Fifty-four Advantages which ought to be found in an improved hive, [95]-[110]. Some desirable qualities the movable comb hive does not pretend to! Is the result of years of study and observation. It has been tested by experience, [111]. Not claimed as a perfect hive. Old-fashioned bee-keepers found most profit, &c. Simplest form of hive, [112]. Bee culture where it was fifty years ago. Best hives. New hive is submitted to the judgment of candid bee-keepers, [113].
Protection against extremes of Heat, Cold and Dampness. Many colonies destroyed by extremes of weather. Evils of thin hives. Bees not torpid in Winter. When frozen are killed, [114]. Take exercise to keep warm. Perish if unable to preserve suitable degree of warmth. Are often starved in the midst of plenty. Eat an extra quantity of food in thin, cold hives, [115]. Muscular exertion occasions waste of muscular fiber. Bees need less food when quiet than when excited. Experiment, wintering bees in a dry cellar, [116]. Protection must generally be given in open air. None but diseased bees discharge fæces in the hive. Moisture, its injurious effects. Free air needful in cold weather, with the common hive, [117]. Loss by their flying out in cold weather. Protection against extremes of weather of the very first importance. Honey, our country favorable to its production. Colonies in forests strong. Reasons for this, [118]. Russian and Polish bee-keepers successful. Their mode of management, [119]. Objection of want of air answered, [120]. Bees need but little air in Winter if protected. Protection in reference to the construction of hives. Double hives, preferable to plank. Made warm in Winter by packing. Double hives, inside may be of glass, [121]. Advantages of glass over wood, [122]. Advantages of double glass. Disadvantages of double hives in Spring. Avoided by the improved hive, [123]. Covered Apiaries exclude the sun in Spring. Reason for discarding them. Sun, its effect in producing early swarms in thin hives. Protected hives fall for want of sun. Enclosed Apiaries, nuisances. Thin hives ought to be given up, they are expensive in waste of honey and bees, [124]. Comparative cheapness of new and old hives, [125]. Protector against injurious weather. Proper location of bees. Preparations for setting hives, [126]. Protector should be open in Summer and banked in Winter. Cheaper than an Apiary. Summer air of Protector like forest air. In Winter uniform and mild, [127]. Bees will not be enticed out in improper weather. Secures their natural heat. Dead bees, &c., to be removed in Winter. Temperature of the Protector, [128]. Importance of the Protector. Its economy in food, [129].
Ventilation. Artificial ventilation produced by bees. Purity of air in the hive, [130]. Bad air fatal to bees, eggs and larvæ, [131]. Bees when disturbed need much air. Dysentery, how produced. Post mortem condition of suffocated bees, [132]. Great annoyance of excessive heat. Bees leave the hive to save the comb. Ventilating instinct wonderful, [133]. Should shame man for his neglect of ventilation. Comparative expense of ventilation to man and bees, [134]. Importance of ventilation to man. Its neglect induces disease, [135]. Plants cannot thrive without free air. The union of warmth and ventilation in Winter an important question. House-builder and stove-maker combine against fresh air, [136]. Run-away slave boxed up. Evil qualities of bad air aggravated by heat. Dwellings and public buildings generally deficient in ventilation. Degeneracy will ensue, [137]. Women the greatest sufferers. Necessity of reform, [138]. Public buildings should be required to have plenty of air. Improved hive, its adaptedness to secure ventilation, [139]. Nutt's hive too complicated. Ventilation independent of the entrance, [140]. Hive may be entirely closed without incommoding the bees. Ventilators should be easily removable to be cleansed. Ventilation from above injurious except when bees are to be moved, [141]. Variable size of the entrance adapts it to all seasons. Ventilators should be closed in Spring. Downing on ventilation, (note,) [142].
