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Nnrtb (EaroUna ^tatp (TnUpgp

SF525
C97

149018

This book may be kept out TWO WEEKS
ONLY, and is subject to a fine of FIVE
CENTS a day thereafter. It is due on the
day indicated below:

MAY 2 71964

MR B I96(i

A

5UM — May-5-i — Form 3

BEE-KEEPING.

BY

THE TIMES" BEE-MASTER.

Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive

in 2009 witii funding from

NCSU Libraries

littp://www.arcliive.org/details/beekeepingOOcumm

BEE-KEEPING.

BV

THE TIMES" BEE-MASTER.

C
/ 1 7 77/ /LL USR TA TIOXS.

LONDON :
SAMPSON LOW. SON, & MARSTON.

14. LUDGATE HILL.

1864.

\Tltc ri;^'il of tranflafiou is icscn\d.\

LONDON :

I K I N 'I L. U li \' i: L> M f N L) L V A N ."

KAVlliT col K 1, lI.EliT STKEfl .

PREFACE

Y apology for writing a Bee-Book is as
follows : — I sent TJie Times an account
of a very successful honey harvest about
the end of July, containing some observations on
the treatment of bees, and the profits that might
accrue to the cottager were he to take the right
and humane way of taking honey from his hives.
This communication appears to have interested
many, for in consequence of it, persons desirous
of information wrote to the Editor of The Times,
requesting in confidence the name of the Bee-
master, in order that they might correspond with

148048

vi PREFACE.

him. The Editor dccHncd to give it up without
my consent, which I felt it expedient to withhold.
But to satisfy those who took so warm an interest
in the subject, I addressed a scries of letters to
The Times, explanatory of some of the simplest
elements of apiculture. These excited so great
interest, that I received multitudes of letters ad-
dressed to " TJic Times Bee-master," which it was
physically impossible to ansAver. But most of my
correspondents complained of the obscurity and
complexity of bee-books in general, and earnestly
begged me to prepare a work they could under-
stand and translate into practice. I have attempted
to do so, strengthening my own observations by
valuable extracts from the works of others. I am
not, however, insensible to the great value, wide
research, and real usefulness of the works I have
carefully and long read. The first and most useful,
as well as most beautiful modern work on bees, is
" My Bee-Book," b}- the Rev. William Charles Cot-
ton, M.A., student of Christ Church, Oxon. It is

PREFACE. vii

profusely illustrated, and is the most genial and
instructive work on bees it has been my lot to
read. I have felt so great an interest in this
good clergyman, that it often occurred to me to
try to ascertain where he W'as and what he was
doing. My o\\'n communications to TJic Times,
among many interesting letters, brought me one
signed " An Australian," which, though Ion"-, con-
tains amid much interesting matter some notice
of the author of " My Bee-Book." The reader
will not, I am sure, complain of its length.

Sir, — It may be interesting to you, whose letters in The
Times have so delighted me, to hear that my experience
in Australia of the habits, instincts, and afifections (if I
may so apply the word) of your little favourites is identi-
cal with your o\\'n. From early childhood I shared my
father's interest in his pets ; and at one time I could have
counted upwards of ninety hives in the two apiaries which
he kept for his own amusement, and for the encourage-
ment of those who were willing to keep bees. Everyone
was welcome to a swarm \\\\o cared to ask for one. I

vii PREFACE.

may give some curious facts as to the sagacit)' and grati-
tude of these insects. During the prevalence of the hot
winds, it sometimes happens that the dehcate comb melts,
and the first indication is a stream of melted honey and
smothering bees. I have been called to the rescue, and
have taken up honey and bees in my hands, placed them
in a basin of tepid water, and spread my fingers as land-
ing-stages until all capable of restoration have plumed
their wings and buzzed gratefully away, and so on until
order and comfort was restored to the disturbed hive.
I never was stung on any occasion whilst working
amongst the bees, and only twice that I remember, and
then by meeting an angry bee accidentally in the garden.
The buzz of an angry bee is quite well known to their
lovers. On one occasion a swarm met my sister, and
actually began to settle on her hand and arm. She knew
their wa}s, and walked very slowly on (of course sur-
rounded by bees) until she found what she considered a
comfortable bough, under which she held \\cx hand. The
queen adopted the suggestion, and after a few minutes'
patiently standing amidst the confusion, she quietly re-
tired, and, as yoii will believe, unharmed.

Of course we could not house all our swarms, so they

PREFACE. ix

went off to the woods and found habitations in gum-trees
hollowed out by the action of fires through the bush. I
recollect one swurm, however, belonging to a neighbour,
which preferred its old quarters, and actually built the
combs and filled them with \\oi[it\ suspcfidcd from beneath
the shelf upon which the hi\-es \\trQ ranged in the open
air. Its ultimate fate I do not remember.

Bees have many enemies in Australia ; the greatest is
probably the sugar-ant. To protect them fi-om these
intruders, we had the hives ranged on shelves, the sup-
ports of which stood in wide vessels of water, ahke a pro-
tection against other foes. The apiaries were built open
in front and ends, against a wall, with thatched roof and
overhanging eaves ; and there was a space between the
shelf on which the hi\es stood and the wall, where one
could sit or stand and watch them ; for most of our hives
were square, made of wood, with glass sides and wooden
shutters ; and the bees were so accustomed to be looked
at, that they kept their side of the glass quite clean, and
generally built a smooth surface of comb next the glass,
lea\'ing space to move between the comb and the glass i
and I have often seen the queen, surrounded by her ad-
miring subjects (exactly as you describe) making her pro-

X PREFACE.

gress across the comb, each attendant bee with its Iiead
next her majesty, fanning with its wings, and one could
hear a ///;-/- of satisfaction.

The antipathies of the bee are very curious. I have
known one individual who was chased perpetually round
the garden, and I have seen him obliged to rush through
a hedge to escape his little tormentors. Their feuds were
sometimes most violent, and I have had to remove a hive
from one apiary to the other, a distance of half a mile, to
preserve the bees. Your plan of the super-hives is excel-
lent. Most of our hives were square, and all of wood.
The straw hives proved a harbour for insects, and deprived
us of the pleasure of watching the bees at work. We used
large confectioners' glasses as supers, turned upside down.
They were speedily filled, and we could ensure honey fla-
voured with the different blossoms, by placing the glass
during the season of the orange-blossom, or heliotrope,
&c., &c.

Our chief guide in the management was a book written
by the Rev. ]\Ir. Cotton, called "My Bee-Book ;" and it
may be interesting to mention, that when in after years
that gentleman accompanied the Bishop of New Zealand
to that country, via Australia, he was my father's guest.

PREFACE. xi

Mr. Cotton's delight at finding his favourites so appre-
ciated was only equalled by our pleasure in meeting the
author of "My Bee-Book;" but, sad to say, our bees
conceived a dislike to their visitor ; and upon liis exhibit-
ing his fearlessness in handling bees, he was stung (much
to the amusement of some s7naU bystanders) by two
wicked bees. A relation of my own kept her bees in the
verandah of her drawing-room ; and she has frequently
cut out of the hive a large piece of comb, taking care not
to break it, and merely cutting tlirough the little connect-
ing links of wax which support the layers of comb ; and
this she could do with impunity from the super of a busy
hive, simply because she lived amongst her bees. Hoping
that this letter may not have wearied you,

I remain yours faithfully,

A\ Australian.
Lotidon, 12th August, 1864.

P.S. I have never had an opportunity of keeping bees
in England. I shall look for your promised manual,
as I hope some day I may be able to have some of my
favourites to care for. I may add, my father procured
our original stock from Tasmania, in the common straw
hive, a bit of pierced tin fastened over the entrance.

xii PREFACE.

One system I do not see alluded to, which we found
answer very well, when we wished, for any cause, to take
the old comb and start the bees afresh. We used in the
early dawn to place the full hive over an empty one,
covering all with a large cloth, and then beat the top hive
steadily, not roughly, with a stick. Very soon the queen
would take refuge in the lower box, when a board was
slipped between, and the upper old hive removed. The
bees (the few that loitered behind the queen) soon left the
honey to join tlieir friends : at night the new hive was
carried to the site of the old one, and turned up upon its
own board. We always had cross bars of wood on the
hives, upon which the swarm at first clung.

Taylor's and Wood's " Manuals of Bee-keeping"
are exceedingly good. Richardson's is very full.
Lardner's Treatise in the " Museum of Science and
Art" well deserves the attention of the reader,

I do not profess to have struck out any original
methods of constructing hives or treating bees. To
the science of apiculture I have contributed nothing.
All I profess to do is to give plain, practical direc-

PREFACE. xiii

tions for the successful management of bees, chiefly
from obsen^ation and experience.

I am persuaded there has been much useful and
instructive matter in my letters, because I have
received a few very ill-natured communications.
One of them (not the worst) I insert, as a speci-
men of the reception my little work is doomed to
expect. But perhaps the writers miay repent of
their intentions, and recover the sweet temper they
seem to have lost.

August 15.

Sir, — I have read very attentively the letters in 77ie
Times about bees, and am convinced that the American
gentleman is right, and that much of what you say is
mere old woman's twaddle. Your nonsensical rant about
loyalty to the queen-bee (in t/iese days, v.-hen loyalty to
kings and queens is utterly and ver\' properly extinct), and
your raving against radical reform (so much wanted in all
matters), both give evidence of anilit}- and failing intellect.

I shall act on my conviction by ordering the Ajtiericaji
book on bees for myself and friends, and I shall use all
my literar}'- influence (wliich is considei-able) in preventing

xiv PREFACE.

the circulation of your poor trumpery twopenny-half-
penny bee-pajDers.

A Non-believer in the "Bee-master"
OF Tunbridge Wells.

P.S. I am no American, but I sympathise with Messrs.
Bright and Cobden. I rejoice at the downfall of the
Danish monarchy; and I would not fight, under any cir-
cumstances, either for king, queen, princes, or peoples —
not foreign peoples at least, I look on loyalty as rank
humbug. Kings must behave better before we can
respect or love them !

In this work I have purposely left out all notice
of a variety of hives as ingenious as they are dis-
liked by bees. Some apiarians have expended all
their talent in making tortuous entrances, worrying
homes, and elegant residences for the queen and
her subjects. They seem to estimate their success
by the extent of their departure from simplicity.
They merge the useful and convenient in the ele-
gant and complex. But the less the bees are
plagued by intricate and arduous arrangements in

PREFACE. XV

the interior of their residences, the more comfortable
and contented they feel, and the more efficiently
they work. It is on this account I have written so
favourably of the Ayrshire hive. It is simple in
structure, and the parallel openings in the roof of
the stock hive introductory to the super are far
more liked by the bees than a round central hole,
while the facility of removing a super in the honey
harvest is perfectly charming. The comb in the
super is never or rarely connected with the comb
in the stock hive, and, therefore, needs no cutting
with zinc plates, A screw-driver gently introduced
loosens the propolis, or a table-knife may be em-
ployed to cut it all round the lower edge of the
super, and the proprietor has only to lift it off and
carry it away on a deal board.

I can easily see that had I praised several inge-
nious contrivances for the residence of bees, I
should have provoked fewer charges of ignorance
of modern apiculture. I repeat, I have read much
on the subject ; but my recommendations are not

xvi PREFACE.

the results of theory or imagination, but of prac-
tical knowledge and of careful watching.

The best hop-garden is that which grows the
most and best hops; the best mill is that which
grinds most corn ; and the best hives are those in
which is deposited the largest amount of the best
honey.

By all means let us have observatory hives for
scientific investigations; but what the cottager re-
quires is plenty of produce, with the least tax on
his toil and pocket. Hence this work is drawn up,
not for scientific apiarians, but for all who wish to
enjoy a pleasant and profitable employment.

I must tender my best thanks to Messrs. Neigh-
bour, of Regent-street, London, and to Mr. Pettitt,
of Snargate, Dover, for their permission to copy
such of their woodcuts as I thought it useful to
describe or to suggest amendments on.

I may also add, that in using the name, " The
Times Bee-master," I avail myself merely of the
title given me by the countless correspondents who

PREFACE. x\'ii

did me the honour to write me either directly or
indirectly through the editor of TJic Times.

In reprinting- my letters to The Times, I must
here notice an alteration I think expedient. I felt
it right to reply to a very injudicious and extreme
letter which appeared in that paper. I did so play-
fully, and with kindl}^ feeling. But the correspondent
I thus replied to seems to hav^e view-ed it as a per-
sonal attack. Under the inspiration of very irritated
feelings he wrote another letter to the Editor of
TJie Times, which ^^'as XQvy properly refused admis-
sion. But he was kind enough to send it to several
papers, in which he published it, prefacing it in one
with controversial remarks so far removed from the.
courtesies of fair correspondence, that it ceased to
be possible to hold any further argument with him.
I am really ver}- sorry that a gentleman I never
saw, and do not yet know whether he is a clergyman
or layman, should have so passionately interpreted
remarks made by me in perfect good-humour. I
offer him every apology that is due for being

xviii PREFACE.

misunderstood. In order to avoid any such con-
tingency again, I have omitted his name, and have
substituted " Your Correspondent."

I may also add, that when I sent my letters to
The Times I had not the remotest idea of com-
posing a book on the subject. Having other and
absorbing work to attend to, I have been able to
devote spare hours only to a very pleasant work,
undertaken at the request of many, and dedicated
to the service of all.

CONTENTS

Introductiox

Bee-keeping Money-making

Bee-keeping a source of Enjoyment

How to begin Bee-keeping

The Bee-house, and how to place it

HiYES and Bee-boxes

35

XX CONTENTS.

I- AGE

How TO GET Bees . . " . . -59
The Inmates of the Hive . . . • Sj

Bee Enemies 104

The Bee-master's Letters to "The Times'' . 116

Bee Things in general 169

Letters from Correspondents . . . 200

Erratum. — Page 45, line iS — For " inches" iwid "degrees.'

BEE-KEEPING.

BY

THE TIMES" BEE-MASTER.

HIS work is not a speculative or philo-
sophical treatise on bees. Its main in-
terest consists in its usefulness ; and its
author's greatest reward will be the greatest mea-
sure of his success in promoting among cottagers
and others a means of paying their rent, at once
interesting, civilising, and remunerative. Next to
this, I hope I may contribute toward the extinc-
tion of the savage and unprofitable, but almost
universal, habit in this country of burning the bees

2 BEE-KEEPING.

with sulphur in August, in order to collect honey
richly flavoured, and much deteriorated by sulphu-
rous acid. It is a fundamental principle in my bee
management, that no bee shall be burned, or, if
possible to avoid it, crushed or killed. No man
deserves the name of a Bee-master, or should at-
tempt to keep bees, who has not resolved, with all
his might, to avoid bee-murder. Bee-cide, like
homicide, may accidentally occur, but it must be
accidental, not designed and culpable. That sys-
tem of management which combines the safety
and health of the bees, with the production of the
largest amount of pure honey available to the pro-
prietor, while providing generously for the inmates
of the hive during the winter months, deserves the
greatest patronage.

-BEE-KEEPING MONEY-MAKING.

E live in a practical age. Proposals of
all sorts are too often, right or wrong,
weighed against gold : — " How much
will it bring ? Can I turn a penny by this busi-
ness?" I do not pretend to say bee-masters are
rich men, or that the way to a fortune is through a
bee-hive ; but I do assert that a poor parish minis-
ter, vicar, or curate with a little glebe — a cottager
who works all day for the squire — or maiden ladies
who desire to engage in very delightful and loving
labour — may add to their little income or stipend
or dividend from ten to twenty pounds a year. To
half-pay officers I would earnestly recommend bee-
keeping. It would keep them out of those wild
B 2

D. H. HILL LIBRARY
North Carolina State College

4 BEE-KEEPING.

speculations into which, from their inexperience in
business matters, they are so frequently and ruin-
ously drawn, by giving them an interest, which
would soon become a passion, in studying and con-
ferring with a new family, besides yielding them a
few spare sovereigns for personal use or charity.
For white cells filled with honey in glasses — than
which nothing more elegant or picturesque can be
placed on a breakfast-table — one can obtain in
June two shillings, and even two shillings and six-
pence, a pound. For honey later in the season
one and sixpence a pound may be easily had ; and
where the proprietor prefers to be his own con-
sumer, he may dispense with bacon and butter,
and take what is far more wholesome — honey — at
breakfast. It is a fair average to calculate on fif-
teen pounds of surplus produce from each hive, if
properly attended to. I do not see why our coun-
try should not be a " land flowing with milk and
honey," or why we should import so much honey
and wax from abroad, exporting good money in
return, when so many flowers lift their beautiful

BEE-KEEPING MONEY-MAKING. 5

blossoms, waiting and longing to be kissed and
rifled by visitors they love so well. It should not
be forgotten, too, that bees do immense good to
flowers ; some think they introduce one to another,
and celebrate the marriage of the flowers. This,
however, is certain : flower-gardens are immensely
benefited by bees, and therefore every lover of
flowers and proprietor of gardens should never
drive away or destroy a bee ; for the visitor is
not only collecting honey for his bee-master, but
adding to the variety, fragrance, and beauty of the
flowers of their owner.

II. — BEE-KEEPING A SOURCE OF ENJOYMENT.

HEN pleasure and profit can be com-
bined, time runs swiftly and the heart
feels happy.

It is enjoyment to stand by one's bee-hives and
watch the intense and untiring work of one's bees.
It is like standing at a window in Cheapside, and
watching the counter-currents of human beings
that ceaselessly traverse its pavement ; only, in-
stead of faces grooved with cares and pale with
anxieties, we do not see issuing from their hives
or returning home a single bee that seems bowed
down with trouble or fretful about the future.
Each bee, from the queen down to the sentinel at

BEE-KEEPING A SOURCE OF ENJOYMENT. 7

the gate, seems to have heard the Master's words, —
"Take no thought" {i.e., irritating care) "for the
morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the
things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil
thereof"

Bees rarely fail to become acquainted with a
kind and affectionate master. I have stood in the
midst of thousands returning home after their day's
Avork, and seen them resting on me, brushing their
wings and bodies, and, thereby refreshed and re-
cruited, they enter their home and deposit their
sweet burdens. They do not forget little acts of
kindness shown them, and rarely fail to show grati-
tude,— an example Christians would do well to
copy. I have sat for hours by my hives with glass
windows, and watched the orderly and beautiful
array in which some give wax, others build it into
forms of strength and beauty, others clear away
incidental dirt, others pour honey into the ware-
houses, others carry out their dead, and all reve-
rently and loyally attend to the instructions of
their queen. Relays of ventilators, joining the tips

8 BEE-KEEPING.

of their wings and making fanners, take up their
position at the doors, and send in currents of fresh
air. Others are placed as sentries on the bee-board,
who, like faithful soldiers, repel wasps and moths,
and die rather than desert the post of duty. There
is not an idle bee in a hive, if one may except the
drones after their mission is ended. Fruges con-
sumej'c 7iati; they meet with the consequences which
all idle and unproductive citizens provoke. They,
however, may be regarded as the exceptional in-
mates. The bees do not fail to understand their
relations, and therefore they get rid of them as
.soon as they cease to contribute to the wealth or
comfort or protection of the hive. They become
in June and July the mere hangers-on — the fat,
lazy monks, who believe that everybody is made to
work for them, while they are excused helping any-
body. But the bountiful Creator has left no place
for indolence in tliis world of ours ; it would be
too disastrous an example to be permitted with
impunity. The bees accordingly turn them out
to starve, or garotte them as they catch them, and

BEE-KEEPIXG A SOURCE OF ENJOYMEXT. 9

at all risk get rid of the incumbrance. Do idle
young men deserve better treatment ?

A hive in June is a perfect study, a model of
order, work, neatness, and beauty ; it is rich in
interest to everyone who has an hour to spare.
About nine o'clock at night you cannot do better
than listen for a quarter of an hour by }'our hives,
and you will hear an oratorio sweeter and richer
than you ever heard in Exeter Hall. Treble,
tenor, and bass are blended in richest harmony ;
sometimes it sounds as the distant hum of a great
city, and at other times as if the apiarian choristers
were attempting the halleluiahs which will swell
from earth to heaven when all things are put right,
and bee and bird and every living thing sing joy-
ously together the jubilant anthem peal, " Great
and marvellous are thy works. Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are thy ways, thou King of nations."

<=SS^^

III. — HOW TO BEGIN BEE-KEEPING.

OUR garden may be very small, and its
flowers few and far between ; but as
your bee-pasture is an area two or
three miles round on all sides yours for the use
of your bees, though entered in other peoples'
title-deeds, your own little plot need not much
trouble you. Bees seem to prefer to feed at a
little distance from the hive, but have no objection
to pasture close at hand. In the beginning of
August, when the honey-yielding flowers begin
to fail, I have found Broadwater Common, near
Tunbridge Wells, which grows the finest heather
south of Braemar, covered with my bees, and have

HOW TO BEGIN BEE-KEEPING. ii

lain down amid the heath-blossoms, watching and
listening to my young friends, immensely enjoying
their work.

But if you have any spare space — and there
are always nooks and spots available in the
smallest garden — sow on these lemon thyme in
abundance, rosemary, lavender, salvia, borage, mig-
nonette, and crocus. Apple-trees, gooseberry and
currant-trees, and above all, raspberry-plants, are
great favourites w'xih bees ; and as their blossoms
come early in spring, they are most seasonable
and productive. But your chief reliance must be
on neighbouring acres of bean-fields and buck-
wheat or clover meadows, heather and furze, and
hedge-blossoms. Lime-trees are very valuable ; I
wish people would allow thorn-hedges to blossom.
Let me urge the cottager to use for the edging
of his garden lemon-thyme instead of box or dai-
sies. Do not fear keeping a dozen stocks. I
think many apiarians talk nonsense when they
allege that a district may be overstocked with
bee-hives. If the surrounding country be wholly

12 BEE-KEEPING.

arable, with little common, and with too good
farming, it may be overstocked. But there are
still left commons unenclosed, woods and heath,
and clover and tiny weeds, which farmers perse-
cute and bee-masters love ; and far off are gar-
dens of all sorts and sizes, in which flowers are
cultivated for the owners' pleasure, constituting ad-
mirable bee-pasture. I only regret there is such
a wide-spread rage for double flowers, for bees
never touch them. On that magnificent standard
rose, so rich in delicious perfume and so very
lovely, a bee never alights ; but the briar and
hedge-rose are favourites and much frequented.
On the Clyde, it is usual for bee-proprietors to
carry their hives to Arran, Dunoon, and Kilmun,
as soon as the heather comes into blossom ; and
cottagers take charge of them at a shilling apiece.
The hives often therefrom receive great and re-
munerative additions.

Dr. Bevan states : —

" In Lower Egypt, where the flower-harvest is not so

HOW TO BEGIN BEE-KEEPING. 13

early by several weeks as in the upper districts of that
country, this practice of transportation is carried on to a
considerable extent. About the end of October the
hives, after being collected together from the different
villages, and conveyed up the Nile, marked and num-
bered by the individuals to whom they belong, are
heaped pyramidally upon the boats prepared to receive
them, which, floating gradually down the river, and stop-
ping at certain stages of their passage, remain there a
longer or a shorter time, according to the produce which
is afforded by the surrounding country. After travelling
three months in this manner, the bees, having culled the
perfumes of the orange flowers of the Said, the essence
of roses of the Faiocum, the treasures of the Arabian
jessamine, and a variety of flowers, are brought back
about the beginning of February to the places from
which they have been carried. The productiveness of
the flowers at each respective stage is ascertained by the
gradual descent of the boats in the water, and which is
probably noted by a scale of measurement. This in-
dustry procures for the Egyptians delicious honey and
abundance of bees' -wax. The proprietors, in return,
pay the boatmen a recompense proportioned to the
number of hives which have thus been carried about
from one extremity of Egypt to the other."

14 BEE-KEEPING.

Richardson sensibly remarks : —

"Water carriage, when procurable, is the best, as it
shakes the hives least, but when land carriage must be
resorted to, the hives should be carried on poles slung
on men's shoulders. The journey should be pursued at
night only, and the bees suffered to go forth and feed
during the day. Such is their instinct, that they will
readily find their way back ; but they should not be
suffered to go forth until at the distance of upwards of
ten or eleven miles from their original home, otherwise
they will be lost in endeavouring to regain it — a mode-
rate distance induces them to abandon the idea, and to
become reconciled to their new quarters. If travelling
by canal, the hives should be removed from the boat, and
placed on stands at some distance from the bank, ere the
insects are let out, otherwise they will be lost in thou-
sands by falling into the water on their return. The
charge made by shepherds for taking care of the hives
during a season is from one shilling to eighteenpence
each. It is better to pay a trifle over and above the
usual fee, in order to prevent your hives being placed too
near to each other, or to those of other parties ; for if
your weak stocks happen to be placed near the strong
ones of some one else, you will stand a fair chance of
having them all killed in encounters with their more

HOW TO BEGIN BEE-KEEPIXG. 15

powerful neighbours. It would be well also to see that
your hives are placed in a situation where they will be
safe from the attacks of cattle or other foes. Before
fetching the hives home again from the heath, it will not
be amiss to ascertain their condition and weight, and to
take from them what honey they can spare. I must
here inform you how to ascertain the state or wealth of a
hive."

On the subject of removing bees to the heather
in August, Mr. Briggs makes the following useful
and practical remarks : —

" In the vicinity of extensive heaths, the bees are
removed to them about the beginning or middle of
August, according to the season. The usual practice is
to raise each hive with small wedges in the evening, to
induce the bees to congregate together at the top of the
hive. The hives are then firmly fixed to the bottom
boards, or tied up in cloths, and conveyed in the night,
or very early in the morning, to the garden of a shep-
herd or other person whose residence adjoins the heath.
All hives and swarms are taken, including old and young
ones, and the persons who receive them usually charge a
shilling for each hive during the season. The hives are

l6 BEE-KEEPING.

thus very frequently crammed together as close as they
can stand, and the consequences are that much fighting
and loss of life is often caused, and the weak stocks of
one person are frequently partly destroyed and robbed
of their stores and killed by the stronger ones belonging
to other persons. When the blooming of the heath is
over, the old stocks are, in general, suffocated on the
spot, to obtain possession of the fruits of their labours,
and those intended for winter stocks are conveyed home
by their respective owners.

" The above system of managing bees at the heather
is susceptible of material alterations and improvements.
I would suggest that it would be of great advantage to
the owners of bees residing within twenty miles' dis-
tance, if the proprietors or occupiers of residences
adjoining the heath were to extend the accommodation
by enclosing a larger extent of ground which is suitable
for the purposes desired. It might be cheaply and expe-
ditiously performed by hiring a few dozen of stout
stakes, &c., from the neighbouring farmers for the
season, and having the bars of them full of coarse
thorns, briars, furze, or other convenient or suitable
materials, to prevent the inroads of cattle and other
depredators.

** I would recommend that none but strong stocks

HOW TO BEGJX BEE-KEEPING. \j

be taken to the heath, until arrangements are made for
their convenience and accommodation ; and that the
collateral system of side hives, &c., be practised with
them whilst they are at the heath, as well as on other
occasions."

Where there is no water conveyance, a hive
may be suspended from each end of a long pole,
which may be carried on the shoulder to the
neighbourhood of a common, in August, not less
than four miles from your garden, and put in
charge of a reliable cottager.

" In Yorkshire," says the Rev. Mr. Cotton, that prince
of bee-masters, " it is the regular custom of the country
to send the stocks to the moors for change of pasture in
August and September. Cotters, who have a little
garden by the moorside, take in dozens every year, and
get a shilling a stock for their trouble. The trouble is a
mere nothing — at least not one shilling's worth in all —
and the pleasure is surely very great ; for what can be a
greater pleasure than to have ten additional stocks of
bees on a visit to your own, and to cheer you with their
glad music whenever you are walking in your garden?
To say nothing of the pleasure you must feel at their

C

1 8 BEE-KEEPING.

honied stores, by playing the part of a kind host to these
busy bees ; and then, what is more, you may have the
still greater pleasure of showing your friend (for all bee-
masters are, or ought to be, friendly) how to take up his
bees who have been your guests so long, as I trust you
do your own, that is, without killing them. You and
he may do so, if you try ; and I, a bee-master like your-
self, beg you most earnestly to try. What I have found
a very good way with my bees you cannot find a very
bad one. The stocks are taken up in the old way as
soon as the heather goes out of flower. I hope many a
man will learn by my letter to take them up by the
fingers, instead of the sulphur match, that ready instru-
ment of bee-murder. In France they put their hives
into a boat, some hundreds together, which floats down
the stream by night, and stops by day. The bees go out
in the morning, return in the evening, and when they are
all back and quiet, on the boat floats. I have heard
they come home to the ringing of a bell ; but I believe
they would come home just the same whether the bell
rings or no. I should like to see this tried on the
Thames, for no river has more bee food near its banks :
willows, the best bee food in spring ; meadows, clover,
beans, and lime-trees, in different places and times, for
summer. A handy man, who could make his own boxes,

//OJV TO BEGIN BEE-KEEPING. 19

though not up to hard work, might, I am pretty sure,
gather through the mouths of his many thousand bees
enough to Jill his 07vn one mouth, thougli it be somewhat
larger. He might float softly do7vn the river, as the
flowers go off at one place and come on at another ;
and any bargeman would be glad, for the small price of
one pound of Thames honey, to give him a tow up when
he wishes to go back. I should like to see it tried."

But all this is supererogatory at present, and
temporary removals are undesirable, unless where
surrounding pastures entirely fail in August. It
is, at best, supplemental.

Taylor, in his useful Bcc Manual, says : —

" It is almost needless to say, that in the nature and
extent of the vegetable production following in succes-
sion in the immediate neighbourhood of an apiar)'^, must
mainly depend its prosperity. After every care has been
bestowed on all points of housing and management, it is
in vain to expect a large harvest of honey where Nature
has limited the sources of supply, or restricted them to
a particular season of the year."

Payne observes : —

" I have always found the advantage of planting in the
C 2

20 - BEE-KEEPING.

vicinity of my hives a large quantity of the common
kinds of crocus, single blue hepatica, helleborus niger,
and tussilago petasites, all of which flower early, and are
rich in honey and farina. Salvia memorosa (of Sir James
Smith), which flowers very early in June, and lasts all the
summer, is in an extraordinary manner sought after by
the bees, and, when room is not an object, twenty or
thirty square yards of it may be grown with advantage.
Origanum humile, and origanum rubescens (of Haworth),
and mignonette may also be grown. Ciiscuta sinensis
is a great favourite with them ; and the pretty little plant
anacampseros populifolium, when in flower, is literally
covered by them. Garden cultivation beyond this, ex-
clusively for bees, I believe, answers very little purpose."

