A Manual or an Easy Method of Managing Bees

by John M. Weeks

Bees are creatures of habit, and the exercise of caution in managing them is required. A stock of bees should be placed where they are to stand through the season before they form habits of location, which will take place soon after they commence their labors in the spring. They learn their home by the objects surrounding them in the immediate vicinity of the hive. Moving them, (unless they are carried beyond their knowledge,) is often fatal to them. The old bees forget their new location, and on their return, when collecting stores, they haze about where they formerly stood, sad perish. I have known some fine stocks ruined by moving them six feet and from that to a mile and a half. It is better to move them before swarming than afterwards. The old bees only will be lost. As the young ones are constantly hatching, their habits will be formed at the new stand, and the combs will not be as likely to become vacated, so as to afford opportunity to the moths to occupy any part of their ground.

Swarms, when first hived, may be moved at pleasure without loss of bees, admitting they are all in the hive; their habits will be formed in exact proportion to their labors.—The first bee that empties his sack and goes forth in search of food, is the one whose habits are first established. I have observed many bees to cluster near the place where the hive stood, but a few hours after hiving, and perish. Now if the swarm had been placed in the apiary, immediately after they were hived, the number of bees found there would have been less.

Bees may be moved at pleasure at any season of the year, if they are carried several miles, so as to be beyond their knowledge of country. They may be carried long journeys by travelling nights only, and affording them opportunity to labor and collect food in the day time.

The importance of this part of bee-management is the only apology I can make for dwelling so long on this point. I have known many to suffer serious losses in consequence of moving their bees after they were well settled in their labors.

Bees should never be irritated, under any pretence whatever. They should be treated with attention and kindness. They should be kept undisturbed by cattle and all other annoyances, so that they may be approached at any time with safety.

An apiary should be so situated, that swarming may be observed, and at the same time where the bees can obtain food easily, and in the greatest abundance.

It has been a general practice to front bee-houses either to the east or south. This doctrine should be exploded with all other whims. Apiaries should be so situated as to be convenient to their owner, as much as any other buildings.

I have them front towards all the cardinal points, but can distinguish no difference in their prosperity.

Young swarms should be scattered as much as convenient during the summer season, at least eight feet apart. They should be set in a frame and so covered as to exclude the sun and weather from the hive.

It is not surprising that this branch of rural economy, in consequence of the depredations of the moth, is so much neglected.—Notwithstanding, in some parts of our country, the business of managing bees has been entirely abandoned for years, I am confident they may be cultivated in such a manner as to render them more profitable to their owners, than any branch of agriculture, in proportion to the capital necessary to be invested in their stock. They are not taxable property, neither does it require a large land investment, nor fences; neither does it require the owner to labor through the summer to support them through the winter.—Care is, indeed, necessary, but a child, or a superannuated person can perform most of the duties of an apiarian. The cobwebs must be kept away from the immediate vicinity of the hive, and all other annoyances removed.