CHAPTER IX.
QUANTITY OF HONEY NECESSARY TO MAINTAIN A HIVE.
The quantity varies according to the climate. In southern countries, where there is scarcely any winter, the bees gather food till towards the end of autumn, and the flowers offer them pasture again very early in the spring. In these countries, therefore, they require a smaller winter store than in colder climates. The directions I am about to give, are only applicable to Switzerland, or to those countries which nearly resemble it in point of temperature. Every hive ought to have at least three pots of honey to nourish it during the winter; and, as the pot of honey, Neuchatel measure, weighs rather more than five pounds, of seventeen ounces to the pound, there should be fully fifteen pounds of honey allowed to each hive. Whether the swarm be strong or weak, large or small, is of no consequence, as the smallest swarm will consume as much as a large one. If they have less than that allowance, they may linger through the winter, but will be sure to die if the spring happens to be a late one, and the weather cold and rainy. If a hive is expected to swarm, it should be allowed a quarter more in the autumn, that is, twenty pounds of honey: or it may be supplied after another manner, which I shall point out. But let there be no higgling with bees; better that they have too much than too little: more prudent than man, they never waste or abuse their superfluity.
In estimating the quantity of provisions that a hive contains, its age should be considered; and it is to be taken into account, that the black combs of old hives weigh ten times more than the white combs of a young one. It becomes, therefore, a matter of importance to know the weight of the empty hive, without which the quantity of provision cannot be estimated, and to weigh it again at the end of the honey season. When a swarm of the present year, at the end of autumn, weighs fifteen or sixteen pounds more than its original weight, I take nothing from it, and I give it nothing, being certain that it can maintain itself, if not plundered. If it has twenty-five, or even thirty pounds, neither do I touch it, as it will prosper so much the better next year. As to old hives, they ought, at the beginning of winter, to weigh twenty-five pounds above their original weight. I willingly leave them thirty or thirty-six pounds. The remainder I consider my own, and of course take it away.
Some people will wonder at the quantity of provisions which I leave to my hives; but it is the true means, I may say the true secret, by which to insure swarms, for a starved one never produces. To this I have seen only one exception. I lavished honey upon a hive in spring, when it was crowded with bees, which were in want; this enabled it to give out a late swarm, but it never prospered. What surplus I bestow upon them, I consider as not lost, and that, sooner or later, it will return to me. Besides, the consumption is prodigious during the great hatching in the months of March, April, and May. It requires an incredible quantity to nourish the young in the state of larvæ or worms. The larvæ are involved in a kind of pap, which its nurses lavish upon it, and which is chiefly composed of honey. If, at this time, there should happen to be whole weeks of cold rainy weather, and high winds, which is sometimes the case at that season, the poor bees, unable to get to the fields, will suffer severely if they have not honey in store; the hatching is interrupted till the return of fine weather; and the population makes no progress: while, in well provisioned hives, it goes on without intermission. Bees are very saving; but it is to our profit. Let us not deal grudgingly with them.
Nevertheless, it is not advantageous to leave them greatly too much honey,—excessive super-abundance annoys them. In plentiful seasons, I have seen middling sized straw-hives in which the combs were filled with honey down to the very boards. This happens especially when the bees have enriched themselves with plunder in the autumn; and there are two inconveniences attending it; first, the bees have not room to deposit their brood, which, by the time the swarms are ready to go off, fills the hive almost entirely; secondly, the old honey candies, and, in that state, it is of no use to the bees. When hives are to be renewed by the cutting out of old combs, it is this kind that should, above all, be taken away. It is always to be found in old hives; and if it has been left several winters in the hive, it sours and contracts a disagreeable taste. The best use that can then be made of it is to dissolve it with more or less wine, and feed the bees with it on the approach of the swarming season; above all, when the weather is cold and rainy. Their activity is then increased by it.
These succours will not be found superfluous even when the trees are in flower. In fine weather they find honey in abundance on them; but, should a few rainy days interrupt their labours, and throw them upon their own resources, the progress of the hatching is stopped, and injury is done to all.
CHAPTER X.
THE USE OF CAPES OR HOODS.
Well made straw-hives ought to have a hole in the top, of about an inch or an inch and a half in diameter, which may be closed with a cork or stopper of wood. This stopper may be drawn out when it is found advisable to put a cape or hood on it, so as to give the bees more room to deposit their honey. These capes are little straw-hives capable of containing five or six pounds of honey-comb, or more, according to the size of the hive on which they are placed. They are made very thin and light: the cords of straw of which they are formed are very small, being not intended to keep in the heat, but merely to serve as a temporary magazine for the honey.