The Bee Preserver; or, Practical Directions for the Management and Preservation of Hives

by Jonas de Gélieu

CHAPTER VI.
THICKNESS OR SOLIDITY OF HIVES.

Whatever may be the form or material of which hives are made, I strongly recommend not to be sparing of it, but to make them substantial. I would recommend that the boards of the wooden ones be an inch and a half thick; and that the straw-ropes of which the others are composed, be well twisted, and more than an inch in diameter. Such hives will be heavier and more unwieldy than thin hives, but they afford a better protection from the sun in summer, and the frost in winter. The heat of the sun is apt to melt the combs in summer: in winter the cold sometimes candies, and renders them useless; and, in the spring, the thin hives neither retain the heat necessary for hatching the eggs, nor for preserving the honey in a liquid state. One may easily be convinced of this, by laying some folds of linen on the top of the hive, and then passing the hand between them, and there will be a degree of warmth felt, which never happens where the hives are thick enough. They may be a little more costly, but the expence is more than compensated by the prosperity of the bees.

CHAPTER VII.
SIZE OF THE APERTURE OR ENTRANCE OF HIVES.

It is of great importance to widen or contract the entrance, according to the season, or to the strength of the swarms; and for this purpose it is only necessary to have a few little wedges, or bits of wood, that may be taken out or put in at pleasure. Hives are weak in spring, because the bees are engaged in the interior, keeping warm, and taking care of the young, and the guard at the door is not strong enough to prevent invaders. Contract the door, therefore, and four bees will defend it better than thirty would do, if it were more spacious, and enlarge it again by degrees, according to the increase of the population. The working bees must have room enough to go out and in without hindrance; when they begin to crowd together in groups at the entrance, it is a sign of the interior being filled, and they should then have free access, as they will be strong enough to resist pillage. When the cluster becomes very large, which it will do as the drones increase, enlarge the entrance as much as possible. It is even advisable sometimes to open the hive a little at the top, in order to moderate, by a current of air, the excessive heat that forces the bees to the outside; and this is the only case in which there is any advantage in lofty hives. After the destruction of the drones, the population diminishes, and the bees no longer cluster outside, and then is the time to begin, by degrees, to contract the entrance, in order to prevent plunder.

For this purpose, I use little wooden wedges first, because they cost nothing, as any body may make them with a knife and a bit of stick; and, secondly, because they help to protect them from the moths, which make sad havoc when once they gain access to a hive. They deposit their eggs in the interstices between the wedges and the hives, and they are hatched by the heated vapour that is expelled by the constant vibration of the wings of the bees. In the fine weather of April or May, I inspect my hives twice or three times a-week, before the bees go out in the morning, take out the wedges, and scrape and clean them with my knife; and, in this way, I protect them from the moths.

CHAPTER VIII.
TO ASCERTAIN THE WEIGHT OF HIVES.

Many apiaries do not prosper, in consequence of the ignorance of those who have the care of them. How many people follow blindly the way they have been used to, without knowing wherefore; others go on by chance, without rule or guide. At one time they ruin their hives, by depriving them of too much of their honey; at another, they suffer whole colonies to die of hunger, when they might save them by giving them food; and, in autumn, they suffocate those that appear to be destitute of provisions, because they know not how or in what manner to preserve them. Few amateurs understand thoroughly the state and wants of their hives, and generally estimate them by lifting them up to feel their weight; and, as this may be the cause of numerous mistakes, some being three or four times heavier than others, it is of the utmost importance to know the exact weight of each hive, when empty, without either combs or bees. For this purpose, I expressly recommend, that each hive be weighed before putting a swarm into it, and the weight noted down in a memorandum book, as well as on a ticket nailed on the hive, the use of which we shall soon see.