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5 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. &
‘ à |
‘Cis
ay
s
Le em
‘ pea eabrn st BEE-HIVE:
PR ANT Patucal He they
| PRESERVING AND PERPETUATING
THE
POPULATION OF BEES S,.
AND OF
| RECEIVING ANNUALLY, “FROM EACH FAMILY,
: A BOX FULL OF.
WAX AND PURE HON EY,
4 er DISTURBING THE BEES, OR DESTROYING THE
MR: COUVAIN; —
AND THE ART OF RESTORING HIVES,
à (WHOSE. POPULATION HAS PERISHED)
a HATCHING THE EGGS, REMAINING IN THE CELLS,
_ BY THE
ext of the Sun.
ALSO, THE
ART OF CONVERTING HONEY
INTO
WHITE, INODOROUS SUGAR,
AND OF MAKING
HYDROMEL, SIRUPS, &c.
A Wonk. USEF o TO FARMERS.
BY P. DUCOUÉDIC,
PRESIDENT DU CANTON DU MAURE, DEPARTMENT D ?ILLE- ET-VILAIN.
Lætitiam, laudem, copiam, hine sperate coloni.
ABRIDGED, AND TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH,
BY Oe. Lae’ A A oF ERR
PHILADELPHIA: \ \-°)
CAREY, EN, CAREY.?,. ns?
Le
THE “78 *42<2 -, DEN
re
AM
Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to wit:
Br rr REMEMBERED, that on the twenty-seventh day of A
TPE, May, in the fifty-third year of the independence of the
SCA United States of America, A. D. 1829, Silas Dinsmoor, of
pe. iss the said district, has deposited in this office the title of a —
Bees & Book, the right whereof he claims as Proprietor, in the
es
ty a .
SE words following, to wit: LIFE
i ee ja Là Bae y
“che Pyramidal Bee-hive: a plain and natural method of preserving
- and perpetuating the population of bees, and of receiving annually, :
_ from each family, a box full of wax and pure honey, without dis-
turbing the bees, or destroying the couvain;.and the art of restoring
hives, (whose population. has perished, ) by hatching the eggs, re-
maining in the cells, by the heat of the sun. Also, the art of con-
verting honey into white, inodorous sugar, and of making hydro-
mel, sirups, &c. A work useful to farmers. By. P. Ducouédic,
President du Canton du Maure, Department D’Ille-et-Vilain.—Læ-
titiam, laudem, copiam, hinc sperate coloni. —Abridged, and trans-
lated from the French, by Silas Dinsmoor.”?
In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, inti-
tuled, * An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the
Copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of
such copies, during the times therein mentioned”—And also to the
Act, entitled, ‘* An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled, © An Act —
for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps,
charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during
‘the times therein mentioned,’ and extending the benefits thereof to
the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other
prints.”
ae D. CALDWELL,
Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
,
k
DEDICATION,
Procul! 6 procul este profanæ!—SrBxzz.
Anglicé—Sluts, keep your distance!
If there be such a monster in our happy
country, as a slaftern, too indolent to pick
up the blessings of heaven, though scattered
as thick as blackberries around her,—she is
_ strictly forbidden, even to touch this book,
under the penalty of our everlasting displea-
sure. But to that sober, discreet, intelligent,
cheerful, active, industrious, economic class
of marrons, who love their lords, whose
gardens are a paradise and homes a heaven,
to that class, who were from the begin-
ning, are now, and ever shall be, crowns of
glory to their husbands,—this little work is
respectfully dedicated, by their most devoted
friend and humble servant,
THE TRANSLATOR.
(4
Ka
ae ne
4 its
Belay
PREFACE.
- This little Manual is abridged and ‘trans-
lated from a popular and practical treatise
on the culture and management of Bees im
France, examined theoretically and experi-
mentally, and approved by the agronomic so-
cieties, and the public authorities of the de-
partments. ‘The author does not pretend to
absolute originality in his work, but says
that, like the Bee, he has extracted the nec-
tar and essence from every preceding trea-
tise on the subject; and by accurate observa-
tions, and laborious experiments, he has
obtained the most happy and satisfactory
results.
Believing that I could not render a more
acceptable service to that class of the com-
munity to whom it is dedicated, particularly
in the interior and western districts, I have
put it into a plain country dress, and offer it
to their notice and matronage, on its own
merits, without any apology for its style.
SILAS DINSMOOR.
42
|
i"
Dhl ate
AW
came
Si XD, CMY;
OF THE PYRAMIDAL, OR THREE-STORIED
BEE-HIVE.
An Improvement of the Hive of M. De la Bourdon-
nuye, by adding a Third Story.
CHAPTER I.
ON THE INVENTION OF THE PYRAMIDAL HIVE.
From the earliest antiquity, zealous bee raisers have
successively formed different systems for the management
of those insects; but hitherto no one has discovered the
solution of the problem, how to rob them of their annual
produce without destroying them in whole or in part. In
fact, no one has found out the means of annually profiting
by the labours of these precious insects, without the pre-
liminary of a total or a partial destruction, by smoking,
castration, or driving,—all of which destroy a large por-
tion, and often the whole of the couvain, as also the colony
itself. :
Making minute observations on the instinct and archi-
tecture of these insects, and following methodically the
steps of M. De la Bourdonnaye, in his experiments on his
hive, I discovered the secret of nature—how to obtain a
complete annual harvest of the products of bees, without
causing them the smallest prejudice.
When the bee, in a wild state, selects a retreat in thé
hollow of a tree or cleft of a rock, it always fixes on the
upper part of the hollow or cleft, to build and suspend its
combs. These edifices, bound and suspended to each other,
always wrought from the top downward, and never from
the bottom upward,—are continued descending, as long as
the bee finds empty space to work in.
‘The bees, continually and invariably labouring down-
ward, abandon their first made combs above, and occupy
the new built combs below, where the queen mother, hav-
ing also descended, deposits her new couvain, under the
guardianship of the whole colony. In the second year,
therefore, there are no bees in the upper tier of combs;
8
they are without couvain of any kind, and completely
filled with honey. y
Such is the habit of bees in their wild state, and such is
it also in their domestic state. Instinctively they build
from the top downwards, and move successively from the
higher to the lower combs; and precisely in the same man-
ner should man look for the art of despoiling them, without
injury: without smoking, castrating, transvasing, or driv-
ing them. A
It is evident, that if we intend to rob bees, thus lodged
in a hollow tree or cleft rock, without injuring them, we
must attack their store at the top. There the combs will
be easily removed, because the bees have left them, and
_- are busily engaged in the lower part of the hollow or cre-
vice, and do not even perceive the larceny; nor do they
suffer by it, because these upper combs become superfluous
by the new provisions which they instinctively accumulate,
in their uninterrupted descending operations.
The manner in which the wild bees work in hollow
trees or in clefts of rocks, is the same as that of domestic
bees, in their artificial hives or boxes: they always begin
at the top of the box, and work downward. - is |
_ Here the whole secret of nature is unveiled—how to rob
_ bees without doing them the least injury. From this habit
of bees in their wild state, I took the hint of forming the
pyramidal hive, or hive of three stories; by placing, each
succeeding spring, a box under the preceding one; the
upper box or story of which, full of honey or wax, without
egg, larva, chrysalis, or fly, will be every year at the dis-
posal of the proprietor. Because the bees have abandoned
that upper story, and carry on their labours below
where the queen mother is stationed with her family and
young.
This secret, snatched as it were from nature by the
work of M. De la Bourdonnaye, whose steps I have fol-
lowed only to complete his plan, is. within the reach of
every farmer. It is only necessary, that in the spring, he
pet a new box under the simple hive, that the bees, after
aving filled the first, may descentl and fill the second box.
In the second spring, he is to put a third box under the two
others, and in the autumn following the upper box is to be
removed. Thus, in each successive spring, he will put a
third empty box under the two others which remained on
the bench, and in the autumn take a full box from the top.
9
This method, drawn from nature, is infallible. The
upper box is always filled with wax and honey, without
bees or young of any kind, and entirely free from ordure.
The whole colony has descended from the first pannier into
the second, which becomes the upper as soon as the first
is removed. The queen mother, her colony, and all her
young, are settled in the second story, and if the season
be favourable, the bees will sometimes begin to make
combs in the third or under story. |
The upper story, when removed, contains only virgin
honey, made the preceding spring; because the bees usuall
consume, during autumn and winter, the stock of the fore-
going season. :
‘Every farmer could easily convert his honey into coarse
sugar, which could be as easily refined as the sugar made
from cane. à
The pyramidal hive is known, and in use, in different
parts of France, but principally in Brittanny, the Seine,
and contiguous departments, and will soon become general,
because simple and easy.
ei
CHAPTER II.
OF THE BEE IN GENERAL.
It is not here intended to give a list of the different spe-
cies of bees, which the Author of nature has spread over
creation. ‘The common bee or honey-fly (in Latin, apis)
1s an insect of the order of flies, of four wings. They live
in society: Man has subjected them to his domain, to
profit-by their industry: he collects them into boxes or
panniers, which he calls hives, and which differ in form
and size in different countries. |
The order which prevails in the different functions of
domestic bees,—their government, industry, ingenuity in
their works, and the utility of their labours,—have at-
tracted the attention of ancient and modern observers.
Some have spent a considerable part of their lives, in the
study of their history and economy; and some, carried
away by enthusiasm, have imputed to them false and ex-
travagant qualities. Swammerdam, Miraldi, and Réau-
mur, by discarding these falsehoods and absurdities, and
10 ,
adding new and curious facts, have rendered the history of
bees more interesting. __ : at
. Bees are the most active and industrious of all insects.
In countries where perpetual spring reigns, they labour
from the dawn of morning till the twilight of evening. In
temperate climates, they are occupied nine months in the
year; and even in winter, there are only a few days in.
which they seem to repose. It is only im high latitudes,
where the bees cease to forage in the autumn and winter. |
Even during winter, if the bees be not paralyzed by the
cold, and some mild days permit them to consume a part
of their provision, always industrious and provident, sib:
are also employed in building new magazines, in which
they can lay up new. stores in summer, after first using
them as deposits for the eggs of the queen, which have in-
variably the preference; for it belongs to the regular and
immutable instinct of these insects, to use the cells as a
deposit for the larvæ or eggs of the queen, at least once,
before they are employed as stores for honey. :
It is to these insects alone, which the Europeans: are
indebted for honey and wax, which form one of the most
important branches of their rural economy. ‘They collect
the substances of which honey is composed, from all plants
without exception; from the loftiest trees, to the most
humble and simple shrubs—the forests and bramble brakes
are equally their resort.
~ During the rising of the sap, all vegetables are very full
of juice. ‘These are all put in requisition by the bees:
their only embarrassment is in the choice. Besides the
juice of plants and the nectar of flowers, which they pump
out of their calices without tarnishing their beauty, we
frequently observe them busied on the bark and mosses of
trees, where their piercing eyes and acute smell enable
them to discover substances, which are doubtless neces-
sary to season their honey. Sometimes they are observed
on rocks, and on the sides of walls, where nothing is per-
ceivable but the naked stone. ‘There they seem to be col-
lecting salts which are imperceptible to us. Water is
indispensable for their subsistence, and instinct enables
them to discover sources unknown to us. nié
The bee delights to skip, as it were, from flower to
flower, and revel on their sweets. He sometimes rolls him-
self uv in their folds, and always inserts his little proboscis
into the calix of every flower on which he alights. He en-
11
riches himself with the spoil, and the eye of the affentive
observer who follows him, will perceive the increase of the
little balls of pollen, (food, necessary for the bees which
work at home,) with which he fills the cavities on the
hinder part of the thighs; but the eye can discover no
alteration in the flowers. ‘They lose nothing of their
beauty, aroma, or fecundity *
In fine weather, whithersoever the bee directs his flight
and pursues his researches, he is sure to find a more or
less abundant supply of materials for his fabrics. ‘These
materials he sucks into his stomach, or places on his thighs,
back, and wings, and flies still further to increase his
booty. Such is his ardour for amassing, that he allows of
no relaxation in his labours, till his load is complete, for
his return to the hive. :
As soon as the bee arrives at the hive, he discharges the
contents of his stomachs, which are already converted into
honey, wax, or propolis. He also discharges from his legs,
back, and wings, the other substances which nature taught
him, by rolling in flower cups, to collect and preserve for
the nourishment of the interior working bees. No sooner
has he discharged his burden, than he sets cut to forage
anew. His labour is without relaxation, from sunrise till
sunset, during the whole summer.
Bees live in community. All those belonging to one
hive, know each other, and never suffer strangers to join
their society, except in the time of swarming, when several
swarms may be united into one colony (peuplade) or fa-
mily. Each colony is a monarchy, and has only one queen,
to whom a thousand to eleven hundred drones (bourdons) —
are subordinate, as well as a multitude of working bees,
more or less considerable, according to the extent of the
colony. :
All the working bees are armed, for their defence, with
a dart or sting, fixed to the posterior extremity of the body.
This weapon or sting is used at a great risk; it is generall
left behind, and the wound thus occasioned to, the bee,
by tearing out the intestines to which the sting is annexed,
is always mortal. |
{ All bees, including the queen and drones, have two
® Our author observes, that in the French empire, millions and
millions of swarms m‘ght subsist, without the smallest injury to the
produce of any kind of harvest. .
12
stomachs. In the first stomach, the nourishing substances
are converted into honey. If this honey passes from the
first into the second stomach, it is converted into waz, and
even into propolis when needed. The labouring bees, in
the working season, deposit the honey from their first sto-
mach, into the cells of the combs, as a general stock. ‘The
queens and drones never return any thing but waz, which
they discharge from their mouth like working bees. —
In winter, bees generally live on the honey which the
working bees provide in summers; but they may be fed on
other materials, as sugar, molasses, sirups of fruits, &c:
If a greater quantity of these articles be supplied than
sufficient for immediate sustenance, the working bees will
convert the redundance into honey, and lay it up for future
use. » | 3
Bees know their keepers, aud seldom attack them;
otherwise, they are courageous and irritable little insects.
They know the variations of the atmosphere: they group
together, and rarely quit the hive when the weather is
variable. When one is surprised abroad by a storm, it
takes shelter under the branches or leaves of the nearest
tree or shrub.
The ancients were acquainted with the great attachment
which bees have for their gueen, which they-knew only by
the name of king. Varro informs us, that they are con-
stantly attentive to every thing which can contribute to her
preservation. ‘That they assist her flight, even so far as to
support and carry her, when she appears too much fa-
tigued.
_ It is impossible to know how long a bee can live. Fewer
die of old age, than by storms, birds, wasps, moles, and
other eneinies. ‘There is no disease known among them,
except the dysentery, with which some swarms are occa-
sionally, though rarely, affected. But if they have a wing,
claw, proboscis, or any part whatever injured, so as to be ..
useless, they are, without mercy, expelled the.hive, where
no invalid is suffered to remain, and they perish, victims of
the voracity of other insects. | #
Their cleanliness in the interior of the hive, is singular.
Ifa bee or embryo dies, it is immediately dragged out of
the hive. They perfectly cleanse the cells (which are al-
ways first used as a deposit for the eggs of the queen) by
removing the robes of the nymphs, and the envelopes of
the worms, before they use them as stores for their honey.
py 13
M. De Réaumur observes that a snail, having crept inte
a hive in a cool night, was assailed by the bees, who stung
it to death, but not being able to drag it out of the hive,
had embalmed, and enveloped it in a cerement of propolis.
[ (says our author) had occasion to remark this operation
of the bees on a young mole, which had the temerity, and
met the misfortune of the snail. It perished by the stings
of the insects, and a short time after its death, I found it
likewise enveloped in propolis.”’
Bees never discharge any excrement, as some authors
maintain. - They have no organ suited to such discharge.
Every thing which enters the body of these insects, as
nourishment, is returned by the mouth only, having been
converted either into honey, wax, or propolis. Even when
they have the disease which we call dysentery, they dis-
gorge by the mouth, those substances which have corrupted
in their stomach, instead of having been converted into
honey, wax, or propolis. |
The moderns, who have adopted this error, were doubt-
less led into the mistake, by supposing the small opening
at the posterior extremity of the bees, to be an organ for
the discharge of excrement; whereas it is only the orifice,
or scabbard which encloses the sting.
These stings are fixed where other flies, who have their
darts in the mouth, have the organ for the emission of ex-
crements. ‘The drone himself, who has neither dart nor
sting for defence, discharges no excrement. The aliments
which he takes, change into wax in the second stomach,
and discharge by the mouth. The opening observed in his
posterior extremity, is nothing but the orifice of the sheath
of the organ proper for the fecundation of the queen’s eggs.
Finally, the queen herself discharges no excrements. Her
aliments are converted into wax or propolis, which she
discharges by the mouth. The orifice of the organ which
we observe at her posterior extremity, is only used for
laying eggs.
It is rare that a family of bees perish by the cold: of
winters, even the most rigorous, however few its popula-
tion, if the hive be well closed, and sufficiently supplied
with provisions. ‘They are then grouped together, and ap-
pear buried in a profound sleep, during which, their pro-
visions are economized till the moment of their waking.
Some pretend, that in many countries of the north, in
Russia, Sweden, Denmark, &c., to prolong their sleep, or
B
14
rather stupification, during the whole winter, the hives are
put into ice-houses, where a uniform degree of cold pre-
serves the bees. ‘This may be true, but [ would see the
experiment tried, before I would recommend the custom in
France, or other mild climates. oan et alg
When the winter is mild, rainy, or interrupted with in-
tervals of serene days, it is always disastrous to bees.
They do not sleep as in severe winters. They consume
their provisions, and are often in want before the return of
spring and vegetation. ‘They then experience a famine,
most distressing, if the proprietor do not relieve them by a
supply of aliment, till the revival of flowers. But now the
loss of a family of bees is not so great as it was before the
discovery of restoring them by hatching the eggs which
remain in the cells, by the sole heat of the sun, or by
using the boxes to put new swarms in, which will hatch
the remaining eggs, and increase and strengthen the
colony.
As soon as the egg is hatched, a worm comes out of it,
or rather replaces it; and without quitting the cell, at the
moment of its birth, begins to spin a robe to enwrap itself,
in which it enlarges and becomes a nymph, by its own
proper essence, without foreign aid. As soon as the robe
is finished, the insect pierces 2/, and comes out in the form
of a little bee. (While this insect is labouring, as it were, —
from nothing into life—from the state of an egg to that of
a fly—it has no need of aliment. But at the instant of
its birth, if he be weak, or the weather unfavourable for
his flight to the fields, it requires nourishment; and it is
then alone, that the working bees show a tenderness truly
maternal, by lavishing on him those aliments, which are
the most proper to advance his growth and perfection. )
The working bees are divided into two classes. The one
class is occupied in the interior of the hive, to construct
combs, and to connect and polish the cells. The other class
goes out to forage. They have all, equally, the faculty to
make honey, wax, and propolis. ‘They are neither male nor
female, for they are destitute of the facultative organs of
procreation. Doubtless nature has thus disposed of them,
to keep them in perpetual activity, which could not be, if
maternal cares could draw them off from the daily labours,
to which they are indispensably attached. Among these in-
sects, every thing has a character, to distinguish them from
all other beings in nature. |
15
_ Each bee, as soon as he is divested of his nymphal robe,
is perfectly acquainted with his individual duty. There is
never the least disorder or confusion among them, in going
out, or coming into their hives, in making or cleaning their
cells, in filling them with honey, or in taking care of the
young bees, newly released from their nymphal robes when
weakness, or the inclemency of the weather prevents them
from flying to the fields. Each knows his duty with an in-
stinct more accurate, than easy to conceive. The prodigies
of nature are wonderful in these insects. They are born,
and instantly, without ulterior instruction, begin every ne-
cessary operation, whether to collect substances proper and
necessary, or to convert those substances into honey, wax,
or propolis, according to the wants of the family in the in-
. terior of the hive. Me
What shall we think, says the judicious M. Duchet, of
that knowledge, so prompt and sure, by which bees distin-
guish their own hive from every other, and know ten thou-
sand individuals of their own family, from a hundred thou-
sand, or a million of neighbours, who do not belong to it,
though all are perfectly alike? Here nature shows herself
conspicuous. This knowledge is necessary to preserve them-
selves and their provisions, and was granted them by the
Author of all things. The existence, and conduct of these
insects, in their government, have excited the admiration
of natural philosophers.
=
CHAPTER III.
OF THE QUEEN, OR MOTHER BEE.
The queen, or mother bee, holds the first rank in the co-
lony. She is the mother of all the young, whether queens,
drones, or workers, whether to keep up the numbers of the
family at home, or for swarms to emigrate and form new
_establishments elsewhere.
