On the Management of Bees, with an Account of some curious Facts in their History.

By Dr. JAMES HowISON, of Hillend.

(With Engravings.)

From the Transactions of the Caledonian Horticultural Society.

IT being my intention to describe to the Society the management of a single hive of bees, from their swarming until they themselves have sent forth their first colony, I shall remark on the different operations, as they naturally succeed each other, according to the method now in general use; leaving that followed by me, of taking the honey without killing the bees, to be explained under a distinct head.

Variety of Bees. To the common observer, all working bees, as to external appearance, are nearly the same; but to those who examine them with attention, the differncee in size is very distinguishable; and they are in their vicious and gentle, indolent and active natures, essentially different.

Of the stock which I had in 1810, it required 250 to weigh an ounce ; but they were so vicious and lazy, that I changed it for a smaller variety, which possesses much better dispositions, and of which it requires 296, on an average, to weigh an ounce. Whether size and disposition are invariably connected, I have not yet had sufficient experience to determine.

Materials and size of Hives. Hives made of

straw, as now in use, have a great advantage over those made of wood or other materials, from the effectual defence they afford against the extremes of heat in summer and cold in winter. That the hives in size should correspond as nearly as possible with that of the swarms, has not had that attention paid to it which the subject demands, as much of the success is the management of bees depends on that cir

cumstance.

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From blind instinct, bees endeavour to fill with combs whatever hive they are put into, before they begin to gather honey. Owing to this, when the hive is too large for its inhabitants, the time for collecting their winter store is spent in unprofitable labour and starvation is the consequence. This evil also extends to occasioning late swarming the next summer; it being long before the hive be comes so filled with young bees as to produce a necessity for emigration, from which cause the season is too far advanced for the young colonies to procure a winter stock.

I should consider it a good rule in all cases, that the swarm should fill two-thirds of the hive. The hives used by me for my largest swarms, weighing from five to six pounds, will contain two pecks measure of corn, and will yield in a good season, eight Scots pints of honey, and for smaller swarms, in proportion. Hives with empty combs are highly valuable for second swarms, as the bees are thereby enabled much sooner to begin collecting honey.

Situation for Hives. That the hives should be so placed as to receive the rays of the rising as well

as meridian sun, is of considerable importance, heat and light appearing the principal stimulants to the bees. A hive so situated as not to be touched by the sun until some hours later than the other hives in the same garden, would in the course of the season lose a proportional number of days labour. Hives should stand at some distance from walls and hedgcs. When lately building a garden wall, with a good exposure for bees, I ordered a number nitches to be made, into which I afterwards put hives. These were, however, so much infested with snails in summer, and mice in winter, that I was under the necessity of removing them to a more open sit

uation.

Feeding of Bees. Near the sea little honey is collected after the first week in August; but in high situations, where the flowers are later, and heath abounds, the bees labour with advantage until the middle of September. These are the proper periods, according to situation, for ascertaining if the hives intended to be kept contain a sufficient winter stock. The killing of the drones (a very singular fact in the history of the bee, and which will be noticed hereafter,) perhaps marks this time with more precision.

If a large hive does not weigh, thirty pounds, it will be necessary to allow it half a pound of honey, or the same quantity of soft sugar made into a syrup, for every pound that is deficient of that weight; and, in like proportion, to smaller hives. This work must not be delayed, that time may be given for the bees to make the deposit in their empty cells before they are rendered torpid by the cold.

I must here notice, that sugar simply dissolved in water (which is a common practice,) and sugar boiled with water into a syrup, form compounds very differently suited for the winter store of bees. When the former is wanted for their immediate nourishment, as in spring, it will answer equally as syrup; but if it be laid up as store, the heat of the hive quickly evaporating the water leaves the sugar in dry crystals, not to be acted upon by the trunks of the bees. I have known several instances of hives killed by hunger, while some pounds weight of sugar in this state remained in their cells. The boiling of sugar into syrup forms a closer combination with the water, by which it is prevented from flying off, and a consistence resembling that of honey retained. I have had frequent experience of hives not containing a pound of honey preserved in perfect health through the winter, with sugar so prepared, when given in proper time, and in sufficient quantity.

Covering the Hives. Bees are evidently natives of a warm climate, a high temperature being absolutely necessary to their existence; and their continuing to live in hollow trees during the severe winters of Russia and America must depend on the heat produced from the great size of the swarms which inhabit these abodes. From my own observation, the hives which are best covered during winter, always prosper most the following summer. In consequence about the end of harvest, I add to the thin covering of straw put on the hives at the time of swarming a thick coat, and shut up the aperture through which the bees entered, so that

only one can pass at a time. Indeed, as a very small portion of air is necessary for bees in their torpid state, it were better, during severe frosts, to be entirely shut up, as numbers of them are often lost from being enticed to quit the hive by the sunshine of a winter day. It will, however, be proper at times to remove, by a crooked wire or similar instrument, the dead bees and other filth, which the living at this season are unable to perform of themselves.

To hives whose stock of honey was sufficient for their maintenance, or those to which a proper quantity of sugar had been given for that purpose, no farther attention will be necessary, until the breeding season arrives. This, in warm situations, generally takes place about the beginning of May, and in cold about a month after.

Owners of hives are often astonished, that at this advanced season, when their bees had, for weeks preceding, put on the most promising appearance, after a few days of rain, they became so weak and sickly as to be unable to leave the hive, and continue declining until they at last die.

From paying attention to this subject, I am convinced that the cause is as follows. The young bees, for a short time previous to their leaving their cells, and some time after, require being fed with the same regularity that young birds are by their parents; and if the store in the hive be exhausted, and the weather such as not to admit of the working bees going abroad to collect food in sufficient quantity for themselves and their brood, the powerful