The workers’ eggs hatch in a few days, and produce little white maggots, which immediately open their mouths to be fed; these the workers attend to with the greatest care. In six days each maggot fills up its cell; it is then roofed in by the workers, spins a silken cocoon and becomes a chrysalis, and on the twenty-first day it comes forth a perfect bee. The drones emerge on the twenty-fifth day, and the queens on the sixteenth.
The combs of a beehive comprise a number of hexagonal cells, built by the bees as receptacles for honey and for the nurseries of their young. Each comb in a hive is composed of two ranges of cells, backed against each other. There is a continued series of these double cells in every well-filled hive, the spaces between them being just sufficient to allow two bees, one on the surface of each comb, to pass without touching. Each cell is six-sided, the six sides being perfectly equal. This is one of the geometrical figures that ensures the greatest economy of material and the largest space. The construction of several combs is usually going on at the same time, until the hive is filled. The cells of the drones are larger than those designed for the workers; and those designed for the hatching of the young queens pear-shaped, with the small end downwards. The finest honey is stored in new cells constructed for the purpose of receiving it.
The usual modes of establishing an apiary are, either by the purchase of stock or of swarms. When intending to purchase a stock, do not buy upon recommendation, but learn to judge for yourself. If you observe the bees crowding in and out of the hive during the middle of the day, a considerable number of them having little yellow pellets or balls on their hinder legs, a very favourable opinion may be formed of the health and condition of the interior, and especially of the prolific state of the queen. If the bees appear savage, and bold in their attacks, it is a good sign.
In the purchase of swarms the young bee-keeper must beware of imposition; for it very often happens that, instead of having the first swarm, he is cheated by having a second thrust upon him. This is seldom so large; but it has the advantage of a young queen, as the old queen always goes off with the first swarm. A good swarm generally numbers about twenty thousand bees, and may in country places be obtained for from half-a-guinea to a guinea.
There are several distinct systems of bee-keeping, each of which requires a short notice. First, the old-fashioned plan of keeping the bees in a common bell-shaped straw hive, or skep. When this method is followed, the hives are usually allowed to stand for two summers; at the end of the second season the bees are destroyed by the fumes of burning sulphur, and the honey taken. The plan is a very bad one, as the honey obtained is mixed with bee bread, is rank in flavour, and dark in colour, and is never worth more than about sixpence per pound.
A great improvement is to have the hives made with flat tops, like the straw hive shown at the right hand of the [engraving]. When the bees are first hived, this is closed by a straw mat. In the spring of next year, when the bees become numerous and cluster round the entrance, this mat is removed, and a small hive, termed a “super,” or a box or glass, neatly furnished with a piece or two of clear empty comb, is put over; the bees ascend into this, build combs, which they store with pure virgin honey, without brood or bee bread; and this, when full, is removed, leaving the stock below undisturbed for the next season. In our [engraving] the artist has drawn this hive too small; it should have been as large as the common skeps which are shown on the left-hand side.
Flat-topped hives, that are able to be supered, may be made of wood, like a common box. One of these is [shown] on the ground, and two, placed one over the other, are shown behind the flat-topped straw hive. In Ayrshire, where they are very skilled in bee-management, they use eight-sided boxes, with narrow slides to close the openings in the top. These boxes are placed one over the other, and large tops of pure virgin honey, twenty to thirty pounds in weight, are not unfrequently taken off. The back hive in [our group] is one with side boxes, or, as it is sometimes called, a collateral hive. These are the most expensive in first cost, and the least productive of all the varieties. The cottage hives, with three little glasses, instead of one large one, are only playthings, and not at all productive.