The mother bees and drones, have no triangular pellets
on their hinder legs, on which to deposite collections from
the flowers abroad. The teeth of the queens, though smaller
16
than those of the working bees, are larger than those of the
drones. They have no brush at the end of their claws. The
queens are longer than the drones. You can easily discover
them by the shortness of their wings, which do not extend
beyond the third ring, whereas the wings of the other bees,
and more particularly those of the drones, extend beyond
the extremity of the body. The queen, on account of the
shortness of her wings, cannot fly so easily as the working
bees; hence it is, that during her whole life, she seldom
makes use of them. In the interior of her body, the eggs
are distributed in two ovaries. Each ovary is an assem-
blage of vessels, which terminate at a common canal, and
which are all filled with eggs at the time of laying. |
This igghe result of the observations and reflections of
Miraldi, Swammerdam, Réaumur, and Valmont de Bo-
mare, concerning the mother bee; and the opinion of these
“celebrated men, ought to be sufficient authority to out-
weigh the ridiculous opinions advanced by the modern
would-be philosophers,—the Boses and Féburiers, who as-
‘ sert that the queen bee is continually gadding abroad, and
coursing over the fields, courting adventures of gallantry
with every drone she meets. ;
I do not agree in opinion with these same moderns, (the
Boses and Féburiers,) that the old queen is every year ex-
pelled the hive, by the colony itself, over which a young
queen assumes the authority. ‘These gentlemen are only
cabinet, or green carpet philosophers. Had they ever stood
by and examined a swarm coming out of a hive, they might
have observed a young queen, scarcely divested of her
nymphal robe, trying her wings, before risking her first
flight. Sometimes obliged to return into the hive, for want
of strength to take her departure; and that she is always
obliged to stop, and rest on some tree, or bush, near the
mother hive. This would not be the case, if the old queen
had been driven out with the swarm.
It is not uncommon, in the country, to see a peasant
seize a young queen, as she issues from an old hive, and
put her into the new hive prepared for her, where the whole
new swarm will settle around her. If she were an old
queen, she would be more active and bold, and elude the
grasp of the hand stretched out to arrest her.
The queen, which is longer than the common bee, and
not quite so lange as the drone, is endowed with an asto-
17
nishing fecundity, which is not equalled by any insect or
animal, except some kinds of fish. The queen continues to
lay as long as she can find places to deposite her eggs, for
each requires a separate cell. These eggs are not fecun-
dated till after they are laid: and this process is the same
as that by which the roe of the female fish is impregnated
by the male. It is not known how far the fecundity of the
queen bee could extend, provided the working bees could
furnish a sufficient number of cells, because she immediate-
ly lays as soon as she finds cells prepared to receive her
egos.
This phenomenon is very perceivable in the pyramidal
hive, which produces swarms four or five times stronger
than the simple hive; because there are an infinitely greater
number of disposable cells for the queen to lay in. The
multitude of working bees in the pyramidal hives, enables
them soon to increase the extent of their combs, and the
number of cells, and the deposite of the queen is more or
less considerable in proportion to that number.
The queen is a stranger to coition. She is at once a vir-
gin and a mother, notwithstanding the absurdities of some
moderns, which it is not necessary to confute.
Every body knows, that the queen mother never leaves
her family, nor goes out of the hive. In the centre of the
cells, near the queen mother, some eggs are deposited,
which produce new queens, destined to govern new swarms,
or to succeed the old queen when she has finished her
career. ‘These young queens, as well as the old, are nou-
rished by the family so long as they remain in the hive.
The combats between the young queens and the old, men-
tioned by some writers never take place. The young pa-
tiently wait the time of their departure without ambition,
and the old one views them without jealousy. Besides, the
young queens remain entirely passive beside the mother
queen, to whom alone belongs, during her life, the com-
mand of her empire.
In fact, the Abbe Rosier, and every man well informed
in the culture of bees, say that young queens never lay in
the domicile of their birth, during the life of the mother
queen. They wait the departure of swarms, of which they
take the command, and go to found some new establish-
ment out of the dominion of the queen mother. Those who
are so unfortunate as not to be chosen to lead a swarm,
are at the end of summer massacred, in the same manner,
B 2
18
and at the same time, as the drones are; for bees will suf-
fer only one chief to govern them. | À PC
When the swarming time is over, as there must be only
one queen in each hive, the family will choose one of the
young queens to succeed the old, if the latter has ceased
to be capable to continue the population. Then the family
itself, at the same time that it massacres the drones, de-
stroys all the surplus queens, to save the expense of sup-
porting them in their hive, during the following autumn and
winter. it
We need not be afraid that the queen elect will perish
in the interval between autumn and spring; but if that
event should happen, the family would still subsist, be-
cause the cells destined for the queens contain fecund
eggs, which will hatch in spring, and that alone is sufficient
to maintain harmony and order in the colony.
When the queen intends to lay, she chooses a cell suited
to the egg which she has to deposite, and never makes a
mistake. She creeps backward into the cell, where she de-
posites her egg at the very bottom, and immediately retires,.
and thus in succession as long as she can find empty cells,
and has eggs to lay. The manner of the queen, creeping
backwards into the cells to lay her eggs, is remarkable. So
also is that of the drones, for the emission of the seminal
fluid to fecundate the eggs. The drones are too large to in-
troduce their whole body into the cell, but the facultative
ergan projects to the bottom and touches the egg.
During autumn and winter the queen subsists on honey;
but this honey remains in her first stomach only till part of
it is absorbed for her nourishment, and then passes into her
second stomach, where it changes into wax, which, as soon
as the change is complete, she disgorges by the mouth like
other bees.
Bees are very much attached to the queen, and have a
particular regard for her welfare, because the prosperity of
the colony principally depends upon her fecundity. ‘The
more eggs she lays, the more numerous will be the neuters,
or labourers, and the better will their works advance,
which are carried on with admirable unity and harmony,
by the pure instinct of the multitude, without the least
solicitude on the part of the queen, except to supply the
cells with eggs, as they are prepared to receive them.
The arbitrary will, the general and despotic command,
aver every thing which concerns the order, movements,
18
and domestic economy of the colony, which some authors
impute to the queen, does not exist in nature. Each bee is
engaged in the performance of that part of service for which
itis fitted. The queen is appointed to lay wherever she
can find cells to place her eggs. The drones are to fecun-
date the eggs when laid, and the neuters, or workers, are to
construct combs and cells, where these eggs are to be de-
posited, and finally to fill the cells with honey, after the young
bee shall have left them. All this is done by the instinct
‘alone with which nature has endowed each of these insects.
: M. Valmont de Bomare says: The mother bee is the soul
of the hive. If she happen to die, all work ceases, and
_the bees suffer themselves to die of hunger. That their at-
tachment for her is equal to her usefulness in the state.
That, the queen never uses her power, but for the happi-
ness of her subjects... This philosopher does not relate all
the horrors of a family of bees on the death of a queen.
The whoie prosperity of the colony turns on the fecun-
dity of the queen. ‘The instant she dies, there is a genera!
mourning in the hive. The bees abandon themselves to.
fury, and to all the excesses of the most complete anarchy.
They pillage the honey, and tear the combs in pieces, if no
embryo queen remain in the hive. But in the midst of this
confusion, if another queen, or the embryo of another
‘queen, taken in a piece of a comb from another hive, could
be introduced among them, the mourning and anarchy
would instantly cease, and the bees would resume their
labours.
Our moderns pretend, that on the death of a queen, the
bees can take a worm, which nature intended to form into
a working bee, and make of it a new queen! ‘This opinion
is absurd, and violates the immutable laws of nature.
CHAPTER IV.
OF THE DRONES.
Fhe drone is easily distinguished from the other bees. °
He is not so long as the queen, but is much larger; and
when he goes out of, or returns into the hive, his flight is
announced by a droning sound, from which he takes his.
name,
20
In the simple hive, we find from one hundred to four or
five hundred drones, in proportion to the number of the
ncuters, or working bees; in the double hive, or hive of
two stories, we find from eight to nine hundreds; but in the
pyramidal, or hive of three stories, we find from a thou-
sand to eleven hundred, and always proportioned to the
number of the neuters in the colony. or
The construction of cells advances in proportion to the.
number of neuters or workers, and the laying of the queen.
in proportion to the number of cells; the number of drones »
should be in like proportion to fecundate the eggs. !
The queen can lay four or five hundred eggs in less than
a day, but the work of fecundation, by the drones, is in- —
finitely more laborious, and for its execution, requires a
greater number of this species. ‘Thus nature, always wise
and provident, regulates the number of drones by that of
the neuters, that all the operations of the colony may go
on with the utmost unanimity and harmony. :
The drone has no offensive armour, like the neuters. At
the place where the sting of the latter is placed, is found
the orifice, or sheath, which encloses the facultative organ
for fecundating the eggs.
As drones of different sizes have been found in the same
hive, it has by some been alleged, that they were endowed
with different faculties and functions. From careful obser-
vation, I have discovered, that there is no such difference,
and the variety of size arises only from the difference in
age, between those hatched early in spring and those hatch-
ed later. )
Mr. Braw, an English observer, discovered, before I did,
that the drones introduced their posterior extremities into
the cells, where the queen had laid her eggs. That they
there emitted a whitish fluid, thicker than honey, but with-
out its sweetness. This philosopher adds, that all the eggs,
bedewed with this fluid, were fecundated, and those which
were not, were sterile.
There is a fact, which I have verified, and which every -
amateur may also verify, by enclosing swarms of bees in
glass hives, or bottles of transparent glass. They may soon
perceive the regular movements of the drones in the suite
of the queen, fecundating the eggs which she has laid.
This labour of the drones is easily observed, from six
o’clock in the morning till noon. |
CU OÙ Le ON RL ONE OT UE DU ne OT SR
21
If by chance a colony of bees should be deficient in the
number of its drones, the fecundation of the eggs would
not be complete, and the colony would not produce swarms.
Pingeron advises to take some from a neighbouring swarm.
They may be caught, passing out of the hive, without dan-
ger, because they have no sting. They may be put in paper
cones, and in the evening, by breaking off the pike of the
cone, and placing them at the entrance of the hive, the
drones will creep in, and fecundate the whole of the eggs.
I had occasion to verify this observation successfully,
on a swarm of bees which deserted their hive, came a
long distance, and settled near my experimental apiary, in
the month of October. I put them into a new box, and fed
them with honey and oatmeai gruel, during the autumn and
winter. When they came to me they had no drones, and
the spring hatch produced none. Notwithstanding, by the
end of May, the box was filled with comb, and I had good
reason, to expect a considerable deposite of eggs from the
ueen. I recollected the precept of Pingeron, which I
literally followed, and obtained the most happy result. All
the eggs were fecundated, and in the month of July, the
hive produced a very strong swarm. |
Drones are hatched in the spring. They are called forth
by nature, to fecundate the eggs which are laid the year
which gives them birth. ‘The object of their mission ac-
complished, they all perish without exception, massacred
and dragged out of the hive by the neuters. ee
These epochs, the birth and massacre of drones, whether
the bees be wild or domesticated, take place in all coun-
tries and in all climates, at the moment when the queens
are prepared to commence or terminate laying. This single
trait in the character of bees, which distinguishes them so
much from other flies, confutes the theory of modern phi-
losophers, who have given tables of comparison and iden-
tity between insects, which essentially differ.
The drone perishes, because he would be a charge on the
community, during autumn and winter. But he first fecun-
dates eges, which will hatch in the spring, and produce his
successors. The drones eat much more than the neuters.
Their provisions would not suffice them through the incle-
ment season, if they had not the foresight to destroy and
expel from their colony all insatiate, useless mouths.
_ During the life of the drones, if they go abroad to forage
on flowers and plants, the substances which they collect,
22
are converted into honey in their first stomach, as in other
bees; but they never deposite this honey in the common
stock. It passes into the second stomach, where it be-
comes wax, as in the queen bee, and which they likewise
disgorge by the mouth. They (the drones) consume a
great deal of aliments, and as these are all converted into
wax, in the second stomach, the materials for making combs ©
and cells, never fail in the hive, during the six months of
their existence. es a |
I have destroyed thousands of drones, in their ingress
and egress to and from the hive, for the purpose of exam-
ining their intestines. I have rarely found any honey, but
particles of wax more or less elaborated. |
‘The drones never go abroad but in good weather, be-
tween noon and five or six o’clock in the evening; and it.
is presumable, that when they are not abroad, they live at
the expense of the community, on the common stock.
When a hive swarms, a certain number of drones ac-
company the new colony, in proportion to the number of
neuters, for the purpose of fecundating the eges which the
young queen may lay, during the remainder of the season;
but they must perish as their fathers did, as soon as they
become a charge to the colony. 3
=e
CHAPTER V.
OF THE SIMPLE HIVE.
The simple or common hive, is a box or pannier, con-
taining a swarm of bees, as they are usually cultivated in
the country. This hive will produce swarms for many
succeeding years, and for this reason are held in high es-
teem by old plodding farmers, who know nothing more
profitable. than the produce of swarms. ‘They therefore
preserve this old hive as long as possible; but as soon as it
is suspected of decay, it is condemned to plunder, exile, or
death, the next succeeding autumn.
To destroy a family entirely, and dispose of all its pro-
duce, brimstone smoke is usually employed. ‘The bees,
suffocated by the vapour, immediately die. The larvae
will, soon after, perish also; but the eggs, which before
they are hatched are not affected by the smoke, are melted
23
down with the combs and destroyed. The larvæ, how-
ever few, which remain in the combs, deteriorate the ho-
ney. And however few of the worms are metamorphosed
into nymphs, all go to the press together, and the honey,
mixed with their ordure, loses much of its good quality.
- Some, instead of suffocating the bees with brimstone
smoke, immerge the hives in water, which produces the
same fatal effect. The bees are all killed; the larve share
the same fate as in the preceding method; and the honey
obtained is no better. :
These two methods, practised by at least three-fourths
of bee owners, are most prejudicial to their culture, and it
is to be hoped the government will interdict the practice.
. When we drive a swarm from one hive to another, it is
for the purpose of obtaining the. products of their labours,
without destroying the bees; but as the larva cannot fol-
low the bees, it is unfortunately destroyed.
The method which our country people use to drive bees,
is, to reverse, or turn upside down, the full hive, and place
an empty one over its then, by gently striking the full hive
on the sides, compel the queen and all her family to ascend
into the empty hive. Another way is, if they have panniers
or boxes with openings on the top, as mentioned in the plan
of M. Lombard, to place an empty pannier on the top of
the full one, as it stands, and with a match of wet linen
rag, set on fire at the entrance of the full hive, oblige the
bees below, to ascend into the empty box above.
The castration of a hive, appears at first view, the most
advantageous mode of taking a part of the product of the
bees, and allowing them to subsist on the other. But on
cutting away part of the combs, the honey flows of what
remains, and englues or bedaubs some of the bees, and
these englue others. If the queen should happen to be of
this number, she perishes; aud-if she perish, without leav-
ing a young queen, or eggs fecundated to produce new
queens, the whole colony will very soon be destroyed.
Besides, the castration cannot be so well performed, but
that a number of cells will be removed which contain
larvee or chrysalids, which occasions a loss to the future
generation, in addition to the loss of bees by smearing
with honey.
All these modes are practised in Europe, and they all
show the imperfection of the culture and management of
bees. There are even some amateurs who cannot be per-
24
suaded that there is any better way of obtaining honey and
wax, than by suffocating, castrating, or driving the bees,
' To avoid these losses, it is only necessary, as spring
opens, to put an empty box or pannier under the simple
hive. When the bees have filled the upper box with
combs, and the cells with honey, they abandon it, and de-
scend into the empty box below, to continue their labours.
’ ‘This is what I call the two-storied hive of M. De la Bour-
donnaye. If, at the opening of the second spring, another
box be put under this hive of two stories, they will form
what I call the pyramidal hive, the upper box of which
may be taken off and emptied every autumn. This me-
thod obviates all the inconveniences of suffocation, castra-
tion, or driving, heretofore in use;*inasmuch as the whole
colony is preserved, and the queen, the neuters, nymphs,
worms, and eggs, remain sound and untouched, in the
lower boxes.
The panniers for the simple hive, should be made of
osiers, broom, or straw. ‘They are light, and the best
suited to receive swarms which have settled on trees, high
off the ground. ‘They should be made of different dimen-
sions, proportioned to the volume of the swarm which they
are to contain. The multiplication of colonies depends
much on the panniers in which the swarms are put. Fa-
milies of bees in a confined situation, in a simple hive,
will produce swarms sooner, than those in boxes which are
too large.
Success is more certain, by beginning with small boxes. |
In these the heat is more concentrated; and heat never
fails to provoke emigration, in good weather. This ob-
servation ought to be remembered by those who wish to in-
crease their colonies in the shortest time.
CHAPTER VI.
OF THE TWO-STORIED HIVE.
“The two-storied hive is the invention of M. De la Bour-
donnaye, late Proctor-general Syndic of the affairs of Bre-
tagne. ‘This illustrious agriculturist attended to every
branch of rural economy. He was one of the principal
founders of the Royal Society of Agriculture, in Bretagne,
4
{
:
25
and one of the best informed agronomists among its mem-
bers.
M. De la Bourdonnaye had read, in the memoirs of the
Academy of Sciences, the mode which is practised in
Scotland. To prevent swarms coming off too late in the
season, the Scotch set a box under the mother hive; the
bees then continue to occupy it because there is room, and
the swarms are retained till the succeeding spring.
This learned cultivator had also read with attention, in
the memoirs of the Academy, of an event which took
place in a swarm of bees belonging to the curate of Tilley,
near Orleans. The swarm was put into a hive, and set on
* the top of an empty tierce, where it was forgotten. The
open end of the box was set over an aperture in the head
of the tierce. When the hive was filled with wax and
honey, the bees descended into the tierce, and continued
their labours. ‘The tierce was filled with wax and honey
in less than five years, and weighed about five hundred
pounds, when the bees were destroyed to obtain their pro-
duce.
_ In the reports of the Academy, M. Duhamel, the secre-
tary, has developed the practice and habit of bees, where
they find a situation suited to their accommodation. M.
De la Bourdonnaye, availing himself of the observations in
these memoirs, thought, that by placing an empty box, with
a hole on the top, under a full box, the bees would neces-
sarily descend from the full into the empty one, and that
afterwards, the upper box might be taken off without the
least prejudice.
M. Bourdonnaye communicated his observations to the
Society. He had hives made of straw, with flat tops, with
a hole of from fifteen to eighteen lines in diameter, for the
passage of the bees. ‘These empty panniers were put
under the full hives; and after the bees had completed
their work above, they descended into the empty panniers
below, and continued their labours as he had anticipated.
To this union of two boxes, placed one under the other,
we give the name of the Scottish hive, because the Scotch
thus dispose their hives in the latter part of the summer,
tu prevent late swarms, which cannot collect sufficient
nourishment for the winter. But the Scotch put boxes
without tops, under their hives, and on the return of spring,
they remove the lower box, to facilitate the issue of swarms.
But M. Bourdonnaye is chiefly indebted to the observa-
c
26
tions on the tierce of the curate of Tilley, for the inven-
tion of his flat-topped hive, with a hole in it for the pas-
sage of the bees. |
This differs from the hive invented before the time of
M. Bourdonnaye, and also from the improvement made
since. It consists merely in putting an empty box under
another, which contains a colony of bees of the last or pre-
ceding year. j
This second box ought to have its top perfectly smooth,
that the one on the top, containing the bees, may fit closely.
On the top of the second box, a litile towards the front
part, should be a hole, from fifteen to eighteen lines in
diameter, for a free communication between the stories or
boxes. The upper box should be luted in such a manner,
that there will be no ingress or egress, but through the
lower box which stands on the bench.
The boxes should be made from ten to twelve inches in
height, and about the same in diameter. ‘The hive of two
stories would then be from twenty to twenty-four inches
high, and from ten to twelve inches wide.
_ Early in spring, this hive will send forth a swarm much
superior to that from the simple hive. And frequently,
however small the family may be, it will furnish a second
swarm in the summer following. We ought not to require
more; and even then, there would be danger in removing
the upper box, as M. Bourdonnaye seemed to hope and
expect. In fact, the harvest of the two-story hive, is not
to be expected every year, nor every second year, though
it may sometimes happen. It is only after the queen has
laid her eggs in the lower box, and after the eggs in the
upper one are all hatched, the larvee and chrysalids have
quit their nymphal robes, and the whole family have de-
scended from the upper to the lower story, that you may
remove the upper box, full of wax and honey, without bee,
larva, or exuvisæ.
= M. Bourdonnaye thought this the best mode, hitherto
known, of obtaining the products of bees, without destroy-
ing, smoking, driving, or castrating. But this harvest is
not annual and periodical. ‘This was the point to which
this esteemed cultivator wished to arrive; but his Scottish
hive could not attain the end: he approached, without
gaining it. The troubles of the province on account of
the expulsion of the Jesuits, the misunderstanding between
27
the parliament and a member* of the court, the revolu-
tionary movements which followed, and his advanced age,
—made him abandon his enterprise.
It was in this state of things, that M. Bourdonnaye
charged me with the solution of his problem on the mode
of raising bees, and of drawing from them an annual profit,
without doing them the least injury. He put into my
hands, the journal of his experiments. It was not until
after years of attempts, more or less profitable, and re-
searches, more or less troublesome, that I was convinced
of the necessity of forgetting, for at least one year, his
hive of two stories, formed from a simple hive of an ordi-
nary family, under which an empty box had been placed.
Here our author inserts a repeated description of the
Scottish hive, and its defects and uncertainty. Also, a long
extract from the Corps of Observations of the Society of
Agriculture, Commerce, and Arts, by the government of
Bretagne, in the years 1757, °58, 759, and ’60, which oc-
cupies the whole of the seventh chapter.
Se
2
CHAPTER VIII.
OF THE PYRAMIDAL HIVE.
