that the bees may not consume their time in filling the crevices with propolis. If on any occasion the apiarian be induced to have recourse to an old hive, for receiving a swarm, it should, before being used, be dipped into boiling water, to destroy the eggs of moths and other insects, after which it should be made perfectly dry.
In the common straw-hive, two new sticks placed across each other, at the second round of straw from the bottom, will be useful to support the weight of combs: the bees require no aid at the top, to which they will themselves securely attach the combs, as may be seen in hollow trees where bees have taken up their abode.
Dressing the insides of the hives is of doubtful advantage. Some people rub the interior of the hive with balm, bean-tops, fennel, &c. or smear it over with cream and honey. Wildman strongly reprobates this practice, as it gives the bees the trouble of making the hive clean again. If any thing be used, in compliance with custom, sugared or honeyed ale is the most alluring. Keys says that a hive, containing old combs and dressed with sugared ale, will often decoy a swarm to settle in it. Huish recommends sprinkling the interior of the hives with human urine; which he regards as a specific, on account of “its abounding with sugar and salt, two substances of which bees are particularly fond:” if such were the fact, it would I think, be more cleanly, and therefore a preferable plan, to mingle those favourite articles with a little ale or water for this purpose. Huish himself recommends smearing the interior of the hive with honey, when a swarm of bees settle in a situation, from which it cannot be dislodged and made to enter the hive, by shaking or other forcible means. If urine be attractive to bees, its attraction must proceed from other qualities than those which he has mentioned; it does certainly contain a very small portion of salt, but I know of no analysis of healthy human urine, which admits sugar to be a constituent part of it.
A tinkling noise is generally, though I believe erroneously, considered to be useful in inducing bees to settle. Keys recommends the use of a watchman’s rattle, but not till the queen has come forth, for fear of alarming her too soon, nor after the bees have begun to cluster.
Keys advises also the throwing of sand or water among the bees, to make them cluster; likewise the making of some very great noise, such as firing a gun; some have supposed the bees to mistake a loud noise, for thunder foreboding a storm; but this, instead of causing them to settle, would rather cause their return to the parent stock. Dr. Evans suggests the probability of noises being first used, as signals to the neighbours that a swarm was up, and being afterwards continued by habit only. The throwing up of handfuls of dust or sand, is said to make bees descend, when they soar very high; these missiles being mistaken for rain.
Bees, when swarming, are generally peaceable, and if treated gently, may be hived without danger or difficulty. A remarkable instance of their inoffensiveness at this time is related by Mr. Thorley. Wanting to dislodge a swarm from the branches of a codlin-tree, he placed the hive in the hands of his maid-servant, who being a novice, covered her head and shoulders with a cloth, to guard her face; on shaking the tree, most of the bees alighted upon the cloth, and quickly crept under it, covering the girl’s breast and neck up to her very chin. Mr. T. impressed her with the importance of neither flinching from nor buffeting the bees, and began immediately to search for the queen; which on finding, he gently seized and removed, but without effecting a dislodgement of the swarm: thus disappointed, he suspected that there was a second queen; which actually proved to be the case: on securing, and placing her also in the hive, with a portion of the bees, the rest followed in multitudes, till in two or three minutes not one bee remained upon the girl, who was thus released from her state of apprehension and alarm, without feeling the point of a single sting. All persons similarly situated may not be so fortunate, as, notwithstanding the greatest precaution, bees may be provoked to draw their swords. Dr. Evans relates a case of this kind; a swarm having settled on the branch of a larch-tree, and its long tufts of narrow leaves flapping the bees as the bough was shaken, the woman who hived them, received above thirty stings. If the weather be windy, at the time of swarming, they are often irritable, and apt to sting; though clustered, they will frequently return home: this last occurrence is generally caused by the absence of a queen; but it may also be produced by a sudden shower, or by the transit of a dark cloud.
A queen has sometimes a defect in her wings, or is disabled by some accident; either of these misfortunes may cause the return of a swarm, or produce symptoms of discontent after hiving.