Much has been said against the probable results of this practice: but facts are stubborn things; and luckily for me and my mode of Bee-management, I have an abundance of the most incontrovertible facts to adduce, which will, I think and hope, convince all those who have heretofore entertained doubts upon the subject.
The first movement in my apiarian practice commences with the pavilion of nature. This pavilion, which is equivalent to a cottage-hive, is the subject of my present observations and explanation.
I say, then,—-disturb not this hive—this pavilion of nature: weaken not its population; but support its influence, and extend to it those accommodations which no practice, except my own, has yet put into operation, or made any adequate provision for. This humane practice partakes not of the driving, nor of the fumigating, nor of the robbing system. It is a liberal principle of Bee-cultivation founded on humanity. And it is by such practice that we must succeed, if we hope to be benefited by the culture of Honey-Bees.
[CHAPTER III.]
VENTILATION.
To ascertain the degree of heat in a colony of Bees, and to regulate it by means of ventilation, as circumstances may require, recourse must be had to the use of the thermometer, as will be explained presently. But here I would ask my worthy Bee-keepers, whether, in the course of their experience, they have at any time beheld a honey-comb suspended beneath the pedestal of any of their hives—a circumstance that not unfrequently occurs under old stools? The beautiful appearance of a comb suspended in such a situation is, as it were, the very finger of Providence, pointing out the effects of ventilation, and teaching us by an example the necessity there is for it in a crowded, busy hive. Behold the purity of such a comb; examine the cause of that purity, and you will find that it is owing—solely and undoubtedly owing—to the powerful influence of VENTILATION.
An occurrence of this description, I mean—the discovery of a beautiful comb suspended, as just described, having excited my curiosity and my admiration, led me to inquire into the cause of it, and to study to discover, if by any means I could, why my skilful, little Bees should have constructed their combs in such a situation. My observations soon satisfied me that one of these two causes, viz. either a want of room in the hive,—or a disagreeable and oppressive heat in it,—or most probably, a combination of these two causes, had rendered it necessary for them, if they continued working at all, to carry on their work in that singular manner. My next step was to endeavour to prove the truth of my reasonings and conclusions, in which, I flatter myself, I have fully succeeded, after no inconsiderable labour, and many contrivances to accommodate the Bees with additional room, as they have had occasion for it, and after repeated experiments to keep such room, when added, at a temperature agreeable to them by means of ventilation. In short, my COLLATERAL-BOXES and VENTILATION are the results of my studies and experiments on this point of apiarian science.
There are few persons, who are managers of Honey-Bees under the old hive system, who, if they have not seen a comb constructed and suspended in the manner just described, have not, however, beheld these little creatures, when oppressed with the internal heat of their crowded domicil, and straitened for want of room in it, unhappily clustering and hanging at the door, or from and under the floor-board of their hive, in a ball frequently as large as a man's head, and sometimes covering all the front part of it, for sixteen or twenty days together; and this, be it remarked, at the season of the year which is the most profitable for their labours in the fields and among the flowers. During this distress of the Bees in, or belonging to, such a hive, their labours are of necessity suspended,—their gathering of honey ceases,—ceases too at the very time that that saccharine substance is most plentifully secreted by the vegetable world. And—-why? Because they want an enlargement of their domicil,—an extension of the dominion, or (if it may be so termed) of the territory of the Queen; by which enlargement swarming is superseded, and the Royal Insect relieved from the necessity of abdicating her throne, retains it, continues and extends the propagation of her species, and of course increases the busy labours of her innumerable subjects. This accommodation is provided for Bees in my collateral-boxes.