At the opening of the second spring, the Scottish hive
changes its form and name. It ceases to be a hive of two
boxes or stories: a third box being put under the two for-
mer; and then I call it the pyramidal hive, on account of
its elevation. This hive may have thirty to thirty-six
inches in height, and ten to twelve in diameter. The
junction of the second and third pannier, must be luted for
the same purpose as the luting of the first and second.
M. Bourdonnaye thought that the Scottish hive of two
stories would be suflicient to secure an annual harvest.
Fo try the experiment, he engaged all the members of the
Society of Bretagne. For a series of years, they made
fruitless attempis to obtain, annually, the harvest of a pan-
nier full of wax and honey, without flies or larvee; and at
* The Duke of Aiguillon.
23
the same time, avoid the danger of leaving the under pan-
nier without a supply of provisions for the winter.
This is an occurrence which is not every year prac-
ticable, in northern climates, when the Scottish hive is
formed only of a simple hive, with an ordinary swarm,
under which an empty box is placed. ‘The success of this
experiment is not certain once in two or three years, unless
a sufficient depth is given to the panniers of the Scottish
hive, to afford room, and prevent the incumbrance of the
multitude of bees, engaged in filling the last cells, which
are emptied of nymphs, newly metamorphosed into bees. :
It is therefore time and space, which were wanting in
the plan of M. Bourdonnaye. ‘This time and space are
completely supplied by the pyramidal hive. A larger
space was required than the two hives affords seeing that
the multiplication of bees occasions an incumbrance, after
the couvain of the preceding summer, and that of the
spring, are hatched and united.
All difficulties are removed by the addition of the third
box. The middle box will be filled with combs in less.
than ten days, and as soon as the cells are formed, they
are supplied with eggs, by the rapid and successive deposit
of the queen.
The addition of the third box, affords more room for the
bees, than they had in the Scottish hive. There is no
more inconvenience or embarrassment; the whole colony
moves regularly; each working bee arrives easily at its
place, and the work advances with inconceivable prompti-
tude. These insects are very laborious, and seldom relax
their labours but for want of room.
The third pannier is also very useful to the bees, in the
excessive heats and storms in the months of July and Au-
gust. They can then be safe from the plundering attacks
of birds, and the rapacity of hornets and wasps, who make
war on them, when they are too much crowded to find
room in the hive.
The pyramidal hive is composed of three panniers or
boxes, placed one under the other, in the following order.
ist. The simple hive. We will suppose a swarm to
come off on the 21st of June, 1827. This swarm passes
the summer, autumn, and winter, in the simple hive, and
will be nine months old on the 21st day of March, 1828. |
2d. The Scottish hive. This is formed by placing a
box or pannier, under the simple hive, on the 21st March,
ames RSR
LT ANSE TE RES
29
1828. This hive will remain in the situation of a two-
storied hive, for a whole year, from the 21st of March.
1828, to the 21st of March, 1829. In proportion as the
population of the simple hive was abundant, and the season
favourable, the Scottish hive will, in its year, send out one
or two strong swarms. In the spring of 1829, this colony
will be twenty-one months old: nine months a simple hive..
and one year a Scottish hive.
Sd. The pyramidal hive. This commences when the
swarm is twenty-one months old, on the 21st March,
- 1829, by putting a third box under the Scottish hive.
_ These three panniers or boxes are luted at their junc-
tures, in such manner, that they appear to form one
single hive; and the bees can pass in and out only by a
single opening on the bench. By means of the holes, from
an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half diameter, on.
the tops of the under and middle boxes, there is a free
communication for the bees from one box to another. .
This colony will remain in this pyramidal or three-
storied hive, from the 2ist of March to the 21st of Sep-
tember of the same year: it will then be only twenty-seven
months old. It will have furnished many swarms, as well
in its grade of Scottish, as in that of the pyramidal hive.
The swarms. of the latter will be very considerable; they
commonly weigh from twelve to twenty pounds, of sixteen
ounces. |
On or about the 21st of September, (sooner or later,) the
neuters destroy the drones. Then the upper box may be
removed, and it will be found full of wax and honey, with-
out bee, chrysalis, larva, egg, or exuviæ of any kind. The
honey will be the produce of the current year, for the bees
have consumed that of the years preceding: nothing but
the wax will be old, for the first made combs still remain.
When the upper box is removed at the time specified,
the hive will cease to be pyramidal, and will be reduced to
the Scottish, or a hive of two stories. It will remain the six
months of autumn and sprme, in this state of Scottish hive;
but at the return of spring,a third pannier or bex is added,and
then it resumes the name of pyramidal. Thus, from year to
year, in continued succession, in each spring, an empty box
or pannier is put under the Scottish hive; and each autumn,
a full one is taken off the pyramidal hive. It is an annual
and periodical harvest, for which there is.no dread of hail
. c 2
x
30
or frost, and on this account, is more certain than that of
our cereal plants, our vineyards, or meadows. at
The pyramidal hive will not always require twenty-one
months for its construction, nor twenty months, to produce”
a good harvest. There are circumstances when thirteen |
months will suffice to establish the hive, and sometimes
even to take the harvest, as will be demonstrated in the
following chapter. See
We ought not to hesitate to add a third pannier to the
Scottish hive, in the spring, even though the bees seem not —
to need it; inasmuch as they may not have constructed …
any combs in the lower story, and at the time you add the
third, there may be two empty boxes below. These two …
panniers or boxes, will remain empty but a short time: the
third will scarcely be placed, before the bees will descend
from the first, into the second or middle story; and the room
afforded in the lower story, relieves the colony from the
encumbrance occasioned by a crowd, and which would
prevent the bees from working so promptly and conve-
niently as is necessary.
’ Bees, in a pyramidal hive, never perish from want or
cold. They are too rich to be destitute of food, and too
numerous to feel the inconvenience of the most severe
winters. When they are grouped together, they enjoy all
the warmth necessary, and on the return of spring, the
couvain is hatched nearly a month sooner than in other
hives.
wk
ve
CHAPTER IX.
OF THE PYRAMIDAL HIVE IN FULL HARVEST AT THIRTEEN
MONTHS OLD.
When a swarin comes off from a pyramidal hive, in
May, June, or even before the 15th of July, in countries
where the buck or black wheat is cultivated, the pannier
or box in which the young colony is collected, is usually
filled with combs in fifteen days; and all the cells are
supplied with eggs by the queen, as soon as they are pre- |
pared. These eggs are regularly fecundated by the drones,
and soon, an infinite number of worms may be observed, — oe
ready to be metamorphosed into nymphs; and these,
+
La: be
31
sloughing their robes, soon announce a new swarm. In
this time, the bees are exclusively occupied in building
cells and furnishing aliment, for the rising population, and.
collect no more provision than is necessary for the daily
consumption.
If at this time (say fifteen or twenty days) a new box be
placed under that which contains the colony, it will be:
come a Scottish hive. The works will be very much ad-
vanced before the end of summer, and on the return of
spring, the third pannier or box may be confidently placed,
and then it will become a pyramidal hive. At the age of
thirteen or fourteen months, or towards the latter part of
September, on the usual massacre of the drones, this colony
will be in full harvest.
This hive will therefore become Scottish at fifteen or
_ twenty days old, and pyramidal in seven or eight months;
and six months after that, in proportion as the season is
+ favourable, about the end of September, the upper pannier
or box may be removed, rich for harvest, perfectly filled
with wax and honey, without bees, nymphs, larvæ, or
couvain of any kind. The bees have all descended to the
middle story, where the queen has finished her summer
lay, which will not be hatched till the following spring.
=
CHAPTER X.
OF SWARMS IN GENERAL.
When a hive becomes so crowded with bees, that there
is not sufficient room for their accommodation, a colony
emigrates, and makes an establishment somewhere else.
This emigration, or swarming, never takes place unless
it has a queen, duly qualified to direct and perpetuate the
colony; and one alone is sufficient. Four or five days
after a new queen has put off her nymphal robe, she is
qualified to lay; and would lay, if she had a private estab-
lishment, separate from the maternal family, where she
has no right to lay. She is then in a state to assume the
direction of a swarm; which, when selected, will be dis-
posed to follow her any where, and every where—such is
the attachment of bees to their queen.
32
The first swarm from a hive, in spring, is generally
from the last lay of the preceding year. This last lay res
mains in the hive during äutumn and winter, in the state
of eges fecundated by the drones. These eggs do not
hatch till the return of warm weather; and the drones
hatched from this lay, as soon as they cast their nymphal
robes, fecundate the eggs which the queen has already
laid, in the new cells of the current year. ae
All the bees of the first hatch, are not destined to
form a new colony. The maternal family reserves a suf-
ficient number of young bees, to supply the place of those
missing of the old stock, beginning with the drones, which
are of the first utility. It often happens, that all the bees
of the first hatch, are united to the maternal family.
Then the first swarm which comes off, will be altogether
from the spring lay, and will not take place till later in .
the season. : Ue if
Attention ought to be paid, to hive a swarm as soon as *
possible after it appears, to avoid the trouble of stopping
it on its flight, and the risk of losing it. A swarm rarely
remains two hours on its first resting place, after it leaves
its mother-hive; and if the rays of the sun beam severely
on the place where it first settles, it will soon quit it, and
seek a new asylum.
When the swarm is put into the hive, it ought not to be
removed from the place till the next day, about the same
time it came off, that the straggling bees may rally, and
enter the hive, before it be removed to its destined fixture
on the bench. When a new hived swarm is placed on its
bench, if the bees which had not joined it before or during
the night, should present themselves in open day, they
would be treated as strangers, and destroyed. They
would also be destroyed, if they return to: the mother-hive,
which they can never enter.
Straw panniers are the best to hive bees. in. They
should by rubbed inside with thyme, pennyroyal, or other
aromatic plants, to attract the bees. The sticks of the
pannier might also-be rubbed with honey, and the bees
would settle on them with eagerness. But people are not
always supplied with panniers of sufficient capacity to con-
tain a swarm, from a Scottish, or pyramidal hive. In such
case, a second pannier should be placed under the first;
and in a few days after, if it be found that the bees are
not incommoded by their number in the upper pannier, the:
33
under one may be removed. But on the contrary, if the
bees be crowded in the single pannier, the second should
remain: it is then a Scottish hive. ‘These are not ordinary
events, but they sometimes happen.
When a swarm of bees is housed, and the box or pannier
placed on its bench, it should be well luted, leaving only
one small opening for the passage of the bees. Cow-dung,
with a fourth part of slacked lime, well mixed, is one of
the best lutes which can be used. It will also be neces-
sary to apply a very thin coat of the same composition, to
all the seams of the hive, whether made of wood, straw,
heath, or osier. It will become very hard when dried.
_ If two swarms come off from two hives at the same time,
and settle on the same branch of a tree, (which is not un-
common in a large establishment,) both the swarms ought
to be put into one box or pannier. The family will be
stronger by the union, and if, on the succeeding day, nei-
ther of the swarms renounce the association, and separate
to form a new establishment elsewhere,—the union will be
fixed and permanent, and the weaker of the two queens
will be assassinated. But if three or four swarms settle
together, it will be necessary to separate them. |
This operation must be performed after sun down. On
the cloth where the swarms are collected, two panniers
must be placed, into which the bees must be divided as
equally as possible, by dipping them up with a large spoon,
the edge of which should be smooth so as not to wound
them. If on the next day the bees appear tranquil, it is
because there is at least one queen in each hive. If there
should be two, the family know how to dispose of them:
they only retain one, and that one, the best suited for the
head of the colony.
In fact, if several queens happen to be in one hive, the
neuters will permit only one to remain. ‘They never mis-
take in their choice: it is always the strongest, healthiest,
and most fecund, which is permitted to remain. ‘Thus,
the pretended combats, or duels between two queens, so
emphatically asserted, and repeated by our modern know-
ing ones, have no existence, but in their own imaginations
and books.
When a swarm leaves a hive, and the proprietor does
not follow it, or cause it to be followed, it belongs to the
first who finds and takes possession of it. But to secure
34
the swarms, and retain them in the apiary, it is only ne-
cessary to plant plenty of trees and shrubs around, and
even to overshadow them, without obstructing their passage
to and from their hives. When the bees swarm, they will
be arrested by those.trees and shrubs.
The pyramidal hives produce more numerous swarms
than the simple or common hives. ‘The more numerous
the family, the more provision will be expended during
winter; and the number of empty cells is in proportion to
the consumption. ‘The queen has more room for her lay,
which is only limited by the number of cells, which she
finds prepared for her eggs.
If, on the return of spring, the queen has only ten thou-
sand empty cells, she will only lay ten thousand eggs, and
the swarm from this lay will be moderate. If, on the con-
trary, she has fifteen thousand disposable cells, she will
deposit fifteen thousand eggs, and the swarm from this lay
will be very considerable. The fecundity of the queens:
is ineonceivable. It seems that nature dispenses to them
the faculty and care of laying, not in proportion to their
physical means, but in proportion to the necessity and
economy of leaving no cell without an egg.
From this observation, it may be concluded, that if it
be advantageous to have hives sufficiently populous to con-
sume, in winter, all the provisions of the Scottish hive, to
increase the places for the eggs, and at the same time to
advance the lay of the queen,—it is no less necessary, at
the same epoch, to enlarge the room for this prodigious
number to develop, before the swarm goes off. It was
this necessity of enlarging the room, which led to the
change from the Scottish to the pyramidal hive. |
If, on the contrary, no extension of room be given to the
population of the Scottish hive; if the individuals must re-_
main compressed,—the consequent incumbrance would
relax the labours in the interior, and, contrary to the in-
tention of nature, would retard the descent from the first
to the second pannier, as well as the departure of the
swarm. |
There are no signs, absolutely certain, to know when
bees will swarm. The hives should be watched, in the
swarming season, from eight o’clock in the morning, till ~
six in the afternoon, especially in stormy weather. ‘The
greatest attention should be paid to the following signs:—.
Ist. When drones are observed to fly about, in front of
La
39
the hive; their appearance announces a new people or
family.
2d. When the bees are so numerous, that they cannot
all find room in the hive.
3d. When, in the evening or night, a great buzzing is
heard in the hive.
4th. The most unequivocal sign is, when the working
bees or neuters, do not go abroad, in as great numbers as
usual; and when they remain on the bench, charged with
their load, without going into the hive.
Then a hot blaze of sunshine, succeeding a cloud, anda
few drops of rain, occasions an insupportable heat in the
hive, and the bees hasten to abandon it. ‘Then the buzzing,
which was great in the evening, and still increasing, is suc-
ceeded, for an instant, by a profound silence. In less than
a minute, all the bees which are to compose the swarm,
* defile rapidly from the hive, and disperse in the air, where
they are seen bounding like fleeces of snow. Sometimes _
the bees, when swarming, rise very high, especially if it
be windy. They then, sometimes, rise out of sight. They
may generally be arrested, by throwing sand or dust on
them, or more certainly by throwing water, which sprinkles
them like rain. A few discharges of a musket has the effect.
to make them fear an approaching storm. I have had occa-
sion to try the two last methods with success.
When bees remain engrouped, or clustered to the
bench, several days in succession, M. Ducarne de Blangis
points out a method to determine their departure. He raised
the hive three inches above the bench, and left it in that
situation some days. The bees ceased to cluster. He after-
wards, in a warm day, let the hive down suddenly on the
bench. ‘This produced such a sudden and excessive heat
in the hive, that the swarm determined to abandon it.
There is another expedient, no less simple, used in the
country. It is to place, in the night, young elder branches,
with the leaves on, round the bench where the bees are
grouped. The smell of the elder forces them into the hive;
and the first warm day afterwards, the swarm, incommoded
by the interior heat, abandon the hive and take their de-
parture. N
Swarms return to the panniers or hives whence they
came out, if at the time of swarming they lose their queen.
This sometimes happens, when a queen is too feeble to ac-
company her colony, and has strayed or perished. ‘The
36
day following, a new queen takes place of the preceding,
and the swarm hastens to depart, and abandons the mother
country. ‘ |
When any one can catch a queen at the entrance of the
hive, he is sure to conduct the swarm to whatever place he
pleases. I had a domestic, who seldom failed to surprise
the queen at the moment of swarming. He watched for
her at the entrance of the hive, on the bench, seized, and
put her in the bottom of a pannier, which he had at his
disposal, near him, and the whole swarm immediately
settled in it.
This was the secret of M. Wildemann, who, in the
presence of the London Society, made a swarm of bees
follow him. He made it pass from one part of his body to
another: if he changed the place of the mother bee, her
faithful subjects soon followed her. Choleric bees (for
this is a vice of their character) might make this a very
serious sport. M. Wildemann has also taught us a prompt
and easy way of changing bees from one hive to another.
He carried a hive to a place which only admitted a dawn
of light, and reversed it. ‘The mother bee, whose nature
is to be most vigilant for the safety and good of her state,
presented herself in front; he seized her, and when he had _
her in custody, he was master of the whole colony. He
put her into an empty hive, and all the bees followed. He
took possession of the honey, drained it from the wax,
put the couvain into the new hive, and placed it on the
bench. |
The Abbe Rosier informs us, that all swarms are not
composed of fifteen or twenty thousand bees. ‘There are
some less considerable, some even have not more than three
or four thousand. ‘These are ordinarily the last, and are
nothing better on that account. Besides, they come too late
to have time enough to work and provide against the win-
ter, or for the queen to lay to increase the number of her
subjects. ‘The first swarms are always best, because gene-
rally most numerous; but if not so numerous, the lay of —
the young queen would furnish a sufficient number to aug-
ment the population. |
M. Rosier says, that the goodness of a swarm is esti-
mated by the number of bees which compose it. As it
would be difficult to count them, the better way would be
to weigh the box before and after the bees are hived, and
the difference would be the weight of the swarm. The best,
37
continues Rosier, are from five to six pounds. Those of
eight pounds are very rare; and it is not desirable that
they should weigh more, because so great a swarm is pre-
judicial to the mother hive, which, being deprived of so
large a portion of its population, is in danger of perishing
in winter.
This consideration of the Abbe Rosier, is not correct.
The strength of swarms is proportioned to that of the mo-
ther hive.. I have obtained swarms from pyramidal hives,
weighing twelve, or even eighteen and twenty pounds; and
so large, that it required two panniers to receive them—at
once forming the Scottish hive, or the hive of two stories,
of M. Bourdonnaye; and in the spring following, another
pannier or box placed under it, will form the pyramidal
hive. ;
When the bees of aswarm are divided into clusters, the
whole should be put into one hive, and there left to choose
the queen which they desire to place at the head of the
colony, and get rid of those who would be a charge to the
state, which they would embroil by their continued divi-
sions. The young queens which remain in the mother-
hive, have no better fortune than those who had the ambi-
tion to pretend to the command of an emigrant colony:
they will be put to death in like manner, as the supernu-
meraries which escaped.
CHAPTER XI.
OF LATE SWARMS.
Late swarms are those which come off in the latter part
of summer, and have not time to collect a sufficient quan-
tity of provisions for their subsistence during winter, and
consume their whole stock as it is gathered. That food
which bees of this kind collect, passes from the first into
the second stomach, and is converted into wax. They
could not subsist through the winter, unless supported by
the proprietor.
Should these late swarms perish by cold or famine, their
cells may be still used profitably, by keeping the pannier
or box in a dry place, where it may remain uninjured till
D
38
the return of spring, when it may be used to put a new
swarm in. . The bees of this new swarm know how to em-
ploy these old cells; they will cleanse them, and the queen
will supply them with eggs. (See Chap. XIV.) If a late
swarm has been able, towards the end of the season, to.
construct cells from one to two-thirds of the capacity of the
box, and the proprietor would feed them in winter, such
swarm might, in spring, become the strongest in the estab-
lishment, from the number of cells which the queen would
find to lay in, and which she would supply with eggs, on
the first pleasant days.
A colony of bees frequently furnishes numerous swarms
in the spring and summer. ‘The two or three first, which
come off in May,* June, or early in July, are the best, and
generally succeed. ‘Those which follow are rarely good,
especially if they be very late. In that case, they ought
to be returned to the hive whence they came, or be joined
to a family of earlier swarms. This is an easy operation.
Such late swarms should be put into a box, prepared to
form a Scottish hive. The hole in the top should be
stopped with a piece of cloth. Towards the evening of the
same day, this box containing the late swarm, should be
placed under the box containing the family to which it is
intended to be united; taking care to remove the cloth
which intercepts the communication between the two
boxes.
_ Through this communication, the late swarm will ascend
and join the older swarm, in the upper box. This associa-
tion does not occasion any loss, except of one of the
queens. ‘The one which appears, to the joint colony, the
least capable of presiding over the labours, will in a day
or two be found dead, outside of the hive. ‘This manner
of augmenting the colonies, and preserving the late swarms,
is very easy and advantageous.
To judge correctly the value of swarms, they ought to
“be weighed, and the weight noted. The box or pannier
should. be first weighed, and after the bees are housed and .
settled, it should be weighed again: the difference is the
weight of the swarm. This attention to the weight of the
panniers or boxes, will be found very serviceable in winter,
* This was written for the latitude of Bretagne, in France. In the
southern states of America, bees frequently: swarm early in April,
and sometimes in March.
39
to ascertain the gradual expenditure by the famiiy, and to
afford it timely aid, should it run short of provisions.
An early spring swarm, may produce a new swarm in
the course of the summer; and the latter may be vigorous
enough to amass a sufficiency of provisions for the winter.