IV. — THE BEE-HOUSE, AND HOW TO TLACE IT.

AVING decided on the furniture of the
garden and the flowers it should grow,
and the best kind of neighbourhood for
pasture, we must now discuss (and it is done from
very considerable 'experience) the structure and
aspect of the bee-house under shelter of which
your hives are to stand. Taylor remarks : —

" The common wooden bee-houses, as usually con-
structed, open in front, and closed altogether behind,
retaining the sun's heat as an oven, are objectionable.
These are frequently the receptacles of dirt and vermin,
and most inconvenient to operate in. It would be an
improvement to make them deeper backwards ; or with
a falling front, moving on hinges, so that the hives can
be recessed behind it, away from the influence of

BEE-KEEPING.

weather. At the back should be folding doors, opening
from top to bottom, allowing a good access to the hives.
For greater convenience, it is best to have them only in
a single row, with good head room. But a still more
desirable plan is to board up the front of the house
entirely, making oblong openings through for a passage
to the bees, with an exterior alighting board, a good deal
slanted downwards (the bees preferring this to a flat sur-
face). The hives are arranged immediately behind, upon
a shelf, the further apart the better, as the bees occasion-
ally mistake their own homes, and fall a sacrifice in
consequence."

The following is a sketch of the shed proposed
by Dr. Bevan. It is extremely picturesque. My
only objection to it is his use of
thatch, which shelters vermin —
the pests it is hard to keep away
m the most favourable circum-
stances. Dr. Sevan's shed or
bee-house is seven feet square
in the clear, with three hives
on the upper shelves and three
on the under.

THE BEE-HOUSE, AND HOW TO PLACE IT. 23

A very picturesque and efficient bee-shed is pre-
sented by Dr. Lardner, about twelve feet long and
about nine feet \\\^\.

My objection to this bee-house is, that the hives
are exposed too much to wind and weather ; if of
straw, they will soon rot — if of wood, wet and sun-
shine will rend and split them. Besides, tier above
tier is not good, and it need not be adopted.

The shed I prefer is as follows : — Let it be twelve

24

BEE-KEEPING.

feet six inches in length, six feet in height, and two
feet six inches in depth. Let it be made of good,
strong, smooth deal. Divide it into six equal
compartments, divided off from each other. Let
the roof be also of smooth deal, covered first
with Croggon's patent felt ; and laid over the felt,
and nailed down, let there be zinc plates, pro-
jecting six or eight inches in front. Let an open-
ing three inches wide extend along the front
from end to end, with a continuous landing-board
projecting beneath it, and sloping down at an angle
of twenty-five degrees. The floor should be about
a foot or eighteen inches above the level of the

THE BEE-HOUSE, AND HOW TO PLACE IT 25

ground, and perfectly smooth. Behind let there be
three doors, with hinges attached to the floor, falling
back when open, and thereby forming a pleasant
platform, when laid down and resting on the ground,
for the bee-master to watch and study, and deprive,
and otherwise fulfil his mission. When closed, there
must be a good padlock, as bee-hive lifters are still
too common in every part of the country. In very
hot weather, open the doors behind, but only in
very hot weather. I have found from experience
that the smoother the surfaces of the bee-shed in-
side, the less they are liable to the operations of the

26 BEE-KEEPING.

spider, one of the greatest pests of bee-houses. I
have unfortunately, and too often, seen a dozen
bees entangled of a fine May morning in a spider's
web, and most of them excavated in the cleanest
manner. Wasps and spiders I have no mercy on ;
they are thieves and murderers and beasts of prey,
as well as vermin. To the former, extermination
by brimstone is a just recompense, and to the
latter the application of a hard dry brush is a
daily duty.

I prefer three of these bee-sheds, located in dif-
ferent parts of my garden, to one very large shed
with under and upper tiers of hives : this makes
less likelihood of confusion in swarming. I do not
like the sheds to be placed under large trees, the
drippings of which tend to create damp. Shrubs,
raspberry-plants, and even gooseberry-bushes, not
nearer than ten or twelve feet, form nice resting-
places to the heavy-laden bees. Under and imme-
diately around the hive should be closely-mowed
grass. The front of the hive is best due south, and,
if convenient, with an inclination to the east. From

THE BEE-HOUSE, AND HOW TO PLACE IT. 27

the east and west a rising ground, or shrubs tole-
rably high, are a desirable protection ; they break
the force of the gales. Do not place your bee-shed
at a orreat distance from the house : bees are civi-
lised and domestic, and delight to see children at
play while they are at their work ; kept out of
society, they grow savage. Having selected the
position, do not change it, unless imperatively
and unavoidably necessarj'. Gelieu justly ob-
serves : —

" I have seen people shift about their hives very incon-
siderately ; but change of place invariably weakens
them, as the bees will return to their old residence, the
environs of which are so familiar to them. A hive
should remain as fixed to the spot as the ancient oaks, in
the hollows of which they delight to establish them-
selves ; where they have their young, their companions,
their beloved queen, and all their treasures. When the
young bees take wing for the first time, they do it with
great precaution, turning round and round, and fluttering
about the entrance, to examine the hive well before
taking flight. They do the same in returning, so that
they may be easily distinguished, conducting themselves

28 BEE-KEEPING.

nearly after the same manner as the workers of a newly-
hived swarm. When they have made a few excursions,
they set off without examining the locaUty ; and return-
ing in full flight, will know their own hive in the midst of
a hundred others. But if you change its place you per-
plex them, much the same as you would be if, during a
short absence, some one lifted your house and placed it
a mile off. The poor bees return loaded, and, seeking
in vain for their habitation, either fall down and perish
with fatigue, or throw themselves into the neighbouring
hives, where they are speedily put to death. When hives
are transported to a considerable distance, there is no
fear that the bees will return. But this inconvenience
would be sure to take place if they Avere removed only a
few hundred paces from the spot they have been accus-
tomed to. The hive may not perish, but it will be
greatly weakened. In my opinion, if the situation is to
be changed at all, they should be taken at least a mile
and a half."

Richardson, who has offered many sensible sug-
gestions on bee-culture, makes some very sensible
remarks on this. But I do not agree Avith him in
one of his opinions — that a south-westerly aspect

THE BEE-HOUSE, AND HOW TO PLACE IT. 29

is best, or that a south-eastern aspect is hkely to
be prejudicial, from its tempting the bees to go out
in too cold spring mornings. The early sun in
early spring is not excessively seductive. Besides,
bees are very good judges of temperature, as they
are infallible prophets of weather, and may be
safely left in this matter to the exercise of their
own good sense. It is also worthy of notice, that
the main work of bees is over by four o'clock in
the afternoon, and the setting sun is therefore less
important. They are early risers, and go early to
bed. But his remaining observations on bee-sheds
are thoroughly good : —

" Some recommend high trees for the purpose of keep-
ing the air calm, lest the bees should be blown down
when returning home. High trees are not advisable ;
they form an evil themselves of greater magnitude than
that which they may be designed to remove. Bees are
seldom blown to the ground by mere wind ; but even
when they are, they can, in a great majority of cases,
recover them.selves. Whereas, if blown amongst trees,
they will be sure to be whipped so violently by the
branches, that they are absolutely hurled to the ground

30 BEE-KEEPING.

with such force as to render their recovery hopeless.
The bees also fly low on their return, when they arrive at
the immediate neighbourhood of their stand, and, con-
sequently, high trees would be not only useless, but
absolutely inconvenient. Whatever trees you wish, there-
fore, to plant in the immediate vicinity of the hive
should be of low size, planted at the sides of the hive,
so as to leave the entrance quite free. Wildman recom-
mends them, and, I think, very judiciously, to be 'of
the dwarf kind, with bushy heads, in order that the
swarms which settle on them may be more easily hived.'
Now, although by judicious management swarming will
generally be prevented from taking place, yet, despite of
our utmost care, it may accidentally occur ; or the bees
may quit their boxes in a body, from various causes —
some of which I shall endeavour hereafter to explain —
and, under such circumstances, Mr. Wildman's sugges-
tions will be found valuable. The garden, therefore, in
which you fix your stands should be thus planted ; and I
further, for the same reasons, recommend wall fruit trees
and espaliers.

" Avoid a site near mills or other noisy places, or the
neighbourhood of bad smells, as factories and the like ;
and if, as occasionally may happen, your stand be placed
against your garden wall, behind which is the farm-yard,

THE BEE-HOUSE, AND HOW TO PLACE IT. 31

let not a dunghill be built against the opposite side. I
have witnessed this before now, and in one instance
found the consequence to be a desertion of the boxes.
Do not place your stand where you see rat or mouse
holes, and let your shed be all of wood,, never thatched
with straw, as that substance harbours mice, moths, and
other similar enemies to your stock.

" Water is essential to the well-being of your bees ; it
must, however, be presented to them judiciously, or it
will prove a greater evil than a good. If you can coax
a shallow rippling brook through your garden, so much
the better ; if not, place near the stand small, shallow,
earthen pans of water, and put some pebbles in them.
This water must be changed daily. It is highly objec-
tionable to have a pond or canal in your neighbourhood :
you will lose thousands of your bees through their means
every season, as they will be constantly blown into them
when returning heavily laden to the hive, especially in
the evening, when wearied after the toil of an indus-
triously spent day. The pebbles in the troughs are for
the bees to rest on while drinking, and are the recom-
mendation of Columella. I have seen tin plates perfo-
rated with holes, and placed over the pans just on the
surface of the water, used for drinking-vessels for bees ;
I, however, prefer the pebbles."

32 BEE-KEEPING.

I have found it a very good plan to place two
or three soup-plates filled with pure water mixed
largely with round pebbles in front of the bee-
house ; they thus find water to drink and step-
ping-stones for their tiny feet, which keep their
wings out of water. In long-continued dry and
hot summers, I have also been in the habit of
using a common garden-squirt, with the end per-
forated by a dozen pin-holes. The water thus
showered on the bee-house at noon cools it, and
does not strike down the bees, and seems most
acceptable to them all.

The shed should be kept scrupulously clean and
dry. Earwigs, snails, and spiders will all try hard
to establish their quarters under the warmth of
the hives, and must be repelled. Nothing but the
bee-master's frequent but quiet and undemonstra-
tive use of a good hard painter's brush, perfectly
dry, will keep these pests at a distance. I am
no advocate of killing a single living thing, but
if these unproductive creatures will prey on the
most productive of insects, and kill and steal,

THE BEE-HOUSE, AXD HOW TO PLACE IT. 33

there is no help for it. The bee-master must
keep his bee-sheds particularly clean ; and as
spiders and eanvigs love dust and dirt, and are
inseparable from it, they must go with it. At
all events, I cannot give them hospitality in my
bee-house.

For people to whom expense is no object, the
bee-houses of Messrs. Neighbour are perfect — as
ornamental as they are efficient.

Their two-hive shed is as follows : —

Bee-house to contain two hives.
Front view of bee-house, price £-^ lOs. , -well painted, constructed
to contain two hives. 3 ft. 6 in. high, 4 ft wide.

The back view is given on the following page.
D

34

BEE-KEEPING.

Back view of the preceding, showing the interior. The top hive
or cover for the glasses is balanced by a weight, so as to be raised
easily for the purpose of inspecting the bees at iiioj-k in the super
hives.

I hav'C already said, what I repeat, that I do not
think one row of hives above another in the same
bee-shed at all expedient.

-W.iA

^^^^'^SiM^^

(^^.^^

V. — HIVES AND BEE-BOXES.

HE inveterate use of the common straw
hive, with its fire and sulphur application
in autumn to its unhappy inmates, is
deeply to be deplored. No humane man can look
on the straw hive, rotting on a stand, wasted and
worn by wind and rain, covered with a brown
earthenware basin, under which vermin breed and
multiply, and doomed to brimstone and bee-cide,
without feeling it is a penal settlement, or cell of
doom, for subjects unworthy of it. There is no-
thing picturesque or pleasant about it, and the
D 2

36 BEE-KEEPIXG.

moss of age and usage even of a thousand years
fail to beautify it.

A bee-shed is an absolute necessity ; it may be
rough and coarse, and badly put together, but it
cannot and must not be dispensed with. I will
assume, in the first instance, that the cheapness of
a common straw hive — a rough one costing six-
pence, a better a shilling, and a very excellent one
eighteenpence — brings it within the reach of a very
poor cottager. On this assumption I proceed to
show how he can make the best of a bad house.
Placed in his shed with a good swarm in May, it
is likely in a good year to be full by the end of
June. He must then have ready a good thick
board — say three-quarters of an inch or an inch in
thickness and twelve inches square, with a round
hole in the centre about three inches diameter, per-
fectly smooth and bevelled in the lower edge of
the hole. On this he must have ready a small
straw hive with a piece of glass, four inches by
three, fastened into the side, in order to see inside ;
but if he can afford it, still better, a bell-glass or

HIVES AND BEE-BOXES. 37

garden-glass, with a woollen nightcap drawn over it,
to keep out the light and keep in the warmth. Let
this stand ready by him behind the bee-house, about
twelve o'clock at noon. He must then take a sharp
table-knife, and quietly and fearlessly cut a hole in
the top of the hive, about three inches in diameter,
and having removed the top by taking hold of its
straw loop, he is to place the board with its super
over his hive. The smoother he makes the cutting
the less trouble will the bees have, and the sooner
they will ascend. If the weather still proves
friendly, he may hav^e five or six pounds of beau-
tiful honey before the middle of August, and there
will be abundance for his bees in the stock hive
during winter. The way to remove the super is
this : — Get a zinc plate, with sharp edges, some
fourteen inches square, press it quietly between the
super and the board, laying the left hand on the
super and pressing with the right, taking care not
to disturb the board on the hive, which the bees
will have fastened down. Carry off the super with
its bees and honey, laying another board over the

38 BEE-KEEPING.

hole. Place your super, with the zinc plate below
it, at fifty or a hundred yards' distance from }-our
bee-shed ; edge up the super about two inches from
the plate after it has stood still an hour. The bees
will fly out in succession and make their way
straight home, and not one will turn on you to
sting you. It seems then and there, and in so
new circumstances, to dawn on their minds for
various reasons, that their proprietor is merely
taking his portion in consideration of the care he
has bestowed ; or, like a mob without a head,
they lose all sense of order, self-possession, and
organisation, but, unlike a Belfast mob, they rush
home out of harm's way.

The Common Straw Hive.

HIVES AND BEE-BOXES. 39

The same hive, with central hole and perforated board, and small
straw super or cap.

A small straw super, with glass window, to be placed on the
common straw hive.

Common straw hive, with top cut off lor board and bell-glass.

4»

BEE-KEEPING.

From Mr. Pcttitt's catalog-ue — a very sensible
one — I take the following models and prices of
bell-glasses for supers.

Bell-shaped Glasses, for working on the top of any of the hives.
Price, lo in. 4s. ; 7 in. 2s. 6d. , 6 in. is. 6d. ; 4 in. is.

Neighbour's are still better.

I prefer Taylor's glasses to either.

HIVES AXD BEE-BOXES. 41

A bell-glass nearly filled with honey.

But supposing you can afford to buy a straw
hive with a hole aheady worked at the top — and
it will not cost above a shilling more — you are to
place the board with a corresponding hole on the
top of this, and, till the middle of June, a small
board over, or bung in the hole of the board. Then
take it out as before, and place over it your bell-
glass or small straw hive, and act thenceforth as
already described.

If, however, you can invest a little in apicul-
ture, as people do in agriculture or market-

42 BEE-KEEPING.

gardening, only on a very much smaller scale, I
strongly recommend wooden hives or boxes.
These, well made, are necessarily expensive. The
objections commonly urged by those I have
talked with are, first, that they split and twist,
and get out of gear. This may occur in the best
in a slight degree, but it arises generally from
having unseasoned wood and bad workmanship.
Green wood is utterly worthless. Bad workman-
ship is dearest, when done at the very lowest
rate. The best workmanship and the most seasoned
wood, I have invariably found in the workshop of
Mr. Pettitt, Dover. They never cast, and are beauti-
fully smooth, and all the fittings play easily. Such
wood and workmanship, no doubt, may be had of
any sensible and honest carpenter. My reference
to Pettitt is merely the record of my own expe-
rience. In every case the entrance should be cut,
not out of the hive, but out of the board on which
it rests.

The second objection is, that wood is not suffi-
ciently equable in temperature. I answer, if pro-

HIVES AXD BEE-BOXES. 43

tectcd by a bee-shed, which I regard as an essen-
tial part of bee-furniture, this objection, so far as
summer is concerned, is at once disposed of.
Neither rain nor the direct rays of the sun can
affect it. But in winter, I am persuaded from
thorough experience, that in all hives under sheds
additional shelter is required to keep out the
searching north and east winds, and to keep in
the vital warmth of the bees. For this purpose,
I regard good brown paper, or a newspaper after
you have read it, as the cleanest, neatest, and really
warmest protection. Vermin gather less about pa-
per than woollen material, and brown paper is less
palatable to insect pests than any other. Let the
back and ends of your bee-boxes inside the bee-
shed be covered over in October — the front being
left uncovered, unless by the bee-shed, and you
will find every objection to wooden hives disposed
of by facts.

The first illustration I will present is that of one
by Pettitt, made of the best seasoned deal, un-
painted, of course ; for paint, however necessary

44

BEE-KEEPING.

to the shed, must on no account be suffered to
pollute the hives.

On the top of this hive, of which I give a
back view, are four apertures, each about three
inches by two; zinc dividers, D D, being pushed
in before receiving a swarm, shut off all egress,

HIVES AND BEE-BOXES. 45

and on being withdrawn in May, allow the bees
to ascend into the bell-glasses E E, of which
there are four, each, of course, covered with its
nightcap.

B is a glass window, ^yith a thermometer inside.
B)' the window you can examine progress, taking
care when you leave to shut the lid.

In very dry, hot weather, when the thermo-
meter rises to ninety-five, draw out the drawer
A about two inches, and open the little door c,
withdrawing at the same time also the zinc
plate F, pushing in in its place a perforated zinc
plate, precisely the same in size as F, but perfo-
rated. A current of air is thus introduced, and
in a short time the thermometer will fall five
inches.

Though I do not like the square shape as much
as the octagonal or hexagonal, yet I regard this
as a very valuable hive-box.

Instead of bell-glasses, Pettitt has substituted
boxes for supers, about ten inches in height and
seven inches in breadth ; the front having glass

46

BEE-KEEPING,

instead of deal board, with a shutter ready to be
put on.

It is in this way : —

OPEN

SHUT

Mr. Pettitt has provided, for those who can
afford it, a very elegant and ornamental house,
which he calls " The Temple Bee-hive." It forms
a very suitable ornament on a lawn, and when
three guineas can be spared, nothing can be bet-
ter. It is, however, more adapted to the garden
surrounding a gentleman's residence than to cir-
cumstances in which it is desirable to obtain large
profits from little outlay. But as I wish proprie-
tors of estates to take an interest in bee-keeping,
I would try to tempt them by specimens of orna-
mental bee-furniture.

I give the drawing of it shut, with Mr. Pettitt's
description.

HIVES AND BEE BOXES.

47

Temple Bee-hive, closed. (Showing the entrance).

"Temple Bee-hives, for the humane treatment of honey-bees, are
got up in a tasteful and substantial manner ; and when placed upon
a lawn, in a flower-garden, or on a balcony, have a most picturesque
appearance. They need no shade or shelter from extreme solar heat
in summer, or from humidity and cold during winter, but afford of
themselves a sufficient protection to the industrious tenants. Each
hive is furnished with four bell-glasses, from which the drones are
effectually excluded, and the temperature of the interior can be so
regulated by the use of the ventilators and thermometers, as to
prevent the necessity of swarming."

48

BEE-KEEPING.

I add also a drawing of the same Temple
opened from behind, with his observations.

Temple Bee-hive, open. (Showing the interior.)

' ' This plate shows the interior of the Temple Hive on the preceding
page, with four glass supers upon the top. Owing to the difficulty
some persons have experienced in getting the bees to work in the
glasses, we have introduced small wooden boxes with glass windows ;
and it is quite certain that the bees will collect a larger quantity
of honey in these small supers than they will in tlie glasses, par-
ticularly in uncertain and unsettled seasons."

HIVES AND BEE- BOXES. 49

Pettitt also constructs a wooden hexagonal hive ;
but he uses the top as a mere cover to the glasses,
and of course perforates the top with four holes,
on which he places the glasses. If he will adopt
my amendments, he will give us a hive in all re-
spects perfect. First, he must use the top half
purely as a super for the honey available to the
master. Secondly, he must make half-a-dozen
parallel slits from front to back, with correspond-
ing removable slides, made by a rabbet-plane,
to be withdrawn in May, when it is desirable
that the bees should ascend, and to be re-
introduced when the super is full and is to be
removed. From this hive I would banish glasses
entirely.

I have introduced six slides into this hive, the
ends of which are shaped as shown in the following
drawing. On removing the slides, very small ones,
about an inch long, must be substituted, to prevent
bees coming out at the apertures. On removing
the super or top half in July, the little slides are
removed in succession, and the long ones intro-

E

50

BEE-KEEPING.

duced, in order to shut off the connection between
the upper hive, or bee-master's portion, and the
lower, or the queen's. When you remove your
portion, a zinc plate eighteen inches square is

pressed in between the upper and lower boxes,
and the upper carried away on it. But this is
not always necessary, as I will subsequently show
in describing the Ayrshire hive.

I prefer the hexagonal shape, not from any

HIVES AND BEE-BOXES. sr

theory, but from practical experience ; and if this
hive can be constructed at less expense, it will
prove alike popular and profitable. Its price may-
be reduced by substituting a plain glass window
in each section, with a slide shutter instead of
door and hinges, retaining all its seasoned wood
and thorough workmanship, while lessening its
merely decorative features.

The hive-box I have found unfailing in results
is the Scotch or Ayrshire hive. It is octagonal
in shape ; the lowest box is six inches high, and
rather wider than a large common straw hive.
There are three octagonal boxes in all, the top
of each having parallel slits from back to front,
with slides corresponding, and withdrawn when re-
quired. In May, you place your first super box
on the top of the lowest or stock hive, fitting
and corresponding in all respects ; you withdraw
backward each slide, introducing as you do so
a little slide about an inch in length, to pre-
vent the egress of the bees behind. There is no
possibility of escape in front, from the end of
E 2

52

BEE-KEEPING.

each slide being filled up by the wood of the
box.

As soon as this first super is filled, you place
on it another, or third ; withdraw the slides on
the top of the second as you did from the top
of the first, and let the bees ascend still higher.
A small glass window in each, with a sliding
shutter, enables you to report progress. At the
honey harvest, you remove each super as I have
previously directed ; and it must be a very bad
summer that does not end as the bee-master
would prefer.

Of all straw hives.
Neighbours' is the most
beautiful and lasting.
With the super hive lift-
ed up, you see three
bell-glasses on the flat
top of the stock hive,
the zinc slides being
withdrawn. The cost is
thirty shillings. Prefer-

HIVES AXD BEE-BOXES. ii

able to three glasses is one flat glass, about six or
eight inches deep. Bees prefer united to separate
action in treasuring up their stores. But either
with three small glasses or one large one, it is a
very elegant and serviceable hive.

The collateral system of bee-hives has, how-
ever, many able and enthusiastic advocates. Nutt
is the great advocate, if not the inv^entor, of this
bee-box. As a system for ventilation and facility
of deprivation it is unrivalled. His collateral hive,
suitable to be placed in a bee-shed, is as below.

54 BEE-KEEPING.

A is the stock hive, into which the swarm is
introduced and the queen resides ; the glass win-
dow is open. B B are the side boxes, right and
left, having, either in the sides nearest the central
box or in the floor, extending right and left, a
subterranean communication. C is the cover of a
bell-glass : so far in deference to the storifying
system. D D D D D are means of ventilation, —
above by perforated zinc cupolas, and beneath b}'
drawers, which may be opened or shut as required.

But for every excellence and capability of which
the collateral hive is susceptible, Pettitt's is unde-
niably the happiest and best. I give his own
description and woodcut : —

" A IS a block front to open for ventilation, also for the egress of
the bees from the box F when filled. B Feeding apartment. C C
Ventilating slides. D D D Dividers. E " Pavilion of Nature."
F Surplus box. G G G Ventilators. H H H H Glass surplus
hives. The finest specimen of glass honey in the Great Exhibition
was taken from one of these hives. They are of such easy and safe
access, that they can be approached at the back at mid-day, when
the bees are in full work, without giving them any disturbance
whatever. The parent hive is provided with apertures for four
glasses upon the top, through which the drones cannot pass. These
hives are intended for the inside of the apiary, gentleman's library,
or attic."

HIVES AND BEE-BOXES.

55

The apertures on the top, which is the retention
of the storifying system grafted on the collateral,
are all he describes, and a real and valuable de-
vice. The price, two guineas, is, for so excellent
a bee-box, most reasonable. I can testify from
experience that the material is thoroughly sea-
soned, and the workmanship perfect.

But I still retain my conviction that the colla-
teral system is not productive. The objection to
the storifying system, that the bees have more
fatigue in climbing than in travelling on the same

56 BEE-KEEPING.

level, is not tenable. The bee prefers to ascend ;
it traverses the roof as easily as the floor ;
it begins its work on the roof, and evidently
ignores the difficulty which Nutt and others have
invented. The side boxes, also, are too cold ; the
heat of the pavilion, or stock hive, ascending more
easily than radiating sideways. Comb-building
requires a certain temperature, without which it is
impracticable. Hence, in storifying and collateral
hives both, when the weather is cold and ungenial,
I cover up as much as possible with brown paper,
in order to keep in all the heat generated by the
bees. Taylor, the most sensible and practical of
apiculturists, thus describes his experience of col-
lateral hives : —

"Another point on which Nutt laid much stress may
be mentioned, viz., the supposed advantage to the bees
in working on one level, without the necessity of climb-
ing, as in storified hives. I long thought this was indis-
putable. Further consideration led me more minutely
to examine the habits of the bee in this respect, and I
became convinced that nature had given it equal facili-

HIVES AXD BEE-BOXES. 57

ties for moving in every direction. A scientific corre-
spondent thus writes on this subject : — ' I once pro-
pounded the question to a very eminent mathematician,
and his reply was, that, if any, the difference was too
minute to admit of calculation between the horizontal
and the perpendicular movement ; it was, in the lan-
guage of the present da}% infinitesimal.' Although few
of Nutt's positions have been found to stand the test
of practice, it ought not to be said that his crude specu-
lations and rash assertions have been altogether without
useful results, as they undoubtedly led to farther investi-
gation, and several modern improvements had thus their
origin."

I do not wish to take up space by explaining
the nether or nadir system. The simplest descrip-
tion would be : — The common straw hive placed
on a square box, six inches in depth and twelve
inches square, having a window behind for obser-
vation. An aperture is in the floor of the box,
having a movable zinc slide, to be withdrawn when
the bees are required to descend. This they will
do when room is denied above. But the nadir-box
is apt to be cold, and the queen is apt to treat it as

S8

BEE-KEEPING.

part of the stock hive when it becomes warm, and
to lay her eggs and rear her young in it, and so
spoil your harvest.

A is the nadir-box, on
which the hive B — the
common straw hive —
stands ; c is a pane of
glass, and A is a move-
able zinc slide for open-
ing or shutting communi-
M. cation between the nadir
^ and the hive. It is not
a wise or useful plan.

V. — HOW TO GET BEES.

HE best and most effective plan is to buy
a swarm as early in ]May as possible.
The farther off from your bee-garden
the swarm is brought the better. I have invariably
found that a swarm from a hive a mile or two off
is preferable to a swarm from one of your own
hives.

Send your bee-box or hive to some cottager who
keeps bees, about the end of April. Explain to her
or him how the hive is to be adjusted on receiving
the swarm, and request that it be carried by hand,
if possible, the evening of the day on which the
swarm was hiv-ed. Let a piece of gauze be placed

6o BEE-KEEPING.

over the entrance of your hive, in order that the
bees while prisoners on the journey may have
plenty of air ; and when it arrives place it quietly
on your bee-shed, remove without noise the gauze,
and next morning, if it be fine, the bees will make
themselves masters of the situation, and make np
their minds and arrange themselves to work in that
place in which their bee-master sets them.

Should the weather, the day after you have placed
the hive containing your swarm in your bee-shed,
turn out wet and cold, push into the hive through
the entrance hole a couple of sticks of barley-sugar,
or more. Half-a-pound only costs sev^enpence, and
you will get it all back in due time ; thereby the
bees will start with renewed strength, as soon as
the weather clears up, most grateful for a little help
when help is most required. You need not fear
lest by so doing you will encourage idleness or
mendicancy. Bees are not like street beggars.
They do not want to be dependent. All they
ask is a little help at the beginning, to be able then
to help themselves. As soon as the sun shines the

I/OJV TO GET BEES. 6i

swarm will work hard and without cessation, and
by the middle of June you may find it right to
open communication with a super, or at least with
a bell-glass, and find yourself very soon rewarded
with honey of exquisite flavour, in cells of unrivalled
whiteness.

Richardson and Wildman thus teach how stocks
are to be obtained : — ■

" A stock of bees is usually to be obtained by purchase,
although it may indeed chance that you get an oppor-
tunity of hiving a 'vagabond' swarm which may have
settled in your garden or orchard. In the latter instance,
indeed, I think your property in the stragglers somewhat
questionable, and perhaps scarcely more so than it would
be in a stray ox or sheep, which accident had driven into
your premises.

" You may procure stock either in the spring or autumn.
I should prefer the former period, because that is the
fitting time for removal of stocks from the old-fashioned
awkward hives to the more improved modern receptacles ;
but it is more difficult to ascertain the exact condition of
the stock you are about purchasing in spring than it is in
autumn. I am sorry to say, that unless you purchase

62 BEE-KEEPING.

your stock from a friend, or from some one, at all events,
that you can confidently depend on, you are very likely
to be taken in, and must therefore be upon your guard
against imposition. As some writer (I forget who)
quaintly enough remarks, ' Let it be with the bees as
with a wife — never take them on the recommefidation of
another paiiy' If you would purchase a stock in early
spring, just after the bees have been removed from their
winter quarters, you need not attempt it unless from a
person on whose honour you can positively depend.
During the months of May or June, you can form some
judgment for yourself, and, if you act cautiously, may
perhaps bid defiance to trickery. In this case, you
should visit the garden or other locality in which the
hive stands that you intend purchasing, about mid-day ;
stand opposite to it, and observe attentively the actions
of its inhabitants. If they crowd busily in and out of the
hive, giving evidence of their industry by the laden appear-
ance of their legs, and altogether exhibiting a busy earnest-
ness in their toils, you may safely buy the hive ; and if
you obtain this hive before swarming has taken place,
you may look upon yourself as a fortunate man.

"If the object of your intentions be an autumnal hive,
you had better ascertain that the massacre of the drones
has taken place : an observation of the stand and of the

HO IV rO GET BEES. 63

ground around the hive will tell this. Observe the actions
of these bees — see that they are lively and industrious ;
and if, on your too near approach, one or two bees dash
at your face, do not be alamied, but rather regard their
pugnacity as a sign of vigour, and buy the hive. Some
writers speak of the necessity of purchasing only such
stocks as are in nice new hives. This is an advice very
necessar}' to be attended to ; but it would not be so,
were you sure that the interior of the hive were filled
only with honey-comb, and with no old worn-out comb,
the accumulation of years. If you are in doubt on the
subject, you shovX^ fumigate the hive in the evening, in
the manner hereafter to be described ; then, turning up
the hive, you can readily ascertain the character of its
contents. If the comb be black, have nothing to do \nth
the stock. The genuine colour of the comb is white,
and, consequently, the lighter it is, the more the stock is
to be esteemed.

