When a hive or glass of honey is taken, it ought not to be left till the Bees are all out of it, for it is very likely to be attacked by robbers, thus a great part of it will be carried away in a short time, and what is left rendered unfit for sale, on account of the cells being opened, from which the honey will drain out, upon the position of the hive being changed.
Robbers may be known by their desire to enter the hive or glass, the Bees belonging to it, being separated from their Queen, fly home immediately upon leaving it.
In taking off a box of honey it will be found convenient to pass a very thin knife, or fine wire between the hives or boxes intended to be separated; if that precaution be not taken, a piece of comb frequently projects from the top of the one left, or the bottom of that taken, which causes much trouble to the operator: two adapters ([fig. 5.]) placed between the boxes will be found very convenient, for the knife or wire will only have to be passed between them, and the danger of breaking the combs will be obviated—they should be made of mahogany, for it will allow of being worked very thin, without the risk of warping; they are three eights of an inch thick, twelve inches square, with a circular hole in the middle four inches in diameter.
To expel the bees from the box or hive when taken off, Gelieu says, "Take a hive or box of the same size, place it over the full one that is turned upside down, bind them round with a napkin, to intercept all passage to the bees, and force them to ascend into the empty box, by tapping gently on the full one. They soon go up into the empty box, and when they are all housed, replace them on the parent hive, whence they were withdrawn; and if the season is favourable and the honey abundant, they soon set to work again."
Honey taken by this method is acknowledged to be very superior in quality to that obtained by the usual barbarous and unprofitable manner of burning the Bees, which arises from the combs in which it is deposited being new and perfectly white, the early period at which it is collected, and from its being unmixed with honey gathered later in the season as well as from the Queen very rarely ascending through the opening at the top of the improved cottage hive, that neither brood nor farina are found amongst it.
This honey sells readily at two shillings a pound, whilst that obtained by burning the Bees, is scarcely saleable at eightpence.
It is usual to obtain from every good stock twenty or perhaps thirty pounds of honey annually. I once obtained forty-five pounds, leaving the stock rich in honey.
It is frequently asked what becomes of the Bees managed on this system, if they are never suffered to swarm nor are destroyed;—the hives will never contain them? To which I would reply, that it is well known to those who are conversant in the care of Bees, that their numbers decrease greatly in Autumn, not only by the destruction of the drones, but also by the unavoidable deaths of many of the working Bees, owing to the thousand accidents they meet with in the fields, and to age;[8] a much less space therefore is wanted for them in the winter than was necessary in the summer.
[8] Mr. Purchas, in his "Theatre of Political Flying Insects," published in 1657—says, "it is manifest that the Honey Bees are but yearly creatures," and when giving the sentiments of Aristotle, Pliny, Columella, Cardanus, and others, he says, "the truth is, notwithstanding these men's opinion, that Bees live but a year and a quarter at most, for those Bees that are seen in May, lusty, full, brown, smooth, well winged, will, by the end of July following, begin to wither, become lesse, look gray, and have their wings tottered, and tom, and bee all dead before the end of August."