However, if it be a little too late in the season, it would
be better to force them back into the hive whence they
came, or to associate them with another swarm, than to
keep them in a pannier which has not a supply of provi-
sions for winter.
CHAPTER XII.
“THE MANNER OF PROGRESSIVELY AUGMENTING A PYRA- _
MIDAL HIVE.
The pyramidal hive, with the dimensions of ten, eleven,
or twelve inches interior diameter, with a height to each,
equal to its diameter, according -to the number and
strength of the family, which occupied the first pannier,—
-has in its combination, a height of thirty, thirty-three, or
thirty-six inches.*
These dimensions in the hives ought to be regulated, not
only by the number and the strength of the family occu-
pying them, but also by the vegetable riches of the country,
best suited to their subsistence.t
It is better to give a less, than greater extent to the box,
which is for the first time put under the simple hive, to
make it a Scottish. This observation is not to be neglected,
if the family appears weakly populated. And when it is
proposed to improve this into a pyramidal hive, the third
box must not exceed the dimensions of the first. 3
This establishment once made, the periodical produce
is, each year, one pannier or box full of wax and honey,
without bees or couvain, regularly weighing from thirty-
* It will be observed in the sequel, that boxes of sixteen inches’
diameter, are recommended.— Translator.
f M. Ducouëdic is perhaps too precise in these rules. He has said,
that the whole secret of his theory is taken from nature, by a careful
study of the habits of wild bees. The trees and rocks in France must
differ very much from those in America, if their hollows and clefts be
s0 nicely proportioned. —J0.
40
five to forty-five pounds. ‘The swarms which these hives
produce, are of a strength proportioned to that of the
mother-hive, and weigh from six to twelve pounds. |
After the pyramidal hive has been established a couple
of years, its volume or dimensions may be enlarged each
returning spring, and by these means the product will.
augment from year to year.
The extent of combs and number of cells, increase in
proportion to the enlargement of the hive.
The lay of the queen also increases in proportion to the
number of cells, in which she can deposit her eggs.
The couvain becoming more numerous, the working bees
increase, and consequently the interior works will be richer
in wax and, honey. —
This method is simple, natural, and according to the
physical increase of the colony, which augments in volume
with time and space. It is easily understood, and every
farmer can put it in practice. . | |
To work advantageously, it will be sufficient, each re-
turning spring, to give an inch, in diameter and height, to
the new boxes, put under the Scottish hive to make it pyra-
midal. ki
Then in a few years, the interior diameter and altitude
of the hives, will be equal to sixteen inches, for each box;
and the increase of the population will be in the same
ratio of progression.
Each box having attained the diameter of sixteen inches,
and an equal height, the pyramidal hive will have in its
interior, for working room, forty-eight inches elevation on
sixteen diameters; and the boxes harvested each year, will
contain from ninety to a hundred pounds. Such is the
great product from bees, (by following this process,) in
countries where perpetual spring prevails, and even in
those where buckwheat and other flowering vegetables are
cultivated.
The maximum of the interior height and diameter of one
box, is sixteen inches, and the minimum, ten inches. An
amateur indeed, might make experiments for his amuse-
ment, to enlarge his boxes beyond the maximum of sixteen
inches. He would doubtiess obtain much more honey, but
rarely any swarms: because then the bees of each year
would be kept by the mother colony, whose labours would
increase, in proportion to the enlargement of the box, put
under in the spring. ‘This enlargement of the boxes, ought
41
to be made gradually, and never more than an inch per an-
num. This succession of gradation might proceed far;
however, it must have some bound, which my researches
have not enabled me to discover.
Panniers of straw, broom, or osier, ought to be used
only to receive swarms. And to form the Scottish, and
more particularly, the pyramidal hive, boxes made of pine
plank, or other resinous wood, are best; and those made
in the most simple manner, are excellent.
CHAPTER XIII.
OF THE PLACING AND REMOVING OF BOXES.
When it is proposed to change a simple hive into a
Scottish—before sunrise or after sunset, the simple hive
must be gently raised from the bench, which (bench) must
be wiped clean with a cloth or sponge, and a square box
with perfect joints must be placed on it, and on the top of
this box must be set the simple hive, taking care that the
pannier containing the bees be well adjusted to the box on
which it is placed, and that all the rules mentioned, rela-
tive to the dimensions of boxes, and the strength of the
colony, be strictly observed.
In the spring of the following year, to change this into
a pyramidal hive, the pannier and box of the Scottish hive
must be gently raised, without separating them. The bench
must be cleaned, and on it an empty box placed, and on
the top of that must be set the Scottish hive. |
These three stages—the straw hive, and the two boxes,
the first of which changed the simple hive into a Scottish,
and the second, which changed the Scottish into a pyra-
midal hive,—ought to be perfectly united, and appear as
if they formed only one single hive. Neither a bee, nor
the smallest insect, should find a passage between the three
stages: there should be but one small opening on the
bench, for the ingress and egress of the bees.
When the upper story of a pyramidal hive is to be re-
moved, great precaution must be observed, to prevent the
derangement of the under boxes, and particularly not to
disturb the bees. As soon as the uppermost box is re-
p 2
4Z
moved, the hole which served as a communication between
it and the middle box, which is now become the upper box,
must be immediately stopped with a wooden plug, covered
with cloth. This plug must afterwards be covered with
cement of plaster, or of lime and sand, to prevent the rain
from penetrating the hive; and the whole should be covered
again with a bonnet of straw, or some other material.
It requires three men to perform this operation. One
holds the middle box fast, another takes off the upper one,
and the third plugs the hole in the top of the box, which
was in the middle, but is now on the top, to intercept, as
promptly as possible, the passage by which the bees would
come out.
The honey can be had fresh, at any time, when it is
wanted to make comfits or liqueurs. By leaving the upper
box in its place, as in that case the honey does not dete-
riorate or candy. | : 1"
It sometimes ‘happens, that the queen has not left the
upper box, on account that the eggs are not all hatched. In
that case, the box should be replaced, and the robbery de-
ferred. This is a very rare occurrence. I never witnessed
it but once. |
CHAPTER XIV.
QF THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF HIVES, WHOSE POPULATION
HAVE PERISHED, IN AUTUMN, WINTER, OR SPRING.
6 When the birth of bees commences; more than a hun-
dred may be seen coming out of their cells in one day. The
hive populates rapidly, and in the space of a few weeks,
the number of the bees become so great that there is scarce-
ly room to contain them, and this produces that colony
which is called a jet or swarm.” |
When M. Réaumur expressed himself thus, he was not .
far from the discovery of the re-establishment of hives, —
whose population had perished. One single reflection on |
the existence of the queen’s eggs in the hive, and the
promptitude with which these eggs hatch on the return of :
warm weather, would infallibly have led him to the dis-
govery of the phenomenon. For the greatest discoveries in
4he mysteries and caprices of nature, we are oftener in-
43
debted to the whims and sports of accident, than to the
meditations of the naturalist who is engaged in the search.
It has heretofore been a general custom, when bees are
found dead in spring, whether from want of subsistence,
the intemperature of the season, or from the pillage of
foreign bees, to remove the box and melt down the combs
for the sake of the wax. But it is now ascertained, that a
greater advantage may be derived from these hives, the
knowledge of which has hitherto escaped those who are the
best informed and celebrated in the culture of these in-
sects.
Couvain* exists in the cells of the waxen combs, thus
melted down; and this couvain exists in the state of eggs,
which have not perished with the bees. These eggs are
almost imperceptible, glued to the bottom of the celis, just
as the queen placed them. ‘These eggs cannot hatch till the
return of warm-weather, and then they must necessarily
hatch, if the combs which contain them be preserved, be-
cause it is the pledge and order of nature.
It is the couvain remaining in the state of eggs, fecun-
dated, before the destruction of the drones the preceding
year, which is to produce the first swarms in spring, if the
family has not perished. It is also the couvain of the cur-
rent year, which the queen has deposited in the cells, after
the destruction of the drones, during the autumn, the last
months of winter, and the first of spring, which can only
be fecundated by the drones of the first swarm, when they
shall be hatched and in activity.
In the month of June, 1812, I placed in the open air
and to a southern exposure, some hives, the families of
which, being swarms of the year 1811, had perished; some
for want of subsistence, or from the pillage of foreign bees;
others from the intemperature of the spring, which did not
permit the bees to collect sufficient for their daily provi-
sions. ‘The bees had all died before the month of May,
and the boxes had been removed from the stalls.
Karly in July, the couvain was in great part hatched,
and promised good hives.
When I observed the couvain of these dead colonies. to
hatch, naturally, and in great quantity, at the return of
warm weather, I thought it would be necessary to provide
* Couvain, in its most comprehensive sense, means the embryo, in.
eyery state, of eggs, worms, chrysalids, or nymphs, ;
44
for their subsistence, as there was no honey in the cells,
nor bees to procure it. I thought it perhaps possible to re-
establish these hives, which were believed to be entirely
lost. | at
I forthwith gave honey to these nascent bees. I placed
the honey on plates, covered with paper, pricked full of
holes, with pins, that these young bees might not englue,
or bedaub themselves, while pumping up this nourishment
with their trunks or probosces. I was very soon convinced
of the happiest results, from this method of hatching the
couvain remaining in the combs, after the families had ex-
pired, and also from the manner of subsisting the nascent
bees.
I only furnished seven plates of honey to each of these
new families, one each day in succession, and the whole
couvain (of the hives submitted to this proof) were entirely
hatched, and sufficiently strong to fly abroad and gain their
own subsistence without any other support.
I have repeated my experiments, and have constantly
obtained the same results. |
In the spring of every year, when it is rainy, a very con-
siderable number of swarms perish, either from want of ©
food, or the continuation of humidity, which produces dys-
entery more than any thing else, or by the pillage of foreign
bees. The combs are then generally melted down, without
any consideration for the couvain contained in them. The
ignorance of the value of this couvain is the cause of great
prejudice in the culture of bees. |
When hives are thus and so frequently depopulated, the
boxes should be removed from their stands and put in a
dry place, secure from inimical insects, such as candle mil-
lers, spiders, moles, mice, &c. and wait for the fine days
of summer.
On the arrival of hot weather, the boxes may be placed
in the open air, in a southern exposure, in a place separate
from the other bees. In a short time, the couvain will be
observed to hatch, and we shall very soon have working —
bees, drones, and queens, and the hives will appear to re-
novate and experience a sort of resurrection. The observa-
tions which I have made, and the results obtained, leave no
doubt of the value of this new discovery in the culture of
bees.
+ While I was occupied in this sort of resurrection, in ex-
posing the hives submitted to my experiments to the great-
45
est effect of the sun’s heat, I did not let any more light
into the interior of the boxes, than was necessary for the
circulation of the air. I only left small apertures, at pro-
per distances between the boxes and the stands, through
which strange bees could not enter, nor the new born bees
get out. WA
© When the couvain is entirely hatched, and the colonies
in full strength, the boxes may be replaced in their former
position in the apiary, and the necessary openings made,
for the egress of the young bees, whose instinct will lead
them out to forage in the fields. |
Each family, thus re-established, is a new swarm, and
ought to succeed better than ordinary swarms; because it
is supplied with waxen combs in perfection, and nothing
remains to be done, but to supply with honey and couvain
the cells which the mother colony had made before it
perished.
Fifteen or twenty days after this sort of resurrection, if
the weather be fine, and the bees appear to work with ar-
dour, a second box may be placed under, and it will become
Scottish, and in the spring following, it will be in a state
to become pyramidal, and the upper box, or pannier, may
be removed with its contents, in the autumn of the same
rear.
/ This hive will afterwards yield, annually, a harvest of a
pannier, or box, full of wax and honey, without bees or
couvain, besides one or more swarms.
I am convinced that the farmers would gain more than
they would lose, if they would not destroy the combs. of
the bees which have perished, even in autumn or winter,
but to use the boxes, with the combs in them, to. receive
other swarms, in spring or summer, either by putting them
under or over other hives, according to circumstances, and
the form of the hive, as I have already practised and be-
fore observed.
It is no longer to be doubted that couvain does exist in
the combs of these hives, formed and fecundated before
the destruction of the drones, and that it will naturally
hatch on the return of warm weather.
Though all the couvain found in the cells be not fecun-
dated, (which may be the case,) because some may have
been laid after the destruction of the drones, yet these are
worth preserving, because they will be fecundated by the
drones of the hive to which they will be united.
46
The couvain of other insects as well as bees, hatches
solely by the heat of the sun, without the assistance of the
mother flies, particularly the couvain of wasps. ‘These in-
sects (wasps) all die every year, either from the first colds
of winter, or from the want of sustenance in the autumn,
because they have not the instinctive faculty to lay up
stores in summer; but their couvain hatches in their nests
on the return of warm weather.
The same result would take place with bees, who cannot
live through the winter without honey. Should they die
for want of food, or from any other contingence, their cou-
vain would, like that of wasps, hatch at the end of spring,
or at the beginning of summer.
If we wish to use the combs of a colony which died in
autumn or winter, and whose work had not advanced so
far as that the couvain could produce a complete stock, we
should take a swarm in the second case of a Scottish hive,
the hole in the top stopped with a rag.
As soon as the swarm is well settled in this Scottish case,
that is, in the evening of the day in which it is housed, the
rag must be removed from the hole, and the box containing
the combs of the dead swarm placed on the top. The bees
instantly ascend, take possession of the works, clean the
parts which need cleansing, and the common queen imme-
diately begins to lay in the cells which have no eggs, the
drones fecundate those eggs which had not before been fe-
cundated, and the old couvain is thus prepared to be hatch-
ed at the same time with the new.
From this moment this hive becomes Scottish by the
junction of the two boxes, which will be soon filled with
combs by the multitude of neuters. The queen mother,
obedient to nature, will soon fill all the cells, old and new,
with her couvain, which will be replaced with honey, if the
season be favourable, before the end of summer; so that by
the return of spring, this hive is in a state to become pyra-
midal, and to begin to furnish its annual harvest of one
case in the second autumn of its establishment.
If the combs «hich we wish to make use of, be in a
Scottish box, this box may be put under a full hive, whose
bees are too rich or full fed. These bees are too lazy to
swarm, and commonly die in their indolence. By placing
this box under them, they will immediately descend and —
resume their activity. ?
The couvain remaining in the combs of the boxes thus
Ÿ
|
RS PL EE M Ne
47
passed under, will soon hatch, the bees produced will join
the old hive, whose population increases, and their Jabours
become more active. It will assume all the qualities, and
produce all the results, of a pyramidal hive, in periodical
succession. ' |
These observations deserve universal attention. The first,
relating to the recavery of hives, whose population has pe-
rished, is a new discovery, and is a phenomenon, not less
advantageous, than the discovery of the pyramidal hive.
There is no danger of losing hives, though the active popu-
lation of many of them perish by the ordinary causes of
destruction, particularly among the simple hives, of the pre-
ceding spring. ‘These families may be restored, on the re-
turn of warm weather, by the couvain left in the combs.
Especially, if the boxes be used for the housing of new
swarms: then the old couvain hatches with the new, and the
population, thus increased, will become very considerable.
These hives, thus restored, may produce swarms the same
year, especially in countries where buckwheat is cultivated,
and these swarms can procure, for themselves, sufficient
subsistence for the winter. However, if they should perish,
their boxes will be valuable, to preserve for use in the fol-
lowing spring, to receive new swarms. Henceforward, pur-
suing this kind of culture, only a few individuals will be
lost, while we profit by the fructifying the whole number of
eggs.remaining in the old cells.
The couvain is almost imperceptible in the cells, while
they remain in the state of eggs, though they must have been
there before the destruction of the drones, because they are
fecundated ; they remain, therefore, in the same state, dur-
ing autumn and winter, and, in northern climates, even
during the two first months of spring. This couvain can-
not perish with the bees of the family; because, while in
the egg state, it is impossible, until it encloses an embryo.
But the sacrifice and loss is certain, by the inconsiderate
and injudicious process of melting down the combs, which
destroys every hope.
The secrets of nature do not always remain impenetra-
ble; but she is niggardly, and only suffers a few of them to
escape in an age. It is only in the age of Napoleon le
Grand, that Messrs. Lavoisier, Mongolfier, Guiton, Mor-
veau, Young de Vaux, Lacépéde, Berthollet, Chaptal, &c.*
* Etc. I suppose, means Mons, Ducouédic. -- 7 ranslator,
48
owe the brilliant discoveries, in the arts and natural history,
which excites the admiration of their cotemporaries, and
will be the pleasure and felicity ofposterity. ,
Honey is used in various kinds of cookery and pharmacy,
and may be converted into sugar, and used in all kinds of
confectionary. It is, moreover, an efficacious aliment, to
produce vigorous and glowing health in children. For
that tender age, its daily use would be much preferable to
that of animal food, butter or cheese. It is also a valuable
article in commerce, and, in France, it could be increased
a hundred fold, by the great variety of forms under which
it could be employed. ;
The wax of Bretagne is esteemed the best in Europe. It
is pretended, that about a century ago, they bleached, in that
province, six hundred and fifty thousand pounds of wax per
annum, though the produce, at this day, does not amount to
one fourth of that quantity.
‘When they obtained six hundred and fifty thousand
pounds of wax in Bretagne, they ought to have collected,
at least, two hundred and thirty-five thousand five hundred
quintals of honey. The wax at one franc fifty centimes a
pound, (about 28 cents,) and the honey at twenty-four francs
the quintal, (about four dollars 46 cents,) would be an object
of about six millions one hundred thousand franes, (equa! to
1,154,600 dollars;) there are five departments in Bretagne,
the average produce of each would be, annually, about one
million two hundred and twenty thousand pounds, (226,920
dollars.)*
We have in the empire one hundred and thirty depart-
ments. No doubt all of them would not attain the height
of these productions, but there are some of them would
double it: and this branch of our rural economy could even
be quintupled, in its products, in more than two-thirds of
the departments, in the interior of the empire. |
If people would consider then, what might be the import-
ance of this branch of rural economy, in the interior, they
would be astonished at the small portion of attention which
it has attracted for some years past, and even to this day.
* Allow an average of the produce of Bretagne to the 130 depart-
ments, it would amount to the enormous annual sum of 158,600,000
francs, or, 29,499,600 dollars, Bs
49
+ CHAPTER XV.
>
OF THE APIARY, OR PLACE WHERE BEES ARE KEPT:
_ In southern climates, the hives ought to be ranged on an
eastern exposure. In northern climates, to the south and
east, and never to the north, and much less to the west.
An apiary ought to be situated in a place somewhat re-
tired; if possible, on a smooth lawn, overlooking a slope, at
the bottom of which a limpid rivulet meanders through
meadows. The hives, if not too numerous, and the ground
will permit, should be ranged in line.‘ But, if the ground
do not admit of along line, they may be ranged in two or
more ranks, by preserving a sufficient distance between
each line, that the bees may meet’no obstacles in their flight
from the doorstof their hives, and that they may rise freely,
without hitting the boxes of the range in front of their line.
* Though the hives be numerous, it will not be necessary
to separate them, that is, to make two or more establish-
ments on the same domain. Bees know, and, occasionally,
treat each other with respect. When they-belong to the
same apiary, they seldom plunder. :
An apiary always ought to be neat. There should be no
plants, nor herbs, touching the hives, on which inimical in-
sects can harbour, or secrete themselves, to incommode, or
prey upon the bees. It is not absolutely necessary, that it
should be covered with a roof. It is sufficient, that each
box be covered with a cap of straw, or an earthen vase in-
verted, to secure it from rain, or stagnant water.
Trees, planted round the apiary, are useful to stop the
swarms as they come off. ‘The pear, the apple, the cherry,
and the peach trees, produce flowers much sought after by
the bees, and swarms rarely fail to settle on their branches,
when they come out of the mother hives.
To give the establishmentan agreeable symmetry, the hives
should be set about two feet apart, and a vase of flowers, or
plants in which bees delight, placed in each space, such as
thyme, savory, basil, and other aromatics.
The bench or stand ought, if possible, to be made of a sin-
gle piece of wood, at least two inches thick, and sufficiently
broad, to receive a box eighteen inches square. It ought
to be at least six inches longer than it is bread, and to pro-
ject that difference in front of the hive, as a resting place
* CR
50
for the bees, going and coming fromand to the hive. A:small
gutter should be made, about two and ashalf inches broad,
and a little more than half an inch deep, chamfered at
the sides, leading from the centre of the hive, with a gentle
slope to the edge of the bench in front of the hive. This will
serve as a passage for the bees, in and out of the hive, and
facilitate the draining of water from the hive, each morning
at dawn, particularly in summer, for the warmth of the mul-
titude produces, in the night; humid vapours, which de-
scend in drops of water on the bench. . = *
The surface of the bench ought to be a little convex,
sloping each way from the centre, then the water could not
collect on the plank, nor stop in the centre, but would flow
out.* | BaP Rc tn,
The bench or stand should have four legs, or supports,
about eight or ten inches long,t securely fixed. It is essen-
tial, that all the parts of the bench should be of equal dura-
bility, that no derangement may occur, till the whole be
removed, when no longer serviceable. __ hata
There are some grounds where arts are very troublesome
to bees; and whatever attention may be paid, there will al-
ways be some of them, which will endeavour to get into the
hive, or establish themselves under its straw cap. In such
case it would be convenient and advisable, to put under
each leg of the bench, a small vase of hard-burnt earthen-
ware, filled with water, in which the ants would drown in
attempting to get on the bench. i
_In winter, great care should be taken to close up the en-
trance, so as to admit but one bee to pass at a time.