" Never, unless you can depend on the part)', soid your
hive to receive a swarm : for you may, if you do, have a
second swarm imposed upon you for a first — a compara-
tively valueless stock for just the very thing you desire.
The first swarm begin the formation of the combs at the
middle of the apex of the hive ; the second does so at the
side. These are the only criteria I can furnish, for neither

64 BEE-KEEPING.

Aveight nor bulk are to be depended upon. It is to the
obstinate use of the old-fashioned hive that these diffi-
culties, and these opportunities for fraud, are attributable.
Were the improved system once established, these cautions
would be no longer called for. For old Wildman I enter-
tain a very high respect, although in some instances I am
compelled to differ from him ; yet I always investigate
closely the point at issue between us ere doing so, and, if
I doubt, I suffer the weight of his authority to act as a
' casting vote.' Wildman has given some good advice as
to the purchase of stocks ; and in this advice he speaks
like an oracle. Attend to him : —

" ' The person who intends to erect an apiary should
purchase a proper number of hives at the latter end of
the year, when they are cheapest. The hives should be
full of combs, and well stored with bees. The purchaser
should examine the combs, in order to know the age of
the hives. The combs of that season are ivhitc ; those
of a former year are of a darkish yeilow ; and when
the combs are black, the hives should be rejected, be-
cause old hives are most liable to vermin and other
accidents.

" ' If the number of hives wanted have not been pur-
chased in the autumn, it will be necessary to remedy this
neglect, after the severity of the cold is i)ast, in the

HO IV TO GET BEES. 65

spring. At this season, bees which are in good condition
will get into the fields early in the morning, return loaded,
enter boldly, and do not come out of the hive in bad
weather, for when they do, this indicates that they are in
great want of provisions. They are alert on the least
disturbance, and by the loudness of their humming we
judge of their strength. They preserve their hives free
from all filth, and are ready to defend it against every
enemy that approaches.

'• ' The summer is an improper time for buying bees,
because the heat of the weather softens the wax, and
thereby renders the comb liable to break, if they are not
ver)' well secured. The honey, too, being then thinner
than at other times, is more apt to run out at the cells,
which is attended with a double disadvantage — viz., the
loss of the honey, and the daubing of the bees — whereby
many of them may be destroyed. A ^rst and strong
swarm may indeed be purchased : and, if leave can be
obtained, permitted to stand in the same garden until the
autumn ; but, if leave is not obtained, it may be carried
away in the 71/0/1^^ after it has been hived.

" ' I suppose that, in the stocks purchased, the bees are
in the hives of the old construction. The only directions
here necessary are, that the first swami from these stocks
should be put into one of my hives ; and that another of

F

66 BEE-KEEPING.

my hives should, in a few days, be put under the old
stock, in order to prevent its swarming again.' "

But perhaps you have a swarm from one of your
own stock hives, — not so desirable as the purchase
of a swarm from a neighbour. A swarm will occa-
sionally emerge from hives and bee-boxes, in spite
of every plan of preventing it. The signs of
swarming are some of them appreciable by the
most expert bee-master only. A common sign of
the emergence of a swarm is inactivity in work,
and about the hive clusters hanging from the bee-
board — arising, probably, from the old queen finding
no princess ready to take her throne — and a high
temperature within. If, in addition, the weather is
moist and warm, the issue of a swarm may be
expected. From ten o'clock to three has been
stated as the period within which swarming oc-
curs. Every swarm I have had for twelve years
has issued between twelve and three.

A strong swarm will consist of from ten thou-
sand to twenty thousand bees ; a caste, or second
swarm, of five thousand. Two thousand bees fill

I/OJr TO GET BEES. 67

a pint measure. Scouts are generally sent out to
select a residence for the young family. House-
seeking is an arduous work for human tenants,
and no doubt the pioneer bees find great diffi-
culty in fixing on what seems to them suitable.
I have seen them settle under the leaves of a
standard rose, sometimes on the bough of an apple-
tree, and at other times in a sheltered recess in a
laurel-hedge. No sight is more exciting than that
of a swarm of bees. The air is clouded with the
circling bees — vocal with their united music, while
the eyes of the bee-master quietly watch their
descent. As soon as the queen settles, the bees
cluster around her and hang from the branch on
which she has settled. As soon as the great mass
has settled, take your bee-box or hive, hold it
with one hand, mouth or bottom upward, beneath
the swarm, enclosing as many of the pendent bees
as the situation will allow. With the other hand
shake the bough from which they hang, and on the
great mass tumbling into the hive, carry- it away
half-a-dozen yards ; set it upright on the bottom
F 2

68

BEE-KEEPING.

board, or a white sheet previously spread on the
grass ; raise the edge of the hive with a piece of
wood or stone a few inches from the ground, and

NOW TO GET BEES. 69

cover the hive with a branch or two to keep off the
direct rays of the sun. If the queen be inside the
hive, the bees that are already inside will remain,
and you will find the bees that linger about the
branch on which they first settled steadily enter,
and by sunset they will all be within. If the
queen has not been caught, and still remains on
the bough or branch on which the swarm first
settled, the bees will leave the hi\e and re-cluster
as they were. You must then repeat the pro-
cess. You need not be afraid of stings. But if
your ner\'es do not respond to your convictions,
begin by spreading a square of gauze over your
hat, the brim of the hat keeping it from your
face ; push the ends and corners under your coat,
buttoning it to the chin. This will protect your
face, ears, and neck, and a pair of worsted gloves
will protect your hands. But practice will dis-
pel fear, and save you from the necessity of such
defences. If this homely and cheap defence seem
to you insufficient, you can purchase at Neighbours',
in Regent-street, for five shillings, a perfect fit.

70 BEE-KEEPING.

It is thus represented by its inventor in Messrs.
Neighbours' list.

" Is made of light net, called Lcno, fits over the hat or cap, with
.sleeves tied at the wrists, and strings at the bottom to draw and
fasten round the waist, the sleeves being made of a stronger ma-
terial. Price 5s. ; by post, 6s."

If you have more than one bee-shed, do net
place the young colony in the shed in which its
mother hive stands.

A few straggling bees often hang about the
branch next day. Lay on it a few nettles, and
they will speedily forsake it, and return to the
hive from which they issued, where, of course,
their labours are not lost to the bee-master.

HOW TO GET BEES. 71

Sometimes a caste, or second swarm, will issue
from the same hive. These are occasionally feeble in
comparison of the first swarm. Are we to preserve
it, and make the most of it .'' or are we to unite the
weaker and later caste to a stronger one .-' Almost
all apiarians recommend the uniting of two weak
castes, in order to make one strong family, or
uniting the feeble swarm to an old stock. Mr.
Cotton, the most affectionate of bee-masters while
he lived, advocates the use of the usual anesthetic,
fuzz-ball or puff-ball, or frog's-cheese ; and while
the bees are in a state of insensibility pouring the
one family into the hive of the other. The instru-
ment employed for this purpose is made of tin plate.

The ignited puff-ball, which may be gathered and
dried, or purchased for a trifle from Neighbours' in
London, or Pettitt in Dover, is placed in the box
A. The part B is then fitted into A. The orifice
D is introduced into the hive, a little rag or clay is

72 BEE-KEEPING.

packed round it to keep in the smoke. The mouth
is to be applied to the end C, and thus the smoke
is driven into the hive. The bees will soon become
still as death. The queen had better be picked out
and removed from the caste.

The tube of an ordinary bellows may be intro-
duced for this fumigation, as perhaps more effective
and less troublesome. It will then appear thus : —

Richardson describes another plan : —

" Some persons may conceive it to be a difficult matter
to come at the queen. When fumigation is resorted to,
she is, of course, easily discovered ; but even when it is
dispensed with, and the practice adopted which I have
yet to describe, she is not so very difficult to come at ;
for, on a hive being turned up and tapped, the queen is
among the first, if not indeed the very first, who makes
her appearance, as if to discover the occasion of the
unwonted disturbance ; and recollect, that although the

HO IV 70 GET BEES. 72,

dusk of an autumnal evening answers best for this purpose,
I say nothing indicative of my disapprobation of the use
of a lantern. The queen usually lodges near the crown
of the hive, and is, when fumigation is resorted to, one of
the last to fall ; she will consequently, in this case, be
found amongst the uppermost bees. In practising fumi-
gation (with a view to the union of weak stocks), two
persons should act in concert, each taking a hive and
operating upon it, in order that both stocks should be
simultaneously in a similar condition as to intoxication. I
may add, that in fumigation the hive must be well covered
with a cloth, to prevent the escape of the smoke. When
you have united the two stocks in the manner I have
described, it is advisable to confine the insects to their
hive for that night and the following day. Do not, how-
ever, wholly deprive them of air in doing so, or you may
smother them."

Taylor, who is always judicious, proposes what
I regard as a preferable plan of uniting weak
swarms : —

" Like most other operations on bees, the mode of
uniting swarms admits of variety, according to choice and
circumstance ; and some apiarians prefer to drive them,
in the way for which general directions have already been

74 BEE-KEEPING.

given; a plan that may be resorted to almost at any
time. Another mode of junction can be effected by the
aid of a sheet of perforated zinc, inserted between the
two hives about to be united. There is little reason to
doubt that the members of each colony of bees are dis-
tinguishable amongst themselves by a certain peculiarity
of odour, which, if assimilated, appears to have the effect
of preventing mutual dissension. When the construction,
therefore, of the hives admits of their being brought into
juxtaposition, the perforated zinc allows a free circulation
of scent between them, without permitting actual contact
of the bees. After leaving matters in this position for
two or three days, I have usually found, on withdrawing
the zinc divider, that no disturbance has ensued."

But may it not be preferable still to follow the
course indicated by the bees .-' When pastures fail
and turnips perish, from an extreme dry season, we
feed cattle with artificial food. Why not try an
analogous system with bees } Barley-sugar, I
admit, is expensive. But I venture to assert, that
if the caste issue not later than June, four pounds
of barley-sugar, costing about five shillings, will
supplement its own industrious gatherings suffi-

HO IV TO GET BEES. 75

ciently to cari^- it ov'er the winter into spring, and
a pound in spring will start it into vigorous work.
If you take from it a super next June or July,
weighing ten or twelve pounds, you receive good
interest, and your outlay for barley-sugar is re-
turned, and you escape the troublesome and dis-
agreeable process of fumigation. Barley-sugar, I
admit, is more costly than cottagers prefer. If
you have no arrangement in your hives for feed-
ing, you may boil a pound of common brown
sugar — which may be had for fourpence a pound
— in a pint of ale ; pour it when cool into a soup-
plate. Take a circular thin board, the size of the
inner bottom of the soup-plate, pierce it with a
good-sized gimlet in every direction till it is covered
with holes, each through and through. Let it float
on the plate. Set the plate opposite your weak
swarm day after day for a week. The other bees,
strong and busy in June, will rarely touch it, and
your destitute family will gladly visit it. The
weight of the float will make the sugared ale
ascend by the holes, and the bees will sip ad

76 BEE-KEEPING.

libitinn, without the risk of clogging their wings or
being drowned. But if, what is more to be desired,
you have one of Pettitt's single-box hives, you have
only to fill one of his wood feeders, in which there

are grooves and parallel edges of wood for the bees
to walk on ; place it in the drawer beneath the
stock, draw out the zinc slide, and the bees will
descend and feed with profit and pleasure.

If you have one of Neighbours' hives, already
referred to, fill the following zinc pan with the ale
and sugar. Put over it the plate of glass, and fix
it on the top of the hive. The bees will ascend by

the orifice A, the plate-glass cover on the top pre-
venting their escape, while it is so constructed that
without moving it you can replenish it by the
entrance B.

HOW TO GET BEES. jj

Taylor thus describes one of his feeding-pans : —

" When there is a hole in the centre of the top of the

hive, a trough may be used, made of tin or zinc, seven or

eight inches square, and one inch and a quarter deep ;

having a circular two-inch hole in the middle of the

bottom, with a rim round it, standing up half an inch,
through which the bees enter the pan from below.
Another circular rim or partidon, as large in diameter as
the square of the pan will admit, is soldered down within
it at the four points where it touches the sides. It must
not go down to the bottom, but a space should there be
left of nearly an eighth of an inch, as a passage for the
food, which is poured in at the four angles. A perforated
thin wooden bottom or float is fitted loosely into the pan,
betiveen the circles, removing an objection somedmes
made against the chilling effects of metal upon bees.

78 BEE-KEEPING.

The float should be a Httle raised by means of two thin
strips of wood, appended below, to allow the liquid to
flow beneath. A cover is made by a piece of glass,
resting on the larger circle, but cut nearly octagonal in
form, so as to leave the corners open. The circle on
which the glass rests should be an eighth of an inch
lower than the outer rim."

Ingenious bee-masters, who estimate the excel-
lence of their treatment by its tortuous ingenuity,
are sure to deride every such homely and easy treat-
ment. But you must disregard their learned and,
as they phrase it, scientific talk. In fact, the sulphur-
and-match treatment is scarcely worse than the pro-
tracted torture of apiarian inquisitors, inflicted on
bees by means of their ingenious hives. Experi-
mental investigations are, of course, legitimate. But
keeping up queer and twisted and zigzag bee-houses,
as monuments of their talent and nothing else, is
nothing less than vivisection of bees.

Should the weather prove fine, and the stock hive,
as inspected by the glass window, show the honey-
comb reaching downward to the floor, place a super

NOir TO GET BEES. 79

on the top. A glass is by far the most elegant, and,
of the shape recommended by Taylor, it is the most
useful. It is about ten inches wide, six inches high,
and straight on the sides, with or without a zinc
circular perforated tube.

But it is essential to cover it with a fitting woollen
nightcap, the neglect of which is the cause of the
unpopularity of bee-glasses.

No additional room ought to be given after the
middle of July, even in heath counties ; but that
supplied in the beginning of June, or toward the end
of May, should be large. This is the safe side to
err on. Either one good large glass, or, what is less
useful, two or three middle-sized, should be used.

In the case of the Ayrshire hive, the rabbet-slides
should be drawn out from the top of the bottom
box, the super box being previously placed on
the top.

During June and July frequently visit your bees.

8o BEE - KEEPING.

Stand in front of the bee-shed. Study them through
your observatory windows. They are too busy to
be annoyed. They love company. They are es-
sentially social and friendly, and fond of visitors.
Their music will charm your ear, and their industry
delight your eye ; and their wonderful work will
give you many an illustration for sermon, essay, or
speech.

The longest summer ends in autumn. The honey
harvest comes on.

Pass your zinc plate under the full glass. Detach
it, and lift it off the stock hive, of which close up
the hole, or place on it a very small bell-glass, just
sufficient to cover the aperture, not forgetting the
nightcap. Take your glass to a little distance, let
it rest for half an hour, then edge up one side, and
the bees will rush home to their hive in the bee-
shed. Cover the bottom of the glass, when the bees
have left, with parchment or thick writing-paper.

Mr. Taylor's directions are as follow : —

" If the queen is not in the super (and she seldom is
there after it is filled), the silence that at first prevailed

now TO GET BEES. 8i

will be exchanged for a murmuring hum, attended by a
commotion among the bees ; and they shortly after begin
to quit the super, without attempting any attack. Should
the queen be present, however, a very difterent scene
would ensue, and a hubbub would then commence in the
stock hive ; though the loss of their queen is sometimes
not discovered by the bees for a considerable time. In
such a case, the box must be reinstated in its former
position, and the communication reopened till some
other day. The process might happen to be complicated
by the presence of brood, for this the bees leave very
reluctantly, and often not at all. In an emergency of
this kind, it is best to restore matters to their previous
state, and let the super remain till the brood is perfected.
A little patience is sometimes necessarj^ ; but all attempts
at ejection of the bees by tapping, smoking, or driving,
usually do more harm than good. So long as they con-
tinue to leave the super, it may remain where it is, for on
these occasions young bees are sometimes numerous ;
and if the super is removed, though only to a short dis-
tance, these are in part lost, not having become sufficiently
acquainted with the position of their home ; or, if they
enter a wrong hive, they pay the penalty with their lives.
This freedom from disturbance has the further good effect
of preventing in a great degree the intrusion of robber

82 ■ BEE-KEEPING.

bees, readily distinguishable from the others by their
hovering about the box, instead of flying from it. These
are strangers from various quarters, immediately attracted
by the scent attending the removal of a full box or glass.
Should a few of these plunderers once obtain a taste or
sample of the honey, they speedily convey the good news
to their associates, when large reinforcements from every
hive in the neighbourhood will be at once on the alert,
and quickly leave nothing behind but empty combs.
Let the separated super, therefore, not be left or lost
sight of, but if scented out by robbers, be conveyed into
some room or outbuilding, to prevent a general battle,
and which might extend itself to all the neighbouring
hives. I'he remaining bees may here be brushed out,
escaping by the window or door. Mr. Golding has
sometimes found the advantage of using for the purpose
a darkened room, v/ith the exception of a very small
aperture, to which the bees will fly and make their exit.
Others like to remove a super at once to a short distance
from the stock hive, leaving it shut up in perfect darkness
for an hour or two. Its edge is then raised up, when the
bees will evacuate it."

A good plan is, to take the detached super into
a room with a window that closes and opens on

HO]V 70 GEJ BEES. S3

hinges. On edging up the glass, the bees will fly-
to the window. Open it for a minute, and they
will escape. Shut it again, and repeat the opening.
The advantage of this is that wasps and strange
bees are excluded, such corsairs careering every-
where in autumn.

Honey is always best preserved in its own sealed
and air-tight cells. It will keep throughout the
winter. If you separate the honey from the wax,
cut the combs into inch-wide pieces, and lay these
in sieves over glazed earthenware vessels, and they
will yield the choicest honey. It drops from the
comb spontaneously.

Take the combs and squeeze them through a
cloth. This will yield a second-class honey, admi-
rable for feeding your bees. Carry the remainder,
or refuse, in a dish, and place it before your bee-
shed, and thousands of your bees will make a good
meal from it. If you prefer to save the wax, bring
back what the bees have licked clean. Put it into
a vessel in which there is as much water as floats
it. Place the vessel on a clear fire, stirring till the
G 2

84 BEE-KEEPING.

combs arc thoroughly melted. Strain the whole
through a fine canvas bag into cold water. Mr.
Nutt says : —

" Have ready then a piece of smooth board of such a
length that, when one end of it is placed in the tub of
cold -water, the other end may be conveniently rested
against, and securely stayed by, your breast. Upon this
inclined plane lay your dripping, reeking strainer, and
keeping it from slipping into the cold water by bringing
its upper part over the top of the board, so as to be held
firmly between it and your breast. If the strainer be
made with a broad hem round its top, a piece of strong
tape or cord passed through such hem will draw it close,
and should be long enough to form a stirrup for the foot,
by which an additional power will be gained of keeping
the scalding-hot strainer in its proper place on the board ;
then, by compressing the bag, or rather its contents, Avith
any convenient roller, the wax will ooze through and
run down the board into the cold water, on the surface
of which it will set in thin flakes. When this part of the
operation is finished, collect the wax, put it into a clean
saucepan, in which is a little water, to keep the wax from
being burned to the bottom ; melt it carefully ; for should
it be neglected, and suftered to boil over, serious mischief

HOIV TO GET BEES. 85

might ensue, liquid wax being of a very inflammable
nature ; therefore, melt it carefully over a slow fire., and
skim off the dross as it rises to the top ; then pour it
into such moulds or shapes as your fancy may direct,
having first well rinsed them, in order that you may be
able to get the wax, when cold and solid, out of them,
without breaking either the moulds or the wax ; place
them, covered over with cloths or with pieces of board,
where the wax will cool slowly ; because the more slowly
it cools, the more solid if will be, and free from flaws and
cracks."

To those who have a taste for very ancient drinks,
Richardson's instructions will prove valuable : —

" Mead. — Some persons may feel desirous of making
for themselves this once-famous drink, and I shall accord-
ingly furnish them with simple directions for so doing.
Common mead is formed by mixing two parts of water
with one of honey, boiling them together, and taking off
the scum.

" Fermented mead is formed of three parts of water to
one of honey, boiled as before, skimmed, and casked.
The cask is to be left unbunged and exposed to the sun,
or in a warm room, until it ceases to %uork. It is then
bunged, and in about three months it is fit for use. The

86 BEE-KEEPING.

addition of a fenneiit is of course necessary, taking care
that it be sound, sweet, and good.

" Hops are an improvement to mead, taking from its
extreme sweetness ; and so is tlie addition of cliopped
raisins boiled with it, at the rate of six pounds of honey
to each half-pound of raisins ; also some lemon peel, a
few glasses of brandy, &c.

" Metheglin is only another name for mead, altered
by the addition of various ingredients, according to the
taste of its preparers. These liquors may be 7'acked, fined,
&c., like other wines, and will, if properly managed, keei)
for years."

I have never tasted these celebrated wines. I
have no doubt they are pleasant and wholesome.
But I prefer the honey in the honeycomb at break-
fast, and mean to recommend it to others also.

VI. — THE INMATES OF THE HIVE.

N eveiy hive there are three distinct in-
mates, very easily recognised — the Queen-
Bee, the Working-Bee, and the Drone ;

each essential to the other, and all to the very

existence and prosperit}' of the hive.

The Queen. The Working- Bee. The Drone.

THE QUEEN.

The Queen is very elegant. Her symmetry of

88 BEE-KEEPIXG.

person, and relative proportions, and greater length
of figure, distinguish her from the rest of the com-
munity. Her death is followed by a cessation of
all labour till a princess ascends the throne. She
is the creature of treatment. The q^^ from which
she emerges seems in all respects identical with
those from which her subjects issue. On the sides
of the tier of comb from which drones and working-
bees are developed, large vertical combs, from two
to five, are constructed. Woodcuts representing
these are found in every bee-book. Ta}'lor gives
the following accurate picture : —

iiiii

Mi'

THE IXMATES OF THE HIVE. 89

The upper portion of the comb contains honey,
with the exception of the dark cells, which contain
pollen. The lower are drone cells ; and the large
cells, three in number on each side, are royal pa-
laces. Her majesty is fed with royal jelly till she
is ready to show herself; and everything that love
and reverence and hope can supply, the bees de-
light to offer. But it is a curious entomological
fact, first discovered by Schirach, an eminent api-
arian of the last century, that the bees can supply
the loss of their queen by an artificial process — a
process confirmatory of the position that every
working-bee ^^'g has in it the component elements
of royalty, and that development according to a
definite treatment is all that is requisite to consti-
tute a queen. On being deprived of their queen
by death, the bees select a common grub, not
above three days old, break down the wax par-
titions between it and at least three contiguous
cells, forming a vertical pear-shaped chamber.
They feed her with the daintiest food, called royal
jelly. In five days the grub becomes a nymph, and

90 BEE-KEEPING.

in fifteen she emerges a royal princess, ascends the
vacant throne, and receives the homage, loyalty,
and love of fifteen or twenty thousand subjects.
Kirby exclaims : —

" What ! you will ask, can a larger and warmer house,
a difterent and more pungent food, and a vertical instead
of an horizontal posture, give a bee a different-shaped
tongue and mandibles ; render the surface of its under-
legs flat instead of concave ; deprive them of the fringe
of hairs that forms the basket for carrying the masses of
pollen, — of the auricle and pecten which enable the
workers to use these legs or feet as pincers, — of the
brush that lines the insides of the feet % Can they
lengthen its abdomen ; alter its colour and clothing ;
give a curvature to its sting ; deprive it of its wax-
pockets, and of the vessels for secreting that substance ;
and render its ovaries more conspicuous and capable of
yielding worker and drone eggs % "

In spring, she moves among the combs laying
her eggs. Ladies-in-waiting accompany her, who
always turn their faces toward her majesty, clear
the royal route, and clean out the cells in which she
deposits her eggs.

THE IXMATES OF THE HIVE.

9'

Of this Lardner gives the follovdng represen-
tation : —

Njdiik9

The Reverend Charles Cotton, while he lived
the prince of bee-masters, thus represents the queen
and her attendant ladies : —

92 BEE-KEEPIXG.

The queen is the central bee ; the surrounding
bees are her ladies-in-waiting, and the white specks
the eggs she has deposited.

The queen-bee is a model keeper at home, rarely
leaving the hive. Most apiarians are interested at
present in the habits and acclimatisation of the
Ligurian bee — the Apis Ligustica, or Italian bee.
It is found easy to substitute an Italian for a British
queen, in a British hive which has been deprived of
its native sovereign. The bees refuse to constitute
themselves into a republic, and therefore they will
accept even a foreign queen, who, no doubt, takes
the oaths and obligations of the realm over which
she is to reign. There is a red tinge in the rings
that surround the abdomen of this foreigner ; and,
contrary to what we should expect in an Italian
temperament, the Ligurian bee is more gentle and
conciliatory than our native queen. I speak from
report, not from personal knowledge. But I hope
one day to be present at a Icv'cc, and become better
acquainted with the royal foreigner.

Lardner gives the following account of two

THE IXMATES OF THE HIVE. 93

queens, from Huber. Huber placed a piece of
comb having three royal cells in a hive in which
the queen was laying eggs. The moment she saw
them she attacked them, laid them open, and com-
manded her attendants to destroy them. These
instantly tore out the royal nymphs, and devoured
the food destined for their use. He then intro-
duced a stranger queen, pregnant with eggs, mark-
ing her so as to be able to identify her.

" Immediately on her appearance the workers collected
in a crowd around her, and formed as usual a circle of
which she was the centre, the heads of all the remaining
crowd being directed towards her. This very soon became
so dense that she became an absolute prisoner within it.

" While this was going on, a similar ring was formed
by another group of workers round the queen-regnant,
so that she was likewise for the moment a prisoner.

" The two queens being thus in view of each other, if
either evinced a disposition to approach and attack the
other, the two rings were immediately opened, so as to give
a free passage to the combatants ; but the moment they
showed a disposition to fly from each other, the rings were
again closed, so as to retain them on the spot they occupied.

94 BEE-KEEPh\G.

" At length the queen-regnant resolved on the conflict,
and the surrounding crowd, seeming to be conscious of
her decision, immediately cleared a passage for her to
the place where the stranger stood perched on the comb.
She threw herself with fury on the latter, seized her by
the root of the wing, and fixed her against the comb so
as to deprive her of all power of movement or resistance,
and then bending her abdomen, inflicted a mortal stal)
with her sting, and put an end to the intruder.

" A fruitful queen full of eggs was next placed upon
one of the combs of a hive over which a virgin queen
already reigned. She immediately began to drop her
eggs, but not in the cells ; nor did the workers, by a
circle of whom she was closely surrounded, take charge
of them ; but, since no trace of them could be discovered,
it is probable that they were devoured.

" The group, by which this intruding queen was sur-
rounded, having opened a way for her, she moved
towards the edge of the comb, where she found lierself
close to the place occupied by the legitimate virgin
queen. The moment they perceived each other, they
rushed together with ungovernable fury. The virgin,
mounting on the back of the intruder, stabbed her
several times in the abdomen, but failed to penetrate
the scaly covering of the segments. The combatants

THE IX.\fATES OF THE HIVE. 95

then, exhausted for the moment, disengaged themselves
and retired. After an interval of some minutes they
returned to the charge, and this time the intruder suc-
ceeded in mounting on the back of the virgin and giving
her several stabs with her sting, which, however, failed to
penetrate the flesh. The virgin queen, succeeding in
disengaging herself, again retired. Another round suc-
ceeded, with the like results, the virgin still coming
undermost, and, after disengaging herself, again retiring.
The combat appeared for some time doubtful, the rival
(jueens being so nearly equal in strength and power;
when at last, by a lucky chance, the virgin sovereign
inflicted a mortal wound upon the intruder, who fell
dead on the spot.

" In this case, the sting of the virgin was buried so
deep in the flesh of her opponent, that she found it
impossible to withdraw it, and any attempt to do so by
direct force would have been fatal to her. After many
fruitless eff"orts, she at length adopted the following
ingenious expedient with complete success. Instead of
exerting her force on the sting by a direct pull, she
turned herself round, giving herself a rotator}- motion on
the extremity of her abdomen where the sting had its
insertion, as a pivot. In this way she gradually unscrewed
the sting."

96 BEE-KEEPING.

Another very interesting incident is related by
Huber. It is described by Lardner : —

" The first work which the population undertakes,
after being assured of the loss of its queen, is directed to
obtain a successor to her. If there be not royal cells
prepared, they set about their construction. While this
Avork was in progress, and in twenty-four hours after their
queen had been taken from them, Huber introduced into
the hive a fruitful queen in the prime of life, being eleven
months old. Not less than twelve royal cells had been
already commenced and were in a forward state. The
moment the strange queen was placed on one of the
combs, one of the most curious scenes commenced which
was probably ever witnessed in the animal world, and
which has been described by Huber.

" The bees who happened to be near the stranger ap-
proached her, touched her with their antennae, passed
their probosces over all parts of her body, and presented
her with honey. Then they retired, giving place to others,
who approached in their turn and went through the same
ceremony. All the bees who proceeded thus clapped
their wings in retiring, and ranged themselves in a circle
round her, each, as it completed the ceremony, taking a
position behind those who had previously offered their

THE INMATES OF J HE HIVE. 97

respects. A general agitation was soon spread on those
sides of the combs corresponding with that of the scene
here described. From all quarters the bees crowded to
the spot, and each group of fresh arrivals broke their way
through the circle, approached the new aspirant to the
throne, touched her with their antennae and probosces,
offered her honey, and, in fine, took their rank outside
the circle previously formed. The bees forming this sort
of court circle clapped their wings from time to time, and
fluttered apparently with self-gratiii cation, but without the
least sign of disorder or tumult.

"At the end of fifteen or twenty minutes from the
commencement of these proceedings the queen, who had
hitherto remained stationary, began to move. Far from
opposing her progress or hemming her in, as in the cases
formerly described, the bees opened the circle on the
side to which she directed her steps, followed her, and,
ranging themselves on either side of her path, lined the
road in the same manner as is done by mihtary bodies in
state processions. She soon began to lay drone eggs, for
which she sought and found the proper cells in the combs
which had been already constructed.

