"I have frequently united three swarms in the same manner, and with the same success, taking care only to empty in the morning those on each side, and to make the Bees enter the middle one in the evening, after it has been sprinkled with honey. In this case I do not remove the one that unites the three swarms."
I have adhered strictly to these directions except in "raising and fixing the table-cloth to the board,"—making the Bees ascend, I have always found to be a slow process, but placing the hive they are to join over them when heaped upon the cloth, is much quicker and equally successful.
Old stocks that are rendered weak by swarming, or by having too much honey taken from them, may be united in the same manner, with this difference only, that double the quantity of honey should be used in sprinkling.
If a stock of Bees, containing fifteen or twenty pounds of honey in September, be carefully managed during the winter, which consists in narrowing the entrance to exclude robbers, carefully covering the hive with a milk-pan, and raising it from the board every month or six weeks to clean it, no doubt can be entertained to its affording a good box of honey.
CHAPTER IX.
Manner of feeding weak Stocks, and the time most appropriate for this operation.
Autumn and Spring are the most proper seasons for supplying weak stocks with food. Bees ought never to be fed during the winter, as food given at that time, not only causes disease, but induces them to go out of their hives, when many of them perish from cold.
Food should be administered only at night, and the sooner after sunset the better; the vessel in which it is given ought to be carefully removed by sunrise the next morning, or robbers will be attracted to the hive by the smell of the honey and far more injury be sustained from them, than the benefit arising to the Bees, from the food given. In feeding, therefore, it will be necessary to observe the greatest neatness. In Autumn, Bees should be fed copiously, those hives containing less than fifteen pounds of honey must be made up to that weight by feeding; the most effectual method I have been able to devise is to excavate a board of four or five inches in thickness, so as to allow a soup plate, or pewter dish to fit into it without rising above its level; this dish may be filled with honey, and covered with pieces of paper to prevent the Bees from being drowned, it may then be placed under the hive at sunset, and a napkin tied round the bottom of it, to prevent any of the Bees from making their escape; in this manner three or four pounds of honey may be given at one time, so that twice feeding, it is supposed will be sufficient for any hive, for if more than this quantity is wanted, the stock must be joined to another as directed in [Chapter VIII]. Should the honey be very thick, a small quantity of warm water may be added to it, in the proportion of half a pint to three pounds of honey, observing to mix them well together.
If the honey be much candied it may be placed over a fire for a few minutes till it becomes liquid—another plan of feeding is to prepare a rim of straw, or a wooden hoop, the exact size of the hive, and four inches deep, within which place the dish of honey, and put the hive over it, making the union secure with a napkin.
In the Spring, Bees should be fed sparingly, three or four ounces of honey twice in the week, will be found amply sufficient; the easiest method of giving these small quantities is by a vessel of tin, upon the same principle as a bird's fountain, holding about a pound or a pound and half; (see [fig. 9.]) the projecting trough or mouth, must be put in at the entrance of the hive, it is one inch and three quarters wide, and three inches and a half long, covered with a perforated tin: this vessel being filled with honey, has only to be placed in the hive at night, and removed in the morning, the feeder itself effectually stopping up the entrance of the hive.