It is necessary to clean the stand, at least, four times a
year, with a cloth or sponge, moistened with pure water, or
salt and water, or rather with thyme or other aromatic plants.
The hives must be raised gently, without separating the
boxes. It will require two men to support a hive, and a third
to clean the stand. !
Stands ought to be prepared, and always in readiness, in
summer, to receive hives, which ought to be placed on them
in the evening, or the morrow morning, of the day in which
the swarms are housed. The stands should be rubbed with
thyme, or some other aromatic plants.
* This is hardly reconcilable with the preceding direction, and the
use of the gutter.— Translator.
tT See Chap. xix.
s 7 EME.
PR Te D VAR RAR Rays PRE EE
51
” Bees require watér, and, when too far distant, they may
be supplied by means of shallow vessels, filled with water,
which can be renewed from time to time. If some cresses
were put into the vessels, they would grow and flourish. On
these the bees could find support, going down to the water,
which they could pump without the least danger; and the
proprietor could in this manner, procure a very wholesome
salad, which he could dispose of at pleasure, still leaving
the roots of the plant growing.
Tt has been remarked, that the product of bees was never
so abundant in covered apiaries, as in open air.
Mr. Chambon observes, that it is essential that the apiary
should not be embarrassed by herbs growing as high or
higher than the stands, because the bees which are loaded
and fatigued, and those also which are enfeebled with cold,
are arrested by the herbs, and have a great deal of trouble
to regain their habitation. If they hit those herbs in passing,,
they fall, and cannot easily recover themselves.
This observation (of Mr. Chambon) is not very correct.
It would be ‘still better, not to have any herbs in front of
the hives. It is a retreat for wasps, and other insects, ini-
mical to bees. It requires a smooth place, often swept,
and which does not hold the rain water. In front of each
hive, a little board should be placed, sloping gently towards
the ground. On this the weary bees could stop to take
breath, and easily regain their habitation. Le
The vicinity of cities, is not favourable for a bee establish-
ment, on account of the swallows which flock thither in
spring, and destroy a great many bees. A still worse situa-
tion is the vicinity of forges and manufactories, which re-
quire a great deal of fire, and emit a great deal of smoke.
The open country, and the vicinage of forest trees, are the
best situations for hives.
A southern exposure, in southern countries, if the apiary
be not covered and shaded by fruit trees, is often dangerous.
to the bees, because the combs may melt, by the excessive
heat, and the honey flow out: this, however, could be reme-
died by covering the hives with booths of branches, to secure
them from the heat. | |
In front of the apiary, there may be a plat of thyme, and
all the other aromatic herbs in which bees delight, on a
slight elevation, so as not to impede the bees in their move-
ments. The old bees would rest there on their return from
the fields, and the young, before risking long voyages, would
52
exercise their strength and industry on these balsamic
plants.* ioe A
-
CHAPTER XVI.
ON HONEY, POLLEN, WAX, AND PROPOLIS. ”
Sect. 1. Honey is a gummo-saccharine, fermentable sub-
stance, and is the immediate principle of all vegetables
without exception. This alimentary substance seems des-
tined to nourish all plants, particularly in their infancy, as
milk is destined to nourish all viviparous animals. It is
found in all flowers, but principally in simple flowers. Its
presence is also, afterwards, perceived in ail fruits. It ma-
nifests itself in the herbs of our meadows, the ears of grain
in our fields, and in the leaves of all trees. It is also in the
roots, as well as the body, and even to the top of all vegeta-
bles. It exudes from the trunks of trees. It seems to be
the soul, and is, in fact, the vital principle of all plants with-
out exception. In losing this substance, all plants in gene-
ral decay. It is the (term) end of their existence. The food
of man is impregnated with this fluid, and bees know how
to find it every where. But as yet it is only a gummo-sac-
charine substance, and must pass into the stomach of the
bee to become honey. As the productions of nature are in-
finitely variegated, so honey, in its consistence, taste, and
colour, varies according to the productions of every country.
Bees extract their honey generally from the flowers, leaves,
fruits, and bodies of trees and plants.
The honey, extracted from flowers, is the nectar, which
they enclose, so much boasted of by the ancients, who made
of it the celestial drink of their gods, and to which they
gave the name of ambrosia.t For this principle of honey,
we are indebted to the circulation of the sap in spring.
_# These plats, of simple and aromatic shrubs and plants, produce
other precious advantages: the honey derives from them an odorous
and balsamic perfume. The plat ought to be at least four feet distant
from the hives. neem
+ Was not the ambrosia of the ancients, the food of their gods, the
sugar of honey? The nectar was undoubtedly hydromel,; and ambrosia,
comfets or preserves, made with honey.—7ranslator. TES
ng 53
Honey extracted from the leaves, is that which in the
country is properly called honey-dew, (miellee.) This is
produced by the transudation of the juices of plants and
trees, through their leaves, in greater or less quantity, ac-
cording to the species. ‘This honey-dew nature dispenses
more particularly and profusely in the two first months of
spring and summer, that is to say, on the renewal of the
sap in those two seasons.
The honey extracted from the bodies of trees and plants,
through the bark, is principally derived from the juices of the
second sap, which a kind of bugs, or vine fretters, (pucerons,)
pump out, for the benefit not only of bees, but of a thousand
other kinds of insects, by almost immediately ejecting what
they suck out. ds
There are other insects, worse than the vine fretters, (pu-
cerons,) for these never injure the trees in extracting their
sap, such as hornets and wasps, which tear the bark off trees,
to construct.their combs and cells, from the wounds thus
made, exudes a juice, from which bees derive a profit.
Bees are also fond of the juice of fruits, which they eagerly
seek after, whenever the hornets, wasps, earwigs, or birds,
have broken the skin. ‘The humble raspberry, and the su-
perb wild cherry tree (the acacia of Europe) offer also, in
their fruits, a rich vintage for bees.
These juices, at the time of extraction, are not properly
called honey; but they soon become so, by their prompt fer-
mentation in the first stomach of the bee.
The observations of M. Boisier de Sauvage, of the Royal
Society of Sciences, at Montpelier, read at the sitting of
the 16th December, 1762, on this important subject, are.
most exactly true. They absolutely develop the knowledge,
previously unknown, of what the essence consisted, and
the extent of its presence, in all classes of vegetables. I
have, for many years, made it my particular study, to pur-
sue and verify these observations on the origin of. honey;
and, in my observations, I have found them minutely
exact, and strictly true. I have considered it my duty
to communicate these sage observations of M. Boisier de
Sauvage, in the next chapter. .
But the collection of honey, by bees, of which M. Val-
mont de Bromare has given the history, deserves equally to
be known. The opinion of Zinnæus, reported by this sage,
approaches very near to the discovery of M. Boisier de
Sauvage, on the subject of the origin of honey.
E 2
x
aw
54 °
M. Valmont de Bomare remarks, that Linnæus observed,
more correctly than any before him, that flowers had at the
bottom of their calices, some species of glands, full of melli-
fluent liquid. ‘That it was from these nectariferous glands —
the bees delight to draw the honey, which fashions in their
stomach. It was formerly believed that honey was a dew
which fell from heaven;—nobody believes so now,—it is
known, on the contrary, that dew and rain are most preju-
dicial to honey. Bees have always known these glands,
which our modern botanists have lately discovered, and, in
them, they have always sought and found their honey ; but
sometimes they find this liquid effwsed on the leaves.
An attentive observer, continues M. Bomare, following
Linneeus, might, in spring, see trees, the maple (erable)
among others, whose leaves are all covered with a species
of honey, or sugar, which makes them shine, and if one of
these leaves be placed on the tongue, the honey taste will
soon be*recognised. Whether that liquid remains in the
glands, or out of the glands, it is the primitive material of
honey. It is that which the bee seeks after, and amasses, to
compose aliment, proper for the nourishment of itself and |
- companions. Here is the system of M. Boisier Sauvage
announced, but not so extensively developed, by Linnæus.
ON POLLEN. “4
. Sect. 2. Pollen is a substance, extracted from the sta-
mina of flowers, which the bees collect in dust, or small
grains, which they bring home in little pellets, fixed to the
hinder parts of their thighs. ‘Fhis is a surplus booty, for they
have theirstomachs filled with the juices of the same flowers
which they pumped out with their trunks, and stowed away
in their first stomach, first for their own nourishment, and
afterwards to be rendered by the mouth in the state of ho-.
ney, in the hive, for the employment and nourishment of
the interior workers. 2e: |
In summer, bees are continually seen loaded with pol-
ten, bringing it to the hive, in its natural state. As has just
been observed, it is only a surplus booty of the boldest
working bees without, and with which those within, accom-
modate themselves for nourishment. ‘This pollen, which
these home workers consume, becomes also honey, wax, or
propolis, according as the want of the different materials
_ requires. he Me ae
$ A
- e pital Sik
ee SAN eae 0 PRG EME RENNES ee poe
55
Pollen is, therefore, a portion of what is properly called
the nourishment of bees, and one of the principles of honey,
wax, and propolis. But that substance is never applied to
that kind of ‘use, given to it by M. Lombard, sect. 5, of the
first part of his manual.
+ The grains of the pollen, says M. Lombard, are filled with
an oily substance. ‘They serve as nourishment for the bees
in the cradle, (au berceau.) Thus bees are continually seen
bringing it home, on their hind legs, during the flowering
season, which is the grand lay of their queen. :
The nourishment of bees in the cradle.—This is an inac-
curate expression. Bees have no need of any nourishment
in the cradle. The eggs, to which they owe their existence,
are, after fecundation, enclosed in their cells by pellicles of
wax. From these eggs are produced, at first, worms, which
without the waxen pellicles being broken, live in the cells,
and there envelop themselves in silken robes, which they
begin to spin the moment they come out of the eggs, as do
all other insects of the family of bees, and chrysalids. The
silken robes completed, the worms are already metamor-
phosed into nymphs. -They,remain still enveloped until
they change again, in form and nature. ‘They finally be-
come bees. They then burst their cerements, strip off their
nymphal robes, abandon their cradles, join the other bees,
and, if the weather permit, fly to the fields, but if the wea-
ther be unfavourable, they live on honey, like the others,
But, in its cradle, the bee has eaten nothing: i could eat
nothing, because it was in a sort of prison—like a chicken
in the egg-shell. Thus we see the interior workers relieved
from great embarrassments, gratuitously imposed on them,
pap-feeders to the worms, and afterwards to the nymphs,
sometimes exceeding in number fifty thousand. _ à
Finally, this pollen, which our manual and complete trea-
tise makers would have to be wild wax, is nothing but a sac-
charine substance, brought in its native state to the hive, by
a certain number of the most avaricious neuters, who, not
satisfied with filling their stomachs, but also load the trian-
gular pellets of their thighs with pollen. This pretended
wild wax does not exist in nature, and the pollen, truly, is
nothing but a balsamic substance, convertible into honey.
I even believe, that this substance, before changing its na-
ture, may be a feast for the interior bees, who generally live
on honey, or even a balsamic remedy, necessary to preserve
health in the interior of the hive, and finally, that it is only
on these two accounts that pollen ought to be considered.
56
Having treated of the manner in which bees collect ho-
ney and pollen, and of the nature of these two balsamic
substances, it behooves me to show the best manner of pro-
ceeding to derive the greatest advantages from them. The
combs must be taken out of the boxes, and placed so as to
drip into large vases. Care should be taken to separate the
combs of the same box into two lots: the whitest yields
the most beautiful honey; that is to say, the virgin honey,
or mother drop. . ” sal
When the combs have dripped sufficiently, they must be
passed to the press, to force out the remaining honey.
These two qualities of honey should not be mixed in the
same cask. The virgin honey is infinitely better than that
which is obtained by expression. ey
Rosier says, that the ancients, who knew nothing about
sugar, used a great deal of honey in their cookery. ‘They
mixed it, also, if we may believe Virgil, with rough and
hard wine, to correct its bad quality. That custom is still
preserved in many countries.. Some regard it as a univer-
sal remedy, or panacea, and believe it a preserver from cor-
ruption, and a-prolonger of life. Pythagoras and Democri-
tus took no other aliment than bread and honey, tn the per-
suasion that this nourishment would prolong their days.
Pollio, having arrived at an extreme and happy old age,
being asked by Augustus, by what secret he had attained
to.such an age, without infirmities, answered, that his se-
cret was honey, on which he had subsisted.
This substance was in such great veneration at that time,
that it was regarded as a sacred food. The ancients also
called it the gift of the gods,—a heavenly dew,—an emana-
tion from the stars. At present we do not hold its origin
in so high respect; and the use of sugar, which has suc-
ceeded it, has banished honey from pharmacy and the
apothecaries’ shops. The poor country people still use and
make delicious. refections of it, and also salutary and
agreeable beverages. ‘
French physicians pretend that honey warms and desic-
cates in whatever form it is used; whether as aliment or
seasonings. Phlegmatic temperaments, and those who by
sickness or otherwise abound in gross or viscous humours,
cannot safely use it; and physicians. do not prescribe it, ex-
cept in diet drink, gargles, and injections. But, in surgery,
it is used: with success in lotions, to wash and deterge ul-
cers.. Honey is the surest and most efficacious of all reme-
dies against the sting of bees.
i PEU ry
(ou I Ie Mite ST ° Ua As Pa i LL
$
|
BT
ON WAX.
Sect. 3.—Wax isa gummo-balsamic substance, formed
from parts of honey which the bees pass from their first to
their second stomach when wax becomes necessary for
their works. The conversion of honey into wax is effected
by a longer cooking or digestion of the saccharine sub-
stances, which the bees receive into their first stomach for
their nourishment, and which by à momentary trituration
becomes honey. When the honey passes from the first into
the second stomach, it changes its nature and becomes
wax. |
“In the months of April and May, bees collect the ma-
terials of wax, from morning till night. But when the
weather grows warmer, they make their principal collec-
tions in the morning, because then the powders of the sta-
mina, moistened by the dew of the night, are better pre-
pared to incorporate together, and to be united in one
mass. These powders, thus united, which form crude wax,
differ essentially from the true wax, which softens under
the finger, becomes flexible as pastry, and ductile; whereas
the crude wax does not soften under the finger, is suscepti-
ble of no ductility, and is friable. Some easy experiments
demonstrate, that the dust, powder, or farina of flowers, is
the principal of wax,” &c. «+ :
In these words, Valmont de Bomare, gives the opinion
of Reaumur, and of other sages, who preceded that acade-
mician, and which opinion Messrs. Lombard, Bosc, Fébru-
rier, and others, have embraced, without knowing the cause,
and without having examined the correctness of its merits.
There is no crude or wild wax. The‘waxen material, pro-
perly so called, has never yet been discovered. —
I considered it of importance to aScertain the fact, un-
biassed by its plausibility, although presented by the most
celebrated amateurs, who have preceded me in the culture
of bees. I destroyed many swarms at the very season when
bees return in the greatest numbers, loaded with those pel-
lets which are observed on their thighs, and I never dis-
covered any part of it laid up in any cell for their own
nourishment, or for that of their couvain, which, by the by,
never eat. ‘These substances are consumed as soon as they
arrive at the hive. They are, purely and simply, the ma-
terials of honey in the state of nature, which the bees bring
home after they have glutted themselves, and on which the
58 /
queen, the drones, and domestic neuters feast, the moment
this kind of provision is presented to them. Vs
I have collected some of these pellets, which dropped
from the thighs of the bees on the stand, at the entrance
of the hive. I collected them in cones of paper, like sugar
plums. TI have tasted and eaten them, and found nothing
but sugar extracted from flowers, and its aroma was no-
thing like that of wax. _ : ae
- Réaumur, one of our luminaries in natural history, led
astray by this opinion of crude or wild (brute) waz, thought
it could be gathered from flowers and plants. He was en-
gaged in the experiment a long time, without obtaining
any favourable result. This celebrated sage avowed his de-
feat, and acknowledged that no one ought to expect real
wax but from the labour of bees. : :
During autumn and winter, bees, who live only on honey,
can discharge nothing but wax. In that season, the honey,
after having nourished the bee, uniformly passes from the
first to the second stomach. If they were fed with sugar
or vegetable sirups, they would produce honey with which
they could supply some of their cells; but in general these
insects make nothing but wax in autumn and winter.
Wax is necessary for bees in winter, for the construction
of combs and cells, which will become the cradles of new
couvain. They advance their constructions to receive the
lay of the queen, which commences in the month of Fe-
bruary, and earlier if the weather permits.
It would, therefore, be erroneous to believe, that bees
never make wax-work only when they are forced to it, to
furnish cells for the deposit of the queen’s eggs, or to
build magazines in summer, for their provisions. Nature
has made them provident, and they are occupied in winter
in these waxen works, which will be necessary for them on
the return of summer. The construction of their cells in
winter, advances in proportion to the consumption of ho-
ney. This is a fact which every body can verify. I have
often madé the experiment, about the end of October, to put
families of bees into boxes, without combs or honey, and in
the month of March, to find these boxes filled from top to
bottom with combs. Because they were never left without
honey, and with honey they could make nothing but wax.
That kind of dust which is observed on many of our smooth
skinned fruits, such as the prune, grape, &c. and which is
called the flower of fruit, is not wax, nor can it become so.
eae ee Le ARE LS. A Modul Nr ANA 1s) AC alee Liam 8) 0 CREER Le
59
till the bees have gathered it, and convereted it, first into
honey, and then into wax, in their own way.
+ The wax produced by these insects, is originally white,
and notwithstanding we take it from the hives more or less
yellow, and sometimes as black as.soot, when very old—it
may, by art, be restored to its original colour. But it is
evident that there is some which will become whiter than
others. Those furnished by the departments of Bretagne,
and particularly those of Rennes, pass for the best in Eu-
rope.
ER experienced person knows, that honey combs are
lighter the first year of their construction, than they are
the second. ‘That is to say, the wax produced by a box
full of combs, in its first year, has never the same weight
as the wax whichis taken from a box, of the same volume,
at two years old. The reason is plain. The bees each
year cover their combs with new pellicles of wax, when
they have no more room to build new combs; so that the
weight of the wax augments every year. .
Bees empty the cells of honey, which they consume in
winter, and as they render nothing but wax, (the residuum
of the honey thus consumed,) this wax is employed to repair
and fortify the combs and cells. In winter, the bees always
nous wax or propolis, from the honey on which they
eed. i
I have seen,’’ says M. Duchet, “some bees, whose
houses have been deranged, renew, repair, or solder, by
ligatures of new wax, that which had been detached—and
this in autumn, winter, and spring, without going out. It
is a fact,” continues the same author, “which Ihave seen
many times.’’ |
I have witnessed the same occurrences as stated by M.
Duchet. | -
Swammerdam says, that bees have been observed to carry
inio their hives, genuine wax. They pillaged it from
other hives, cut it into small morsels with their teeth, and
applied it to the pellets on their posterior thighs. ‘This may
be, but Réaumur says, he never observed that particularity;
and M. Chambon opposes the fact, in his learned notes at
the end of Madam Chambon’s manual. |
I dare not permit myself to decide between these two
learned and celebrated amateurs. I have never seen bees
carry away wax from any hive; but here is a positive fact,
respecting a broken comb, which took place in my own
60
dpiary, in the winter of 1806. A comb without honey,
was detached; it was cut up by the bees into little morsels,
as minced and rounded as the finest sand. Insensibly
this. hashed wax disappeared from the bench, without its
being perceived to have. been taken out of the hive. And
Tam well convinced that the bees of the family, had put
the small waxen morsels of the broken comb to a new
use, that is, to the continuation of the construction of their
cells, which they continued to build during the whole
winter, from the top to the bottom of the box. ‘These events
are not rare, but are not attended to; because among the
amateurs of the culture of bees, there are but few ob-
SETVEES Dee PN aes RE Se
à ee
ON PROPOLIS.
Sect. 4.—When a swarm of bees is established in a
hive, says M. Valmont de Bomare, their first occupation is
to stop all the little holes and chinks which they find in it,.
with a material which is glutinous, tenacious, soft at first,
but afterwards grows hard. ‘This is called propolis. It is
believed that bees collect this propolis from poplars, pines,
willows, &c. However, M. Réaumur, that indefatigable
observer, has not been able to discover them in that em-
ployment: and he saw bees using propolis, in countries
where none of those kinds of trees grew. Jt is a discovery
to be made, continues M. Bomare. However that may be,
propolis is a resin, dissoluble in spirits of wine, and oil of
turpentine. It is not always the same in consistence,
odour, or colour. When it is warmed, it commonly emits
an aromatic odour: some of it deserves a place in the rank
of perfumes. Propolis is of a reddish brown on the out-
side, and yellowish within. Besides the use which is made
of it in medicine, as a digestive, some experiments have
convinced M. Reaumur, that, dissolved in spirits of wine
or oil of turpentine, it might be substituted for the varnish
which is used to give a golden colour to silver, or to thin
plates of steel. If, for example, it was incorporated with.
mastic or sandarack, it would be very good to make gilt
leather. jh ER
The discovery to be made, proposed by M. Bomare, ts
already made! after reiterated experiments made on bees,
during their first labours in panniers, where they were
but just housed. In dissecting numbers of these bees, en-
ee bey a ath, ST a8 % A ARTE
61
gaged in stopping the chinks in their new hives, nothing
was found in their second stomach but soft wax, having
already taken, or about to take, the aroma and consist-
ence of propolis.