" While these things were passing on the side of the
comb where the new queen had been placed, all remained

II

98 BEE-KEEPING.

perfectly tranquil on the opposite side. It seemed as
though the bees on that side were profoundly ignorant of
the arrival of a new queen on the opposite side. They
continued to work assiduously at the royal cells, the con-
struction of which had been commenced on that side of
the comb, just as if they were ignorant that they had no
longer need of them ; they tended the grubs in those
cells where the eggs had been already hatched, supplying
them as usual, from time to time, with royal jelly. But
at length the new queen in her progress arriving at that
side of the comb, she was received by those bees with
the same homage and devotion of which she had been
already the object at the other side. They approached
her, coaxed her with their antennae and probosces, offered
her honey, formed a court circle round her when she was
stationary, and a hedge at either side of her path when
she moved, and proved how entirely they acknowledged
her sovereignty by discontinuing their labour at the royal
cells, Avhich they had commenced before her arrival,
and from which they now removed the eggs and grubs,
and ate the provisions which they had collected in them.
" From this moment the queen reigned supreme over
the hive, and was treated in all respects as if she had
ascended the throne in right of inheritance."

THE IXMATES OF THE HIVE. 99

THE WORKER-BEE.

The Worker-Bee is an imperfectly developed
queen or female. The worker-bees varj- in number
in a prosperous hive from ten to twenty thousand.
They are divided into orders or sections. Some
produce wax ; others build combs ; others feed the
young; others ventilate the hive; others, as senti-
nels, guard the entrance ; while the great body tra-
verses gardens and commons, gathering honey for
themselves and the bee-master. There are various
estimates of the age of the worker-bee. Dr. Bevan
thinks the limit of their life is six or eight months.
Probably this is the average, from taking into ac-
count the accidents of a laborious life, the battles
they must wage with enemies, and the wear and tear
of ceaseless toil. About the end of August they
appear exhausted ; their wings become ragged, and
the stroke of the sting feebler.

THE DRONE.

The Drone is a male bee, fat, round, and lazy,
H 2

loo BEE-KEEPING.

like an old abbot in mediaeval times, who preferred
the cellar to his cell.
Huber remarks : —

" Naturalists have been extremely embarrassed to ac-
count for the number of males in most hives, and which
seem only a burden on the community, since they appear
to fullil no function. But we now begin to discern the
object of nature in multiplying them to such an extent.
As fecundation cannot be accomplished within the hive,
and as the queen is obliged to traverse the expanse of the
atmosphere, it is requisite that the males should be nume-
rous, that she may have the chance of meeting some one
of them. Were only two or three in each hive, there
would be little probability of their departure at the same
instant with the queen, or that they would meet in their
excursions ; and most of the females might thus remain
sterile."

The c|ueen selects a drone for her husband, who
dies invariably at the end of the honeymoon or
wedding-trip in the air. But the widowed queen
does not marry a second husband. Her whole
mind from that day to her death, though sur-
rounded by two thousand suitors, is devoted to the

THE INMATES OE THE HIVE. loi

interests and order and government of her realm.
During May, and not later than June, the massacre
of the drones takes place. They have become at
this date encumbrances only. Their mission is
ended, and their extermination becomes the duty
of the industrious bees. I stated, in my letters to
T/ic Times, that I believed the drones had a value
additional to that usually assigned to them — viz.,
that they sustained the temperature of the hive
during the chief breeding season. Mr. Cotton — no
mean authority — states what substantially confirms
all I said : —

" I ha\-e Avatched the drones for many years very
attentively, and I will freely give you the result. I will
tell you, in the first instance, the facts I have seen, and
what I have drawn from them. The drones are hatched
just before the new swarms rise ; very few go oft" with
them. I for a long time thought that none did ; but I
am free to confess that I was wrong. They do not fly
out early in the day, but about two o'clock they go out
to take the air, and make a fine buzzing, which joins
very prettily with the milder hum of the bees. Many
people kill the drones directly they see them ; but they

I02 BEE-KEEPING.

are quite wrong, as the bees know best when they have
done their duty, and so we may leave to them the un-
pleasant task of killing them, though they do not do it in
the most merciful way.

'' Why do the drones stay in the hive all the morning %
Most of the bees are then out gathering honey, so the
drones have to stay at home to keep up the heat of the
hive by their great fat bodies, just as a gadding wife
leaves her husband to look after the children, while she
is out taking her pleasure."

It does seem a too great excess of provision to
furnish two thousand drones out of whom the
queen may select her consort. It looks like unu-
sual waste. It leads to a massacre on a larger
scale than is necessary.

The average number of excursions made by each
bee is probably ten or twelve, over an area of half
a mile ; but fewer, of course, in proportion to the
greater distance of suitable pasture. Kirby calcu-
lates that during a good season a hundred pounds
of ponderable material is carried by these tiny
workers into their hive. He justly observes : —

" What a wonderful idea does this give of the industry

THE INMATES OF THE HIVE. 103

and activity of those useful little creatures ! and what a
lesson do they read to the members of societies that
have both reason and religion to guide their exertions
for the common good I Adorable is that Great Being
who has gifted them with instincts which render them as
instructive to us, if we will condescend to listen to them,
as they are profitable."

VII. — BEE ENEMIES.

jHE toad is a lazy, ugly-looking enemy of
S/Wa^ffl the bee. His capabilities, however, are

■^^htvr^i^^^ not equal to his will and wants. He
squats under the bee landing-board, and seizes every
too heavily laden or wing-weary labourer that ac-
cidentally drops. This is really very cruel. The
bee that has finished the longest journey, and gone
through the hardest work, and borne the heat and
brunt of the hot, long summer day, takes a rest on
a leaf just before entering the hive, or comes short
of the door of his home by an inch, and is seized by
the unclean monster and devoured. The only way
of getting rid of this unfeeling destroyer, who sits
" seeking whom he may devour," is to pay a visit

BEE ENEMIES. 105

to your hives soon after sunrise and an hour before
sunset ; and on finding him on his wicked watch,
seize him by the hind leg and throw him to as
great a distance across your hedge as you well
can. But if the " bee-master" be a lady — if I may
use the phrase — let her empty on him a snuff-box
full of strong snuff, and he will reflect a few days
before he returns to his old quarters.. I give this
prescription to ladies, because they do not like to
seize the cold-blooded creature and fling him to a
respectable distance. How favoured our Irish bee-
masters must be in this matter ! — they have no
toads. I also wish they had no riots. But troubles
must come in some shape. Still, I would rather
have toads than Belfast navvies and ship-carpenters,
and any day I would prefer being TJie Times Bee-
master to be Mayor of Belfast.

We are also exempt in this island of ours from
the bear, unless one should break loose from the
strolling menageries that occasionally infest Tun-
bridge Wells Common. " The bear," remarks a
Yankee, " is the knowingest varmint for finding out

io6 BEE-KEEPING.

a bee-tree in the world. They'll gnaw for days
together at the trunk, till they make a hole big
enough to get in their paws, and then they'll haul
out the honey, bees and all."

The moth is a dangerous enemy. During the
day there is no risk of his attacks. But during the
night he is, like other thieves and burglars, alive
and active. "He loves the darkness rather than
the light, because his deeds are evil." As no bee-
master can do without sleep, I cannot expect of the
most enthusiastic and devoted that he will watch
his hives the whole night. The only preventive
measure of a mechanical sort I can recommend is
that of lessening the entrance door. F'or this pur-
pose he must apply a zinc slide, such as Mr.
Neighbour, in Holborn, will supply, which will
keep out the moth and yet let out the bees.
Besides, the narrower the door, the more closed up
the rank of the bee-sentinels becomes, and the
more able they are to repel the death's-head moth,
or any similar intruder. But the most vigorous
prophylactic measure }'ou can take is to keep your

BEE EhEMIES. 107

bees in full strength ; and as the time selected by
these depredators is the early autumn, you cannot
do better than give your bees a cup of good strong-
ale, boiled up with sugar, which will cheer up your
whole family, and enable them to put forth their
whole strength in grappling with their enemies.
Don't mind teetotal objections. These are all very
good for drunkards ; but for sober, industrious bees,
determined to defend their property, a cup of good
ale is as kind as it is useful. The Achcrontia Atro-
pos, or death's-head hawk-moth, not only robs the
hive of its honey, but frightens and all but paralyses
the bees. Huber gives an account of the exertions
of his bees to guard against this formidable foe. It
is here quoted from Lardner : —

" When he found his hives attacked and their store of
honey pillaged by these depredators, he contracted the
opening left for the exit and entrance of the bees to such an
extent as, while it allowed them free ingress and egress, it
was so small that their plunderers could not pass through it.
This was found to be perfectly effectual, and all pillage was
thenceforward discontinued in the hives thus protected.

io8 BEE-KEEPING.

" But it happened that in some of the hives this pre-
caution was not adopted, and here the most wonderful
proceeding on the part of the bees took place. Human
contrivance was brought into immediate juxtaposition
with apiarian ingenuity.

" The bees of the undefended hives raised a wall across
the gate of their city, consisting of a stiff cement made of
wax and propolis mixed in a certain proportion. This
wall, sometimes carried directly across and sometimes a
litUe behind the door, first completely closed up the en-
trance; but they pierced in it some openings just large
enough to allow two bees to pass each other in their
exits and entrances.

"The little engineers did not follow one invariable plan
in these defensive works, but modified them according to
circumstances. In some cases a single wall, having small
wickets worked through it at certain points, was con-
structed. In others several walls were erected one within
the other, i)lace(l parallel to each other, with trenches
between them wide enough to allow two bees to pass
each other. In each of these parallel walls several open-
ings or wickets were pierced, but so placed as not to
correspond in position, so that in entering a bee would
have to follow a zigzag course in passing from wicket to
wicket. In some cases these walls or curtains were

BEE ENEMIES. 109

wrought into a series of arcades, but so that the inter-
vening columns of one corresponded to the arcades of
the other.

"The bees never constructed these works of defence
without urgent necessity. Thus, in seasons or in locahties
where the death's-head moth did not prevail, no such
expedients were resorted to. Nor were they used against
enemies which were open to attack by their sting. The
bee, therefore, understands not merely the art of offensive
war, and can play the part of the common soldier, but is
also a consummate military engineer ; and it is not against
the death's-head moth alone that it shows itself capable
of erecting such defences."

A correspondent of The Times, writing on naval
guns, who signs himself " Z," alluded to my letters,
and drew a happy illustration from them. Let me
here inform the Admiralty of a new arm which in
extremity — for otherwise it would be the sacrifice
of too many bee combatants — may be used in
naval warfare. But perhaps Lord Clarence Paget
may find some difficulty in securing its adoption.
It is related in "The Naturalist's Library:" —

"A small privateer with forty or fifty men, having on

I lo BEE-KEEPING.

board some hives made of earthenware full of bees, was
pursued by a Turkish galley manned by five hundred
seamen and soldiers. As soon as the latter came along-
side, the crew of the privateer mounted the rigging with
their hives, and hurled them down on the deck of the
galley. The Turks, astonished at this novel mode of
Avarfare, and unable to defend themselves from the stings
of the enraged bees, became so terrified that they thought
of nothing but how to escape their fury ; while the crew
of the small vessel, defended by masks and gloves, flew
upon their enemies sword in hand, and captured the
vessel almost without resistance."

But as many of my recent correspondents in The
Times were clergymen, I can recommend to the mi-
nisters of Belfast an admirable prescription for the
extreme case of a Belfast mob sacking their rectories
and manses. The Mayor of Belfast also might take it
into his grave consideration, should the citizens, in-
stead of trying to convert each other by arguments or
Scripture, have recourse to those fashionable weapons
which they lately wielded with so much effect : —

" During the confusion occasioned by a time of war in
1525, a mob of peasants assembling in Hohnstein, in

BEE ENEMIES. iii

Thuringia, attempted to pillage the house of the parish
minister, who, having in vain employed all his eloquence
to dissuade them from their design, ordered his domestics
to fetch his bee-hives and throw them in the middle of
this furious mob. The effect was what might be expected ;
they were immediately put to flight, and happy to escape
unstung."

Is not this worthy of the consideration of every
peaceful vicar in Belfast ?

The spider is also a ver>- mischievous pest in bee-
houses. He builds his web in nooks and corners,
under the eaves and about the landing-boards, and
in the track of the outgoing and incoming bees.
When a bee is inveigled, its efforts to extricate its
captive limbs serve only to involve it in the toils
more hopelessly. I have seen half-a-dozen working
bees thus caught and scooped out by the ravenous
jaws of the spider. These webs are constructed so
rapidly, that nothing short of daily attention will
get rid of them. The best thing is, to have the
bee-house as smooth inside as it can be made, with
as few projecting edges and points as possible ;

112 BEE-KEEPING.

and in the next place, the daily use of a hard, dry
painter's brush will sweep them away as fast as
they are made, and probably their w^eavers with
them.

Finally, the worst enemy of bees is man. There
is the barbarous, cruel, and ungrateful treatment of
the brimstone match. The little innocents have
toiled all the summer. They have thrown off a
swarm — after the example of the Church of Scot-
land, which, by w^ay of showing its internal strength,
threw off a capital swarm in 1843 — they have reco-
vered all the effects of their secession, and amassed
abundance for future days. The bee-cide felon,
called man, digs a pit, lights four ounces of brim-
stone inside of it, and deliberately sets fifteen thou-
sand bees, queen and all, above its really and truly
infernal fumes — suffocates and burns the unhappy
martyrs, and then subscribes to various charities in
winter, and calls himself a philanthropist ! He
ought to be sent to the treadmill. Why does the
Society for Preventing Cruelty to Animals take up
the case of cab-horses, and overlook the murdered

BEE EXEMIES. 113

bees ? But there are regular inquisitors who do
not use sulphur. Those scientific crinkum-crankum
hives, from which bees with difficulty get out, and
with more difficulty get in, are little purgatories,
over which the inquisitors preside. Vivisection is no
worse. Yet these men complain that all who advo-
cate simple, easily accessible, and comfortable homes
for bees are behind the age, and ignorant of api-
arian progress ! There are not more than three
sorts of hives that are humane. All the others
bewilder the brains, weary the legs, and spoil the
tempers of the best bees that ever dwelt in a hive.
I have no objection whatever to ornamental bee-
sheds ; but the hives which are the dwelling-places
of my bees should be as plain as possible, com-
fortable, warm, and easy of exit and entrance. A
very gifted preacher said it took all his learning to
make his sermons plain : it ought to take all a
bee-master's to make his hives simple. When I
hear a fine preacher expressing himself in grand
words and glittering figures, I always feel — I hope
not uncharitabl}' — that he cares more about dis-

I

114 BEE-KEEPING.

playing himself than serving his Master or feeding
his flock. Even so I am tempted to think of the
ingenious inventors of intricate labyrinths they in-
tend for hives, — that their own fame as apiarians is
their chief thought, and the comfort of their bees
their last and least consideration. A careless, inat-
tentive bee-master is criminal. He ought to see
that his bees have a sufficiency of food at the close
of the year. In fine October weather he may place
several soup-plates filled with ale and sugar well
boiled together, and covered with perforated wooden
floats, which sink as the bees sip the contents, oppo-
site his hives. I never find any quarrel ensue,
though I have seen thousands of bees from different
hives feed together for hours. After October till
March no liquid food should be offered ; but a
stick of barley-sugar may be thrust in now and
then. The bees will not descend to taste it in too
cold weather, and during a warm day they will
enjoy such a dessert. In case of damp within the
hive, which, when a glass is retained, may be seen
inside of it, select a warm day, remove the glass,

BEE E\EMIES. 115

and close the aperture in the hive. Wipe the
interior of the glass with a linen cloth till perfectly
dry, and replace it as before. But a little artificial
ventilation on a dry, warm day is still better.

Do not let your bees find by painful experience
that their bee-master is their worst enemy.

For an account of wasps, see ni)- letter to TJie
Times, page 157.

I 2

f\^ #^v<s>^^ ^ ^!^ f%z

THE BEE-MASTER'S
LETTERS TO "THE TIMES."

O many and so urgent have been the
requests of my correspondents to reprint
these letters, that I have carefully gone
over them, corrected clerical errors, and reproduced
them. They may amuse as well as teach. I
append them in the order of their appearance.
They were unfortunate enough to provoke the
wrath of two or three hive-inventors or patentees,
the merits of whose crooked and uncomfortable
productions the writer could not appreciate ; but
they have received the warmest eulogies of great

LETTERS TO ''THE TIMES." 117

numbers to whom they con\-eyed new and interest-
ing information.

It is a pity that petty jealousies should distil
their poison on so pleasant a theme, and that bees
should in this case turn wasps.

A very curious coincidence occurred in the course
of the correspondence on bees which appeared in
T/ic Times. A succession of letters appeared in
various more or less obscure newspapers, beginning
at Exeter and moving northward to the Orkneys,
each, mutatis mutandis, the repetition of the first.
They invariably began by a laborious attempt to
prove that the writer knows nothing of apiculture
or prophecy, but in no one instance disproving a
single position or showing the author's ignorance of
apiculture, but in more than one instance deploring
the writer's oversight of this or that hive. Ever>'
one of these writers — plainly under the inspiration
of one — assumes that because the writer did not
allude to his mode of treatment, he was ignorant of
bee-management. The Bee-master had no idea
there was such concert among bee-keepers, or that,

ii8 BEE-KEEPING.

in giving an account of his intercourse with his bees,
he was putting his hands into hornets' nests. But
wasps have been a terrible plague this autumn.

One writer in a Scotch paper, who gives bees no
credit for any ordinary virtue, and regards them
purely as mechanical toys, writes thus : —

" This Bee-master says that ' the bee leaves her house,
traverses a mile or two distant, and returns to her home —
one amid twenty contiguous ones — with unerring cer-
tainty.' This Avas the general opinion up till lately — that
the bee always returned to its own hive — in fact, there
was no means of proving the contrary until the introduc-
tion of the Ligurian variety of bee. For the information of
' A Bee-master,' I must tell him that they do not at all
times go back to their owoi home, but make a mistake
and enter their neighbour's. This fact I soon ascertained
after I got the Ligurians, as in a short time I saw them
going into all my other common hives, more or less, and
a neighbour nearly a mile away from this found the Ligu-
rians had joined one of his swarms when in the act of
swarming. These are facts which cannot be contro-
verted, and prove that 'A Bee-master' ought to make
himself master of his subject before he attempts to teach
others. Queens, too, are frequently killed by entering

LETTERS TO ''THE TIMES." 119

into other hives when placed near each other, through
their mistaking the one for the other ; but these facts
were not known to the generahty of bee-keepers until
they used the bar hives, \\\\en all the economy of the
jnterior could be examined at pleasure."

This foolish logician introduces foreigners to an
English hive. They do not act like English bees —
in short, they are not acquainted v/ith a country in
which they are not acclimatised ; and from the blun-
ders of the Ligurian foreigners he infers the igno-
rance of the British bee. This is a specimen of the
rubbish printed from Devon to Haddington.

Another position of this Scotchman with a bee
in his bonnet is as follows : —

" In removing a super — that is, a top or bonnet — he
says they should be taken one hundred yards away from
the hive, and the bees will fly back to the hive in about
an hour. This I think a very bad plan. In the first
place, if taken off in a fine day the bees would not leave
it in an hour, and if there were any bees near, they would
find it out in that time, their scent or sense of smell
being so strong, and he would never get them away ;
and, besides, he would be veiy apt to take the queen

I20 BEE-KEEPING.

away also, she being often found in the top, and slie
might not be able to fly back. It is certainly a bad plan
in this part of the country, especially when the weather
is cold in the autumn. When removing the heather
honey, blow a few puffs of smoke from a burning rag
into a super, and take it off, turning it upside down,
putting on it another empty super of the same size, with
cloth wrapped round where they meet, to keep out light.
Next give the super containing the honey and the bees a
few taps with a piece of stick at intervals. The bees,
when filled with honey, which they will do as soon as
disturbed, will ascend into the empty super, and if the
queen should be there she will lead them at onQe, and
they can all be put back into the hive. Any top can be
emptied of bees in fifteen minutes by doing it in
this way, and without running risk of losing the
queen."

Now, in ninety-nine cases in a hundred the queen
is not in the super, and an intelligent bee-master
can take care she is not there before he removes
the super ; and, in the next place, The Times Bee-
master expressly stated his entire aversion to
smoking bees for such a purpose ; and earlier
than AuGfust there is no risk of corsair bees.

LETTERS TO "THE TIMES." 121

Besides, preference of one plan to another is not
necessarily proof of ignorance.

This mere copyist of Devon remarks : —

"What can be the necessity for subjecting sugar to the
temperature of 300 degrees, and rendering it so hard that
weak hives are not able to take as much as keep them
alive, when the same amount of sugar made to the con-
sistency of their natural food would enable them to live ?
Common sense would indicate to anyone that in arti-
ficial feeding the nearer we approach their natural food
the better ; but it may be that it is hard honey which
this wiseacre's bees gather for him, and that the flowers
in Kent give different food than those in Scotland ! Let
anyone observe the time a bee takes to fill itself on barley-
sugar and the time from sugar S)Tup, and the labour spent
on the former to that of the latter, and he will soon see
the difterence between the two. And the only reason the
writer gave, in answer to a correspondent, for giving the
barley-sugar is, ' that the other clogged the feet and
smeared the wings of the bees.' Now, ever}'one must
be aware that a few straws in the dish prevents this.
x\gain, he says that ' the only vice among bees is their
passionate liking for rum and strong ale; but the tee-
totallers would fairly reply that they ne\er care about

122 BEE-KEEPING.

either unless it is pressed upon them.' And I say they
would reply truly, for I maintain that the bees will not
touch either rum or ale unless they are saturated with
sugar or honey. But why be at the expense of the one
■or the other, when they will take it made with pure water
before either ?"

He must be in the habit of bolting his oatmeal
pottage, or he never would have inferred that sip-
ping its food in ten minutes is more conducive to
the health and digestion of the bee than sipping it
in half an hour. His remarks on ale and rum are
merely a translation of the nonsense spoken by his
original. But, in common with his co-partners in
criticism, he thinks the Bee-master's sole design in
writing the letters in The Times was to puff his
forthcoming work on bees. This mean and con-
temptible charge is best met by the simple and
truthful answer, that the Bee-master had no more
idea of writing a book on bees than of describing
Mount Radnor or Yester Gardens. His purpose to
do so arose from the urgent request of literally
hundreds of correspondents.

LETTERS TO ''THE TIMES." 123

On my suggestion as to the purpose and object
of two thousand drones or male bees being pro-
duced, when there is only one perfect female — the
queen — the writer observes : —

" In one of his letters in answer to correspondents,
' Why there are so many drones in a hive, and only one
princess ? ' he confesses it a hard problem. But one part
seems to him very clear — ' When the queen's countless
eggs come to be hatched, the temperature of the hive
must be raised to 85° or 95°. The fat, round, and
lazy drones are really the fuel. They accordingly give
out great heat.' Had the writer really known anything
about bees, he could never have made such a state-
ment. If the drones are the fuel to keep up the heat,
why is it that they are never found in the hives till
;May or June — in this part of the country, at least — after
thousands of bees have been hatched ? If they were the
fuel, surely one would expect them to be the first eggs
which were laid by the queen, according to his theory;
but a queen will begin laying workers' eggs in January,
and yet lay no drone eggs till May, just when the warm
weather commences. Now, if they were required for
heat, naturally Ave would expect them to be found before
May, and they commence killing them in August, when
the cold weather besins."

124 BEE-KEEPING.

Now, the fact is, it is in May and June that
drones are wanted to keep up the heat. Half the
bees are out at work, the means of maintaining the
temperature are therefore diminished. The drones
remain at home, unless during the noonday heat,
when they take an airing, and can best be spared.

My first letter to The Times was a report of the
prospects of the honey harvest, as follows : —

I have ten stock-hives. I never destroy or kill my
bees. I look on the system of the sulphur match as
barbarous and unprofitable. I leave each family on an
average not less than twenty-five pounds of honey for
their winter stores, and the surplus only I take away.
Should any hive swarm, which I can generally prevent,
and the remaining stock be therefore deficient in pro-
vision for the winter, I feed them in the course of the
early spring with barley-sugar. This and other little
attentions endear the bee-master to his bees, as they
are very susceptible of gratitude and have long memories.

LETTERS TO ''THE TLMESr 125

A hive is very like a church : when, in May, it in-
creases rapidly in numbers and the temperature rises
inside, you either increase their accommodation in area
or in height, or you will have a secession. Should a
secession take place, bees set an example ecclesiastics
might copy. The new church never falls out with the
old one. Side by side they work in perfect harmony,
believing there is plenty of food for both. The only
incidental mischief-maker is the wasp ; whether he be
prelate or presbyter I cannot say, but I know well he
is a thief and intruder, and after a fight, the bees, who
in this matter are rigid non-intrusionists, eject, maim, or
kill him — and he deserves it. Queen Victoria's Court
is modelled on the apiarian queen's. You may see the
queen bee, by means of my glass windows, going her
rounds and giving orders, with her royal ladies, who
never turn their backs on her majesty. The excep-
tional instance occurred on one occasion when it be-
came necessary to give a rather sickly establishment
rum and sugar, of which they drank to excess and got
drunk. As long as the stimulus lasted, the monarchy
became a fierce democracy, and queen and subjects
were confounded in the mtl'ee.

The only vice among bees is their passionate liking
for rum and strong ale. But the teetotaller would fairly

126 BEE-KEEPING.

reply, that they never care about either unless it is
pressed upon them.

My bees at present have begun the massacre of the
drones. These are a sort of Benedictine monks, who,
like Brother Ignatius, prefer enjoyment to hard work.
They are round, fat, and lazy, making much noise, and

eating of stores to which they do not contribute

But you want to hear about the harvest \

In one square box there are forty pounds of honey,
and in a corresponding super rapidly filling up, there
is likely to be for me as much more.

In three Scotch or Ayrshire octagonal hives, which I
have found to answer best of any, the three supers are
in two almost full ; and in one there is at least forty
pounds weight in the super, and over the super is a bell-
glass with seven or eight pounds additional.

In one of Neighbours' very beautiful straw hives I
have two bell-glasses almost full, and a month ago I
removed from this hive a very beautiful glass of honey.

In one of Pettitt's lateral hives, the bees passed
through the subterranean archway a month ago, and
have nearly filled this compartment. On this, also, I
have placed a super bell-glass, which is beautifully stored.

From a common cottage straw hive I removed a bell-
glass super three weeks ago weighing eighteen pounds.

LETTERS 70 ''IHE TTMESr 127

This season I shall have nearly two hundred pounds
weight of surplus honey, and yet leave in each hive
more than enough to last the producers till April, 1865.
Why should not cottagers cultivate bees % There is no-
thing to pay for pasture, very little labour is required,
and that labour amusing, in taking care of them, and
for very early virgin honey there may be had one shilling
and sixpence or two shillings and sixpence a pound.
The poor cottager might thus easily pay his rent. If
landlords could only convince them that the old sys-
tem of burning the bees in order to get the stock hone}'
— which is at best inferior — is not only cruel but un-
profitable, they would do an essential service. The
poor peasant would have an interesting amusement after
his day's work, and a contribution towards his rent on
the year's end.

Bees and Bee-hives.

To the Editor of " The Ttjues."

Sir, — Since my letter appeared in your columns on
" the Honey Harvest," I have received from yourself va-
rious communications from rectors, vicars, curates, &c.,
who feel a very great interest in bee-keeping as a social

128 BEE-KEEPING.

and commercial question. I have also received letters
addressed to me as " The Times Bee-master," which the
postman, guided by some remarkable instinct, has placed
in my hands. Most of these letters invite confidential
and personal communication on this subject, and record
a variety of questions, difficulties, and perplexities which
have injured or arrested the apiarian enterprises of the
writers. I prefer to answer some of their inquiries through
your columns, believing that the interest and importance
of all that tends to benefit the cottager will ever find a
place or a defence in The Times. The most urgent ques-
tions in the letters of my correspondents refer to the hives
I employ, and which I briefly described m my letter. The
first I mentioned is the Scotch or Ayrshire octagonal
hive. It is made of thoroughly seasoned deal, in the
form of a hexagon, about eight inches in height, and six-
teen inches diameter. On the top is a series of parallel
slits, extending from front to back, which I open or shut
by a series of corresponding deal slides. On receiving
a swarm in April or May, I introduce the slides, and
thereby close up the top of the box. On finding — as in
fine weather I am sure to find in tliree or four weeks —
that the box is full, I place on the top another hexa-
gonal box, in all respects the same in size and shape,
anil draw out the slides, and thereby introduce the bees

LETTERS TO "THE TLMESP 129

to the vacant upper chamber. As each box has a win-
dow, I am thus able to ascertain progress. When this
upper box is filled with honey, I may place on the top
of it another precisely the same, drawing out the slides
on the top of the second box, and introducing the bees
to a third stor)\ But usually I prefer, for the sake of
the beauty of it, a bell-glass, greater or less as the season
may suggest. I have found this hive by far the most
successful. It seems the bees, who construct their cells
in the form of hexagons, prefer the house in which they
work to be ver}' much of the same shape. A cottager may
ver)' easily make these boxes in the long winter evenings.
The second kind of hive I alluded to is made of straw,
and may be purchased at Neighbours', in Holborn. The
greatest disadvantage is its expense, costing, as it does,
thirty shillings. But it is so well made that it will last
xtTj long. I have had one in constant use during ten
years, and it is still as good as when it was bought. Its
top is flat, with three longitudinal apertures, closed till
full ^^-ith zinc slides. About the end of May, in a good
year, I draw out the slides, after placing over each a
good-sized bell-glass ; and in July I have often had in
each glass seven or eight pounds of honey. The reason
of the failure of this hive is the coldness of the glass,
which Neighbours' additional super straw hive or cover

K

I30 BEE-KEEPING.

does not mend. But if my correspondents will get a
piece of thick Scotch plaid made like a nightcap, and
case each glass with this, they will find the bees use it
as readily as a wood or straw hive, and there will be no
moisture from condensation of the bees' breath inside.

The third sort of hive is Pettitt's, of Snargate, Dover.
It is worked on the lateral system, and of its kind is a
perfect gem. Two boxes are placed on one floor, Avith
a subterranean communication between them. On stock-
ing the box on the right, a zinc slide is introduced, which
shuts off the communication. As soon as the box is full,
the slide is withdrawn and the communication laid open.
The bees take possession of the other box on the left,
and fill it with pure honey. When my harvest comes, I
shut off the communication, and remove the left-hand
box full of honey. You will perceive that my princijjle
of action proceeds on the notion that the bottom box
of the Ayrshire or Scotch hive, the straw box of Neigh-
bours', and the right-hand box of Pettitt's, are each the
sacred property of my bees, which I feel it larceny to
lessen or disturb, and that the surplus is the tithe or
portion of the bee-master. The ruinous blunder of coun-
try bee-keepers is their taking honey from the former —
honey, too, mixed \\\\\\ Ijrood and bees' bread and the
films of the young grubs. In this, the dejjartment I

LETTERS 10 "THE TIM ESP 131

never touch, the queen presides with her ladies-in-waiting ;
and in any one of these, if the bees have filled the ad-
ditional supers or laterals, there is abundance for all her
subjects during the winter.

In some of the letters you have been good enough
to send me, the expense of these hives is urged as a
fatal objection as far as the cottager is concerned. Let
me therefore explain my last and cheapest plan — not
best, but cheapest.