Swarming and Hiving. Bees swarming a beautiful sight. Poetic description by Evans. Design of swarming, [143]. The honey bee unlike other insects in its colonizing habits. It is chilled by a temperature below 50 deg. Would perish in Winter if not congregated in masses. Admirable adaptation, [144]. Swarming necessary. Circumstances in which it takes place. June the swarming month. Preparations for swarming. Old queen accompanies the first swarm. No infallible signs of 1st swarming, [145]. Fickleness of bees about swarming. Indications of swarming. Hours of swarming, [146]. Proceedings within the hive before swarming. Interesting scene. Bells and frying-pans useless, [147]. Neglected bees apt to fly away in swarming. Bees properly cared for seldom do it. Methods of arresting their flight when started, [148]. Conduct of bees in disagreeable hives, [149]. Why bees swarm before selecting a new home. They rarely cluster without the queen. Interesting experiment, [150]. Scouts to search for new abodes. Scouts sent out before and after swarming, [151]. Bees remain awhile after alighting. Curious incident stated by Mr. Zollickoffer. Necessity of scouts. Considerations confirmed, [152]. Re-population of the hive, [153]. Inability of bees to find their hive when it has been removed. After swarms, [154]. Different treatment to the cells of dead and living queens. Royal larvæ sometimes protected against the queens. Anger of the queen at such interference, [155]. Second swarming, its indications. Time, [156]. Double swarms. Third swarm. After swarms seriously reduce the strength of the hive. Wise arrangement, [157]. After-swarming avoided by the improved hive. Impregnation of queens. Dangerous for queens to mistake their own hives, [158]. Precautions against this. Proper color for hives. Time of laying eggs. None but worker eggs, the first season, [159]. Directions for hiving. Hives should be painted and well dried. Bees reluctant to enter thin warm hives in the sun, [160]. Management with the improved hives, [161]. Drone combs should never be used as guide comb. Pleasure of bees in finding comb in their new quarters. Bees never voluntarily enter empty hives. Rubbing the hive with herbs useless, [162]. Small trees or bushes in front of hives. Inexperienced Apiarian should wear a bee-dress. Moderate dispatch in hiving needful, [163]. Process of hiving particularly described, [164]. Old method of hiving should be abandoned, [166]. Importance of speedy hiving. Should be moved as soon as hived. Curious fact stated by Dr. Scudamore, (note), [167]. How to secure the queen. She does not sting. Hiving before the hives are ready, [168]. Another method of hiving. Natural swarming profitable. Objections to natural swarming. Common hive gives inadequate winter protection, [169]. With it, the bees often swarm too much. With the improved hive this is avoided. Disadvantages of returning after-swarms. Third objection, inability to strengthen small late swarms, [170]. Evils of feeble stocks. Fourth objection, loss of queen irreparable. By the new hive her loss is easily supplied, [171]. Fifth, common hives inconvenient when bees do not swarm. This objection removed by the new hive. Sixth, the ravages of the moth easily prevented by the improved hive. Seventh, the old queen, when infertile, cannot be removed or replaced. Both can be done by the new hive, [172].
(Two Chapters numbered x, by error of the Press.)