{ - Propolis is therefore a third substance, gummo-aromatic,
which forms in the second stomach of the bee. This pro-
polis is produced from the wax itself. : When the insect,
for a special purpose, wants a cement more solid and firm
than wax, it retains the wax, formed of honey, a longer
time in its second stomach. A longer cookery, or con-
tinued elaboration, converts this wax into a new substance,
which is distinguished by the name of propolis.
The ancients distinguished three kinds of propolis.
Pliny the younger mentions it in long detail. But at pre-
sent it is thought that there is but one sort of propolis.
Bees use this substance to overlay the interior of their
hives, and to stop all the little openings which would be
incommodious, particularly in winter, by the penetrating
winds which might intrude within their panniers or
boxes. With this also they envelop the carcases of intru-
sive animals, which, after they have stung to death, they
cannot remove from the hive. These, when embalmed in
propolis, can emit no offensive odour.
Independently of the propolis, bees furnish also another
substance, which the ancients called Erythacé. It serves
to cement the combs together: Varro and Columella thought
it better than propolis, for this use. It is less resinous
than the latter, and much less fragile than wax, says M.
N. Chambon, to whom it appeared to be a combination of
the two substances. It is found in pretty large quantities,
m the upper borders of the combs. Varro and Columella
attribute to it the property of powerfully attracting bees.
The tlusory pretension has been somewhere advanced,
continues M. Chambon, that bees can be attracted to a
hive rubbed with a certain substance.
- I take no part in the opinion of M. Chambon. The
pretension to determine or induce bees to settle in a hive
which contains some substance which they love, is no illu-
sion. Almost every summer, and sometimes in the spring,
foreign swarms come to me, and lodge with mine, even
with swarms of the same year, and in simple hives. I at-
tribute this alliance which they seek, to the custom I have,
of never receiving swarms, but in panniers or boxes where
there are combs of the preceding year, and where the fa-
F
2
milies have died for want of subsistence. I provide my-
self with these panniers, at the merchants’, who buy them
to melt the wax. If it be not to the old combs of these
hives, that I owe the arrival of the foreign bees, the true
motive is unknown to me, and this phenomenon is to be
imputed to some other physical cause, not yet discovered.
Furthermore, this substance, called by the ancients
Erithacé, would not-be collected by bees in a state of na--
ture, and can only be propolis in a state of perfection, of
which we know nothing of the process, that is to say, the
manner in which it is elaborated in the second stomach of
the insect, or the manner in which it is wrought when it is
used.
—————
CHAPTER XVII.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE ORIGIN OF HONEY, BY M. BOISSIER DE
SAUVAGE, OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF SCIENCES, OF MONT-
PELLIER:
To explain the origin of honey, it is sufficient to develop
and explain a vegetable salt, sweet and saccharine, which
is the base or principal material, and appears in a form,
either fluid, or viscous, or in little drops. HAL vi
In fact, this vegetable salt, or mellifluous essence, or ho-
ney dew, is generally the only substance which bees col-
lect to make their honey. And zt does not appear that they
do any thing more than to collect the parcels from different
sources, and put them up in store in their cells. Time
alone brings this material to perfection, and gives it the
requisite consistence.* Pi
The part of flowers which botanists call the nectarium,
or nectarine cup, is the reservoir best known, whither bees
resort to pump out a liquor, which, in its base, is the same
as the mellifluous essence, or honey dew. But after the
flowers, or at least a great part of them, have faded, the
mellifluous essence, properly so called, furnishes to these in-
dustrious insects an abundant harvest, which sometimes
exceeds their wants and avidity. Dae
I have observed two sorts of mellifluous essence, which,
#2
* Time alone could not give this matter the re uisite consistence,
if it had not been elaborated in the first stomach of the bee, and after-
ward disgorged in the state of honey. —Author. |
63
however, appear of the same nature, and with which honey
bees equally accommodate themselves. It will be seen by
the sequel, that both derive their source from vegetables,
though in a very different fashion.
The first sort, which is the only one known to agricul-
turists, passes for a sort of dew, which falls on trees, and
is, however, nothing more than a transudation, or sensible
transpiration of the sweet and melliferous juice, which, after
having circulated with the sap, in different parts of certain
vegetables, separates from it, and comes out in a state of
preparation, either in the bottom of flowers, or on the upper
parts of leaves. This is what is called mellifluous essence,
or honey dew, and which rises in some plants in the greatest
abundance, sometimes in the medullary or pithy stalk, as
in sugar cane, and Indian corn or maize; sometimes in
the pulp of fleshy fruits, which, in their maturity, have more
or less of sweet savour, according as the melliferous juice
is more or less confined, or developed by other principles.
Such is the origin of the manna of the ash trees (franes)
and maples (érables) of Calabria and Briançon, which flows
abundantly, when it is fluid, from the leaves and trunks
of these trees, and assumes, when expissating, the concrete
form, under which it is commonly employed.
I had for a long time conjectured, that the melliferous
essence or honey dew, spread on the leaves of these trees,
was nothing but a transpiration, although the form of drops
did not much resemble it, but was more like a species of
rain. On a close examination of some of these honey-bearing
trees, I by chance met, on a live oak, some of this recent
honey-dew, in its primitive form, which was that of trans-
pired moisture. ‘Vhe leaves were covered with many
thousands of globules, or minute drops, rounded and close
set, without touching, however, or mixing—very much as
may be seen on plants, after a long and thick fog. The posi-
tion of each globule, seemed already to indicate, not only
the point whence it exuded,* but also the number of the
pores or glands of the leaf, in which this honey-juice had
been prepared. I satisfied myself that this had all the
colour of honey, and that alone was sufficient to decide its
* This discavery explains very fully, the particular cause of the
superiority of the products of bees in the vicinity of woodlands and
forests. They there always find a rich booty of honey-dew, particu-
larly on the renewal of the sap and vegetation in the month of Au-
gust.—— French Editor,
64
origin, without however removing the doubts opposed to
it, by a contrary prejudice.
The honey-dew of a neighbouring bramble (ronce) was
very different; the small globules having doubtless flowed
or joined one to the other, either by the humidity of the
air, which might have softened them, or by the heat ex-
panding them, they formed large drops or tears, and the
material desiccating, had become more viscous. It is
commonly under these latter forms, that honey-dew is seen;
and it is not surprising that it was never suspected to be
transpiration.
In the season when I met with the honey-dew, in globules,
on the green oak, the tree bore two sorts of leaves; the old
were of a firm texture, like the holly and other evergreens,
and the new ones tender, having recently exfoliated. The
honey-dew is found only on the old leaves, notwithstanding
they are covered with the tufts of the new growth, and
consequently secure from every species of mist which
could fall. ‘This sufficiently proves that honey-dew is not
extraneous or foreign to the leaves moistened with it, and
that it does not fall on them, as is vulgarly supposed, inas-
much as the new shoots of the green oaks, which are most
exposed, and of course would be first touched, have not,
however, a single drop of it.
The same singularity struck me, respecting the honey-
dew of the bramble. Although by the conformation of this
shrub, all the leaves were nearly equally exposed to the
air, or to the fall of any thing vertically, there appeared no
honey-dew but on the old leaves; the recent ones had no
more of it than the new shoots of the oak, which have been
just noticed; the honey-juice, doubtless, not having had
time sufficient to be formed in the tender part of these
vegetables, or to be extracted or separated from the sap.
It is probably the effect of a long exposition to the air,
perhaps to its irregularity, and especially to the influence
of the sun, to which we ought to impute the true agency
of this secretion.
Moreover, the plants and shrubs in the vicinity of these
honey-dew trees, but of another species, and of a nature less
proper for the formation or secretion of the juice of which
we speak, did not bear the smallest vestige of it. There was :
no appearance of it on the ground about these trees, or on
the stones or rocks, where the honey-dew, although dried,
for a long time, leaves spots, as we shall see hereafter, in
65
treating of another honey-dew, which falls from trees on
the ground, but which never falls from a greater height
than the leaves of the trees; and which is a new proof that
this first species of liquid manna, comes not from heaven,
nor the clouds, like mist; because it would then sprinkle
indifferently all sorts of bodies, and would not affect some
particular vegetables, and even some parts of the same
vegetable, to the exclusion of every other.
It is true—and it is the only objection which presents
itself—it is true that the dew, according to the experi-
ments of M. Dufay, is attracted by certain bodies, when it
is not so by others. But it is known that this meteor,
which most frequently rises from the ground, floats con-
tinually in the air, subject to the least breath and to the
weakest attraction, and often attaches to the under, as well
as the upper sides of the leaves of trees. If it fell like
mist, it would moisten indifferently all bodies. The accele-
ration of its fall would cause it to surmount the obstacle
of little repulsions which it might meet in its way. It will
_be seen in the sequel of these observations, that honey-dew,
reduced to very minute drops by another very natural
way, and which I believe hitherto unknown, shows no pre-
dilection, in its fall, to one sort of body in preference to.
another, but adheres to all alike.
The ancient naturalists, of whom historians are the
echos, have for a long time amused their credulous readers
with showers of blood, and of other matters more solid.
That of honey-dew, which partakes less of the marvellous,
was still easier to imagine, because it was seldom observed
on the trees, except when thick clouds appeared in the
air, during the hot weather of June and July. Aoney-dew
does not, however, proceed from that cause. The clouds
do not concur in its, production, except by the increase of
heat which they cause, by reflecting the suns rays towards
the earth. The ordinary heats have no other effect, than
to cause the most volatile juices of plants to transpire;
whereas that heat which is raised to a higher degree, ex-
presses from them the more fixed and viscous juices, such
as that of honey-dew. |
The strainers through which the honey-dew filters to the
bottom of flowers, are more, and also larger, than those of
leaves; inasmuch as there is always some of that juice,
in the nectarine vase, so long as the plant flourishes, even
in the season most unfavourable to transpiration. It has been
F 2
66
least exposed, and this predilection cannot be the effect of
chance. Besides, it is known, that it is on the side of the
leaf, where the pores are most open and marked, that le
greatest transpiration takes place. Itis there that the excre-
tory vessels terminate, by which the humours of the plant
escape. And also the absorbents, which serve for their nu- —
trition, by attracting moisture from the rain, and from vapours
floating in the air. m tel FR
From the combined proofs just presented, it is certain that.
the first kind of honey-dew transpires from the leaves of
certain trees, and that it does not fall on them. It would be
unreasonable to fatigue this illustrious assembly, and would
seem to distrust the penetration and intelligence of those —
who compose it, to insist further, by additional proofs. I
haste to pass to the other kind of honey-dew, first mentioned,
with that on which I have just treated.*
No one has yet observed (that I know of) this second spe-
eies, the only resource left for bees (or nearly so) when
spring has passed, with the greater part of the flowers
_which embellished it, and that the honey-dew, by transpira-
tion, yields only for a few days, in very warm weather.
The origin of this second honey-dew is far from being
celestial, being produced immediately by a vile and hideous
insect, or what seems to be so; and (for it must be named)
it proceeds from a filthy bug, (puceron,) and is the very ex-
crement of that puceron, ejected from its rear, or dis-
charged from its posteriors. ‘This ejection, however, is a
component part of the most delicate honey on which we
regale. But without pausing, with the vulgar, at names and
prejudices, it is certain that this excrement, which is fluid,
and which deserves rather the name of elixir, yields in no-
thing to that which the other honey-dew possesses, of the
sweet and agreeable.
* These observations were read at the sitting of the Royal Society
ef Sciences, at Montpellier, December, 16th, 1762.
67
_ These pucerons extract this liquid, or that which is
_the material of it, through the bark of certain trees, without
injuring them, or causing any deformity, as another species
do, which crisp the leaves, or of that kind whose puncture
produces hollow protuberances in the elm and pine. They
remain immoveable, many months of the year, occupied at
their labours, that is, extracting the sap on which they sub-
sist. 3
These insects, instinctively informed of the kind of
branches most convenient for them, disdain those which are
tender, or recent, although much easier to pierce, and attach
themselves to branches of a year old, in which they pierce
a dart, which serves them, at the same time, as trunk and
sucker.*
Ht Bhs Tt is in their stomach, abdomen, or posterior passage, that
. this juice, at first rough and unpleasant, under the bark, as-
‘sumes a Sweet savour, quite equal, to judge of it by the
taste, to that of the vegetable honey-dew, as well that which
transpires from the leaves, as that which is secreted in the
nectarine cups of flowers; and if the latter has any thing
more, it is the mixture of essential oil of flowers, which
gives to honey its different flavours.t x
These pucerons are the only animals, which I know, that
really fabricate honey. Their viscera are the true laboratory
of it. This mixture of materials, or a large portion of it,
is only the excess, or residuum of their nourishment, which
they discharge, as we have said, in the ordinary way. The
bees, to whom it is our wish to pay due honour, have no
part or lot in the matter, except in the address, or ingenu-
ity, which they display, in amassing the different kinds of
honey-dew. They place it, as is well known, in entrepot, in
a kind of pouch, which they have near their mouth, to empty
it into their cells, as into a magazine, without making the
least sensible change or alteration in it.
I have proved this oftentimes, by catching bees on their
return from foraging, and pressing their corslet between my
fingers. I have even seized by the throat some of those large
* It is to the shoot alone of the preceding year that they attach, and
not to the older or younger shoots.
T I planted at Sauvages, says M. Boissier, near an apiary, a hedge
of rosemary. Since that time, the honey of the hives, which before
had no peculiar odour, was perfumed with this plant, the flowers of
which supplied the bees a long time.
Es
68 4
drones which are hairy, and variegated with two or three
. colours, who gain their living by the same trade. eghing
myself always on my guard against their stings, I have
obliged them to surrender the liquor which they had just.
collected and swallowed. ‘The large drop which came out
of the mouth, and which I sucked from the animal itself,
was of clear transparent yellow, and appeared to me of the
same quality as the ordinary honey-dew, the taste of which
was familiar to me.* 7 de
[have observed two species of these pucerons, which live
without shelter, on the bark of young branches. They are
naked and without wings. I speak of the females, which —
form the mass of the population, and are the only ones that
work at honey making. Each family has, besides, two or
three males, with wings, in their suite. These are useless — 4
mouths, which live on the labours of their companions. At
least, 1 have always seen them moving about carelessly,
over the backs of the female troop, without troubling them-
selves as they (the females) do, with sucking the bark.
Both kinds live in society, and inhabit in little balls or
pellets, on different parts of the same tree. These bugs
keep themselves crowded together, all round the branch, the ©
bark of which they entirely conceal. And, it is remarkable
that their attitude is apparently very incommodious; but
every kind of animal has its own usage or custom, and the
usage of these insects is to crowd together as closely as they
can, tail up and head down. It is to be presumed there are
reasons for their doing so, which I shall presently develop.
We will observe, in the mean time, that the smaller of the
two species of insects partake of the colour of the bark on
which they live, and which is most commonly greenish.
They are, moreover, distinguished by two horns, or two
small fleshy threads, straitand immoveable, which rise per-
pendicularly from the lateral and inferior parts of the ab-
domen, one on each side. It is this species which lives on
the top of the bramble, the elder, and young apple trees.
The other species, more than twice the size, is what I
have principally in view, because they distill the honey
* In my observations, which I give in the next chapter, it will be
. seen that I am not entirely of opinion with M. Boissier, on the quality
of that excrementous honey, dejected by the pucerons. It isnot yet
honey, nor will it become so, till after it has been elaborated in the sto-
mach of the bee,—Author.
# Là
69
dew which the bees collect. This kind is blackish, and has
no horns, like the preceding; but it is marked on that part
of the skin with a small black pustule, or button, shining
bright as jet. Biassed by what some naturalists had ad-
vanced, and others repeated, I thought that these horns, as
they asserted, carried at their ends a liquid which the ants
went thither to suck. But on observing a little closer, I
found that what attracted the ants was ejected from a dif-
ferent part, both in the large and small pucerons, and that
it did not exude from the horns of the latter more than
from those which the caterpillars have on their tails.
Some bees afforded me an opportunity to inform myself
on this point. Their buzzing in the midst of a tuft of
green oak, induced me to suspect that some pressing in-
terest had attracted them thither. In fact, although it was
not the season of honey dew, which I had known, nor the
place where it was usually found, I saw with surprise, the
leaves and branches in the middle of the tuft covered with
it. It was a festival for the bees, who, grumbling, collect-
ed the honey drops.
The singular form of these drops attracted my notice,
and occasioned the small discovery which I now report. In
lieu of being rounded, like drops which had only fallen,
these formed, each a little oval, much elongated. It was
easy to discover whence they came. The gluey leaves, to
which the bees attached themselves, were directly under
some of those groups of the large black pucerons. On ex-
amining them, I perceived some from time to time, who
raising their abdomen, showed at the end of it a small tear
of transparent liquor, of the colour of amber, which they,
the instant after, threw off some inches distant. I put
some of these ejections, which I had reeeived on my hand,
to my mouth, and found they had the same taste as those
which had already fallen on the leaves. I had occasion to
see the same manceuvre in the smaller species, or among
the horned kind. They ejected the drop from the same
eg in the same manner, and in a situation precisely simi-
ar.
This ejection, moreover, which alone gives the drop an
elongated form, is by no means done by chance, nor is it a
matter of indifference with those insects. Itseems, on the
contrary, to have been regulated by a sage police, to pre-
serve cleanliness among this little people, or to guarantee
from pollution, both the insect itself, who throws his excre-
a s SES
À
70
ment such a distance, and also his comrades pressed around —
him, who without this manceuvre, would be englued and un-
able to act. |
It is a fact well understood, that if the drop passed out
without effort, the insect which delivered it being placed,
as we have said, his tail up, and head down, the excrement
would fall on himself first, before his companions could be
spattered with it. But what advantage, it may be asked, is
there in this whimsical position? There is every appear-
ance, that in the manners of these insects, there is nothing
offensive in the mode; that it is even necessary, at least it is
to them very commodious, for projecting the drop with ad-
vantage.
To judge fairly of it, it is only necessary to observe, that
their abdomen is twenty times greater than the rest of their
body; that is, their head and corslet taken together. It is
as much as they can do, to drag it slowly after them. But
if the insect was in an attitude, contrary to that in which
we see him, it would be very difficult for him to raise that
heavy. mass, when he wanted to be relieved from the press,
that the expulsion of the drop might clear the troop, and
pass beyond: instead of which, by having the head down
and the abdomen exposed, these insects make much less ef-
fort by bending a little forward when they feel a necessity.
However, with all the advantage which this situation affords
them, it appears that they still make a great effort, as it
were, to collect all their strength.
I have not observed them to keep this position continu-
ally, but only in fine weather. When winter approaches,
the cold or the rains oblige the pucerons to range on the
side of the branch best sheltered. As they at this time ex-
tract but little juice from the bark, and their dejections are
less frequent, they place themselves indifferently, their ab-
domen up or down. The cold increasing their strength,
obviates the disadvantage of the last attitude, for raising
the abdomen, and raising the anus in such a way that the
neighbours may not suffer by it. If it were not so, it would
be worse for those who would be englued. In this bad,
season, the pucerons only languish, and each lives, and ar-
ranges himself to the best of his knowledge and ability.
The drops of this liquid, projected, fall on the ground,
where there are no leaves or branches to intercept them,
and the stones remain spotted a long time, if no rain comes
to wash them out, This is the only kind of honey which
re:
rains, or falls, like dew. But it never falls from a point
higher than the branches where the groups of pucerons are
fixed.
This last circumstance, and the one immediately preced-
ing, have given me an explanation of a phenomenon, which
formerly embarrassed me. I was passing under a linden
tree, (tilieul) in the king’s garden at Paris, when I felt some
very minute drops fall on my hand, which I at first took for
mist, I should have been screened from the mist by the shade
of the tree, but, on the contrary, I avoided it by passing out
of the shade. A bench which stood under the tree, was
shining bright, and, on touching it, I perceived a glutinous
matter, which was honey-dew.
At that time, I knew nothing of any kind of honey-dew,
but that which transpires from vegetables. How, said I to
myself, can a suvstance so viscous fall immediately from the
leaves, in so small drops, when rain water cannot detach it-
self from them, and overcome its natural adhesion, till after
it has combined in grosser masses? I did not, at that time,
conceive of the honey-dew ejected by those pucerons. I satis-
fied myself, however, that it was some of their work, hav-
ing since known that the linden tree is very subject to these
vermin, and that it is one of the kinds of trees which
abounds in this sort of honey-juice.
The honey-bee is not the only insect, as we have already
insinuated, which makes its delicacies of it. The ants have
claims on this nectar, quite as well established, and in which
they are quite as epicurean. Some naturalists have before
noticed the appetite of these Jatter, without knowing the
reservoir of that which is the object of it, viz. the pucerons.