Place the swarm in a common shilling straw hive.
When you ascertain, either by its weight or the busy
working of the bees, that it is full, take a square board,
about a foot square ; cut in the centre of it a round
hole three or four inches in diameter ; place on it a
bell-glass, or what is cheaper, a smaller straw hive. Take
a sharp table-knife, and go to the hive about twelve
o'clock at noon, when most of the bees are out working ;
cut out the top of the straw hive, making a round aper-
ture of four or five inches in diameter, and place on it
the board with the bell-glass, or lesser straw super,
covering the glass with its nightcap, and you have every-
thing you can desire. If, in cutting the hole on the top
of the stock hive, you hesitate or lose your self-posses-
sion, the watcher bees will attack you. Decision invari-
ably paralyses them for the moment, and secures your
K 2

132 BEE-KEEPING.

safety. These glasses or supers are removed by cutting
through between the board and the lower edge of the
super with a zinc plate, on which you carr)- off the super
full of surplus honey, placing over the hole at the top of
the stock a flat board or an empty super. From one
straw hive treated in this way I carried off eighteen
pounds of honey at the beginning of July this year. I
ought to add, that I keep my hives of every sort under
cover of wooden sheds, accessible from behind by means
of doors that let down. During the winter, I cover up
the hives in the sheds each with paper, and thereby I
keep them warm. As the spring approaches, I give the
lightest an occasional half-pound of barley-sugar. This
barley-sugar I get at Kilner's, in Hanway-street, Oxford-
street, before it is mixed with scent or lemon-acid. Com-
mon sugar is of no use. To be available to the bee, to
suit a lambent insect, it must have been exposed to a
heat of 300° Fahrenheit, in order to reduce crystallisable
to uncrystallisable sugar. As I am answering your and
my correspondents, I had better add a few useful
hints.

Get acquainted with your bees ; they are naturally very
affectionate. I ha\'e frequently hived swarms, filling each
hand with clusters of bees, and rarely have I received a
sting. I have sat in the midst of them for hours, and

LETTERS TO "7 HE TLUES." 133

weary bees have rested on me, and have entered their
homes singing a song of thanks.

They have several bitter enemies besides the wasp.
I used to see toads frequently sitting under the landing-
board, and only recently discovered they were there
" seeking whom they could devour." On one of these
ugly visitors being laid open, his maw was found filled
with bees which he had sucked into his ugly jaws. The
tora-tit, also, is a dangerous little enemy. He perches
on the landing-place of the bees on a wet day, taps with
his bill, apparently inquiring after the health of the in-
mates ; a v^-atcher bee comes out to reconnoitre, and is
instantly snapped up by the wicked h}q)ocrite. The
spider, also, catches weary bees in his web ; but the
occasional use of a brush disposes of this peril. The
snail, attracted by the warmth, occasionally creeps in.
The bees successively attack him, but find their stings
blunted and broken by the shell, as shot is by our iron-
sides. Failing to injure or remove the intruder, they
have recourse to a plan which indicates more than in-
stinct They cover him up with propolis, a kind of gum
which they use for stopping up crevices ; and not only
does he die from want of air, but he is prevented from
giving forth offensive odour by the air-tight case or
shroud.

134 BEE-KEEPIXG.

The most attentive bee-master occasionally gets stung.
I have discovered a cure not found in the pharmacopoeia.
Press a watch-key hard on the place after removing the
sting- — this prevents the poison from spreading; then
apply moist snuff or tobacco, rubbing it well in, and in
five minutes all pain is gone. This is a never-failing
remedy.

I have entered into these details, because from the
correspondence you have sent me, and from letters that
have reached me, it is evident that a great interest has
been excited by my communication, and because it is of
great social importance. Many a poor curate and ill-
paid vicar, and many a cottager with time to spare and
his rent to pay, may thus add to their income. My bees
feed over an area of six miles, improving every flower
they touch, and robbing nobody. Tunbridge Wells is one
of the best bee-districts in England, and this alone is
evidence of its being a healthy district. Bees never get
on in unhealthy places.

Apologising for this long communication, 1 am, &:c.,

A Bee-master.

Tunbridge Wells, July 27.

LETTERS TO ''THE TIMES." 135

Bees and Bee-hives,
To the Editor of " The Times!''

Sir, — The letters that reach me addressed to " The
Times Bee-master" are legion. I can now form some
idea of the weight of the load that must press on your
shoulders every day; but I confess I had no notion of
the extent of the interest that these letters prove to exist
in apiarian culture. I select such difficulties from the
letters before me as I have not disposed uf, and these I
would endeavour to overcome.

A very often repeated question is — What is the best
way of hiving bees or securing a sn-ann \ Let me at once
state that the old and inveterate habit in Kent of beating
a kettle, striking the tongs with the poker, and raising
similar discordant sounds, is utterly absurd. They do not
affect the bees. In swamiing, the old queen abdicates
and heads the swarm, and a young queen mounts the
throne in the hive. The outgoing queen, followed by
five thousand or six thousand bees, either ^'.r proprio mot 11,
or guided by pioneer scouts, selects a rose-bush, or a cozy
opening in a laurel-hedge, and all her subjects hang on,
forming a cluster of bees as large as the largest bunch
of grapes. As soon as they have nearly all settled, take

136 BEE-KEEPING.

your empty hive or bee-box, which must be thoroughly
dean, as bees hate dirt and slovenhness ; turn the hive or
box bottom upwards, hold it in your left hand under the
cluster of bees, lay hold of the branch on which the bees
hang with your right hand, and shake down the swarm
into your empty hive. Place the hive bottom downward
on a bee-board laid on the grass close by, raise up the
edge by inserting a wedge or stone about two inches in
size, and cover the top of the hive with a cloth or a few
branches to keep off the sun heat. If the queen is inside,
which is usually the case, the bees will steadily enter and
remain. If by your awkwardness you have left her in the
hedge with her ladies-in-waiting, the bees will return to
the hedge, and you will have all to begin anew. As soon
as they are comfortably housed, carry the hive to the
shed under which it is to stand, and do not look at it or
touch it for three days.

You need not be afraid of stings unless you rudely and
violently meddle with the queen. If you thus interfere
with her, the watcher bees will sound the alarm, and a
thousand stings, like swords, will be unsheathed; but,
otherwise, they are so absorbed with her majesty that
they do not fly at a prudent and fearless bee-master.

A very important incjuiry, repeated in several letters, is,
on removing the super, whether of glass or straw, how are

LETTERS 70 ''THE TIM ESP 137

the bees to be expelled, that the honey alone may thus
be secured ?

All the plans of tapping, beating, and smoking are bad.
Tobacco-smoke, and smokers generally, bees have a
mortal hatred to. Bees have other personal antipathies,
but the horrid scent of a tobacco-pipe in a visitor's pocket
either induces them disdainfully to shun all acquaintance,
or pro\'okes them to make an attack.

Your best way of removing a super full of honey, with
bees, of course, in the spaces not full of comb, is to carry
it about one hundred yards away from the hive. Wedge
up the glass on one side from the zinc plate on which
you have carried it, and the bees will leave in the course
of an hour or two, and fly home. They very soon discover
their separation from their queen, and under this feeling
they lose all courage, and give up defending the very pro-
perty they would have died fighting for when connected
with the parent hive. The exceptional case is where there
may be, what is very rare in a super, a portion of young
brood — always in such cases drone-brood. This they
refuse to desert. They do not attack, but, as if placed
sentries by their queen, they insist on continuing at their
post. The only course in such a case is to cut out the
brood cells and put them away, as they are not likely
to be wanted, and the bees will then return to the stock

138 BEE-KEEPING.

hive, report, I suppose, and receive future orders. In
removing a super in August, when the bee ceases to
accumulate in Kent, you must take care not to do so on
the windward side of your hives, as the scent of honey
will bring your visitors from every hive, who will rob you
of all.

If in this month you find it difficult to escape the
robbers, carry your super into your cottage, near a win-
dow, and expose one side of the super to the window —
the side having egress for the bees. Very soon great
numbers will fly to the window-panes, and by opening it
for a few minutes they will rush out, and robber bees will
have no time to enter.

I have been asked — Who and what is the queen, and
who are those lazy abbots I referred to as drones ] The
queen is nearly twice the length of the common bee, of
elegant proportions and shape. On seeing her, you would
at once pronounce her a duchess or a queen. But it is a
singular fact, and well worthy the consideration of sanitary
students, that she rises originally from the ranks, and that
treatment makes all the difference. The egg deposited
seems the same as that of the ordinary bee, but we find it
always laid in a cell three times the size of common cells.
As soon as the young queen comes from the egg, numbers
of nurse bees wait on her ; she receives finer and more

LETTERS TO ''THE TLMESP 139

delicate food, more air, a warmer, larger, and nicer house,
and apparently she is the creation of circumstances. She
is the only female bee. The working-bees are neuters,
really imperfectly developed females ; the queen's hus-
band is a drone. "\Mth queenly prerogative and dignity
she selects her consort, and off they fly on a wedding-trip,
and sj)end the honeymoon amid sunshine and flowers.
But it is asked — Why are there so many drones in a hive,
if there is only one wife? This is a very hard problem.
But one part of it seems to me very clear. ^Vhen the
(|ueen's countless eggs come to be hatched, the tempera-
ture of the hive must be raised to 85° or 90"^ Fahrenheit.
The bees must go out of doors to work. The fat, round,
and lazy drones are really the fuel. They accordingly
give out heat when most wanted. Mr. Cotton holds
this view also. This year I had two stock hives during
breeding that stood, from 10 to 4 o'clock, at ps'* Fahren-
heit. We thus learn that fat old gentlemen are of use, and
that Mr. Banting's system is not always wise or expedient.
There are in a good hive three or four royal cells;
consequently, three or four queens will turn up. What
follows? If the heat be great and additional room with-
held, the old queen will abdicate and head a secession —
in apiarian language, a swarm — and the next senior queen
will ascend the throne. If there be still no increase of

I40 BEE-KEEPING.

room allowed, she, too, will secede and head a second
secession — in apiarian phrase, a caste— usually feeble,
requiring when hived to be fed, and rarely a desirable
issue. But when increased space is given, and a drawing-
room is added to the dining-room, and boudoirs to the
nursery, I am asked what follows. Do the princesses
live together in harmony? My answer, from very careful
observation, reveals a sad fact — a fact I cannot suppose
to have been instituted in Paradise. If two queens turn
up in a hive with plenty of space, but related space, they
fight it out till one alone lives. So settled is this law, that
the bees hound on the more timid and cowardly of the
two queens, and insist on victory with supremacy or death.
This is to me a very melancholy trait in a favourite study;
but I suppose some higher law requires it.

It has been urged as a commercial (question that honey
is not now of the same importance as it was before the
sugar-cane was discovered, and that gas has superseded
wax candles. I am satisfied from many considerations,
that if people would eat honey at breakfast instead of
rancid London butter and nasty greasy bacon, not only
would their health be better, but their temper would be
sweeter. I find invariably that people who like honey
are persons of genial and aftectionate temper. If Mr.
Cobden and Mr. Roebuck had only taken honey at

LETTERS TO ''THE TLMESP 141

breakfast, or a very choice fragment of virgin honey at
dessert, tliey would never ha\'e given utterance to those
vinegar and acetic-acid speeches which did them no
credit. I wish somebody would send ISIr. Spurgeon a
super of good honey. Three months' diet on this celes-
tial food would induce him to give up those shockingly
bitter and unchristian tirades he has been lately making
against the clergy of the Church of England. The pro-
ducers of honey never draw their stings unless in defence
of their homesteads, and the eaters and admirers of honey
rarely indulge in acrimonious language. I believe a great
deal of bad feeling is not moral or mental, but physical,
in its origin. If you have in a congregation, or in a
school, or in a convocation, some one who sets ever}'body
by the ears, treat him to a little honey at breakfast for
six months, and the " thorn will blossom as the rose."
People that can't eat honey — " hiinc fu cavcto'' — they
can't ever fit "a land overflowing with milk and
honey."

I have not answered half the letters I have received ;
but because you have been so good as to take an interest
in this very interesting subject, I intend to send you, as
an expression of my thanks, a small glass super of honey
filled from heath during July. If you do not eat honey,
which I hope and, indeed, am sure is not the fact, you

142 BEE-KEEPIXG.

can giv-e a portion to any inmates of your great hive in
Printing-house-square who may be prone to use their
stings too freely.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

A Bee-master.
Tunbridge Wells, August 2.

The origin of the following letter was a very
foolish letter which a correspondent sent to TJie
Times. His cannot be the deliberate conviction of
anyone acquainted with bees. Perhaps he was
offended that no notice was taken of a very unsatis-
factory hive patented by him. But as I could not
praise, I thought it unnecessary to blame.

A Hornet Among the Bees.
To the Editor of The Times.
Sir, — It is well that bees have not learnt to read The
Times. Did they see all that your correspondent says
about them, they would send a battalion to his residence,
and ere they returned to Tunbridge Wells they would
make their calumniator exhaust all his remedies for bee-
stings. Had this good gentleman eaten more honey and

LETTERS TO ''THE TIM EST 143

drank less vinegar he would have written a more aftec-
tionate letter; and had he watched the habits of bees as I
have done, or studied the results of the investigations of
Huber, he would not surely have written with ignorance
so crass. I am not irritated with him, but I am immensely
jealous for the honour and good name of my bees. It is
said of some crotchety people, " they have each a bee in
his bonnet," but I venture to think of your correspondent,
" he has a wasp in his bonnet." The only philosophical
way by which I can account for the absurdities of this
letter is that it was written, as he observ-es, " for our conti-
nental and transatlantic brethren," neither of whom have
any precedent or encouragement for recent Austro-Prus-
sian misdeeds, or American democracy and its recent ex-
cesses, in the habits and instincts of bees.

" First," says your correspondent, " with regard to re-
maining at peace with each other, as soon as honey-
gathering is over, should any stocks betray weakness, the
war of Gennany against Denmark is enacted, and the
invaders take all. Whatever virtues bees possess, honesty
or even the slightest respect for inciini ct tuiun is not
among them."

A grosser libel on the apiarian race was never perpe-
trated. Their respect for meiim is so intense that they
will defend their queen and home to the death. Their

144 BEE-KEEPING. .

respect for Uium is so entire that tliey never touch the
property of tlieir neighbours, unless in circumstances
which would justify men as well as bees in seizing the
property of another.

Your correspondent perhaps robs one of his stocks of
its stores, or takes away for the market or his table too
much of their accumulated wealth. Winter threatens its
arrival. Can this irritable old apiarian expect that 6,000
or 10,000 bees will lie down and die martyr deaths in order
to confute his libellous theory of viejim et tmnn ? Or he
has neglected to feed a caste of 4,000 bees ; or, instead of
giving them barley-sugar, he offers them the miserly mess
he recommends, and the unhappy, famished bees, like a
Highland clan, set out "to hft" the means of existence.
He starves his bees, and when they forage he denounces
them as thieves. If a bee-master does his duty by pro-
tecting his hives, feeding the unfortunate and weak, no
such freebooters will be found among his bees.

2. Your correspondent, for once, is gracious. He ac-
quits bees of habits of intoxication. He forgets that I
stated they never get drunk unless the bee-master supplies
the intoxicating element. But if he will place a feeding-
pan full of good Scotch ale before the hives, I will eat pan
and beer and bees if they do not sip every drop, and give
very unmistakable i)roofs that they have done so.

LETTERS TO ''THE TIM EST 145

3. Your correspondent says : " ]\Ir. Harbeson, a sturdy
citizen of the American Republic, considers the queen a
simple machine for laying eggs, absolutely under the
workers' control. I do not go these lengths, but Mr. Har-
beson is far nearer the truth than your correspondent."

There can be no doubt that this " is written for our
transatlantic brethren." It is a fine illustration for Abra-
ham Lincoln. I hope )'our correspondent will not be
oftended if I suspect in him a machine for speaking non-
sense. He has only to extend this free philosophy, to see
in rose-bushes machines for growing roses, and in birds
machines for building nests ; in Tennyson a machine for
spinning poetr)^, and in Lord Palmerston a machine for
turning out speeches. This wretched materialistic philo-
sophy may please the " sturdy American citizens and
transatlantic brethren ;" but how a sane Englishman can
dare to ventilate such arrant rubbish, I know not.

His exaggerated talk about bees being regicides would
electrify Red Republicans, but it is not true. That the
queen, who has precedence of birth, destroys the princess
next to her that might be her rival, I admitted and
deplored in my letters as sad. But that bees are regicides
is not fact. They never kill their queen ; they love and
are loyal to her, and obey her commands. I said they
hate republicanism, and so they do, and so do L No

L

146 BEE-KEEPING.

doubt your correspondent's discoveries will charm his
transatlantic brethren. But if ever a people were in want
of a queen, they are. Your correspondent may like Abra-
ham Lincoln ; I infinitely prefer Queen Victoria. He
says cottagers cannot make Ayrshire hives. They do cle-
verer things. At all events, they can try. The Ayrshire
hive is octagonal, I admit ; but all I said was, that my
success as a bee-master led me to suspect they prefer a
box similar to their combs, and therefore I intend this
winter to have several hexagonal bee-hives. A suspicion
of preference Avas all I ventured to state.

Your correspondent says : " Common sugar (lump-sugar
is best) does not require to be exposed to a heat of 300°
to be available to bees." No wonder his weak stocks
plunder his strong ones, for bees cannot eat and do not
eat lump-sugar or brown sugar. Their lambent organisa-
tion renders it impossible. I spoke of feeding with pure
sugar, and stated that it is available alone in the shape of
barley-sugar only. That it can be presented boiled up in
beer or water, I taught when I alluded to its being dis-
solved in ale. But whether in water or ale, it smears
their wings, clogs their feet, and is vastly inferior in all
respects to barley-sugar.

Your correspondent objects to rubbing the wound of a
bee's sting with tobacco-juice. I speak from experience.

LETTERS TO "THE TIMES P 147

I have tried every prescription, and most assuredly I will
not try his. He says : —

"If anyone has a swarm consisting of only 5,000 or
6,ooG bees, let him not take the trouble of hiving it. A
good swarm will weigh 4 lbs., and I have known one weigh
8 lbs. Now, 5,000 bees are computed to go to a pound,
and this is not too many, for a friend of mine counted and
weighed 5,020 freshly-killed bees this spring, and they
only weighed \2\ ounces. Let any one, therefore, do a
simple sum in mental arithmetic, and say if 15,000 to
30,000 are not within the mark, even allowing for the
weight of honey earned off by the swarm."

I mentioned 5,000 or 6,000 bees as a swarm. It is
the lowest, I freely allow. But I will add to your corre-
spondent's knowledge. I had a caste thrown off last
year, at the end of June. I despaired of its weathering
the winter, but I resolved to feed it richly with barley-
sugar till March. The maximum number of bees was
5,000. It had filled the lower box with at least 40 lbs. of
honey by the middle of June this year. The bees had
increased immensely. I opened the communication with a
large super. This super has in it now not less than 26 lbs.
of the whitest cells and honey I ever saw. I have shown it
to many whose mouths watered for a slice of it. I never
join stocks. We feed cattle on oil-cake : why not feed

L 2

148 BEE-KEEPIXG.

weakly stocks with barley-sugar % What your correspond-
ent proposes as his explanation of 2,000 drones in a hive
where there is only one queen, with, perhaps, a couple of
princesses, is, like his whole philosophy, very absurd, and
unworthy of a serious answer.

Your correspondent says : —

" Bees are never nursed by other bees. They are strict
utilitarians, and totally devoid of sympathy. ' Those who
cannot work shall not eat,' is a law applied with stern im-
partiality alike to the disabled worker and the useless
drone. He, therefore, who would teach or learn a lesson
in charity must look elsewhere."

My reply to this is, I have seen the disabled bee tended
with exquisite and unwearied attention, rolled in the sun-
shine on the bee-board, and carried or helped into their
homes. His testimony is negative, mine is positive.

He concludes his letter by informing us —

" As it is, I am very desirous of making it known to our
continental and American friends that these letters [in The
Times] do not convey an adequate idea of the amount of
knowledge of the subject possessed by British bee-masters."

His letter, he reiterates, was written for the American
market. I only hope they will not suppose that his
crotchets are the measure of the amount of knowledge
possessed or of the affection felt by English bee-masters.

LETTERS TO "THE TLUES:' 149

If in his next he will mix a little honey with his ink,

and eat a little at breakfast, he will do greater justice to

himself.

I am, &:c.,

A Bee-master.
Tunbridsfe Wells.

Bees, Bee-hives, axd Bee-masters.
To the Editor of"' The Tiniest

Sir, — I have been so annoyed at your correspondent's
attack on the good name of my bees, that I cannot resist
the temptation of saying a word or two of additional
defence.

That the queen is not a mere egg-laying machine obe-
dient to mere mechanical impulses, nor her subjects mere
mechanical creations obeying similar impulses with no
instructive appreciation, will be evident from the following
facts : —

Reaumur, the eminent naturalist, obser\-es that after
the queen-regnant has become a mother —

" The bees are constantly on the watch to make them-
selves useful to her and to render her every kind office.
Thev are for ever offering her honev. Thev lick her with

ISO BEE-KEEPING.

the proboscis, and wherever she goes they form a court
to attend her. Even the body of a dead queen is the
object of tender affection to the bees. I took a queen
out of the water seemingly dead. She was also mutilated>
having lost a leg. Bringing her home, I placed her amid
a number of working bees recovered from drowning also
by means of warmth. No sooner did the revived workers
perceive the queen in her miserable plight, than they
appeared to compassionate her, and continued to lick her
with their tongues until she showed signs of returning
vitality, when they set up a general hum as of joy at the
event."

Huber writes : —

" I have seen the workers lavish the most tender care
on such a queen, and, after her decease, surround her
inanimate body with the same resj^ect and homage as
they had paid to her while living, and in the presence of
these beloved remains refuse all attention to young and
fertile queens who were offered to them."

These are two facts noticed and recorded by the two
most eminent and careful apiarian naturalists. They are,
in the judgment of everyone able to appreciate weight of
evidence, conclusive disproofs of the material and mecha-
nical theory, and no less decisive confirmations of all I
ventured to state in vour columns.

LETTERS TO ''THE TLMESr 151

The senses of tlie bee are no less clear protests against
the mechanical theory so acceptable to " our transatlantic
brethren."

The bee leaves her house, traverses fields a mile or two
distant, and returns to her home — one amid twenty con-
tiguous ones — with unerring certainty.

The sense of touch through its antennae is so exquisite,
that in total darkness it carries on its architecture as per-
fectly as by day.

Its smell is possessed of unrivalled sensibility. Odours
from afar are directly scented. Huber thinks it is the
scent, not the colour of flowers, that attracts them.

Their power of memory is illustrated by Huber. He
placed a supply of honey on the sill of an open window
in autumn. The bees feasted on it for weeks. He re-
moved the honey and closed the window during winter.
Next spring the bees came to the same window, looking
for supplies. Here was memory of place and circum-
stances lasting during half a bee's lifetime.

Huber mentions a species of moth that attacks and
plunders bee-hives ; it is called the death's-head moth.
Finding out its daring depredations, he lessened the
apertures of some of his hives, leaving sufficient room for
the exit and entrance of the bees, but not for the entrance
of the moth. This succeeded perfectly. But several

152 BEE-KEEPING.

hives he left undefended. In each of these undefended
hives the bees raised a Avail of wax and propolis right
behind their doors of entrance, making embrasures for
exit and entrances through the solid wall. As soon as
spring arrived and all danger was at an end, these Royal
Engineers threw down their fortifications.

I need not refer to the perfect and well-known geome-
trical construction of the cells of a hive as evidences of
design and high instinct ; they combine the maximum
of strength with the least expenditure of substance and
the largest capacity in a given space. The equilateral
triangle, the square, and the hexagon, were the only three
forms of tubular cells that would leave no interstices : in
the first there would be lost space in each angle ; a similar
disadvantage would be found in the second. The bees,
by an instinct surely Divine, or in the exercise of engi-
neering powers demonstrative of mind, have adopted the
last.

Having thus disposed of your correspondent, will you
allow me to select one or two of the most important
practical inquiries which I have received in upwards of
twenty additional letters addressed to " 7'Iie Times Bee-
master f Your universal circulation is the cause of my
extraordinary visitation of correspondence, and diis unex-
pectedly-wide practical interest in bees will justify you to

LETTERS TO ''THE TLMESr 153

your readers. One asks, " How am I to begin an apiaiy ?"
Let me tell him. Buy a stock this month or next for 20^.,
taking care that it is not old, and weighs (inclusive of straw
hive) not less than 30 lbs. Erect a shed with sloping roof
projecting sufficiently to cany the rain beyond the alight-
ing-board of the bees. The length may be 1 2 feet, the
height about 6 feet, and width 2\ feet. Divide it into six
equal sections or chambers. Make an exit in each, three
inches long by two inches high. Place each hive in the
centre of one of them, with its opening directly opposite
the opening in the chamber. Fix below each opening in
the shed a bees' landing-board sloping at an angle of 25*^.
If you can afford it, buy six stock hives. Next May cut
out the top of each, as I directed in a pre\aous letter.
Place on it a board with circular hole, and a bell-glass
rather narrover at the lower part than at the centre ; cover
each with its plaid nightcap, and you will have plenty of
delicious honey in 1865.

If, howe^■eI, you do not mind loss of time, build j-our
shed this autimn, make it smooth inside to discourage
spiders, and next April send round the country to cot-
tagers keeping bees, and engage six good s'.varms, which
ought not to ccBt more than 10^. each. In carrying them
home, pin over^he entrance-hole a piece of gauze, tie a
towel or napkin yndemeath, fastening the four corners at

154 BEE-KEEPING.

the top, and do not jolt the young family unnecessarily.
If the swarms can be had in May, and if it prove a fine
summer, you may place a glass on each about the end of
June. Do not forget the old adage —

" A swarm in May

Is worth a load of hay ;

A swarm in June

Is worth a silver spoon ;

A swarm in July

Is worth a fly."

If your swarm is an early June one, you may save it by
pushing three or four sticks of barley-sugar into the hive
by the exit aperture once a fortnight till next March. Any
little expense in feeding introduces you to ycair bees and
helps them wonderfully, and is never a loss.

If you want to tempt the bees to feed n your own
garden, sow mignonette, salvia, and sanfoin ; plant plenty
of raspberry, gooseberry, and currant bushts. They like
lime poplars, apple - blossoms, thyme, ard, above all,
borage. Bees never touch double flowers. Should the
early summer prove very dry, place near your bee-shed
two or three soup-plates half full of water, taking care to
put in as many pebbles as each will told. I'he bees
require steppmg-stones for their tiny fert, and otherwise
they are necessary to save them from drowning.

LETTERS TO "THE TIMESr 155

I am giving directions to those Avho desire to work eco-
nomically. But if )-ou can lay out a little as an invest-
ment, and you desire to combine interest and pleasure
with profit, you cannot do better than call on Neighbour,
either in Regent-street or Holborn, where I have seen
many varieties of hives of difterent prices and all of good
workmanship. In answer to numerous inquiries about
the A}Tshire hives, I am sorr}' to be obliged to answer
that I have to send to Scotland for them. They may
be had of Air. Bruce Taylor, Post-office, Manchlin, Ayr-
shire ; or of jMessrs. Craig, Stewarton, Ayrshire^ The three
boxes in the lower or stock hive, with two supers exactly
corresponding, cost me 20J-. But they last for ever. Their
chief value is their productiveness. Neighbours' and Pet-
titt's are far more interesting for experimental uses. The
collateral system is the most elegant, but least productive ;
its bee-boxes are also expensive. Your correspondent's
hive (which I ought previously to have referred to) is no
improvement, and its architect has so bad an opinion of
the moral character of bees, that were they to know it was
his, they would desert it. There are people to whom bees
never take, and there are hives they invariably sicken in.
I do not like the nadir system recommended in The Times
by "A Rector." Bees naturally ascend or traverse the
same plane, but mostly preferring ascent. " Excelsior" is

156 BEE-KEEPING.

their favourite aspiration. In answer to another inquir}^,
do I approve using stupifying fumes, as of puff-ball, &c.,
in order to expel the bees from supers full of honey 1 —
I say, certainly not. It may not injure the bees if judi-
ciously administered. Some highly recommend it. But
it is not necessary. The bees will leave the super on
its being detached from the hive and carried to a litde
distance, and will return in an hour or two to their home
and their queen. The only case in which I have re-
course to fumigation is w^ien any portion of the comb,
through accidental admission of wet, has become mouldy.
A few whiffs of puff-ball may be injected, by means of an
instrument sold for this purpose, during five minutes. As
soon as the humming noise ceases, lift the hive and cut
out the mouldy portion of the comb, replace it, and in
twenty minutes the bees will again be at work. This is
the only case in which I like to employ either this or
tobacco-smoke, which answers as well if not too long
continued.

Your apiary or bee-shed should be placed as near your
dwelling as possible, sheltered from the north and north-
east winds, and at the greatest possible distance from
poultry. Frequently, but quietly and unobtrusively, visit
your bees, watch them at work in your bee-glasses, or by
windows in your bee-boxes. Let your children play be-

LETTERS TO "THE TIM EST 157

side them. They are fond of children, and unless vio-
lently irritated they will not injure them. I can state this
from very ample experience. At the same time, it is
proper to state, that some few persons are so offensive to
bees that they must not approach them. Plenty of soap
and water and fastidious cleanliness are essential to a bee-
master's continued popularity with his apiarian family.

I am, &c.,

A Bee-master.
Tunbridse Wells.

About Wasps.

To the Editor of " The Times!'

Sir, — There is no sweet without a bitter. Every bee-
master feels the plague of wasps this autumn of 1864 ; for
fifteen years, the range of my experience as a bee-master,
I have not seen so fierce and multitudinous bands of
wasps descending on my bees on predatory incursions. I
do not mean to insinuate that the wasp has no mission,
I believe he has his use. He is the scavenger of our gar-
dens, and clears off decay, putrescence, and filth of every
sort. For this I give him credit, but I cannot extend to

158 BEE-KEEPING.

him either the affection or respect I feel for my bees.
Wasps often remind me of a class of critics not found in
Printing-house-square, but by no means rare in other
quarters. Like wasps, they ignore or pass by ripe, fra-
grant, and beautiful fruit, and select and gloat over inci-
dental decay. The wasp -critic does not touch a beautiful
thought in Tennyson or Longfellow ; he can neither ap-
preciate nor digest it. But if he can only discover a word
misspelt or a word misprinted, or the word " octagon "
accidentally used for '' hexagon," he buzzes about it for
hours, and feeds on it with waspish delight. Should the
editor of a respectable paper or periodical refuse his con-
tribution, he flies to a congenial refuge, and there pours
out what wasps have nearly a monopoly of — the venom
identified with and peculiar to that insect.

