[For the American Bee Journal.]
Form of Hive, and Feeding Bees.
I object to a low and flat shape of hive, for reasons which I shall assign. I will first state, however, that a hive of bees without provision for the retention of animal heat, is as helpless as a new born babe without raiment. Take, as an example, a hive twelve inches square, containing an oblong square perpendicular, and the frames to suit in size and shape. Your combs say eighteen inches in depth perpendicular, and twelve inches wide. The bees, in order to hatch brood, as the weather becomes warm in the spring, will cluster at the larva end of said combs, and keep up the temperature from bottom to top, because of two combined reasons, the combs being the long way perpendicular, and the natural tendency of heat being to rise, it ascends throughout the entire length of the combs, and thus the proper temperature is attained throughout the hive. It is a settled principle too, that a given quantity or number of bees can produce animal heat only sufficient in amount to rarify the air in a given space to a given temperature. Take, for example, a low flat hive, with combs say eighteen inches long horizontal, and nine inches deep, the hive being twelve inches wide, the same as the other. Now remember the principle just before stated. The bees will collect at the front end of the comb, and the animal heat, as generated, will ascend the same as along the combs in the other hive, which are eighteen inches deep; whereas these are only twelve inches deep. Is it not obvious that here one-third of every comb towards its rear end is entirely lost to the bees, so far as the early production of brood is concerned, because of the shape of the combs and the natural tendency of the heat generated to ascend? If the bees (being the same in number in both hives,) were spread out at the bottom of the combs in the last mentioned hive, the full size of the hive, the cluster would be twelve inches wide and eighteen inches horizontal. Then, on the principle that a given number of bees can generate only a certain degree of heat in a given space, they would fail to bring about the proper temperature in any part of the hive; and the result would be that they could not produce any brood. But allow them (as they will) to contract the size of their cluster, and you find that there is nearly one-third of each comb not used by them in the production of brood. Hence we find in the communications of bee-keepers such remarks as these—“My bees swarmed out of my common box and log gums earlier than they did out of my patent hives.” But universally we find in such cases that their patent hives are low and flat in shape. We have used such hives, and know by experience the truth whereof we speak; and, fearless of successful contradiction, we proclaim that the time is not far distant when the practical bee-keepers will adopt the shape of from a square to an oblong perpendicular, the oblong being preferable. We once were of those who thought there could be no difference in the mere shape of a hive, but justice to the true principles of bee-keeping compelled a change of opinion.
There is still another reason why bees should have a hive long up and down. In cases of long continued extreme cold weather, the bees cannot move in a lateral direction to obtain food. But the warmth of the bees will aid them in obtaining it from above, from the fact that their warmth will ascend and keep the frost melted at a greater distance from the bees above them, than on the sides. And, further, when spring came, or in the month of April, my bees almost always became nearly extinct in the low flat form of hive.
Now, in conclusion, let me add some remarks on feeding. There is a principle in the feeding of bees that is truly astonishing in its effects. They may be fed in sufficient quantity to cause them to fill all the empty cells and thereby work a complete destruction of the colony, if the owner fails to remove some of the honey out of their way. Or they may be fed in such proportions that the prosperity and increase of the hive will be somewhat like the rolling of a snow-ball—the longer and further it rolls, the greater its magnitude becomes. The queen has the ability to deposit from 2,000 to 3,000 eggs every day in the height of the breeding season; and if bees are then excited by finding liberal supplies of honey in the flowers, yet not in such abundance as to cause them to fill the hive to overflowing, brooding and rearing young bees will proceed most rapidly. But if there is little honey or none yielded by the flowers, and the bees remain idle for some length of time, the queen will cease depositing eggs; while on the other hand, if the bees rapidly fill nearly all the cells with honey, the queen must necessarily cease laying, for want of room to deposit eggs.
Bees seem to have three periods of probation. The first twenty-one days of their existence are passed in the cell; the next eighteen or twenty one days they spend in the hive mainly, nursing brood exclusively, except when engaged at times in building or repairing comb; the next period is devoted to assiduous outdoor labor, and varies from forty to fifty days, in the busy season of the year.
Early and continued stimulation to activity, by feeding the bees, causes the colony to become strong in numbers. If therefore we wish for handsome profits from the labors of the bees, we must have them in great numbers, at all times in the hive. If we expect great quantities of honey from weak colonies, we are doomed to disappointment. In almost every locality there is a time, during the spring or summer, when bees cannot gather nectar from the flowers. Such spells are sometimes prolonged for months; and in some years, in Iowa, in the month of June, the writer has known colonies to starve to death. In such times of scarcity, the bee-keeper should always be on the alert, and begin feeding only in sufficient quantity to produce activity in the hive. It frequently occurs that bees use up all the unsealed honey in the hive, and almost stop brooding. They appear to be reluctant to open their sealed honey. It seems that there is a principle at this point which we have not been able to grasp yet. I think that as a rule, if bees run out of unsealed honey in the spring months, the keeper should, from time to time, shave off the capping of some of the full cells. This, I think, would answer the same purpose as feeding, by exciting the bees to activity. It should be practiced in all cases where there is plenty of sealed honey in the hive, in the forepart of the season; and feeding only to a limited and small extent, when the bees have used up their unsealed supply. In fact, feeding should never be resorted to, while the hive contains plenty of sealed honey. Better uncap some of it.
It is not by any means desirable to have a hive in the height of the breeding season, with the cells so stored with honey that the queen is unable to deposit eggs to the full extent of her powers. Better extract some honey, even if you have to return it again by feeding as the season advances, thus keeping up the activity of the colony.
There are many attempts to systematize bee-keeping. Some ideas communicated through the Journal prove highly serviceable. Others drop without effect, perhaps, except that they set bee-keepers to thinking, and sometimes to experimenting, which is useful, too, if it be not indulged in at too great cost.