They move round the swarm of these insects, to spy the
moment when the manna drops. Very different from the
bees, the ants, which live from hand to mouth, or from day
to day, work only for themselves, and we never profit by an
excess of harvest from them. |
Two sorts of ants go in quest of the pucerons; each has
its separate district, and never sports on the pleasures of
the other, though weaker. The large, black wood-ants, have
their department over the black pucerons of the oaks and
chesnut trees. "The smaller ants pursue the green pucerons
on the elder and bramble, (ronce.) The pincers of neither
are suited to pick up or collect the honey-dew, which
spreads over the bodies on which it falls. ‘They abandon
this to the bees, who are employed below, and establish them-
12
selves at the source, to seize the instant, as we have already
said, when the desired liquid appears in form of a drop, at
the End of the anus. Fat,
The ants are not accused of idleness : those of which we
now speak are constantly, and without relaxation; at their
posts, around the pucerons. They wait the favourable mo- -
ment, with gaping mouth and open pincers, to precipitate
themselves on the first drop which appears; if it escapes
them, they only resolve to be patient, till the age as “of
a new one may promise better fare.
Certain plants furnish only a scanty extract to the puce-
rons, and the portion of it rendered by these insects, is al-
most wholly taken off by the small ants. It is éasier for
these latter parasites to seize on every part of this liquid ©
excrement, because that of the lilile pucerons, stops a short
time at the point of the anus, before it is projected, which
deprives the bees of every hope of college any thing
after these little ants.
Other trees, such as the oak and chesnut, furnish much
more of that elixir to the large black pucerons, particularly
when those trees are full Ge sap. But, in recompense, the
excrementous drop hardly makes any stop; it is projected
immediately, and the large ants do not find so much profit
as in the little preceding “har vest.
It is very pleasant to observe their cabnesinesss to see
them running and vexing themselves; moving from one pu-
ceron to anothers snatching at every thing, and catching al-
most nothing. There is, “therefore, less “crowd. about the
black pucerons. The greater part of the ants in their suite
grow discouraged, and scarcely more than three or four can
be seen where thirty might live at their ease.
The bees, who seem to live only on the desert, or what
escapes the vigilance or address of the large ants, are not-
withstanding much better served, having the proper instru-
ments for collecting the scattered honey: -dew, of which they
make ample provision, and which they know how to use by
themselves. If this desire, of accumulating, did not turn to
our advantage, we should be induced to charge the bee with
avarice, of which they would otherwise be the emblem, | ra
ther than the ant. The greatest collection is made in tl
time of the great flowing of sap, in the month of June, when
the pucerons, on their part, find an easier and more abun-
dant nourishment, notwithstanding they suck it through the
bark. Hence their vigour increases, their population aug-
Ae
73
ments, and by natural consequence, the icipetions become
greater and more frequent.
“These dejections are more rare in autumn. I have hawever,
seen some of them, at the end of October, on chesnuts and
white oaks, which had already dropped half their leaves.
Other pucerons, which, in the same time, had been more ex-
posed to the north wind, scarcely rendered any thing. The
honey-dew, or dejections of both, dried uselessly on the trees.
The bees, at that season, preferred the flowers of the ar-
buste in the vicinage, and neglected the animal honey-dew,
that is to say, the dejections of the pucerons.
Although these insects pierce the whole thickness of the
bark, in a thousand places, even to the wood, and deprive
the branches of a part of their nourishment, ‘the tree does
not seem to feel it, nor do the leaves lose any of their ver-
dure. The dart, or sucker, which these pucerons use, is so
very fine, that it is difficult to distinguish the marks of it on
the places pierced. ‘They are only gentle bleedings of a body
in good order and full of humours.*
These pucerons have the merit, worthy of our attention,
of being useful to us, inasmuch as, without injuring our
trees, they compose a diet. which honours our tables, and
the bees which have the sole charge of preparing or elabo-
rating it, allow us to partake a share.
The large black pucerons, which are detested, and which
the farmers destroy pitilessly,and indiscriminately, with the
* These insects are peculiar in their natural history, an account of
which I have left in the orginal language, for the benefit of the
learned.
‘Ce n’est point, comme on voit, l’histoire des pucerons que jai
entrepris de faire. Je n’en ai rapporté que ce qui appartient à mon
sujet. MM. de Réaumur, et Bonnet de Genève ont exposé dans de
savans Mémoires ce que la génération de ces insectes offrait de cu-
rieux et d’intéressant. On sait en particulier, d’après ce dernier, que
la race puceronne se reproduit non-seulement en suite de lPaccou-
plement entre les deux sexes; mais ce qui dut alors bien étonner,
les femelles, dit M. Bonnet, deviennent fécondes sans avoir eu, pen-
dant plusieurs générations de mère en fille (car il faut ici changer les
expressions vulgaires,) sans avoir eu, dis-je, la compagnie du mâle.
Ce sont de vrais androgynes; et ils le sont beaucoup plus que les
limaçons qui, ayant chacun les deux sexes à la fois, ne laissent cepen-
dant pas de s ’accoupler réciproquement; et comme si ce n’était pas
avoir déjà poussé la singularité assez loin, il semble qu’il soit indif-
férent à nos pucerons d’être ovipares comme les oiseaux, ou vivipares
comme les quadrupèdes. Ils pondent des œufs dans une saison, et
mettent bas des petits dans une autre,”
G
74
mischievous class, deserve a different treatment, or rather
the favour and kindness allowed to bees in the fabrication
of honey. If, on the contrary, they would favour the propa-
gation of these little animals, of which they know not the,
benefit, they might multiply the services which they render
us, and augment the harvest of the bees. me Mle ee
The more we apply ourselves to the study of the different.
productions of Nature, the better we shall perceive, that if
they do not all turn to our immediate advantage, they.
at least tend to other ends, which should make us admire,
in their sovereign Author and Principle, an intelligence pro-
found, a wisdom infinite. x oe “a
CHAPTER XVIII.
CONFIRMATION OF THE PRECEDING DISCOVERY, BY NEW
“EXPERIMENTS OF THE AUTHOR OF THE PYRAMIDAL
HIVE, &cs: 9° av B.S
When I read for the first time, some years ago, the obser-
vations of M. Boissier de Sauvages, (the foregoing chapter,)
on the origin of honey, I was struck with astonishment; at
the boldness of the system, of which no agronomist had
ever spoken, or even suspected. ‘This was the end of the
year 1808, and long before we were able to begin our expe-
riments on this branch of natural history, following the steps
of this naturalist, L read his observations daily, with the
most profound attention, and in the beginning of spring,
I conceived the opinion, that this discovery might be by no
means problematical; however, to remove all my doubts, it
was necessary that the results of my studies and experi-
ments should conform to those which that sage said he had
obtained. 3 3
This discovery seemed to me so valuable for the advance- -
ment of the improvement of bees, an improvement which,
in my opinion, ought to be extended. to an infinitely greater
degree, that I determined nothing should be’ neglected to
satisfy me of its utility. : | |
. Nevertheless, all my projects and hopes vanished, when
Ireflected, that since M. Boissier de Sauvages wrote, in 1762,
and no agronomist had answered the publication of his dis-
covery; that Messrs. Bosc and Feburier, who had become
oracles in this branch of rural economy, particularly Mr.
75
Bosc, who pretended to supremacy in the universal know-
ledge of the subject, had kept a profound silence. On the
one hand, I was astonished at my own audacity, bat on the
other, I thought that those modern sages who commonly
sow and plant in their saloons, and on their green carpets,
might possibly have never seen or observed the pucerons of
the academician of Montpellier, on their painted trees, nor
the excrementous dejections of these insects on their man-
tels, I took courage. n'en À
Finally, after many fruitless researches, during the
months of April and May, towards the end of June, I was
arrested by a considerable humming in the branches of an
old oak, planted beside a foss, which had been lopped about
five or six years. I thought at first that this might be a
swarm, which was rallying or settling on the tree. I ex-
amined attentively, and could see no bee flying about, but
it seemed as if [ could hear thousands of them humming.
I climbed the tree, and soon observed a legion of bees
foraging on the leaves, without flying or leaving the places
and [I discovered the animal honey-dew, which | desired to
find. But it remained for me to discover, and know par-
ticularly, the insects which dispensed it with so much libe-
rality. I climbed a little higher on the tree, and in less
than two feet above the bees, I observed the pucerons of
M. de Sauvages.
This first sitting confined me from half-after two, till
near seven o’clock in the evening. I quit the tree with
the last bee. The pucerons did not seem to incline to re-
pose at sunset: I left them at their work. I tasted repeat-
edly the liquor which they spilled on the under branches
and leaves of the tree, but did not find it so mellifluous as
M. Boissier announced. It retained a little cf that bitter-
ness derived from the essence and sap of the tree; but I
thought that in the stomach of the bee, this substance
would easily acquire the consistence and aroma of honey.
The next day I was at the rendezvous, a long time be-
fore the bees. I examined the work of the pucerons; by
inspecting the leaves, bark, and under branches, on which
the dejections of these insects had fallen during the night.
A part of the excrementous fluid had fallen from the
leaves and branches, to the ground, or on the grass. But
by inspection, I computed that the dejections, from evening
till morning, might be about the value of half an ordinary
table-glass each night, and about a third more during the
76
day. I tasted the liquid, and remarked the same little
bitterness as the night before. It was not yet honey.
"The bees did not begin to collect till eleven o’clock, *
A. M.; but they then arrived from all quarters. They
certainly came from different families, and even different
villages. Notwithstanding, they plundered in the greatest
harmony; and as soon as each had gotten its load, it set
out, and directed its course towards the hive. The arrival of
others was continued. It was like the successive and con-
tinued arrival and departure of a considerable population,
at a great country fair. The paths through the air were
covered with bees, and I could easily perceive, on each of
the routes, two lines, going and coming, formed by two
files of these insects.
The pucerons did not appear to me to be much deranged
from the station in which I left them the night before.
However, I thought I could remark a small change of
place, scarcely sensible, and the group. appeared more
populous than on the preceding day. I might be deceived
in this article; but I obtained the certainty of the existence
of the dark brown pucerons, of which M. Boissier de Sau-
vages had (first of our naturalists) given us a knowledge.
I also ascertained satisfactorily the utility of these insects
to the bees, in their art of expressing the juice and sap of
the oak, from the shoots of the preceding year. I con-
tinued my assiduities near this and some other oaks, where
IT had the same good fortune, until I could no longer find
any bees upon them. It appeared to me that the pucerons
became a prey to the little birds of the hedges, and that
the bees, no longer finding an interest there, abandon them
of their own accord, towards the end of August, in northern
climates. | |
It remained for me to gain a knowledge of the other
trees and shrubs, of which M. Boissier had spoken, to sa-
tisfy myself also of their relative properties, for the birth
and subsistence of pucerons. [ have made it my continued
study, from that epoch; and have not only confirmed my-
self in the high opinion which I had conceived of the ex-
actitude and truth of the discovery of M. Boissier, but I
also found many other trees and shrubs, which that natu-
ralist had not noticed, from which the pucerons also obtained
products, of which the bees profited as well as the ants,
and an infinity of other insects. :
The brownish pucerons appear to me to furnish the most
TT
of the honey material. The green are of two.species. ‘The
“one also furnishes juice to the bees, but in less quantity
than the preceding. ‘The other species of green pucerons,
are useless to our precious insects, and. pernicious to the
trees. This last kind ordinarily finish their career, by en-
veloping themselves in the leaves of the trees on which
they live, and which they crisp and destroy:
Such are the new resources for the subsistence of bees,
which were unknown to us, before the observations of M.
Boissier de Sauvages, the reading and study of which, have
produced mine. Other amateurs of the culture of bees,
and among them, M. Rosi, merchant of Redon, have also
begun to make their individual remarks on this part of our
natural history. M. Rosi was led to it, by seeing some
stones bedewed with a viscous matter, which gave them a
shining appearance, and which, attracted a great many
bees, near a slate quarry, which he was working. This
viscous matter fell from an oak, standing near his quarry,
on some refuse slate. He attributed it, he said, to the
transudation of the leaves of the tree. This learned ama-
teur made a strict examination, and found on the tree, a
family of pucerons. He satisfied himself that the substance
sucked by these insects through the bark of the tree, and
dejected in excrements, was not yet honey as it passed out
of their abdomen. It is however a proper material to pro-
duce honey, but it must be first elaborated in the stomach
of the bee. | ,
Te
CHAPTER XIX. |
OF ANIMALS AND INSECTS ENEMIES OF BEES.
Bees have a great many enemies, because they are labo-
rious, and live in plenty. In winter, and often in summer,
they are besieged by other insects, who never have any
provisions, but what they procure from day to day, by
robbery. Moles, rats, and the different kinds of mice, are
not the most dangerous when the bees are lodged in wooden
boxes, the openings of which in winter, do not present an
entry sufficiently large for the passage of these animals.
In this season, the openings should be no larger than suffi-
cient for the passage of one or two bees at a time. In
spring and summer, the bees are too vigorous to fear any
thing from that class of enemies. It is known that these
G2
73
small animals cannot move reversed, (feet up and back
down,) it will be sufficient then, to guard against them,
that the legs of the bench be placed about three inches.
from its border, and about two feethigh* © 9 = —
The wrens and sparrows give no truce to their depreda-
tions on bees. ‘These birds are infinitely more injurious to
them, than the moles and other animals of that class, be-
cause their war is continual. In all seasons of the year,
these birds watch the bees, and seize on them, sometimes:
in mid air, and sometimes on the very benches of the hives. ~
In winter, they may be seen rapping gently with their
beaks, at the entrance of the hive, and as soon as the sen-
tinel-bee appears, it is suddenly seized, and immediately
carried off. ‘Fhe bird very soon devours its prey, and re-
turns forthwith to watch for another. … PR PE petite
Another terrible enemy in summer, is the wasp. It is
continually flying around in front of the hives, skimmin
the ground, very little above the surface, and all bees.
which he meets alone and isolated, whether on the ground
or on the borders of the bench, become his victims. Hap-_
pily the wasp is as timid and cowardly, as he is cruel. He
is afraid to introduce himself into, the boxes, when the bees.
are in force. It is only when he knows the weakness of
the population, that he dares enter the box.
The more easily to destroy these mischievous wasps, the:
apiary should be kept neat and clean, that they may the
more easily be discovered. Some morsels of meat, either
yaw or cooked, should be thrown down before the hive; of
this they are very greedy, and when they are occupied on.
their pillage, they may be easily destroyed, by beating
them with a furze bush, or broom. ‘Their retreats in the
fields should be hunted and burnt.
Wasps du not exist in winter. ‘They all perish at the
end of autumn, by cold or famine. But at the end. of June,.
or the beginning of July, the eggs of the preceding year,
hatch, and produce new wasps. ‘his is a fact well veri-
fied. .: |
Spiders, says M. Rosier, are inimical to bees, not on
their provisions, but on the bees themselves. They are
carnivorous, and not satisfied by honey, which they des-
pise.. If they can penetrate into the hive, unknown to the
bees, they fix on some corner to spread their web, to en--
* See page 50, How does this tally with legs ten inches high?
49
snare those bees who have the imprudence to let them-
selves be caught. The ravages which these spiders commit;
are too inconsiderable to injure the population of the hives:
but bees, who do not accommodate themselves to such.
filth, abandon their domicile, if they cannot get rid of
them.
It is during winter that the spiders insinuate themselves
into the hive, without being perceived by the bees. ‘The
avenues are too well guarded in summer, to allow them to
intrude into the hives, when the bees are full of vigour and
courage. When the hives are to be cleaned, it is essen-
tially necessary to examine their interior, and to remove
the spiders, who ordinarily spread their webs in the
corners, and but for these webs, the bees would extricate
themselves from this sort of enemy, who have no weapon
_ to oppose the sting. a #.
The most dangerous and redoubtable enemy of bees,
is the false moth. 'This is a little caterpillar, produced
from an egg laid by the phalene or night butterfly, which
often destroys itself in our apartments, in the flames of
candles, and which lay their eggs in tapestry and other
stuffs. This same kind of butterfly, on the return of spring,
is very common in the country; they are seen in swarms
about old oaks, where they are hatched in the mosses on
the bodies and branches of trees. ‘This butterfly flutters.
day and night around bee-hives, and they often introduce
themselves into the hives, when the families are weak, and:
not well guarded by the bees. They lay their eggs in the
combs. ‘The concentrated heat in the hive, hatches them;
littie worms come out, which live as young bees do, with-
out the care of father, mother, or nurse; and these little
worms become caterpillars, which are known by the name
of false moths. |
M. Varombey, author of the French hive, in his treatise:
on the culture of bees, gives a perfect statement of the
ravages of these insects, which, at first almost imperceptible,
nourish themselves on the wax, which had*served them for
a cradle. While they are growing, they spin themselves a
silken envelope, for a retreat—at first very small, but
afterward as large as the bowl of a quill. "Fhese redoubt-
able miners, perfectly secure in the midst of their enemies,
extend their ramparts as fast as they consume. the wax.
For the purpose of eating, they extend their head, armed
with a casque or helmet, out of the shell or case which
- conceals them, and thus carry on their robberies peaceably,.
80:
setting at defiance the stings of the bees which they rob.
As the moths grow, their ravages increase. The bench. of
the hive is covered with the wreck of the hashed combs, | |
the honey flows from the gnawed and broken cells, the
couvain falls from its demolished cradle, and the bees,
discouraged, abandon a dwelling, where they no longer en-
joy in peace the fruit of their labours.
To prevent the attacks of the false moths, care ought to
be taken to have none but strong hives, whose wax is not
too old. But in the pyramidal hive, the wax has not time”
to grow old. Each case is removed in the second autumn:
the” honey is removed the same year that the upper box is
removed. Thus, this caterpillar is not dangerous to the
pyramidal hive, where it cannot penetrate, much less cause
any considerable ravages. In the pyramidal hive, there
are no lateral Openings, as in the French and village hives.
The only opening in a pyramidal hive, for communication.
between one case and another, has only a thread of wax,
about the thickness of a little finger, which attaches the
combs of the upper box, to the next below. ‘This fixture,
between the combs, serves the bees as a ladder, to go and
Ruy
come, ascend and descend, from one box or story to ano-"
ther; but the moth cannot pass that way.
Lice are sometimes observed’on bees. This kind of in-—
sect indicates the antiquity of the hives, and the necessity
to change the boxes. This vermin is never found in the
pyramidal hive, because the boxes are changed too often for
them to breed.
Frogs, lizards, and toads, feed on all kinds of insects,
disseminated on the herbage, and if they find dead or stu-
pified bees, they make their profit by them, but their ravages.
are inconsiderable. Nevertheless, if these animals axe
found among the hives, or in the environs, they ought to be
destroyed.
es
» CHAPTER XX.
ON HYDROMEL.
Hydromel i is a beverage prepared with honey and water.
It is made of different qualities, according to the use for
which it is destined. There is the simple, the compound,
and the medicinal. ‘The manner of preparing is nearly the
same in different factories, varying, however in different
countries, in the greater or less quantities and qualities of
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the material, also in the difference of coction. We will
here give the various modes of preparation, for the better
information of the country people. We will also state the
different processes recommended by divers practical agro-
nomists.
A great deal of hydromel is consumed in the north of
Europe. Hydromel is the ordinary beverage in Russia,
Sweden, Denmark, &c. . This drink is not used to a suf-
ficient extent in France. It would be of great utility im the
vine countries, in years when the vintage is not sufficient
to meet the foreign demand and home consumption. The
same consideration ought to have. place in cider countries,
when the harvest of apples does not furnish the necessary
quantities.
Simple hydromel, is made only with honey and common
water; and when it has acquired a strength equal to wine,
either by the quantity of honey put into it, or by boiling, or
by fermentation, it is called vinous.
To make vinous hydromel, requires one pound of honey
to three pints of water. The most beautiful honey, (called
mother drop,) the newest, and most agreeable to the taste,
ought to be employed for this liquor. The honey of Nar-
bonne, when the white honey of other countries cannot be
furnished, produces hydromel superior to that made with
the honey of Bretagne. However, when these last are well
prepared, excellent hydromel is obtained. The honey must
be wet with water, in a tinned copper vessel, and the mix-
ture boiled gently over the fire, until it has acquired a con-
sistence sufficient for a fresh egg .to swim in it, without
sinking to the bottom of the vessel. Care must be taken.
to skim the liquor while boiling. When this is done, it”
must be strained through a linen cloth, or hair seive; ther
about half of it must be poured into a new barrel, washed
repeatedly with boiling water, and afterwards with one or
two pints of white wine, that no disagreeable odour may
remain. When the barrel is full it must not be bunged,
but the bung-hole only covered with a piece of linen cloth,
to prevent any filth falling into it. Then it must be placed
in a stove, or in a corner of a chimney, in which a little fire
must be kept day and night, to keep the liquor gently warm,
and make it ferment. : ie
The other part of the hydromel is to be put in bottles,
or into very clean earthen jugs, with narrow necks, observ-
ing not to cork them, but only. cover them with a linen
eloth, like the barrel, and set them within the chimney.
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This bottled hydromel serves to supply the waste occasion-
ed by fermentation in the barrel, which fermentation should
continue about six weeks. After that timé the barrel must
be stopped with a bung, enveloped with a small piece of |
linen. It must not be driven in too deep, because it must
be occasionally taken out to fill the barrel, which must be
laced in a cellar, and there remain during winter. When
it is observed that the hydromel ceases to condense, or
shrink in the cask, and that there is a continual froth round
the bung, it may then be driven home, and the barrel must
remain unmoved till it be tapped’ to put the hydromel in
bottles. mR Me .