There is also the wasp ecclesiastical. He contributes
no sweet honey to the Church, and takes little interest in
its good. But in Synods, Presbyteries, Convocations, he
flies about, driving his sting sometimes into a bishop and
sometimes into a presbyter. A sin in another he scents
from afar. A virtue in a brother he cannot appreciate.
He lives on decay. He sings while he feeds on it. It is
his nutriment and his joy.

There is also the political wasp. He has no fixed
principles, but, instead, he has a furious temper. He

LETTERS TO ''THE TIM ESP 159

makes great noise, and attacks everybody right and left
tliat comes within scent, eyesight, or earshot. His delight
is proportionate to the degree in which he can sting. He
cares nothing about party, or side, or leader. He spurns
all organisation. He revels in wrath and fierce words
and keen invective, unsweetened by a grain of genial
feeling, or an expression softened by the humanities
and amenities of debate, and unillumined by wit or
humour.

There is the wasp social. He is impersonated in the
burglar. Were you to see the wasps this autumn rushing
into my hives, sometimes by a sudden dash, at other times
by stealth, you would instantly acknowledge in them the
type of the thief and the burglar. But my bees are better
prepared for the wasp's reception than London house-
holders for thieves. He runs the gauntlet every time he
enters. Through my glass observatory windows I watch
the conflict. One bee, half his size, seizes him by the
throat, another gives him a taste of his sting, and two or
three watchers seize him by the legs and drag him out. I
have hit on an admirable plan of keeping him oft", well
worth disclosing to every bee-master. I place at the
entrance of the hive a stick of barley-sugar a couple of
inches long. This brings to the entrance a dozen of bees,
who thankfully feed on it. There is thus secured an

i6o BEE-KEEPING.

additional guard at tlie gates. Tlie moment the wasp
alights, the whole posse fly at him and drive him away.
Another plan is to fill half-full a wine-bottle with beer and
sugar. Incidentally a bee may look in, but the v.-asps,
whose scent is perfect, rush in and are drowned. It is a
sacred duty devolving on every bee-master to exterminate
these Arabs, Bedouins, and corsairs. They lay up no
stores for themselves — they do nothing for the support or
enjoyment of man. They use their stings, not like bees,
in self-defence, but in sheer wickedness. They are pro-
fessional thieves. Like the bees of a correspondent of
yours, they have no respect for tuum, and having no
vieinii, they care nothing. Living at the expense of others,
without consulting the convenience or goodwill of any-
body, they richly deserve what their extermination will
pay for — sulphur, gunpowder, and boiling water. Let
every bee-master give sixpence to every boy who destroys
a wasps' -nest.

The wasp builds its nest generally underground.
Their cells are hexagonal. The house is built of paper,
fabricated by this insect long before its manufacture was
discovered by man. With their powerful jaws they tear
off decayed wood, which they moisten with a sort of gum
or glue secreted from themselves. They form this into a
kind of pulp and spread it out into thin sheets, with

LETTERS TO "THE TIMESr i6i

which they roof in and surround then- cells. So far they
are good paper manufacturers ; but I have not heard of
their paper being used in the service of man. They
seem also to understand the laws of heat. Everybody
knows that double windows are warmer than single ones,
the atmospheric air being a good non-conductor. The
wasps surround themselves with several walls of paper,
leaving spaces between, and thus not only keep out the
cold, but render the entrance of damp all but impossible.
The combs of the wasp are built in horizontal tiers, sup-
ported by pillars. In this respect they are builders as
well as papermakers. They are also admirable sappers
and miners. They tunnel a covered way from their nest
to the open air, and very often, instead of using a
deserted mole or mouse hole, they excavate a round
chamber of really fine proportions. It is truly matter of
regret that so much capable talent should be prostituted
to so much dishonesty. Unhappily, thieves and pick-
pockets are generally very clever. Yet reformatories do
operate real transformations of thieves ; but no plan that
philanthropy has yet devised has turned a wasp into a
kind, honest, and respectable member of society. He is
incapable of transmutation. He is worthy of the special
study of Darwin. The death penalty, I unhesitatingly
affirm, is due to ever}- Avasp that enters a bee-garden.

M

i62 BEE-KEEPING.

The razing of his house, the desolation of its furniture,
and the dislodgment and destruction of the whole clan,
have become a sacred duty. Even the Quaker, who
objects to the sentence of death on murderers, would
consent to the doom of the wasp. I cannot believe
there were wasps in Paradise of old. Though no pro-
phet, nor prophet's son, I confidently predict there will
be no wasps in Paradise that is to be, nor will there be
waspish tempers, or passions, or propensities. Of all
ugly things on earth, next to the serpent, a hornet is the
ugliest, the most thievish, and the most dishonest You
can neither tame nor turn the wicked imp. He is a thief
from his birth — a bee-cide by habit ; feeding on corrup-
tion, and full of wickedness. If, instead of killing spar-
rows and blackbirds and thrushes, because they take a
few currants, while they destroy slugs and vermin, and
many of them regale springtide with song, the farmers
would set about destroying wasps, they would find as
much amusement, and do vastly more good. I have a
lurking suspicion that some of those apiarians who speak
against bees, and call them thieves and regicides, must
have wasps, not bees, in their hives. Let me beg of
these irritable gentlemen, who never cease buzzing, to
examine their hives. Let me remind them that wasps
are bigger and longer than bees ; are surrounded with

LETTERS TO "THE TLMES." 163

concentric yellow circles, emit a subterranean sort of
hum, neither treble, tenor, nor bass, and, after a little
study on their part, may be easily distinguished from bees.
Above all, let me intreat them to give up feeding on
wasps' food, and, if they have no honey of their own,
let me offer them half a bar, in order to elevate their
taste or improve their temper.

Let me also beg all that value their lives to examine
well every apple, pear, and peach they eat ; for these
venomous insects may be seen this year ensconced under
the skin, and if admitted within the mouth they will
sting the throat, and, as in several recent cases, the suf-
ferers will die. Do not conclude I am uncharitable ; I
am not so. It is no charity to connive at theft and
murder. I am satisfied that killing wasps is no murder.
Had Peter the Hermit or Walter the Penniless lived in
my garden, and witnessed these wicked vagabonds tr}'ing
every hive, worr}ing my bees and stealing my honey,
they would have preached a crusade against wasps. In
one respect they are unfortunate ; they have no queen,
no subordination or reverence for law and order. They
are genuine Red Republicans — Marats and Robespierres,
and richly deserve the worst they get.

I am. Sir, your obedient servant,

Tunbridge Wells. A Bee-Master.

M 2

1 64 BEE-KEEPIXG.

The Bee-master's Sermon.
To the Editor of " The Tiiiiesy

SiRj^The object of my letters has been to open up to
the cottager a means of revenue very agreeable, but very
much neglected or mismanaged. I ha\e directed your
attention to bee-keeping, not as a fancy pursuit, or as an
interesting entomological investigation, but as a practical
and real work. Hence I have not discussed a variety of
toys used as bee-hives, very pretty and very tasteful to the
eye of a sentimental ajnarian, but so bothering to the bees
that they wish such houses were at the bottom of the sea.
Simplicity of structure, directness of use, and available -
ness for deprivation of honey, and yet preservation of the
honey-makers, ought to be the guiding law. Bees don't
like to be paid too many, too obsequious, or too patroni-
sing attentions. I want, however, in this closing letter to
turn my largest hive into a puli)it, and to })reach a short
apiarian homily to English cottagers, which I know they
will read, and hope they will " mark, learn, and inwardly
digest."

I. They may carry from the hive to the cottage-hearth
a lesson of industry. During work the bees are so in-
tensely absorbed in their duty, that they ignore every dis-
tracting and diverging object and interest. They have

LETTERS TO "THE TIM ESP 165

learnt well a text their masters would do well to copy :
" Not slothful in business." There is no getting on in this
world of ours without hard work. It is not work and
plent)^ of it that kills people, but worry.

2. Bees teach a lesson of loyalty. They are monarchi-
cal by conviction and in practice. They love a queen,
whose sovereignty is motherhood, and whose ser\"ice is
perfect freedom. They detest your republics, and demo-
cracies, and radicalism in all its phases.

3. Bees are immensely attached to their homes. They
are "keepers at home." No mother of a family gets on
by gadding about and gossiping from house to house.

4. Bees are models of cleanliness. The care with which
they remove filth of all kinds is something remarkable.
They plainly believe what many Christians say, " cleanli-
ness is nearest to godliness." The cottager cannot in this
matter do better than follow the example of these admi-
rable sanitar)- philosophers.

5. Bees set a beautiful example of Christian spnpathy.
I have seen a wounded bee, accidentally hurt, carried out
from the hive and laid tenderly on the bee-board in the
warm sunshine. One bee would lick the sufferer with his
tongue from head to foot ; another would roll him over
and over in the sunshine ; and at sunset they would carry
him in to his sick bed. I do not complain of want of such

l66 BEE-KEEPING.

sympathy among the poor. I have seen much of it in the
homes of the most destitute, and witnessed personal atten-
tions and sacrifices and services in a district surrounding
Brevver's-court ragged schools, which have never been ex-
ceeded, if equalled, in the houses of the great.

6. Bees are very fond of fresh air. A hive is one of
the best ventilated homes ; and I have some doubt about
the wisdom or success of the various arrangements made
by some bee-masters for increasing the ventilation of their
hives. In a hot and sultry day I have seen successive lines
of bees take up their position at the mouth of the hive,
and, joining the tips of their wings, work these fanners for
ten minutes, and then retire and let the second parallel
line come to the front and continue the same process.
This example is not efficiently followed in city or cottage.
People who are most careful about what they eat and
drink and put into their stomachs, are utterly careless
what they allow to enter their lungs. Now, the truth is,
it is easier to poison a man through his lungs than through
his stomach. My bees would die in a London bed-room
in twelve hours.

7. Bees are very early risers. The first ray of sunshine
is their matin bell, and by seven o'clock p.m. they are most
of them at home. People that live long and are healthy
diff"er in many of their habits, but generally agree in being

LETTERS TO ''THE TIM ESP 167

early risers. Early light has sanitary as well as photo-
graphic influences, which post-meridian light is a stranger
to. " Early to bed and early up " is an admirable maxim
— an axiom among bees, and it should be a habit among
rational men.

8. Bees are peaceful and peacemakers. This will ap-
pear a hasty statement to all who remember that bees
have stings. But a little thought will justify what I say.
Bees never give way to aggressive warfare. They never
attack those who do not attack their queen or their home-
stead. Their stings are purely defensive. This is a very
curious fact, and very suggestive also. If they had no
stings at all, they would be an argument for the Peace
Society. But as it is, they prove that the best defence of
home is a good preparation to repel the aggressor. When,
therefore, Mr. Bright preaches the duty of breaking up the
navy and disbanding the army, it would be the conduct of
a great homet impressing on bees the duty of extracting
their stings. Were the bees such simpletons as to listen
to his plausible logic, and give up their stings, they would
be surrounded by swarms of wasps, who would very soon
make them give up their honey. As if to teach the bees
that their weapons are to be used only in the last extre-
mity, every bee knows that the use of his sting is followed
by its inevitable loss and his destruction. It sticks where

1 68 BEE-KEEPING.

it strikes, and the violence done to the bee ends ahvays in
death. While admiring Mr. Bright's love of peace, I hope
every bee-keeper in England will prefer the bees' way of
maintaining it. So sweet and short is a bee-master's
sermon.

I think I have shown in these letters that morals,
money, country, and enjoyment may all be helped a little
by keeping bees ; and, therefore, that I have done some
good by directing attention to these "great and marvellous
works" of One who still gives his care to a bee-hive and
to Buckingham Palace.

I am, Sir, your obedient ser\ant,

A Bee-Masti:r.

Tunbridge Wells.

VIII.— BEE-TIIINGS IN GENERAL.

S this work does not profess to be an
entomological essay but a practical bee-
master's director}', I have omitted those
erudite questions about which apiarians wrangle,
and unfortunately lose their temper and employ
their stings.

But there are some interesting bits of instruction
scattered over bee-books which it may interest the
reader to lay before him. If they contribute nothing
to the amount of the honey harvest, they may in-
crease the pleasure of the bee-master in the long
winter eveninfrs.

I70 BEE-KEEPING.

THE INSTINCT OR INTELLICxENCE OF BEES.

Huber relates: — ■

" He put under a bell-glass about a dozen humble-
bees, without any store of wax, along with a comb of
about ten silken cocoons, so unequal in height that it was
impossible the mass should stand firmly. Its unsteadi-
ness disquieted the humble-bees extremely. Their affec-
tion for their young led them to mount upon the cocoons
for the sake of imparting warmth to the inclosed little
ones, but in attempting this the comb tottered so vio-
lently that the scheme was almost impracticable. To
remedy this inconvenience, and to make the comb
steady, they had recourse to a most ingenious expedient.
Two or three bees got upon the comb, stretched them-
selves over its edge, and with their heads downwards
fixed their fore-feet on the table upon which it stood,
whilst with their hind-feet they kept it from falling. In
this constrained and painful posture, fresh bees relieving
their comrades when weary, did these affectionate little
insects support the comb for nearly three days. At the
end of this period they had prepared a sufficiency of
wax, with which they built i)illars that kept it in a firm
position ; but, by some accident afterwards, these got

BEE-THINGS IX GENERAL. 171

displaced, when they had again recourse to their former
manoeuvre for supplying their place ; and this operation
they perseveringly continued, until M. Huber, pitying
their hard task, relieved them by fixing the object of
their attention firmly on the table."

Lardner quotes from Kirby the following curious
illustration of the habits of the clothier-bee: —

" Kirby mentions the example of nests of this kind
found by himself and others, constructed in the inside of
the lock of a garden-gate.

" A proceeding has been ascertained on the part of
these insects in such cases, which it is extremely difficult
to ascribe to mere instinct, independent of some intelli-
gence. Wherever the nest may be constracted, the due
preser\-ation of the young requires that until they attain
the perfect state, their temperature should be maintained
at a certain point So long as the material surrounding
their nest is a very imperfect conductor of heat, as earth
or the pith of wood is, the heat developed by the insect,
being confined, is sufficient to maintain its temperature
at the requisite point. But if, perchance, the mother-bee
select for her nest any such locality as that of the lock of
the gate, the metal, being a good conductor of heat, would
speedily dissipate the animal heat developed by the insect.

172 BEE-KEEPIXG.

and thus reduce its temperature to a point incompatible
with the continuance of its existence. How then does
the tender mother, foreseeing this, and consequently in-
formed by some power of the physical quality peculiar to
the metal surrounding the nest, provide against it ? How,
we may ask, would a scientific human architect prevent
such an eventuality ? He would seek for a suitable mate-
rial which is a non-conductor of heat, and would surround
the nest with it. In fact, the very thing has occurred in
a like case in relation to steam-engine boilers. The
economy of fuel there rendered it quite as necessary to
confine the heat developed in the furnace, as it is to con-
fine that which is developed in the natural economy of
the pupa of the bee. The expedient, therefore, resorted
to is to invest the boiler in a thick coating of a sort of
felt, made for the purpose, which is almost a non-con-
ductor of heat. A casing of sawdust is also used in
Cornwall for a like purpose. By these expedients the
escape of heat from the external surface of the boiler is
prevented.

" The bee keeps its pupa warm by an expedient so
exactly similar, that we must suppose that she has been
guided either by her own knowledge, or by a power that
commands all knowledge, in her operations. She seek.s
certain woolly-leaved plants, such as the stachys lamata

BEE-THINGS IX GENERAL. 173

or the agtvstcmma co/viiaria, and with her mandibles
scrapes off the wool. She rolls this into little balls, and
carrying it to the nest, sticks it on the external surface by
means of a plaster, composed of honey and pollen, with
which she previously coats it. Thus invested, the cells
become impenious to heat, and consequently all the heat
developed by the little animal is confined within them.

" The name of upholsterers has been given by Kirby to
certain species of bees, who, having excavated their nest
in the earth, hang its walls with a splendid coating of
flowers and leaves. One of the most interesting of these
varieties is the megachile papareris, which has been de-
scribed by Reaumur. It chooses invariably for the hang-
ings of its apartments the most brilliant scarlet, selecting
as its material the petals of the wild poppy, which the
insect dexterously cuts into the proper form.

" Her first process is to excavate in some pathway a
burrow cylindrical at the entrance, but enlarged as it
descends, the depth being about three inches. After
having polished the walls, she next flies to a neighbouring
field, where she cuts out the oval parts of the poppy
blossoms, and seizing them between her hind legs returns
with them to her cell. Sometimes it happens that the
flower from which she cuts these, being but half-blown,
has a wrinkled petal. In that case she spreads out the

.174 BEE-KEEPING.

folds, and smoothes away the wrinkles, and if she finds
that the pieces are too large to fit the vacant spaces on
the walls of her litile room, she soon reduces them to
suitable dimensions, by cutting off all the superfluous
parts with her mandibles. In hanging the walls with this
brilliant tapestry she begins at the bottom, and gradually
ascends to the roof. She carpets in the same manner
the surface of the ground round the margin of the orifice.
The floor is rendered warm sometimes by three or four
layers of carpeting, but never has less than two.

" Our little upholsterer having thus completed the
hangings of her apartment, fills it with a mixture of
pollen and honey to the height of about half an inch.
She then lays an egg in it, and wraps over the poppy
lining, so that even the roof may be furnished with this
material. Having accomplished this, she closes the
mouth of the nest.*

" It is not every insect of this class which manifests
the same showy taste in the colours of their furniture.
The species called leaf-cutters hang their walls in the
same way, not with the blossoms but the leaves of trees,
and more particularly those of the rose-tree. They
differ also from the upholsterer described above, in the

* Reaumur, vi. 139 to 14S.

BEE-THINGS IN GENERAL. 175

external structure of their nests, which are formed in
much longer cylindrical holes, and consist of a series of
thimble-shaped cells, composed of leaves most curiously
convoluted. We are indebted likewise to Reaumur for a
description of the labours of these.

" The mother first excavates a cylindrical hole in a
horizontal direction eight or ten inches long, either in the
ground or in the trunk of a rotten tree, or any other
decaying wood. She fills this hole with six or seven
thimble-shaped cells, composed of cut leaves, the convex
end of each fitting into the open end of the other. Her
first process is to form the external coating, which is
composed of three or four pieces of larger dimensions
than the rest, and of an oval form. The second coating
consists of portions of equal size, narrow at one end, but
gradually widening towards the other, where the width
equals half the length. One side of these pieces is the
serrated edge of the leaf from which it was taken, which,
as the pieces lap over each other, is kept on the outside,
the edge which was cut being within.

" The little animal next forms a third coating of similar
material, the middle of which, as the most skilful work-
man would do in a like case, she places over the margins
of those that form the first side, thus covering and
strengthening the junctions by the expedient which

1 76 BEE-KEEPING.

mechanics call a break -joint. Continuing the same pro-
cess, she gives a fourth and sometimes a fifth coating to
her nest, taking care at the closed end, or narrow extre-
mity of the cell, to bend the leaves so as to form a
convex termination.

"After thus completing each cell, she proceeds to fill it
to within the twentieth of an inch of the orifice with a
rose-coloured sweetment made of the pollen collected
from thistle-blossoms mixed with honey. Upon this she
lays her egg, and then closes the orifice with three pieces
of leaf, one placed upon the other, concentrical and also
so exactly circular in form, that no compasses could
describe that geometrical figure with more precision. In
their magnitude also they correspond with the walls of
the cell with such a degree of precision, that they are
retained in their situation merely by the nicety of their
adaptation.

" The covering of the cell thus adapted to it being con-
cave, corresponds exactly with the convex end of the
cell which is to succeed it ; and in this manner the little
insect prosecutes her maternal labours until she has con-
structed all the cells, six or seven in number, necessary
to fill the cylindrical hole.

" The process which one of these bees employs in cut-
ting the pieces of leaf that compose her nest, is worthy

BEE THIXGS IX GEXERAL. 177

of attention. Nothing can be more expeditious, and she
is not longer about it than one would be in cutting
similar pieces with a pair of scissors. After hovering
for some moments over a rose-bush, as it were to re-
connoitre the ground, the bee alights upon the leaf which
she has selected, usually taking her station upon its edge,
so that its margin shall pass between her legs. She then
cuts with her mandibles, without intermission, in such a
direction as to detach from the leaf a triangular piece.
When this hangs by the last fibre, lest its weight should
carry her to the ground, she spreads her little wings for
flight, and the very moment the connection of the part
thus cut off with the leaf is broken, she carries it off in
triumph to her nest, the detached portion remaining bent
between her legs in a direction perpendicular to her
body. Thus, without rule or compass, do these little
creatures measure out the material of their work into
ovals, or circles, or other pieces of suitable shapes, accu-
rately accommodating the dimensions of the several
pieces of these figures to each other. What other archi-
tect could carr}^ impressed upon the tablet of his memory
such details of the edifice which he has to erect, and,
destitute of square or plumb-line, cut out his materials in
their exact dimensions without making a single mistake
or requiring a single subsequent correction ?

N

1 7 8 BEE-KEEPING.

" But of all the varieties of this insect, that of which
the architectural and mechanical skill is transcendently
the most admirable is the bee-hive. The most profound
philosopher, says Kirby, equally with the most incurious
of mortals, is filled with astonishment at the view of the
interior of a bee-hive. He beholds there a miniature
city. He sees regular streets, disposed in parallel direc-
tions, and consisting of houses constructed upon the most
exact geometrical principles, and of the most symmetrical
forms. These buildings are appropriated to various pur-
poses. Some are warehouses in which provisions are
stored in enormous quantities ; some are the dwellings
of the citizens ; and a few of the most spacious and magni-
ficent are royal palaces. He finds that the material of
which this city is built is one which man with all his
skill and science cannot fabricate, and that the edifices
which it is employed to form are such that the most con-
summate engineer could not reproduce, much less ori-
ginate ; and yet this wondrous production of art and skill
is the result of the labour of a society of insects so minute,
that hundreds of thousands of them do not contain as
much ponderable matter as would enter into the com-
position of the body of a man. Quel alniue aux yeux
du sage qihine rue he cVaheiUes! Quelle sagesse pro-
fcmde se caehe dans cet abhiu J Quel pJiilosophe osem

BEE THINGS IN GENERAL. 179

Ic sender! Nor has the problem thus solved by the bee
yet been satisfactorily expounded by philosophers. Its
mysteries have not yet been fathomed. In all ages natu-
ralists and mathematicians have been engrossed by it,
from Aristomachus of Soli and Philiscus the Thracian,
already mentioned, to Swammerdam, Reaumur, Hunter,
and Huber of modern times. Nevertheless, the honey-
comb is still a miracle -which ovenvhelms our faculties."

Kirby writes: —

" Besides the saving of wax effected by the form of the
cells, the bees adopt another economical plan suited to
the same end. They compose the bottoms and sides of
wax of very great tenuity, not thicker than a sheet of
writing-paper; but as walls of this thickness at the en-
trance would be perpetually injured by the ingress and
egress of the workers, they prudently make the margin at
the opening of each cell three or four times thicker than
the walls. Dr. Barclay discovered, that though of such
excessive tenuity, the sides and bottom of each cell are
actually double, or in other words, that each cell is dis-
tinct, separate, and in some measure an independent
structure, agglutinated only to the neighbouring cells;
and that when the agglutinating substance is destroyed,
each cell may be entirely separated from the rest. This,

K 2

I So BEE-KEEPING.

however, has been denied l)y Mr. Waterhouse, and seems
inconsistent with the account given by Hiiber, hereafter
detailed; but Mr, G. Newport asserts, that even the
virgin-cells are lined with a delicate membrane."

Dr. Bevan relates of Mr. Knight, an acute and
accurate apiarian : —

" On one occasion he observed from twenty to thirty
bees paying daily visits to some decayed trees, about a
mile distant from his garden ; the bees appeared to be
busily employed in examining the hollow parts, and par-
ticularly the dead knots around them, as if apprehensive
of the knots admitting moisture. In about fourteen days
these seeming surveyors were followed by a large swarm
from his apiary, which was watched the whole Avay, till it
alighted in one of these cavities. It was observed to
journey nearly in a direct line from the apiary to the
tree. On several similar occasions the bees selected that
cavity which Mr. Knight thought best adapted to their
use."

" Insects give proofs without number of the possession
of the faculty of memory, without which it would be
impossible to turn to account the results of experience.
Thus, for example, each bee, on returning from its excur-
sions, never fails to recognise its own hive, even though

BEE THINGS IX GENERAL. i8i

that hive should be surrounded by various others in all
respects similar to it.

" This recognition of home is so much the more
marked by traces of intelligence rather than by those of
instinct, inasmuch as it depends not on any character
merely connected with the hive itself, whether external or
internal, but from its relation to surrounding objects ;
just as we are guided to our own dwellings by the recol-
lection of the particular features of the locality and neigh-
bourhood. Nor is this faculty in the bee inferred from
mere analogies ; it has been established by direct experi-
ment and observation. A hive being removed from a
locality to which its inhabitants have become familiar,
they are observed, upon the next day, before leaving for
their usual labours, to fly around the hive in every direc-
tion, as if to observe the surrounding objects, and obtain
a general acquaintance with their new neighbourhood.

" The queen m like manner adopts the same precaution
before she rises into the air, attended by her numerous
admirers, for the purpose of fecundation."— Z^?;-^//^r.

" The attention," says Lord Brougham,* " which has
been paid at various times to the structure and habits of
the bee, is one of the most remarkable circumstances in

* Vol. i. pp. zzyi^-

1 82 DEE-KEEPING.

the history of science. The ancients studied it with
unusual minuteness, althougli being, generally speaking,
indifferent observers of fact, they made but little progi'css
in discovering the singular economy of this insect Of
the observations of Aristomachus, who spent sixty years,
it is said, in studying the subject, we know nothing ; nor
of those which were made by Philissus, who passed his
life in the woods, for the purpose of examining this in-
sect's habits ; but Pliny informs us that both of them
wrote works upon it. Aristotle's three chapters on bees
and wasps* contain little more than the ordinary obser-
vations, mixed up with an unusual portion of vulgar and
even gross errors. How much he attended to the subject
is, however, manifest from the extent of the first of these
chapters, which is of great length. Some mathematical
writers, particularly Pappus, studied the form of the cells,
and established one or two of the fundamental proposi-
tions respecting the economy of labour and wax resulting
from the plan of the structure. The application of modern
naturalists to the inquiry is to be dated from the beginning
of the eighteenth century, when Maraldi examined it with
his accustomed care ; and Reaumur afterwards, as we have
seen, carried his investigations much farther. The interest

* Hist. An., lib. ix., cap. 40, 41, 42.

BEE THINGS IX GEXERAL. 183

of the subject seemed to increase witli the progress made
in their inquiries ; and about the year 1765 a society was
formed at Little Bautzen in Upper Lusatia, whose sole
object was the study of bees. It was formed under the
patronage of the Elector of Saxony. The celebrated
Schirach was one of its original members ; and soon after
its establishment he made his famous discovery of the
power which the bees have to supply the loss of their
queen, by forming a large cell out of three common ones,
and feeding the grub of a worker upon royal jelly ; a dis-
covery so startling to naturalists, that Bonnet, in 1769,
earnestly urged the society not to lower its credit by coun-
tenancing such a wild error, which he regarded as repug-
nant to all we know of the habits of insects ; admitting,
however, that he should not be so incredulous of any
observations tending to prove the propagation of the race
of the queen-bee without any co-operation of a male,* a
notion since shown by Huber to be wholly chimerical.
In 17 7 1 a second institution, with the same limited object,
was founded at Lauter, under the Elector Palatine's
patronage, and of this Riem, scarcely less known in this
branch of science than Schirach, was a member.

" The greatest progress, however, was afterwards made

* Giuvres x., loi, 104.

1 84 BEE-KEEPING.

by Huber, whose discoveries, especially of the queen-bee's
mode of impregnation, the slaughter of the drones or
males, and the mode of working, have justly gained him
a very high place among naturalists. Nor are his disco-
veries of the secretion of wax from saccharine matter, the
nature of propolis, and the preparation of wax for building,
to be reckoned less important. To these truths the way
had been led by John Hunter, whose vigorous and origi-
nal genius never was directed to the cultivation of any
subject without reaping a harvest of discovery."

Bee Industry.

"The industry of the bee may be estimated by the
average number of its daily excursions from the hive to
collect provisions. According to Reaumur, if the total
number of excursions be divided by the total number of
bees in a hive, the average number daily made by each
bee would be from five to six. But as one-half of the
bees are occupied exclusively with the domestic business
of the society, either in nursing and tending the young,
packing and storing the provisions, or constructing the
combs, the total number of excursions must be divided,
not between the whole, but between only half the total
number of bees, which would give ten excursions to each
individual of the collecting class ; and if the average

BEE THINGS IN GENERAL. 185

length of each excursion be taken at three-quarters of a
mile, this would give the average distance travelled by
each collector as fifteen miles ! It is estimated by Kirby
that the quantity of ponderable matter thus transported
exceeds a hundred pounds."

The Rev. Mr. Wood, in his little manual — the
most sensible of its size that has yet appeared —
writes : —

" No noticeable capital is required to commence ; no
noticeable amount of time is necessarily consumed in their
management, and they may be kept almost anywhere,
though not with equal profit. One apiarian, whose autho-
rity may be depended upon, gives the profits of eight
stocks only as averaging about 20/. in three successive
years. Another, who was regularly engaged from six to
six daily in other avocations, cleared nearly 100/. in one
year by his bees. The quantity of honey that may be
obtained from a hive is exceedingly variable, but offering,
therefore, only the greater assurance of due rewards for
able management. Fifty or sixty pounds have not unfre-
quently been obtained from a single hive in a season, and
occasionally as much as 100 lbs. ; whilst from a set of col-
lateral boxes, 100 lbs. is mentioned; and Cotton states
that as much as 2iolbs. have really been stored in a single

1 86 BEE-KEEPING.

season, by a single stock similarly situated in a roomy
trebled habitation. The prices of honey in London are
stated to be generally as follows : —

s. d.

Minorca, which is the best per lb. 2 6

Narbonne , , 2 o

Pure native honey in the comb ,, i o

Other native honey ,, o 8

" But pure native honey in the comb, obtained in glasse.s,
is sought for the table, and therefore often sells for double
the price above-mentioned. We shall only add, that Mr.
Smart, a well-known apiarian, considers Jiwidreds of stocks
may be kept where only tens are now to be found, so far
as regards the capabilities of support, the main point to
be considered. To that subject, therefore, we now turn."

A rather exaggerated account of the excellence
of honey is given by Butler :—

" Honey cutteth and casteth up phlegmatic matter, and
therefore sharpeneth the stomachs of them which by
reason thereof have little appetite ; it purgeth those
things which hurt the clearness of the eyes ; it nourish-
eth very much ; it breedeth good blood ; it stirreth up
and preserveth natural heat, and prolongeth old age; it
keepeth all things uncorrupt which are put into it ; and

BEE THINGS IN GENERAL. 187

therefore physicians do temper therewith such medicines
as they mean to keep long."

