Perhaps the only thing that can be said against commencing bee-keeping is the possibility of getting stung, but this is almost always the result of too frequent or careless handling; it is seldom worse than a passing inconvenience, and the bee-keeper soon learns to look upon it as a factor not worth taking into account. The timid, however, may render themselves nearly sting-proof by the use of india-rubber gloves lined with wool, besides the veil usually worn by bee-keepers to protect the face.
Few people are unsuited for bee-keeping. The invalid can manage to attend to a few hives during the warm sunny weather in summer without fatigue. The only persons who are really unfitted to take up bee-keeping are those who have not the desire or opportunity to attend to the bees regularly, or those who at first, perhaps, take up the new hobby with great zest, only to leave their pets to neglect when the novelty of the thing has somewhat worn off, or on the occasion of the first difficulty. Such a one should not keep bees. When we become the possessors of dumb animals, which depend more or less upon human aid for their well-being and comfort—and bees certainly do—a responsibility rests upon us which it would be wrong to ignore.
There are few places in this country where bees may not be kept. The heart of a large city is perhaps the most unfavourable place for bee-keeping, but even in London bees have been kept successfully in Regent Street, Holborn, and in other parts. Wherever flowers flourish, bees will generally find a subsistence. In country districts where Dutch clover and sainfoin are largely cultivated, and on the heather-clad moors of Yorkshire and Scotland, they will yield considerable returns of honey in favourable seasons.
On the whole, bee-keeping is a fascinating pursuit to those who are engaged in it, and thus almost every intelligent bee-keeper is more or less of an enthusiast, and there is, I think, a general fellow-feeling and desire to help one another amongst all interested in the craft, be they old hands, beginners, or even merely desirous, would-be bee-keepers, which is a pleasing indication of genuine love of the work they have at heart.
OLD-FASHIONED SKEP AND MODERN FRAME HIVE.
The best advice I can give to those who intend to start bee-keeping is to go and see a practical bee-keeper living in the neighbourhood, who keeps a few colonies of bees in the modern wooden hives. Choose a warm, sunny day sometime this month for the visit, and ask him to open one of the hives before you, and to explain its contents to you and how to handle the bees.
It will be seen that a bee-hive consists essentially of three separate parts, (1) the floor, (2) the stock-box, and (3) the roof.
The stock-box contains the combs and bees. The combs vary in number from eight to twelve, or more; they are built in wooden frames which hang from the sides of the stock-box, and are kept a certain distance apart by means of metal ends, so that the bees may have free passage between them. The number of the frames of comb may be varied according to “the strength of the bees.”[1] When there are fewer frames than the stock-box is capable of containing, the empty space beyond them is shut off by means of a close-fitting board called a dummy. The entrance is a narrow slit on one side of the hive between the floor and the stock-box through which the bees pass in and out. The portion of the floor which projects beyond the entrance is called the alighting-board. Several thicknesses of cloths, or quilts as they are called, are placed on top of the frames to keep the bees warm.
Besides these simple essentials of every hive, there should be an upper story or lift to contain the super, which is a box placed over the frames in summer, in which the bees may store all honey beyond what is required for their own use. In many hives the lift is made so that by inversion it will drop down over the stock-box for the winter, and so help to keep the bees extra warm.