Artificial Swarming. Numerous efforts to dispense with natural swarming. Difficulties of natural swarming. First, many swarms are lost, [173]. Second, time and labor required. Sabbath labor, [174]. Perplexities to farmers. Third, large Apiaries cannot be established, [175]. Fourth, uncertainty of swarming. Disappointments from this source, [176]. Efforts to devise a surer method, [178]. Columellas's mode of obtaining swarms. Hyginus. Small success which attended, those efforts, Schirach's discovery, [179]. Huber's directions. Not adapted to general use. Dividing hives in this country unsuitable. Bees without mature queens make no preparation to rear workers, [180]. Dividing hives to multiply colonies will not answer, [181]. Huber's hive even, inadequate. Common dividing hives unsuccessful. Multiplying by brood comb in an empty hive, vain, [182]. Multiplying by removal and substitution useless. Mortality of bees in working season, [183]. Connecting apartments a failure, [184]. Many prefer non-swarming hives, [185]. Profitable in honey but calculated to exterminate the insect. Improved hive good non-swarmer, if desired. Disadvantages of non-swarming. Queen bee becomes infertile. Remedied by the use of the improved hive, [186]. Practicable mode of artificial swarming, [187]. Bees will welcome to their hives strange bees that come loaded. Will destroy such as come empty, [188]. Forced swarming requires knowledge of the economy of the bee-hive. Common hives give no facility for learning the bee's habits. Equalizing a divided swarm, [190]. Bees in parent hive, if removed, to be confined and watered, [191]. Bees removed will return to their old place. Supplying bees with water by a straw. Water necessary to prepare food for the larvæ, [192]. New forced swarms to be returned to the place of the old one, or removed to a distance. Treatment to wont them to new place in the Apiary, [193]. Bees forget their new locations. Objection to forced swarming in common hives, [194]. Forced swarming by the new hives removes the objection. Mode of forcing swarms by the new hives, [195]. Queen to be searched for. Important that she should be in the right hive, [196]. Convenience of forced swarming in supplying extra queens. Mode of supplying them. Should be done by day light and in pleasant weather, [197]. Honey-water not to be used. Safety to the operator. Forced swarming may be performed at mid-day. Advantages of the shape of the new hive, [198]. Huber's observation on the effect of sudden light in the hive. True solution of the phenomenon. Bees at the top of the hive, less belligerent than those at the bottom, [199]. Sudden jars to be avoided. Removal of honey-board. Sprinkling with sugar-water, [200]. Loosening the frames. Removing the comb. Bees will adhere to their comb, [201]. Natural swarming imitated. How to catch the queen. Frames protected from cold and robbery by bees. Frames returned to the hive. Honey-cover, how managed. Motions of bee-keeper to be gentle. Bees must not be breathed on. Success in the operation certain, [202]. New colonies may be thus formed in ten minutes. Natural swarming wholly prevented. If attempted by the bees cannot succeed. How to remove the wings of the queens, [203]. Precaution against loss of queen by old age. Advantages of this, [204]. Certainty and ease of artificial swarming with the new hive. After-swarms prevented if desired, [205]. Large harvests of honey and after-swarming impracticable. Danger of too rapid increase of stocks. Importance of understanding his object, by the bee-keeper, [206]. The matter made plain, [207]. Apiarians dissuaded from more than tripling their stocks in a year. Tenfold increase of stocks attainable, [209]. Certain increase, not rapid, most needed. Cautions concerning experiments, [210]. Honey, largest yield obtained by doubling colonies. The process, [211]. May be done at swarming time. Bees recognize each other by smell, [213]. Importance of following these directions illustrated. Process of uniting swarms simplified by the new hive, [214]. Very rapid increase of colonies precarious. Mode of effecting the most rapid increase, [215]. Nucleus system, [217]. Can a queen be raised from any egg? Two sorts of workers, wax workers and nurses, [218]. Probable explication of a difficulty, [219]. Experimenting difficult work. Swarming season best time for artificial swarming. Amusing perplexity of bees on finding their hive changed, [220]. Perseverance of bees. Interesting incident illustrating it, [221]. Novel and successful mode of forming nuclei, [223]. Mode of managing nuclei, [225]. Danger of over-feeding. Increasing stocks by doubling hives, [229]. Important rule for multiplying stocks. How to direct the strength of a colony to the rearing of young bees, [230]. Proper dimensions of hives. Reasons therefor, [231]. Easy construction of the improved hive. Precaution of queen bees in their combats, [234]. Reluctance of bees to receive a new queen. Expedient to overcome this. Queen nursery, [235]. Mode of rearing numerous queens, [237]. Control of the comb the soul of good bee-culture. Objection against bee-keeping answered, [233]. No "royal road" to bee-keeping. A prediction, [239].