In an article in the Quarterly Revicio it is
stated : —

" In such esteem was it held, that one of the old
Welsh laws ran thus : — ' There are three things in court
which must be communicated to the king before they are
made known to any other person: — ist Every sentence
of the Judge. 2nd. Every new song. 3rd. Every cask
of ]\Iead.' Queen Bess was so fond of it, that she had
some made for her own especial drinking every year ;
and Butler, who draws a distinction between Mead and
Metheglin, making Hydromel the generic term, gives a
receipt for the latter and better drink, the same used by
' our renowned Queen Elizabeth of happy memory.' "

A PRAIRIE HUNT.

A bee-hunt in the prairies is thus described by
Washington Irving : —

" We had not been long in the camp, when a jDarty set
out in quest of a bee-tree, and being curious to witness
the sport, I gladly accepted an invitation to accompany
them. The party was headed by a veteran bee-hunter, a

1 88 BEE-KEEPING.

tall lank fellow in homespun garb, that hung loosely
about his limbs, and a straw hat, shaped not unlike a
bee-hive ; a comrade, equally uncouth in garb, and with-
out a hat, straddled along at his heels, with a long rifle
on his shoulder. To these succeeded half-a-dozen
others, some with axes, and some with rifles ; for no one
stirs from the camp without fire-arms, so that he may be
ready either for wild deer or wild Indian. After proceed-
ing some distance, we came to an open glade on the
skirts of the forest. Here our leader halted, and then
advanced quietly to a low bush, on the top of which I
perceived a piece of honey-comb. This, I found, was
the bait or lure for the wild bees. Several were hum-
ming about it, and diving into its cells. When they had
laden themselves with honey, they would rise up in the
air, and dart ofl" in one straight line, almost with the velo-
city of a bullet. The hunters watched attentively the
course they took, and then set off in the same direction,
stumbling along over twisted roots and fallen trees, with
their eyes turned up to the sky. In this way they traced
the honey-laden bees to their hive, in the hollow trunk of
a blasted oak, where, after buzzing about for a moment,
they entered a hole about sixty feet from the ground.
Two of the bee-hunters now plied their axes vigorously
at the foot of the tree, to level it with the ground. The

BEE THIXGS IX GENERAL. 189

mere spectators and amateurs, in the meantime, drew off
to a cautious distance, to be out of the way of the falling
of the tree and the vengeance of its inmates. The jar-
ring blows of the axe seemed to have no effect in alarm-
ing or agitating this most industrious community. They
continued to ply at their usual occupations — some
arriving full-freighted into port, others sallying forth on
new expeditions, like so many merchantmen in a money-
making metropolis, little suspicious of impending bank-
ruptcy and downfall ; even a loud crack, which an-
nounced the disrupture of the trunk, failed to divert
their attention from the intense pursuit of gain : at
length dowm came the tree with a tremendous crash,
bursting open from end to end, and displapng all the
hoarded treasures of the commonwealth. One of the
hunters immediately ran up with a wisp of lighted hay,
as a defence against the bees. The latter, however,
made no attack, and sought no revenge ; they seemed
stupified by the catastrophe, and, unsuspicious of its
cause, remained crawling and buzzing about the ruins,
without offering us any molestation. Every one of the
party now fell to, with spoon and hunting-knife, to scoop
out the flakes of honey-comb with which the hollow
trunk was stored. Some of them were of old date, and
a deep brown colour ; others were beautifully white, and

I90 BEE-KEEPING.

the honey in their cells was almost limpid. Such of the
combs as were entire were placed in camp-kettles, to be
conveyed to the encampment ; those which had been
shivered in the fall were devoured upon the spot. Every
stark bee-hunter was to be seen with a rich morsel in his
hand, dripping about his fingers, and disappearing as
rapidly as a cream-tart before the holiday appetite of a
schoolboy. Nor was it the bee-hunters alone that pro-
fited by the downfall of this industrious community, As
if the bees would carry through the similitude of their
hahits with those of laborious and gainful man, I beheld
numbers from rival hives, arriving on eager wing, to
enrich themselves with the ruins of their neighbours.
These busied themselves as eagerly and cheerily as so
many wreckers on an Indiaman that has been driven on
shore — plunging into the cells of the broken honey-
combs, banqueting greedily on the spoil, and then winging
their way full-freighted to their homes. As to the poor
proprietors of the ruin, they seemed to have no heart to
do anything, not even to taste the nectar that flowed
around them, but crawled backwards and forwards, in
vacant desolation, as I have seen a poor fellow, with his
hands in his pockets, whistling vacantly and despond-
ingly about the ruins of his house that had been burned.
It is difticult to describe the bewilderment and confusion

BEE THIXGS IX GEXERAL. 191

of the bees of the bankrupt hi\-e who had been absent
at the time of the catastrophe, and who arrived, from
time to time, with full cargoes from abroad. At first they
wheeled about in the air, in the place where the fallen
tree had once reared its head, astonished at finding all a
vacuum. At length, as if comprehending their disaster,
they settled down in clusters on a dry branch of a
neighbouring tree, from whence they seemed to contem-
plate the prostrate ruin, and to buzz forth doleful lamen-
tations over the downfall of their republic. It was a
scene on which the 'melancholy Jaques' might have
moralised by the hour." — Tour in Prairies, ch. ix.

BEE TEMPERS.

" Bees, however, as we have already obser\-ed, are not
usually ill-tempered ; and, if not molested, are generally
inoffensive. Thorley relates, that a maid servant who
assisted him in hiving a swarm, being rather afraid, put a
linen cloth as a defence over her head and shoulders.
When the bees were shaken from the tree on which they
had alighted, the queen probably settled upon this cloth,
for the whole swarm covered it, and then getting under
it, spread themselves over her face, neck, and bosom, so
that when the cloth was removed, she was quite a spec-
tacle. She was with great difficult}^ kept from running

192 BEE-KEEPING.

off with all the bees upon her. But at length her master
quieted her fears, and began to search for the queen. He
succeeded, and expected that when he put her into the
hive the bees would follow. He was, however, in the
first instance disappointed, for they did not stir. Upon
examining the cluster again, he found a second queen, or
probably the former one, which had flown back to the
swarm. Having seized her, he placed her in the hive,
and kept her there. The bees soon missed her, and
crowded into the hive after her, so that, in two or three
minutes, not one remained on the poor frightened girl.
After this escape she became quite a heroine, and would
undertake the most hazardous employment about the
hives." — Lardncr.

BEES IN THEIR CLERICAL CHARACTER.

" But connected with this, another important purpose
of nature is fulfilled, which must not here pass without
special notice. The principle, so fruitful in important
social consequences among animals, that the offspring
owes its parentage jointly to two individuals of different
sexes, or, in other words, must always have a father and
a mother, equally prevails in the vegetable kingdom.
There also are the gentlemen and ladies, there also are
the loves which unite them, loves which, as well as those
of superior orders of beings, have supplied a theme for

BEE-THIXGS IX GEXERAL. 193

poets. Now, among the many other interesting offices
with which the Author of nature has invested the httle
creatures which form the subject of this notice, not the
least singular is that of being the priests who celebrate
the nuptials of the flowers. It is the bee literally which
joins the hands and consecrates the union of the fair
virgin lily and the blushing maiden rose with their re-
spective bridegrooms. The grains of pollen which we
have been describing are these bride and bridegrooms,
and are transported on the bee from the male to the
female flower ; the happy individuals thus united in the
bands of wedlock being the particular grains which the
bee lets fall from its body on the flower of the opposite
sex, as it passes through its blossom.

" And here we find another circumstance to excite our
admiration of the wise laws of that Providence, which
cares for the well-being of a little flower as much as for
that of a great lord of the creation. If the bee wandered
indifferently from flower to flower without selection, the
gentlemen of one species would be mated with the ladies
of another, hybrid breeds would ensue, and the confusion
of species would be the consequence. But the bee, as
knowing this, flies from rose to rose, or from lily to lil}',
but never from the lily to the rose, or from the rose to

the lily." — Lardner.

O

,94 BEE-KEEPING.

GENERAL.

A popular acquaintance with the habits of bees
is very important. Such an accident as the fol-
lowing, related in the Scotsman newspaper, could
scarcely have occurred if the victim had learned a
little on this subject : —

" On Thursday, while Dr. Bonthron, of West Linton,
Peebleshire, was being driven along the road leading
from Garvald to the railway station at Dolphinton, he
was attacked by a swarm of bees, apparently newly
' cast-off,' and so severely stung on the face and -head
as to be unable to attend to his duties for the present.
His face and head became dreadfully swollen and dis-
figured an hour or two after the occurrence, the eyes
lieing firmly closed, and the face and throat greatly
swollen and discoloured, while a considerable amount
of fever has set in from the effects of the poison — in
fact, but for the precautions taken, it is probable that the
case would have proved fatal. The driver of the vehicle
was also severely stung on several parts of the head and
neck, and only escaped further mischief by a timely use
of whip and rein. The queen-bee of the caste must have
flown direcdy on Dr. Bonthron's head, from the instan-

BEE-THINGS IN GENERAL. 195

taneousness with which he was perfectly covered by the
bees: and it is supposed that the motion of the vehicle
must have irritated the insects to use their stings. Up-
wards of thirty bee-stings were taken out of Dr. Bonthron's
face, neck, and head."

Had Dr. Bonthron remained perfectly still, the
bees would not have been irritated, and they would
have discovered there was no room for a swarm of
bees in his hat ; and if the driver could have dis-
tinguished the queen-bee, and quietly removed and
laid her on the hedge-side, no catastrophe would
have occurred. Bees are perfectly harmless in
swarming. But of course any attempt to drive
them off from their queen by violence never can
be made with impunity.

But in the swarming season it is most expedient
that nobody but their bee-master should take any
share in hiving a swarm ; for so nervous are most
people at the presence of ten thousand stings, that
they will indiscreetly and ignorantly irritate such
members of the young family as may accidentally
alight on them.

O 2

196 DEE-KEEPING.

A far more delightful incident is recorded by
Thorley : —

" In or about the year 17 17, one of my swarms settling
among the close-twisted branches of some codling-trees,
and not to be got into an hive without more help, my
maid-servant, hired into the family the Michaelmas before,
very officiously offered her assistance, so far as to hold the
hive while I dislodged the bees, she being little apprehen-
sive of what followed.

" Having never been acquainted with bees, and like-
wise afraid, she put a linen cloth over her head and shoul-
ders, concluding that would be a sufficient guard, and
secure her from their swords. A few of the bees fell into
tlie hive ; some upon the ground ; but the main body of
them upon the cloth which covered her upper garments.

" No sooner had I taken the hive out of her hands, but,
in a terrible fright and surprise, she cried out the bees
Avere got under the covering, crowding up towards her
breast and face, which immediately put her into a trem-
bling posture. When I perceived the veil was of no fur-
ther service, she at last gave me leave to remove it. This
done, a most aftecting spectacle presented itself to the
view of all the company, filling me with the deepest dis-
tress and concern, as I thought m}'self the unhapp}'

BEE-THIXGS IX GEXERAL. 197

instrument of drawing her into so great and imminent
hazard of her hfe, which now so manifestl}' lay at stake.

" It is not in my power to tell the confusion and dis-
tress of mind I was in, from the awful apprehensions it
raised ; and her dread and terror in such circumstances
may reasonably be supposed to be much more. Every
moment she was at the point of retiring with all the bees
about her. Vain thought ! to escape by flight. She
might have left the place, indeed, but could not the com-
pany, and the remed}^ would have been much worse than
the disease. Had she enraged them, all resistance had
been vain, and nothing less than her life would have
atoned for the offence. And now to have had that life (in
so much jeopardy) insured, what would I not have given !

" To prevent, therefore, a flight which must have been
attended with so fatal a consequence, I spared not to urge
all the arguments I could think of, and use the most affec-
tionate entreaties, begging her, with all the earnestness in
my power, to stand her ground, and keep her present pos-
ture ; in order to which, I gave encouragement to hope,
in a little space, for a full discharge from her disagreeable
companions ; on the other hand, assuring her she had no
other chance for her life. I was, through necessity, con-
stantly reasoning with her, or else beseeching and encou-
raging her.

1 98 BEE-KEEPING.

" I began to search among them for the queen, now got
in a great body upon her breast, about her neck, and up
to her chin. I presently saw her, and immediately seized
her, taking her from the crowd, with some of the commons
in company with her, and put them together into the hive.
Here I watched her for some time, and as I did not ob-
serve that she came out, I conceived an expectation of
seeing the whole body quickly abandon their settlement ;
but instead of that, I soon observed them, to my greater
sorrow and surprise, gathering closer together without the
least signal for departing. Upon this I immediately re-
flected, that either there must be another sovereign, or
that the same was returned. I directly commenced a
second search, and in a short time, with a most agreeable
surprise, found a second or the same ; she strove, by enter-
ing further into the crowd, to escape me, which I was fully
determined against ; and apprehending her without any
further ceremony, or the least apology, I reconducted
her, vv'ith a great number of the populace, into the hive.
And now the melancholy scene began to change, and give
way to one infinitely more agreeable and pleasant.

" The bees, presently missing their queen, began to dis-
lodge and repair to the hive, crowding into it in multi-
tudes, and in the greatest hurry imaginable. And in the
space of two or three minutes the maid had not a single

BEE THINGS IN GENERAL. 199

bee about her, neither had she so much as one sting, a
small number of which -.vould have quickly stopped her
breath.

" How inexpressible the pleasure which succeeded her
past fear I AMiat joy appeared in every countenance upon
so signal a deliverance ! and what mutual congratulations
were heard I I never call to mind the wonderful escape
without a secret and very sensible pleasure. I hope never
to see such another sight, though I triumph in this most
noble and glorious victory."

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS,

ADDRESSED TO

THE TIMES" BEE-MASTER.

HAVE selected a few of the countless
letters addressed to me by those who
read my letters in The Times, and I
have appended such replies as seemed to me expe-
dient. I have not printed several anonymous and
very acrimonious letters. One writer of two anony-
mous letters says, his connection with the press is
very great, and that in the Sat?irday Review and
other periodicals he will write " scorching critiques ;"
that he will warn the publishers that they will earn
a loss ; and that he will influence The Times to re-

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. 201

ceive no more communications. One letter has the
post-mark " Ampthill ;" but I suppose its real date
ought to be Colney Hatch or Hanwell.

I cannot otherwise explain the extraordinary
language.

But I am able to add, that the letters of the Bee-
master in The Times have done good ser\dce ; and
I hope this little work will survive these threats of
one or two irritable hornets.

I once thought quarrels and angry controversies
were confined to ecclesiastical denominations —
churches and chapels. But I have learned what I
did not expect, that not a few apiarians so devoutly
believe each his own patent hive to be the only
way to a honey harvest, that if you do not notice
it, you are denounced as ignorant of the progress of
science, and if you disapprove of it, you must know
nothing about bees.

I hope they will all improve in temper as they
advance in experience, and agree to differ while
they cease to quarrel. I have made up my mind
on two or three subjects, from thought and reading,

202 BEE-KEEPING.

and personal observation ; and though open to
argument, evidence, and facts, I am not in the
least to be moved by intemperate criticism or ill-
natured ridicule.

August \si.

The "Bee-master" is respectfully requested to publish
his letters to The Times in a pamphlet by themselves.

It is suggested that the paragraph about " Brother
Ignatius" be omitted.

The "Bee-master" must have forgotten to have taken
his usual allowance of honey at breakfast when he penned
those harsh words.

Did he know "Brother Ignatius," he would soon dis-
cover he was

No Drone.

That he is no honey-bee is plain. If not a drone
he must be a spider or earwig, creeping by stealth
into the old Romish Benedictine hive, to which he
docs not really belong.

Stokc-iipon- Trent, July 2gt/i.

Dear Sir, — I have long been hoping against hoj^e,

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. 203

and trying to persuade my friends to interest themselves
in that courageous httle insect, the apis mellifica ; but the
drawbacks appear to me to be rather disheartening. In
the first place, the ladies dread the stings of my little
friends ; and in the next place, they lose the pleasure of
investigation into the habits of the bees by not being
enabled to procure hives that will enable one to observe
the operations of the industrious little creatures. Your
letter, however, in yesterday's Times enlightens us some-
what as to where the best-constructed hives may be ob-
tained ; and I am sure you have my hearty thanks for the
information you have so kindly spread abroad through
the medium of The Times. The common straw hive may
not be very conveniently "tolled" without being in mortal
fear of an accident ; and to destroy the bees seems very
cruel and wasteful, in order to take the honey from them.
For my part, I have never yet had the courage to attempt
to interfere with a straw hive, nor have I ever yet destroyed
one, but kept them for my amusement and observation.
Last year I constructed a wooden hive — say a square box,
divided in the middle by a slide — and I introduced a
young swarm into it, and they soon filled the bottom half
of the box. This year they have had one swarm only,
which I have put into a newly-constructed hive with a
moveable bottom and front, with glass to look through

204 BEE-KEEPING.

and doors to protect the glass : the size is 12 by 14 and
16 inches, and they have very nearly filled it since they
were swarmed, on the 6th June. It contains ten large
parallel combs or plates, which are beautifully full of virgin
honey, carefully covered with fine films of wax, to prevent
it from either running out or becoming damaged, I i)re-
sume, from the atmosphere. I have a small box to fit
nnderhcath the full one ; but I cannot induce the bees to
come down by easy means — that is, by shaking the box
or drumming upon it : the vibrations only cause them to
run about, but they will not descend. Pray what means
would you adopt to cause them to leave the spaces be-
tween the combs, and go into the lower box, to enable
me to take a portion of the combs and their contents
without destroying or injuring the cpeen or the other
bees % With regard to the box-hive first named, and
which is divided in the middle by a wooden slide, which
has a hole cut into its centre about 6 by 4 inches, and
which was covered by a zinc slide, which I removed in
June, after the swarm came from the box. In a few
days after I could only observe about a dozen which had
l)assed into the top ]3art of the hive. I then tried to
frighten them by shaking the box, in order to induce them
to leave the combs in the bottom half, and pass through
the hole into the top, but without success. I afterwards

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. 205

reversed the box, thinking that I might induce them to
descend, and so shut them out ; but they would not budge
an inch. I afterwards placed the box in its proper posi-
tion, and closed the entrance-holes for two days, thinking
by that means to cause them to ascend in order to find a
way out, but without any result, save the destruction of
eig/if hundred drones in those two days, from the anger of
the little workers ; for, as they could not go abroad to
collect food, the drones cleared every comb that contained
any honey, and now I can see them all as empty as when
just made ; so you see I am really nonplussed. Pray what
would you do ] for if I smoke them, they will come down,
not go up ; and I am afraid that brimstone or tobacco
would destroy them.

Yours very faithfully,

T. H.

This family of my correspondent has been, I fear,
very ill-used. Bees have a will of their own, and a
way too. You may lead and draw, but you cannot,
and should not, drive.

Had Mr. H. given them more barley-sugar, or ale
and sugar, and practised less manipulation, I think
they would have behaved as well as he could wish.

2o6 BEE-KEEPING.

Stamfoi'd, yiily 2<)th.
Sir, — I feel compelled to ask you to answer one or
two queries of mine, for without answers I shall be unable
to follow out your admirable instructions in the letter of
yesterday's Times. I can only say, that if you will take
the trouble to give me a line I shall feel greatly obliged.
I am, Sir, yours faithfully,

J. B. S.

Queries.

I. — Which is the best plan of hiving bees %
2. — How are the bees to be persuaded to descend from
the 7ippcr hives, so as to allow of the honey being ex-
tracted %

3. — Should the sheds face any particular aspect %
4. — Is it necessary to stop up the entrance hole to the
hive in winter, when covering them up with paper %

5. — Are the hives (Ayrshire hexagonal) bottomless ? I
judge so, as they are put one on the top of the other, and
the bees rise through the slits 1

I fear I must own myself totally ignorant about bee-
keeping, so I trust you will excuse these queries.

J. B. S.

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. 207

The writer will find i, 2, 3, answered in the body
of the work. In reply to 4, No. In reply to 5,
Yes.

Chdfcnhani, July ■yoth.

Sir, — I have been much interested with your letters in
The Times about bees ; and having just commenced
keeping them, am anxious for further information. Your
kindness in writing so fully induces me to trouble you.

I purchased a swarm on June 17th, and have them in
a common straw hive. I am told by the cottager from
whom I bought them (who, by the way, takes his honey
by stupifying the bees with a fungus), that as mine is a
late swann (though a first), I ought not to take any
honey from them this season ; but noticing in your letter
of 27th your mode of obtaining honey from a straw hive
by cutting a hole in the top and placing a bell-glass on a
board over, I shall be much obliged if you will inform me
if you think I might now adopt this mode, or is it too
late in the season, and ought they to be left undisturbed
till next season %

Will you kindly tell where the Scotch hexagonal hive
is to be procured? I like your account of it so much,

2o8 BEE-KEEPING.

that I shall certainly try it as soon as I can. Will you
excuse this trouble ]

I remain, Sir, yours obediently,

C. H. H.
To the Gentleman who writes in The Times under the
signature of " A Bee-master."

If a good swarm take place in May, and in a
good year, you may hopefully put on a super.
For Ayrshire hives, see p. 213.

>//)' loth.

Sir, — We have read your letters in The Times with the
greatest interest, partly because we have been for some
years bee-keepers on the more sensible plan of saving the
little creatures' lives, and partly because we are anxious
to induce our neighbours (poor cottage folks) to follow
our example, and give up the disgusting smothering pro-
cess. We have taken off a glass of honey weighing full
twenty pounds, and have another equally well filled to
remove ; but should be very grateful for your advice as to
the means of getting rid of the bees from the super when
it is withdrawn, a part of the process not described in
your letters, and one which we cannot manage without
much trouble, and the murder of many insects. We use,

LETTERS FROM CORRESPOXDEXTS. 209

for stock, common straw hives, with flat tops, and a hole
in the centre, which we cover with a piece of zinc or
slate, easily removed when we wish to put on the super.
But the bees always continue the comb up through this
hole into the glass ; then, when the latter is removed,
there is always broken comb and running honey, to which
the bees chng, and to which they return again and again,
and we find the greatest difficulty in dislodging them.

You like^^•ise recommend covering the stock hives in
winter vd\\\ paper, for warmth. Will you kindly tell us
whether you consider it best to close the entrance also \

My only apology for thus intruding on you must rest
on our ignorance, and on your benevolent and enlightened
zeal for the good of the poor, and for the lives of the
much ill-treated insects.

I am. Sir, yours obediently,

H. C.

I enclose a stamped envelope, in case you prefer
\mting to me rather than again to The Times.

Press a zinc plate between hive and super, and
on removal substitute a ver}- small empty bell bee-
glass, and cover it with woollen cap. On no ac-
count close the entrance to the hive.

r

2 1 o BEE-KEEPING.

August 1st.

My dear Sir, — I have read with much interest your
letters in T/ie Times respecting our httle friends the bees,
and as one of your many readers, I beg to thank you for
your valuable hints. . Will you, however, complete the
matter by giving us one hint more, and that is, as to how
you manage with the bees which may remain in the com-
partment which you remove 1 I have used the lateral
wooden hive, but have always found a difficulty in getting
rid of the bees which remained in the box which I have
taken away. One year I took a lateral box full of honey,
but lost it in consequence of the bees having taken it all
away again. I, by the advice of a neighbouring bee-
master, had it placed in a cool part of the garden. If
you will kindly tell us how you manage in this respect,
you will greatly oblige.

Yours, faithfully,

W. B. J.

Carry your super, or side-box, if yours is the
collateral system, to a little distance from the hive.
Raise one side of your box, and they will gra-
dually escape and go home. If it be August, when
wasps and corsair-bees are abroad, remove it about

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. 211

7 P.M. Few, if any, thieves will arrive, and your
bees will equally go home.

Or if you take it into a room or closet with a
window on hinges, they will fly to the light and
cover the window. Open the window smartly, and
all on it will fly away. Shut it again till covered
with bees, and repeat opening it. No thieves can
thus get in, and your bees will all get out, if you
have patience.

Stokeitc/itiirk, August ist
Sir, — I hope you will pardon the liberty I take in
addressing you ; but having read your letter in T/ie Times,
entitled " Bees and Bee-hives," and wishing to gain infor-
mation on those subjects, I venture under the circum-
stances to write to you.

There have been for many years a quantity of bees
under some leads that cover a bow added to this house.
About eighteen years ago the leads were removed, the
honey taken, the bees destroyed, and all the entrances (as
was supposed) stopped up. Notwithstanding this, fresh
swarms arrived in the course of the following year, forced
P 2

212 BEE-KEEPING.

their entrance, and again took possession of the leads.
Since then they have not been disturbed, but now my
father expresses a wish to take the honey and get rid of
the bees, as we suffer some inconvenience in the spring,
on account of the bees entering the bedroom.

As I think it a pity that all the bees should be destroyed,
and also have a great wish to keep them in common hives,
I should feel much obliged could you give me any infor-
mation as to when and how to take the honey without
destroying the bees, and to place the latter in common
straw hives. I regret much that I did not see your letter
in The Times on the " Honey Harvest," nor do I know
the day it appeared, therefore I cannot refer to it. Apo-
logising for troubling you,

1 remain, yours faithfully,

A. P.

I do not think it possible to remove the bees.
The only alternative is to lessen, if possible, the
area and contents of their residence, and thus force
them to swarm. If you can lay open their residence,
you might stupify the bees with fungus smoke, and
abstract a portion of their honey.

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. 213

Bath, August isi.

A lady having read in 77^1? Times a Bee-master's
letter of the 27th July, on "Hives," would feel greatly
obliged if he would inform her where the Ayrshire hexa-
gonal hive is to be had, its price, and likewise the cost of
setting up the establishment with one hive to commence
with ; where to obtain the best bees, and how many are
necessary; and the time to commence keeping them.
Would a book on Bees be of much use to a beginner ]
An answer will be esteemed a great favour, if not entail-
ing too much trouble on the " Bee-master."

For Ayrshire hive, write to " Mr. Bruce Taylor,
Post-office, Mauchlin, Ayrshire, N.B."

Brighton, August ^n/.

Sir, — I have just been reading -your excellent and
interesting letter in T/ic Times of this morning, and am
induced to write you a second letter, having despatched
one to you last week, soliciting you to be kind enough to
reply to my queries and inquiries therein contained, and
not having received any reply thereto. I can readily
imagine you could not answer all your correspondents,

2 1 4 BEE-KEEPING.

and that your letters in TJic Times would contain the
information that most of them sought. Although I have
perused them with the greatest pleasure, I do not find
they tell me whether you would be kind enough to sell
me any of the 7'irgin honey which your bees have made
this year, which was the principal point I wished to have
solved in my former communication. I am quite sure
you are a gentleman of position, and from your language
I am inclined to believe are a member of the clerical
profession; and as I am unwilling to trespass unreason-
ably on your valuable time, I do earnestly beg, if you are
unable or unwilling to sell me any of your virgin honey
of 1864, you would be so truly obliging as to furnish
me with the name and address of some respectable party
in your locality or neighbourhood, on whom I could
depend to purchase what I might require. I never eat
"rancid London," or indeed any "butter for breakfast,"
or any other meal, and am not fond of " nasty greasy
bacon ;" but as I cannot find any substitute of which I
approve but pure "virgin honey," and know not where
I can procure and purchase the latter from the " grower,"
I am constantly obliged to eat my dry toast and bread
without any agreeable addition thereto. I am exceed-
ingly desirous to cultivate a good temper and "sweet
disposition;" and if you would kindly aid me in this by

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS, 215

supplying my " honeyed requirements," or inform me
where I can purchase what I wish for, I shall be most
grateful for your reply, if it contain only the name and
address of some respectable person to whom I can make
application for the " pure, unadulterated, virgin honey of
1864," and for which purpose I enclose you a stamped
envelope.

Hoping you will oblige me, and apologising for tres-
passing on your valuable time,

I remain, yours most obediently,

E. L. B.

Pure honey, taken by deprivation, and in the
most charming white wax cells, may be had of
Neighbour, in Holborn, London.

Sundridge, August yd.

To " The Times" Bee-7naster.

Sir, — In reference to your interesting letter on " Bees
and Bee-hives," in The Times of last Thursday, I take
leave to explain to you how I prevent tom-tits and other
birds from molesting my industrious little friends, if so
they should feel inclined.

2i6 BEE-KEEPING.

I affix before the door of the hive a piece of wire-
work, resembling the half of a round mouse-trap, and by
this very simple means a bee is permitted to return to
its house, or take wing as it pleases, without " let, stop,
or stay," from your "wicked hypocrite " and his compa-
nions.

This precaution being taken, I endeavour to encourage
all mischievous birds to abide with me, feeding the
several tom-tits, to each of whom our gardens are so
largely indebted, throughout the winter with walnuts, and
even providing them with sleeping-places.

I have the honour to be. Sir,

Your very humble servant,

G. S. S.

This is a very sensible letter, and well worth the
attention of every bee-master.

From the Hon. and Rev. Orlando Forrester.

Dcn'c ridge, Derby, August 26//;.

Sir, — Last autumn I saved from a cruel and unneces-
sary death a very old stock of bees belonging to a neigh-
bour, the parent one of all his colony, full of black

LETTERS EROM CORRESPONDENTS. 217

comb ; I gave him seven or eight shihings for it. I fed
it, and it just hved through the winter. I gave it a
box on the lateral plan, which it filled with a quarter
of a hundredweight of honey,— so rewarding my inter-
ference.

At the time I took my box from this stock, a neigh-
bour destroyed two of his hives, bees, &c., for the honey
(I think he will not do so ungrateful a thing another
year). Happening to go into his garden the morning
after, he told me he had found the queen that morning
dead. On showing her to me, we found she was alive,
but of course none the more lively for the sulphuring of
the previous night.

I begged her, took her home, and put her under a
finger-glass with a little honey. I then got down from
my store-closet my box of honeycomb untouched, cut
away a good bit of honey, leaving sixteen or seventeen
pounds. I carried it back to its old spot, opened the
communication, and soon had a good number of the
little manufacturers in their old quarters. Towards
night I closed the communication again, stopped them
in, and carried the old hive away about fifty yards. This
done, I opened the ventilator at the top of the box, and
inserted the strange queen, and put the inverted finger-
glass over to see the effect. They seemed in a moment

2 1 8 BEE-KEEPING.

to be in a strange commotion, apparently receiving her
majesty with hurrahs, as the popular candidate at an
election is received.

The next morning they seemed quite satisfied, and I
noticed pollen taken in, and a struggle once or twice
with a drone which had remained — there may have been
seven or eight of these gentlemen in my experimental
colony. Of course, the carrying in pollen was soon dis-
continued, as there was no brood to feed ; the material,
weighing sixteen pounds, being all honey and wax. I
also saw them active in defence of their homes against
the wasps ; and although some wasps contrived to enter,
I have seen the bees bring out their corpses now and
then since, showing that they appear right.

