The management of bees is a delightful employment, and may be pursued with the best success in cities and villages, as well as towns and country. It is a source of great amusement, as well as comfort and profit. They collect honey and bread from most kinds of forest trees, as well as garden flowers, orchards, forests, and fields; all contribute to their wants, and their owner is gratified with a taste of the whole. Sweet mignonette cannot be too highly recommended.—This plant is easily cultivated by drills in the garden, and is one of the finest and richest flowers in the world from which the honey-bee can extract its food.
The Vermont hive is the only one I can use to much advantage or profit, and yet there are some other improvements, which are far superior to the old box. In the summer of 1834, I received in swarms and extra honey from my best stock, thirty dollars; and from my poorest, fifteen dollars. My early swarms afforded extra honey which was sold, amounting to from five to ten dollars each hive; and all ray late swarms which were doubled, stored a sufficient quantity of food to supply them through the following winter.
The rules in the foregoing work, perhaps, may be deemed, in some instances, too particular; yet, in all cases, they will be found to be safe and unfailing in their application, though liable to exceptions, such as are incident to all specific rules.
SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS.
ON RULE FIRST.—The underside of the chamber floor should be planed smooth; then scratched with a sharp scratch, so as to enable the bees to hold fast; otherwise they may fall suddenly upon the bottom board, which may induce them to leave the hive and flee to the woods. That the inside of the hive should be made smooth, is evident from the fact, that comb adheres much more firmly to a smooth board than it doss to the small fibres or splinters which are left by the saw, and is less likely to drop. These remarks were omitted in the work by mistake.
RULE SECOND—ON SWARMING AND HIVING,—The Drawers should be turned, so as to let the bees into them at the time of hiving; unless the swarm is so small that they can locate in a drawer.
REMARKS.—Bees commence making comb, where the whole colony have room to work. Now if the bees can all get into the drawer, they will begin there; of course they will raise young bees and deposit bread in the drawer. If the swarm is so large as to be unable to work in the drawer, there is no danger of letting them in. At the same time there may be danger if they are prevented from entering, because they sometimes go off for want of room in the lower apartment. I therefore, recommend letting the bees into the drawers at the time of hiving them, in all cases, except when the swarms are small, then the rule should be strictly adhered to. Notwithstanding I have hived hundreds of swarms in eight years last past, and have not lost a single swarm by flight to the woods, yet I frequently hear of losses of this kind, which appears to render these remarks necessary. My practice in hiving, is to get the bees into the hive as quick as possible, hang on the bottom board, fasten the same forward by means of the button so as to prevent the escape of any of the bees, except through the mouth of the hive; place the hive immediately where I intend it shall stand through the season. Let the bottom board down 3/8ths of an inch, on the third day after swarming.
REMARKS ON RULE 10.—Small swarms should have the Queens taken from them and the bees returned to the parent stock, so as to keep the old hive well replenished with bees during the moth season; likewise to avoid the loss of the old stock by freezing in the winter. Too much swarming frequently occasions the loss of the old stock the winter following, because their numbers are so reduced that the necessary animal heat cannot be kept up to prevent them from perishing by cold. There may be more than one queen in all swarms after the first[1], as in all cases when bees make one queen they make a plurality of them, and if more than one is hatched at the time of swarming, in the confusion which takes place in the hive, during swarming, all the queens which are hatched will sally forth with the swarm; hence, in taking away queens, the bee master should look for them until the bees begin to return to the parent stock. Cut off a limb and shake the bees on a table to find the queens.