To-day, the sun shining very bright and the tempera-
ture being warm, I am flabbergasted by seeing crowds of
drones going in and out, and no slaughtering of these
now unnecessary mouths. I say, can all be right % Is
the queen still alive % My little friends fight the wasps,
and go in and out ; but what meaneth this crowd of
drones %

Will you excuse my putting my case to you ? for I am
a lover of bees, but not very learned in the matter.

I should like to make my one cast-off stock two for
next year by this artificial means, besides getting my

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. 219

honey ; and so be in a good position to preach to the
bee-killers the folly as well as cruelty of bee-murder.
I enclose a stamped envelope, and remain, Sir,
Yours faithfully,

Orlando William Forrester.

This is a very interesting letter. Is it possible
that the drones arriving from other hives, and enter-
ing when the queen was alone, were really suitors
for her majesty's choice .-*

I do not like artificial swarming. I prefer to
follovv^ the instinct of the bees, not to create new
relations : others think otherwise.

Brighton, August Tptk.

Sir, — I trust you will excuse the liberty I have taken
in addressing you on purely personal matters. Your
kindly, genial letters in The Times have induced me to
do so. We wish greatly to increase a very small income,
and you have so strongly advocated the care of "bees,"
as both remunerative and agreeable, that we wish to try
on rather a large scale. I should not have troubled you
on this subject, as you have intimated your intention of
publishing, but that I feared the season for procuring

220 BEE-KEEPING.

stock would be over before the book appeared. We
wish to commence with not less than fifty hives ; and, as
many of the authorities we have consuhed are very con-
flicting, I have taken the liberty of begging your aid in
our dilemma. Might I ti-espass upon your kindness so
far as to ask your opinion as to the best method of pur-
chasing bees ; also the best description of hives % With
regard to their care during winter, and their general
management, we shall doubtless be fully informed in
your book.

Again apologising for thus troubling you,

I am, Sir, yours obediently,

A. A. M.

If you buy stock hives this autumn, you must
see to it that —

1. They are not very old.

2. That they weigh from twenty to thirty pounds.

3. They must be transported by water, or carried
one at each end of a pole on a man's shoulder.

4. Let them swarm next summer, and thus mul-
tiply your stock.

5. If you wait till spring, buy swarms, which is
the best way.

LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. 221

Fifty swarms, gathered from cottagers, would
cost 25/.

Begin with fewer, and increase gradual!}'.

Faringdon, August i\t/i.

Sir, — I have bees in the common cottage hive, the
honey of which I wish to take without destroying the
bees. I am told I can fumigate them with puff-ball. I
tried doing so, but killed my bees. I was afterwards told
I could fumigate them with chloroform ; this I also tried,
but — whether the chloroform was good or bad I cannot
say — I failed again.

Three or four years since I heard that a person offered
a friend to take his honey for him, if he would give him
the bees. The offer being accepted, the person fumi-
gated the bees, took the honey from them for his friend,
and carried the bees to his own home, where, in the end
of October following, after givmg them six pounds of
moist sugar in ale, they contrived to fill the hive with
comb and honey, and the whole weighed nearly twenty-
five pounds.

Some people think it a good plan to drum the bees ;
but I should fear to rel\' on it. And if you did not

222 BEE-KEEPING.

object kindly to advise me, as you have had so much
experience, what plan you consider best to deprive them
without destroying them, I should esteem it a very
great favour ; and hoping you will not consider me very
impertinent in seeking your advice,

I remain yours truly,

J. H.

You must have depriving hives. You must take
from the bees their surplus honey, only leaving
them twenty or twenty-five pounds of honey for the
winter. To take the honey out of a common skep,
you must either burn the bees or leave them to
perish of hunger — alternatives too barbarous to be
thought of.

Gra7>escnd.

Sir, — Having read with interest your letters in The
Times about bees, I thought you might like to see the
following extract, which I met with the other day. I
always think that the cottagers waste much honey, and
my husband and I have frequently thought that it might
be made quite a productive source of income to them ;
but I fear that in these parts the plan of supers, nadirs,

LETTERS FROM CORRESPOXDEXTS. 223

&c., Avould be above their comprehension. If you think
that clay hives are suitable to this climate, you might give
a hint in The Times.

Obediently yours,

F. Q.

" The production of honey is one of the chief sources
of wealth to this place, and the bee-hives deserve a pass-
ing notice. Each household possesses some sixteen or
twenty hives, arranged with marvellous economy of space.
The hive consists of a tube, of the diameter of a large
gas-pipe, about four feet long, made of sun-dried clay,
and laid longitudinally on the ground, four or five abreast.
On these are piled, according to the wealth of the owner,
a cone of twelve or fifteen more, forming a pyramid, and
the whole plastered over with mud. The apertures at
each end of the tubes are likewise closed with mud,
leaving a small opening for the bees, exactly in the
centre. A bush is stuck into the ground at each end, to
shade the hives and to assist the bees in alighting. The
produce of these spacious hives must be enormous ; and
the bees are never killed, the hives being simply robbed
twice a year by the removal of the plaster at each end,
when the honey is draA\'n out by an iron hook. All por-
tions of comb containing young bees are carefully re-
placed ; and on these hills, with their short winter and

224 BEE-KEEPING.

abundance of aromatic herbs, nothing more is required.
Of course we invested in Palestine honey, which has all
the aromatic flavour of that of Hymettus or Hybla." —
Extracted from "A Winter Ride in Palestine, by the Rev.
H. B. Tristram','' contained in " Vacation Tourists ; or,
Notes on Travel in 1862 — 1863."

London ; printkd nv edmund kvans, raquet court, fleet street.

a Hist of 13ooks

PUBLISHING BY

SAMPSON LOW, SON, and MARS TON.

MILTON HOUSE, LUDGATE HILL, LONDON.

It* IF/jen the price is not given, the work was not ready at the time of issuing
this list.

[Jlai/ 1, 1866.

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been provided; and the exquisite letters tcritten to the famous poet, suldirr,
ani gentleman, Sir Philip Sydney, by hisfither and mother, when the
future ' Scipio, Cicero, and Petrarch of his time' was a boy at Shrewshnry,
are wonderfully moving, and worthy 'of the attention of every father,
evtry mother, and every son." — Illustrated London News.

" The work is so full of practical information on the details of school
life at these great foundations that it moy be regarded as a guide book to
all who contemplate sending their sons thither. For all such the volume
must have a solid value, as enabling them to compare the several .^i/stems
prevailing at different places, and to determine beforehand which oj/ers
the greatest advantages. The subject, however, is interesting to all intelli-
gent Englishmen, aiul the book has, therefore, a general attraction beyond
the circle which it specially addresses." — London Review.

The Pleasures of Memory. By 'Samuel Rogers. Illustrated
with Twenty Designs, forming a volume of " Cundall's Choice Series of
Choice Books." Small 4to. price 5s.

The Divine and Moral Sougs of Dr. "Watts : a New and very
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Pictures of Society, Grave and Gay ; comprising One Hundred
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J. E. Millais, A.R.A.. F. W. Pickersgill, R.A.. C. W. Cope, R.A.. J. D
Watson, George Thomas. Marcus Stone, &c. Illustrated by the Pens of
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wall, Tom Hood, Edward Levein, Noel Jones. Cuthhert Bede, J. H.
Friswell, Walter Thornbury, &c. Beautifully printed by Messrs. Dal-
ziel Brothers. Handsomely bound in cloth, with an elaborate and novel
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Sampson Loiv and Co.'s

The Twenty-Third Psalm : with richly-coloured Emblematic

Borders. Small 4to. bevelled boards, price i2s.

The Three Kings of Orient : a Christmas Carol. Illuminated.
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Christ was Born on Christmas Day : a Carol. With Illustra-
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An Entii-ply New Edition of Edgar A. Poe's Poems. Illustrated
by Eminent Artists. Small 4to. cloth extra, price 10s. 6rf.

Poems of the Inner Life. Selected chiefly from Modern Authors,

by permission. Small 8vo. 6s. Choicely printed.

A History of Lace, from the Earliest Period ; with upwards of
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One volume, 8vo. choicely bound in cloth. Sis. Gd.

Pictures of English Life; illustrated by Ten folio page Illustra-
tions on wood, by J. D. Cooper, after Drawings by R. Barnes and E. M-
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Pictures for the People : the same Engravings beautifully printed

ou thick paper. Adapted by their price to the adornment of Cottucre
walls, and by their artistic beauty to the Drawing-room ^Portfolio.
One Shilling each.

Favourite English Poems. Complete Edition. Comprising a
Collection of the most celebrated Poems in the English Language, with
but one or two exceptions unabridged, from Chaucer to Tennyson. With
300 Illustrations by the first Artists. Two vols, royal 8vo. half bound,
top gilt, Roxburgh style, 1^. 18s. ; antique calf, 'il. 3s.

" t* Either Volume sold separately as distinct works. 1. "Early
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Thomson to Tennyson." Each handsomely bound in cloth, 1/. Is. ; or
morocco extra, 1/. 15s.

" One of the choicest gift-hools of the year. " Favourite English
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honc.it book, to be admirrd in the season of pleasant remembrances for its
artistic beauty; and. when the holydays are over, to be placed for frequent
and aj/'ectionate consultation on a favourite shelf." — Athena-um.

Schiller's Lay of the Bell. Sir E. Bulwer Lytton's translation ;
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Scott, and engraved by J. D. Cooper, after the Etchings by Retszch.
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" A very ehgiint and classic Christmas present." — Guardian.

" The woi-k is a- standard picture-book, and of its success there can
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The Poetry of Nature. Selected and Illustrated with Thirty-six

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gilt edges, 12s.; morocco, 1^. Is.

SuiMilied liy till

List of Publicatiotis.

A New Edition of Choice Editions of Choice Books. Illustrated
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morocco, gilt edges, lOs. 6d.

Keafs Ere of St. Agnes.
Milton's I'Allegi'o.
Roger's Pleasures of Memory.
Shakespeare's Songs and Sonnets.
Tennyson's May Queen.
Wordsworth's Pastoral Poems.

Bloorafield's Farmer's Boy.

Campbell's Pleasures of Hope.

Cuudall's Elizabethan Poetry.

Coleridge's Ancient Mariner.

Goldsmith's Deserted Village.

Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield.

Gray's Elegy in a Churchyard.

" Such works are a glorious beatification for a poet. Suck works as
these educate townsmen, tcno, surrounded by dead and artificial things, as
country people are by life and nature, scarcely learn to look at nature till
taught by these concentrated specimens of her beauty." — Athenaeum.

LITERATURE, W^ORKS OF REFERENCE, AND
EDUCATION.

'HE English Catalogue of Books: giving the date of
publication of every book published from 18-3.5 to 1863, in addi-
tion to the title, size, price, and publisher, in one alphabet.
An entirely new work, combining the Copyrights of the •' Lon-
don Catalogue" and the "British Catalogue." One thick
volume of 900 pages, half moi'occo, ios.

Like unto Christ. A new translation of the De Imitatione
Christi, usually ascribed to Thomas i Kempis — forming a volume of
The Gentle Life Series. Small post 8vc. ds.

The Gentle Life : Essaj-s in Aid of the Formation of Character

of Gentlemen and Gentlewomen. Small post 8vo. Seventh Edition, ds.

A Second Volume of the Gentle Life. Uniform with the Eirst
Series. Second Edition, 6s.

About in the World : Essays uniform with, and by the author
of " The Gentle Life." Small post 8vo. 6s.

Essays by Montaigne. With Vignette Portrait. Small post
8vo. 6s.

Familiar Words ; an Index Verborum, or Dictionary of Quotation
of Sentences and Phrases which have become embedded in our English
tongue. Second Edit'on, revised and enlarged. Post 8vo. [Shortly.

" Not only the most extensive dictionary of quotations which ice have
yet met with, but it has, moreover, this additional merit, that in all cases
an exact reference is given to every chapter, act, scene, book, and number
of the line." — Notes and Queries.

The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton, with a Life of the
Author : and a Verbal Index containing upwards of 20.000 references to
all the Poems. By Charles Dexter Cleveland. New Edition. Svo. 12s. ;
morocco, 21s.

Life Portraits of Shakspeare ; with an Examination of th
Authenticity, and a History of the vari us Representations of the Poet.
By J. H. Friswell, Member of the National Shakspeare Committee.
Illustrated by Photographs of authentic and received Portraits. Square
Svo. 21s. ; or with Photograph of the Will, 25s.

Memoirs of the Life of William Shakespeare. With an Essay
toward the Expression of his Genius, and an Account of the Rise and
Progress of the English Drama. By Richard Grant White. Post Svo.
cloth, 10s. Gd.

Sampson Low and Co.^s

Her Majesty's Mails : a History of the Post Office, and an

Industrial Acrount of its Present Condition. By Wm. Lewins, of the
General Post Otfice. 2nd edition, revised, and enlarged, with a Photo-
graphic Portrait of Sir Rowland Hill. Small post 8vo. 6s

" A book ice strongly recommeml to those who wish to be fully informed
on the subject, as an interesting and generally (ircuriite account of the
history and working of the Post Office." — Edinburgh Review.

" Will take its stand as a really useful book of reference on the history
of the Post. We heartily recommend it as a thoroughly careful perform-
ance."— Saturday Review.

A History of Banks for Savings ; including a full account of the
origin and progress of Mr. Gladstone's recent prudential measures. By
William Lewins, Author of ' Her Majesty's Mails.' 8vo. cloth.

Varia : Rare Readings from Scarce Books. Reprinted by per-
mission from the Saturday Mi view and Spectator. Beautifully printed
by Whittingham. Small post 8vo. cloth. [Shortly.

The Origin and History of the English Language, and of the

early literature it embodies. By the Hon. George P. Marsh, U. S.
Minister at Turin, Author of " Lectures on the English Language."
8vo. cloth extra, 16s.

Lectures on the English Language; forming the Introductory
Series to the foregoing Work. By the same Author. 8vo. Cloth, 16s.
This is the only author's edition.

Man aiid Nature ; or, Physical Geographj' as Modified by Human
Action. By George P. Marsh, Author of " Lectures on the English Lan-
guage," &c. 8vo. cloth, 14s.

Mr. Marsh traces the history of human industry as shown in the extensive
modification and extirpation of animal and vegiiable life in the woods, the
loaters, and the sands ; and, in a concluding chapter, he discusses the pro-
bable and possible geographical changes yet to be wrought. The whole of
Mr. Marsh's book is an eloquent shmcing of the duty of care in the estab-
lishment of hiriiiony between man's life and the forces of nature, so as to
bring to their highest points the fertility of the soil, the vigour of the animal
life, and the salubrity of tlic climate, on u-hich we have to depend for the
physical well-being of mankind." — Examiner.

English and Scotch Ballads, &c. An extensive Collection. De-
signed as a Complement to the Works of the British Poets, and embracing
nearly all the Ancient and Traditionary Ballads both of England and
Scotland, in all the important varieties of form in which they are extant,
with Notices of the kindred Ballads of other Nations. Edited by F. J.
Child, new Edition, revised by the Editor. 8 vols. fcap. cloth, 3s. 6rf. each

The Handy-book of Patent and Copyright Law, English and
Foreign. By James Fraser, Esq. Post 8vo. cloth, is. 6d.

A Concise Summary of the Law of English and French Copyright

Law and International Law, by Peter Burke. 12mo. 5s.

Index to the Subjects of Books published in the United Kingdom
during the last "Twenty Years — 18;?7-18.t7. Containing as many as 74,000
references, under subjects, so as to ensure immediate reference to the
books on the subject required, each giving title, price, publisher, and
date. Two valuable Appendices are also given — A, containing full lists
of all Libraries, Collections, Series, and Miscellanies — and B, a List of
Literary Societies, Printing Societies, and their Issues. One vol. royal
8vo. Morocco, 1/. 6s.

List of Publications.

The American CataloOTe, or En2;lish Guide to American Lite-
ratare ; giving the fall title of origiual Works published in the United
States of America since the rear ISOO. with especial reference to the
works of interest to Great Britain, with the size, price, place, date
of publication, and Loudon prices. With comprehensive Index. 8vo.
2s. 6!^. Also Supplement, 1SS7-60. 8vo. 6d.

Dr. Worcester's New and Greatly Enlarged Dictionary of the
English Language. Adapted for Library or College Reference, compris-
ing 40.000 Words more than Johnson's Dictionary, and 2-50 pages more
than the Quarto Edition of Webster's Dictionary. In one Volume, royal
4to. cloth, 1,334 pp. price 31s. 6d. The Cheapest Book ever published.
" The volumes before us show a vast amount of diligence; but with
Webster it is diligence in combination with fancifulness, — with Wor-
cester in combination with good sense and judgment. Worcester's is the
soberer and safer book, and may be pronounced the best existing English
Lexicon." — Atheiteeum, July 13, 1S61.

The Publishers' Circular, and General Kecord of British and

Foreign Literattire : giving a transcript of the title-page of every work
published in Great Britain, and every work of interest published abroad,
with lists of all the publishing houses.

Published regularly on the 1st and loth of every Month, and forwarded
post tree to all parts of the world on payment of Ss. per annnm.

The Ladies' Reader : with some Plain and Simple Rules and In-
structions for a good style of Reading aloud, and a variety of Selections
for Exercise. By Gieorge Vandenhoff, M,A., Author of '• The Art of Elo-
cution." Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, 5s.

The Clerical Assistant : an Elocutionary Guide to the Reading

of the Scriptures and the Liturgy, several passages being marked for
Pitch and Emphasis : -nith some Observations on Clerical Bronchitus.
By George Vandenhoff. M.A. Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, 3s. 6d.

The Art of Elocution as an essential part of Rhetoric, with in-
structions in Gesture, and an Appendix of Oratorical. Poetical and Dra-
matic extracts. By George Vandenhoff, M A. Thiid Edition. 5s.

Latin-English Lexicon, by Dr. Andrews. 7th Edition. 8vo. 18s.

The superiority of this justly-famed Lexicon is retained over all others
by the fulness of its quotations, the including in the vocabulary proper
names, the distinguishing whether the derivative is classical or otherwise,
the exactness of the references to the original authors, and in the price.

" Every page bears the impress of industyy and care." — Athensenm.

" ITie best Latin Dictionary, whether for the scholar or advanced stu-
dent."— Spectator.

" We never saw such a book pitblished at such a price." — Examiner.

The Farm and Fruit of Old. From Virgil. By a Market Gar-
dener. Is.

Usque ad Coelum ; or, the Dwellings of the People. By Thomas
Hare, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. Fcap. Is.

A Few Hints on proving Wills, &:c, without professional assist-
ance. By a Probate-Court Official. Fcap. cloth, Gd.

Domestic Servants, their Duties and Rights. By a Barrister. Is.

Signals of Distress, in Refuges and Houses of Charity ; in Indus-
trial Schools and Reformatories : at Invalids' Dinner Tables, and in the
Homes of the Little Sisters of the Poor, &c. &c. ; among the Fallen, the
Vicious, and the Criminal ; where Missionaries travel, and where Good
Samaritans clothe the naked. By Blanchard Jerrold, Author of " The
Life of Douglas Jerrold," ice. Crown 8vo. "s. 6d.

The Children of Lutetia; or, Life amonust the Poor of Paris.
By Blanchard Jerrold. 2 vols, post 8vo. cloth. Itjs.

Sampson Low and Co.'s

The Charities of London : an Account of the Origin, Operations,

and general Condition of the Charitable, Educational, and Religious
Institutions of London. With copious Index. Also an Alphabetical Ap-
pendix corrected to May 1663. Fcap. cloth, 5s.

%* The latter also as a separate publication, forms " Low's Shilling
Guide to the Charities of London."

Prince Alhert's Golden Precepts. Second Edition, with Photo-
graph. A Memorial of the Prince Consort: comprising ISIaxims and
Extracts from Addresses of His late Roj-al Highness. Many now lor
the first time collected and carefully arranged. With an Index. Royal
16mo. beautifully printed on toned paper, cloth, gilt edges, 2s. 6d.

Our Little Ones in Heaven : Thoughts in Prose and Verse, se-
lected from the Writings of favourite Authors ; with Frontispiece after
Sir Joshua Reynolds. Fcap, 8vo. cloth extra, oS. 6d.

NEW BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE.

?HE GREAT FUN TOY BOOKS : a Series of Eight

New One Shilling Story Books for Young People. By Thomas
Hood and Thomas Archer. Each illustrated by Six of Edward
Wehnert's well-known Great Fun Pictures. Printed in colours,
with an appropriate Cover by Charles Bennett.

The Cherry-coloured Cat and her Three Friends.

The Live liocking-Horse.

Master Mischief and Miss Meddle.

Cousin Nellie's Stories after School.

Harry High-Stepper.

Grandmamma's Spectacles.

How the House was Built.

Dog Toby and Artistical Arthur.

The Frog's Parish Clerk ; and Bis Adventures in strange Lands.
A Tale for young folk. By Thomas Archer. Numerous Illustrations.
Small post 8vo. 5s.

Choice Editii )ns of Children's Fairy Tales. Each illustrated with

highly-finished Coloured Pictures in facsimile of Water-colour Drawings.
Square, cloth extra, price 3s. tid. each.

Cinderella and the Glass Slipper. Puss in Boots. Beauty
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Under the Waves ; or the Hermit Crab in Society. By Annie
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4s. ; gilt edges, 4s. 6rf.

" T/iis is one of the best books tee knoxc of to place in the hands of young
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Also beaut if iillg Illustrated : —
Little Bird Red and Little Bird Blue. Coloured, 5s.
Snovv-Flakes, and what they told the Children. Coloured, 5s.
Child's Book of the Sagacity of Animals. 5s. ; coloured, 7s. Gd.
Child's Picture Fable Book. 5s. ; or coloured, 7s. Gd.
Child's Treasury of Story Books. 5s. ; or coloured, 7s. 6d.
The Nursery Playmate. 200 Pictures. 5s. ; coloured, 9s.

The Boy's Own Book of Boats. By W. H. G. Kingston. Illus-
trations by E. Weedon, engraved by W. J. Linton. Fcap. 8vo. cloth, 5s.
" This ive/l-u-ritten, ■u-ell-icrought book." — Athenoenm.

How to Make Miniature Pumps and a Fire-Engine : a Book for
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List of Piiblications.

The Cruise of the Frolic. By W. H. G. Kingston. Illustrated.
Large fciip. 8vo. cloth, .5.?.

" ^Vho (Ions not welcome Mr. W. H. G. Kingxton ? Here he ix again with
an admirable boi/s' book. ]fbni/s do not love this book^ there is no truth in
boytwod, and no use in reviewing ; it is Just the book for a present." —
Illustrated Times.

Also bij the same Author, well illustrated.
The Boy's Own Book of Boats. Illustrated by Weedon. 5*.
Ernest Bracebridge ; or, the Boy's Book of Sports. 5s.
J.iek Buntline : the Life of a Sailor Boy. 2s.
The Fire Ships. {Shortly.

Vermont Vale ; or, Home Pictures in Australia. By Maud
Jeanne Franc. Small post 8vo, with a frontispiece, cloth extra, .^s.

Golden Hair; a Story for Young People. By Sir Lascelles
Wraxall, Bart. With Eight full page Illustrations, 5s.

" Fxdl of incident and adventure, and sure to please boys home from
school quite as much as his ' Black Panther' of last year." — Reader.

" A thoroughly good boy's book ; the story is full of incident and always
moves on." — Spectator.

Also, same price, full of Illustrations : —
Black Panther: a Boy's Adventures among the Red Skins.'
Life among the Indians. By George Catlin.
The Voyage of the Constance. By Mary Gillies.
Stanton Grange. By the Rev. C. J. Atkinson.
Boyhood of Alartin Luther. By Henry Mayhew.
Stories of the Woods. From Cooper's Tales.
The Story of Peter Parley's own Life.

Noodle-doo. By the Author of " The Stories that Little
Breeches told." With 16 large Engravings on Steel, Plain, 5.v. ;
coloured, 7s. 6d.

" Among all the Christmas bookman Mr. Charles Bennett ranks first, for
he who best pleases childrcm has the best right to priority in a notice of
Christmas books, and to all his productions we venture to prefer ' Noodle-
dooj' it will make the youngsters crow again ivith delight." — Standard.
Also, now ready, same size and price, and full of Illustrations.
Great Fun for our Little Friends. By Harriet Myrtle.
More Fun for our Little Friends. By the same Author.
The Book of Blockheads. By Charles Bennett.
The Stories that Little Breeches told. By the same Author.
Mr. Wind and Madame Rain. Illustrated by Charles Bennett.

Paul Duncan's Little by Little ; a Tale for Boj-s. Edited by
Frank Freeman. With an Illustration by Charles Keene. Fcap. 8vo.
cloth 2s. ; gilt edges, 2s. 6rf. Also, same price.

Boy Missionary; a Tale for Young People. By Jlrs. J. M. Parker.
DifBculties Overcome. By jMiss Brightwell

The Babes in the Basket : a Tale in the West Indian Insurrection.
Jack Buntline ; the Life of a Sailor Boy. By W. H. G. Kingston.

The Swiss Family Robinson ; or, the Adventures of a Father and
Mother and Four Sons on a Desert Island. With Explanatory Notes and
Illustrations. First and Second Series. New Edition, complete in one
volume, 3s. 6rf.

Geography for my Children. By Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Author of " Uncle Tom's Cabin," &c. Arranged and Edited by an Eng-
lish Lady, under the Direction of tlie Authoress. With upwards of Fifty
Illustrations. Cloth extra, is. 6d.

Sampson Loiv and Co.'s

Stories of the Woods ; or, the Adventures of Leather-Stockinj" :
A Book for Boys, compiled from Cooper's Series of " Leather-Stocking
Tales." f cap. cloth. Illustrated, 5s.

" I have to men that I think the heroes of nnothcr uriter, viz. ' Leather-
Stocking,' ' Uyicrts,' ' Hard Heart' ' Tom Coffin,' are quite the equals of
Sir Halter Scott's men; — perhaps ' Leather-Stocking' is better than any
one in Scott's lot." — W. M. Thacker.w.
Child's Play. Illustrated with Sixteen Coloured Drawings by
K. V. B., printed in fac-simile by W. Dickes' process, and ornamented
with Initial Letters. New edition, with India paper tints, royal 8vo.
cloth extra, be^ elled cloth, Is. 6d. The Original Edition of this work
was published at One Guinea.
Chihl's Delight. Forty-two Songs for the Little Ones, with

forty-two Pictures. Is. ; coloured, 'Js. 6d.
Goody Platts, and her Two Cats. By Thomas Miller. Fcap.

8vo. cloth. Is.
Little Blue Hood : a Story for Little People. By Thomas Miller,

with coloured frontispiece. Fcap. 8vo. cloth, 2s. 6d.
Mark AVillson's First Reader. By the Author of " The Picture

Alphabet " and " The Picture Primer." With 120 Pictures. Is.
The Picture Alphabet ; or Child's First Letter Book. With new

and original Designs. Gd.
The Picture Primer. 6(/.

HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

■HE Conspiracy of Count Fieschi : an Episode in Italian

History. By M. De Celesia. Translated by David Hilton,

Esq., Author of a " History of Brigandage." With Portrait.

8vo. {Shortly.

A Biography of Admiral Sir P. B. V. Broke, Bart, K.C.B.

By the Rev John Brighton, Rector of Kentstown. Dedicated by express

permission to His Royal Highness Prince Alfred. Toned medium 8vo,

cloth extra, 20s.
A History of Brigandage in Italy; with Adventures of the

more celebrated Brigands. By David Hiltou, Esq. 2 vols, post 8\o.

cloth, 16s.
A History of the Gipsies, with Specimens of the Gipsy Language.

By Walter Simson. Post 8vo, 10s. (,d.
A History of West Point, the United States Military Academy

and its Military Importance. By Capt. E. C. Boynton, A.M. Wit'h

Plans and Illustrations. 8vo. 21s.
The Twelve Great Battles of England, from Hastings to Waterloo.

With Plans, fcap. 8vo. cloth extra, 3s. 6rf.
George Washington's Life, by Washington Irving. 5 vols.

royal 8vo. 12s. each Library Illustrated Edition. 5 vols. Imp. Svo. il. is.
Plutarch's Lives. An entirely new Library Edition, carefully

revised and corrected, with some Original Translations by the Editor.

Edited by A. H. Clough, Esq. sometime Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford,

and late Professor of English Language and Literature at University

College. 5 vols. Svo. cloth. 21. 10s.
" Mr. dough's work is worthy of nil praise, and we hope that it will

tend to revive the study of Plutarch." — Times.

Life of John Adams, 2nd President of the United States, by C
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Life and Administration of Abraham Lincoln. Fcap. Svo.
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List of Publications.

TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE.

WALK from London to the Land's End. By Elihu
Burritt, Author of " A Walk fi-om London to John O'trroats :"
- '-^^-^«& ^»^th serer.il Illustratious. Large post 8vo. Uniform with
feS^jJa the first edition of " John O'Groats." 12s

A >\u!k from London to John 0"Groats. "With Xotes bv the
Way. By Elihu Burritt. Secoud and cheaper edition. With Photogra-
phic Portrait of the Author. Small post Sro. 6s.

Social Life of the Chinese : wiih some account of their religions,

fovernmental, ednc-ational. and Business customs and opinions. By the
lev. Justus Doolittle. With over 100 Illustrations, in two aoIs. Demy
8to. cloth. 2-ts.

Travelling in Spain in the Present Day. By Henry Blackburn.
With numerous illustrations. Square post Svo. cloth extra, Irtx.

A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe, or Rivers and Lakes
of Europe. By John Macgrepor, M.A. Secoud edition. With a map,
and numerous lUostrations. Post Svo. cloth, bs.

Captain Hall's Life with the Esquimaux. New and cheaper
Edition, with Coloured Engravings and upwards of 100 Woodcuts. With
a Map. Price 7?. 6d. cloth extra. Forming the cheapest and most popu-
lar Edition of a work on Arctic Life and Exploration ever published.

" This is a very remarkable book, and unkss ue very much misuiuler-
stand both him. and his book, the author is one of those men of ichom great
natiotis do well to be proud." — Spectator.

" Jf Oipt. Hall should survive the perils of the journey on tchich he is
junc engaged, we are convinced he will bring home some news, be it good or
bad, about the franklin expedition. Ue can hardly be expected back before
the autuinti of\666. Bid if he has gone he has left us his vastly enter-
taining volumes, which contain much valuable infomuition. as we have said,
co)icerning the Esquimaux tribes. These volumes are the best that we have
ever met wiih, concerning the people and things to be fouiul among • the
thick ribb'd ice.' " — Standard.

" The pen of WUkie Collins would fail to describe in more life-like terms
of horror the episode of the cannibal crew escaped from a whaler who
boarded the • George Henry" on the outward passage of that ship. We are
tempted to relate hoic an Jnnuit throws a summersault in the water in his
kyack, boat and all, and to introduce our readers to our Author's dogs,
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