It would be much better to make the hydromel ferment
by isolation, that is to say, by exposing it to the sun. But
as the sun is not always above the horizon, its heat cannot
produce a fermentation, either:so equal or prompt as that
which is produced in stoves or chimneys. This might be
remedied by moving the cask into a warm place every
evening towards sunset; but that would require much care
and address, not to disturb the lee which collects at the
bottom. This lee is of a brown colour, and much more liquid
than that of wine. poe: :
The consistence of vinous hydromel approaches near to
that of sirup, and its taste that of Spanish, or Malvoisie
wine. It is cordial, and stomachic, and dissipates winds,
or flatulencies; cures colics which proceed from them;
aids respiration, and resists contagion. The simple, ordi:
nary sirup, is made like the vinous, only that it is not al-
lowed to ferment.
To make compound hydromel, while the quantity of wa-
ter and honey before mentioned, for the preparation of sim-
ple hydromel, is boiling, take “Damascus raisins, in the
proportion of half a pound, to six pounds of honey. These
must be cut in two, and boiled in four pints of water, till
the quantity be reduced one half. The liquor thus dimi-
nished, must be strained through a cloth, with a light ex-
Presion of the raisins. It is then to be mixed with the
ydromel, and the whole boiled together for some time.
Afterwards a toast of bread, soaked in beer, must be put
into it; and having skimmed the froth newly formed, the
liquor is to be taken from the fire and left to settle. It
must then be gently decanted, or poured off, to separate it
from the sediment, and put into a cask, as before prescribed;
in which must be first put an ounce of the best salt of tar-
tar, dissolved in a glass of spirits of wine. Care must he
2
83.
taken that the cask be full. After that it must be exposed
to the full heat of the sun, or in a very warm stove-room,
taking care to fill it till it ceases discharging froth. Hav-
ing filled it for the last time, it may be stopped close and
moved into the cellar, where having remained some months,
it may be drawn off and bottled.
This compound hydromel is excellent to fortify the sto-
mach, particularly of those who are troubled with the heart-
burn; to suppress the vapours which cause headachs; to
remove obstructions in the lower bowels; to cure the
_ phthysic, asthma, and all pulmonary complaints.
To render this compound more agreeable, five or six
drops of the essence of canella, may be mixed with the spi-
rits of» wine, in which the salt of tartar is dissolved. The
vind of citron, or orange peel, raspberries, flowers and aro-
matics, as may suit different tastes, may be infused. in it.
This liquor may be used in place of wine.
~~ Thus M. Chomel, in his Economical Dictionary, has given
us the method of making simple and compound hydromel;
and'as those who have written since have added nothing
to the excellence of his: process, we have thought it our
duty ‘to publish it for general information. But as M.
Chomel, and those who followed him, wrote only for the
richer class, they omitted to give the method of making
common or ordinary hydromel, such as is used by common
people in town and country. pie
This common or ordinary hydromel, is prepared like the
simple vinous hydromel, with the exception that it is not
fermented, and the quality and quantity of the honey may be
inferior, and in smaller proportion, to the quantity of water
used. With two pounds of honey, and twenty pints of wa-
ter, very good common hydromel is made, by boiling them
together over a moderate fire, till about one-third of the
water be evaporated, or till an egg will swim onit. The
liquor must be skimmed, and put into a cask, and the boil-
ings and skimmings of the honey and water, in like pro-
tions, must be repeated, and continued to be poured into
the cask till it be filled. It must be left two or three days
to settle, when the cask may be tapped for use. This liquor
may be made more or less generous, (this is the technical
word in the country,) in proportion to the quantity of ho-
ney used. And this depends on the ability of the people
who make and drink it. It is stomachic, and absorbs the
sweat of the labourers exposed to the heat of the sun, in the
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time of harvest, threshing the grain, &c. It is inebriating,
if drank to excess. | : ae aa
Vulnerary hydromel is often. made with decoctions of
vulnerary herbs and a little honey, as a beverage for those
who have pulmonary diseases. : *. ) me
, CHAPTER XXES A d'u 7
PROCESS FOR. CONVERTING HONEY INTO WHITE INODOROUS
SUGAR, BY MR. FOUQUES, CHEMIST, EMPLOYED IN THE
SOUTH OF FRANCE, BY HIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR AND
KING, TO TEACH THE ART OF MAKING SUGAR WITH INDI-
GENOUS MATERIALS. A 6 m +
Beautiful sugar can be made with the honey of Bretagne,
if nothing but an excellent whiteness and savour be re-
quired. But it ought not to be expected, that sugar could
be obtained, having all the qualities of that made from
cane. A Vus Oe a
A white saccharine matter can be extracted from it, re- —
sembling the fine sugar of cane, but it will never attain that
degree of brilliant crystallization of cane sugar. It will
erystallize in small particles, resembling grains of millet.
Honey can produce two very valuable articles at the
same time, viz. concrete sugar and sirup, very much re-
sembling that made of Muscovado sugar. _
To proceed in these operations, it will, at first, be ne-
eessary to be provided with an areometer, which is used
to weigh the sirups, and two or three strainers, to filter the
liquid. It will also be necessary to have a copper basin,
with a flat bottom, and net deep; and finally, a furnace pro-
portioned to the basin. |
When the proper time has arrived to commence the ope-
rations, the honey is put into large earthen pans, and ex-
posed to a great degree of cold. It must be covered with a
thin cloth, to prevent any filth from falling into it. By this
arrangement, the honey will crystallize to its maximum,
‘When the honey is thus crystallized, it must be taken out
of the pans, and put into sacks of strong white cloth. The
mouths of the sacks must be tied and submitted to the
press, at first lightly, lest the sacks should burst, after-
wards a little harder, and finally, as hard as possible.
The cakes are then to be taken out of the sacks, crum-
85
bled and rolled between two cloths, and afterwards re-
placed in the sacks, and pressed over again.
When, by repeated pressing, the honey as well as the
sacks remain dry, it must be taken out, and dissolved in
water, and a pound of bullock’s blood mixed with a hun-
dred pounds of honey.
This liquid must be placed over the fire, and be care-
fully skimmed as long as any scum or froth arises. And
as soon as it raises the areometer to twenty degrees, it
must be poured off into a strainer, in which there has been
put clean ashes, (one-fourth full,) sifted, and repeatedly
washed, and there left to filter. It may remain about
eight days, and if it has not thickened at the bottom, it
must be put over the fire again, to reduce it. Charcoal,
beat as small as peas, must be put into it, while boiling.
This charcoal should first be put into an iron riddle or
sifter,.and washed as long as any of the pieces will pass
through. The fire must be kept up as brisk as possible,
and when the ebullition of the sirup shall mark the thirty-
fourth degree on the areometer, it must be poured into a
hair sieve placed over an earthen pan: at the end of three
or four days, it will be crystallized. |
If it be not white enough, it may be crumbled again, and
put into the cloths, and pressed. By repeating this last
operation, it will become very white, particularly if in the
last pressing, the cloths are a little humid.
When the sugar shall become sufficiently white, it may
be dried in the air. If it be wanted in loaves, it must be
put in a saucepan, in or over boiling water. Although it
be dry in appearance, it will dissolve by this mild heat,
and it may be poured into paper, whence it may be taken
out, when it shall become cool. In this state, it will
sweeten as freely as sugar of cane, but it may require a
little more of it. |
A valuable sirup may be made from the washings of the
sacks, in which the several preparations have been pressed,
and also from the washings of the charcoal, and the scum
of the boilings. It would rival the sirup made from the
best muscovado or refined sugar.
Note.—There is no kind of liquor or ratafy, which can-
not be made of this sirup, as perfectly as from the sirup of
refined muscovado sugar.
That kind of Martinique liquors, known by the name
of Madame Amphouz, and since by that of Grand Mai-
H
86
son,—are perfectly imitated by this sirup of honey, of
Bretagne. It has become a very considerable article of
commerce; and the famous epicures and gastronomes of
Rocher de Concale, at Paris, who daily indulge in it at the
close of their banquets, swear by the rum of Martinique.
All sorts of comfits are perfectly prepared with the same
sirup. The skill of the artist contributes more to the
goodness of the composition, than the difference of the ma-
terial, when the honey sirup is well prepared. But con-
fectioners and distillers ought to be silent, lest they awake
a prejudice which would otherwise soon cease.
ee
CHAPTER XXII.
PROCESS FOR PURIFYING HONEY IN SMALL QUANTITY.
. Take honey, six pounds; water, one pound; powdered
chalk, two ounces and a half; pulverized charcoal, washed
and dried, five ounces; the whites of three eggs, beat in
three ounces of water, for each pound of honey.
Put the honey, water, and chalk, into a copper vessel, .
and boil it about two minutes. ‘Then add the charcoal,
stir and mix it well with a spoon or spatel, and the boiling
continued about two minutes more. Then take the vessel
off the fire, and let the liquor cool about a quarter of an
hour; and then strain it through a hair sieve, taking care to
return the first drippings into the sieve, because they al-
ways take with them a little of the charcoal. The liquor
thus filtered, is sirup properly prepared.
PS
CHAPTER XXIII.
ON DISEASES OF BEES.
Bees are not subject to any habitual disease. The only
one with which they are sometimes, but not often, danger-
ously attacked, is the dysentery. And this only happens
accidentally, when early in spring, they forage on plants
which are familiar to them in summer, and at that season
nourishing; but whose juices at so early a season, not
being proper for the fabrication of honey, corrupt on the
stomach of these insects. This never occurs except in
} hth b Fou ‘se
ds Tt Ae > Per TRE PR ASS 0,
87
time of dearth; when the spring seasons are rainy, and the
vegetation late. :
Every writer on bees, has given his opinion of the best
remedy and cure of this disease. Bees ought to be well
nourished. The flour of oats, beans, Turkey wheat, and
maize, well sifted, have always appeared to me to be suffi-
cient to preserve them in good health. Whenever I ob-
serve any drop of dysenteric dejection on the bench of the
hive, [ supply them with flour mixed with fine common
salt. To prevent the disease, I begin about the end of
January, and put a plate of flour and salt on the bench, in
the interior of each hive. This has always proved success-
ful.
It is said that bees are sometimes troubled with lice. It
is possible that some individuals of this kind cf vermin,
may be met with in old hives, but I never noticed them.
ET
CHAPTER XXIV.
ON THE PARTICULAR CARES TO BE TAKEN OF BEES, AT DIF=
FERENT SEASONS OF THE YEAR.
OCTOBER.
The «bee year commences in autumn. This is the
time to purchase hives, and the time also when the honey ©
harvest or vintage begins. The upper stories of the pyra-
midal hives are to be removed, and the opening on the top
of the next box, now become the upper, is to be closed.
To close this opening, a small piece of plank may be
placed on it, and cemented by mortar, and covered with a
stone to keep it fixed_in its place. The whole should be
covered with a straw hood, or inverted earthen vase, to
preserve from humidity the two boxes which remain on the
stand, during autumn and winter; and the bench should be
cleaned, and rubbed with thyme, or some other aromatic
plants. No pyramidal hive should remain in the+apiary,
after the end of October, except it be intended to reserve
some honey in the boxes, to preserve early spring fruit.
The openings for the entrance of the bees, should be dimi-
nished, several openings however may be left, each large
enough for the passage of only one bee ata time, to prevent
the entrance of moles and other obnoxious animals, This is
88
the proper season to preserve all kinds of autumnal fruits:
Apple and pear jellies may be made, and quinces perfectly
presérved with honey. This is the season also to prepare
sirups to feed the bees in the latter part of winter and be-
ginning of spring, particularly late and weak swarms, which
are in danger of being lost in bad weather. These sirups
may be composed of the mast of wine, cider, perry, or hy-
dromel, and one pound of honey to each bottle of either of
the liquors. To some of the bottles a handful or two of salt
may be added, in case the dysentery be apprehended. This
amalgam should be boiled on a slow fire, to a proper con-
sistence, and then bottled for use.
: NOVEMBER. 2
In this month a new visit must be made to the apiary.
It will require two men to raise the two cases of the
Scottish hive, and to hold them up without separating
them, while a third rubs the stand perfectly clean with aro-
matic herbs or plants; the hives should then be weighed,
to ascertain how much the bees have consumed in the first
months of bad weather. The late swarms should not be
neglected, and if it be judged necessary, they may be
nourished within their hives, by meal of oats, maize, wheat,
potatoes, or buckwheat. Whichever kind is used, some
fine common salt should be mixed with it, the whole sifted,
put on plates, and set on the stand within the hive.
If any of the late swarms should haye died since the preced-
ing visit, their boxes or panniers must be removed and wrap-
ped in packcloth, to secure them from spiders and night mil-
lers. ‘They must be kept in a dry place, secure from rats,
mice, and other noxious animals, to be used for receiving new
swarms on the return of fine weather, or to be self-restored
if the panniers be full, or even three-fourths full of combs,
well preserved. See Chapter XIV., on the re-establish-
ment of dead swarms.
DECEMBER.
The same cares and attentions are now required as
in the last month. The different families must be weigh-
ed, in their panniers, and those which are Scottish must be
weighed in their double boxes, without separating them.
The quantity consumed by the bees can be thus accurately
ascertained, and a correct judgment formed of the suf-
ficiency of subsistence, by the weight which remains. If
89
any families have perished, it is known what must be done
with them. At each visit the hoods of the hives must be
noticed, to ascertain whether any vermin have taken pos-
session, that if so, they may be destroyed. |
When the hood is removed, you can take the opportunity
of renewing the farinaceous preparation mentioned in the
direction for the last month, first neatly cleaning the bench,
before replacing the plate with the flour and salt. At this
time also, they may be supplied with some of the sirup be-
fore spoken of. This should be put into an earthen cup, about
the diameter of the hole on the top of the box. The mouth
of the cup should be covered with a piece of new cloth, dou-
bled, and fastened with a pack thread. The cup must then
be reversed, or put mouth down over the hole, to which it
will serve as a stopper. The sirup will percolate gently
through the double cloths, and the bees will repair to it
‘im continual succession, and pump out with their trunks
the restorative liquid, the effect of which, united to the fa-
rina and salt, assures the health of the bees.
In the two months of November and December, and
also in that of January, bees do not often go out; nor ought
they to go out to procure subsistence. During the severest
cold, they remain, grouped together, in the upper part of
the box, on the combs supplied with the eggs of the queen,
laid before the destruction of the drones the preceding
summer. ‘They remain there continually, as if to guard
this hope of their country. ‘They are crowded one to the
other, and remain in that state till a milder air reanimates
them, and inclines them to seek nourishment for support.
Small grates should be placed over the openings of all the
hives, as soon as severe cold begins to be felt. These in-
sects would be exposed to destruction, in the three winter
months, if, deceived by the serenity of a few fine days, the
proprietor would allow them free egress.
JANUARY.
The same cares and attentions as in the two preceding
months. If much snow has fallen it must be removed
from the hives, and the greatest care must be taken, to pre-
serve them from humidity, without depriving them of the
free circulation of the air. Fewer bees die, in the hives, by
‘cold, than by the humidity which by negligence is allowed
to penetrate their dwellings. The air ought to be renewed
from time to time; hence the recommendation to cleanse the
H 2
# 90
benches, because during this process the air is introduced
more freely into the hives, than through the grates at the
bottom of the boxes. HS ig, |
To perform this operation, a dry time should be chosen,
and never attempted in a moist season. It is important in
winter, to keep up a free circulation of air, through the
small grates. If snow falls in the night, it must be removed
in the morning; and, if it falls during the day, the grates
must be cleared of it before night. By these little cares,
more minute than troublesome, the integrity of the colonies
is preserved. It may be observed, perhaps, that in the wil-
derness, in our forests and rocks, the wild bees receive none
of these cares from the hands of man, and yet they succeed!
This is doubtless true, but I know that it 1s the hatching of
the couvain, on the return of warm weather, which perpe-
tuates the colonies, and renews them every year.
FEBRUARY.
In addition to the cares of visiting the hives, purifying -
and ventilating them, and renewing the supply of food
and cordial, recommended in the preceding months,
the projected plantations should be continued, for the em-
bellishment of the apiary, and the preservation of spring
swarms. The ground should be dry, and prepared for for-
ward flowers, many varieties of which should now be sowed.
The bees from whose hives we remove the grates, immedi-
ately essay their strength on the wild almond, and lay the
buds of the saffron and violet under contribution, which
require only a few good days to blossom, and expose their
treasures to the diligent bee.
The attentive proprietor still keeps the bee grates under
his command. He does not permit these first little indis-
cretions of the bees, only in the driest and most serene days,
and then only from eleven o’clock in the morning till about
two afternoon. This is the time in which they return to the
hives. And the wisdom of their instinct recalls them thi-
ther, with more certainty and regularity, than strict reason
recalls our frisky youth ona the frivolous pleasures of a ball.
- MARCH, (OR MARS.)
March is come, the god of battles and of glory. Our
armies have heard his voice, and rallied under his stand-
ards. Already are they on their march to the inspiring,
thundering sound of martial music. Soon will they have
91
passed the distance, which separates them from the Boris-
thenes, that famed river, which was formerly the boundary
of the bold Sarmatians. They will not again behold the
thick cloud, which was spread over their heads, by the too
much expected sack, burning, and wild devastation of the
cradle of the Czars, in their last campaign.*
In this month the bees begin to beat the field, but still
with the greatest precaution and prudence. ‘The proprie-
tors have terminated the visits which were necessary in win-
ter. They have scoured every thing clean, and renewed the
necessary refreshments, &c. ‘The air is perfectly purified
in the hives, the passages are enlarged for the egress and
regress of the bees, but in such a manner as to prevent the
attacks of moles and mice, the possibility of whose entry into
the hive must not be admitted. The saffron is already decay-
ing from which the bees made a great booty. But generous
Nature has spread for them thousands on thousands of other
treasures. The furze, wild turnips, stone fruits, pears, and
_apples, in all their variety, offer them incalculable wealth,
and in proportion as the weather becomes mild, they rise
above, and can dispense with, the care of man.
The spring is come, followed by Flora, who here esta-
blishes a most brilliant court. The bees enjoy all the gifts
of the goddess, without tarnishing their splendour. They
collect an immense harvest from all the flowers which she
displays to them, but they, notwithstanding, retain all the
richness of their perfumes and brilliancy of their colours.
It is in this principally, that the bee is inimitable. It plun-
ders every where, and no where is any trace of its larceny
perceivable. If the culture of these insects was a little more
favoured, in the French empire, it would be found that their
annual booty would exceed three hundred millions of
pounds, without any one complaining of their excursions.
This is a fact, accurately true, founded in nature. And
this prodigious amount well applied, to essential wants,
would spare us foods of sweat. But the difficulty in this
branch of improvement is, that the means are not used, as
pointed out by practical and experienced cultivators.
This is the season to change simple hives into Scottish,
and Scottish into pyramidal, as before directed. (Chapters 6
and 9.)
* This may be a very pretty French episode, but it has very little
to do with the history or the management of bees.—7Z7anslator.
92
Dora APRIL. tee
In the latter part of the last month, and the beginning
of this, some marks of the dysentery may be perceived,
when the bees have not had all the care and atten-
tion paid them, which we have previously pointed out;
because this malady is very rare indeed, when sufficient
care has been taken to prevent, or check its progress, by
the solid aliments and sirups before prescribed, which are
sovereign remedies. (hat is the farina, salt, and sirups,
as mentioned in the prescription for December.)
The neuters or working bees, are already in active ope-
ration; the construction of cells advances astonishingly,
and the lay of the queen is prodigious. The empty cells
are instantly supplied with eggs, by the mother bee; and
the drones, hatched from the couvain of the preceding
year, will make it their first care to fecundate all these
new eggs, which, after this operation, will, by the law of
nature, hatch themselves.
The warmth of the atmosphere now begins to hatch the.
egos of all oviparous insects, disseminated by nature in
mosses, in barks, in chinks of rocks, &c. Among the num-
ber of insects thus hatched, is the night miller; the female
of which tries to introduce herself into hives, to lay her
eggs, which produce the most dangerous enemy to bees,
viz. the moth—which is the most indefatigable and invul-
nerable destroyer of the combs. ‘This miller should be
watched. It may be easily taken when it appr the
hives, and should be destroyed for the benefit.
At the end of this month, the bees may be :
liberty. However, it is the season when hungry hives
commonly attack those which are better supplied, and
offer no resistance. It requires all the watchfulness and
attention of the people who have charge of the apiary, to
preserve order and harmony among the bees. When these
robbers make their appearance, a general examination of
the apiary should be made; the state of the resources of
each family inspected, and means devised, not only to re-
pel attacks, but also to prevent the bees themselves from
destroying their own resources.. |
i?
MAY. dies
This is the most charming of all the months. All
the vegetables have resuscitated from the tombs, in which
they were confined by winter. They are each adorned
sy
93
in the brilliant and diversified livery furnished by liberal
nature. The nectar of flowers, and the ftransudation of
trees, afford inexhaustible resources to the diligent bee.
The magazines are filled. In the pyramidal hive, the bees
occupy only the middle story, and the neuters will soon
begin their fabric of combs in the under story. In the
Scottish hive, the lower story is by this time generally fur-
nished with combs, where the queen lays her eggs. As
soon as the couvain is entirely hatched, in the upper box,
and nothing remains to be done by the neuters, but to fill
the cells with honey, and seal them up,—the whole family
will be stationed in the lower box.
This is the season, in many countries, when the first
swarms come off, and requires the attention of their guar-
dians, from eight o’clock in the morning, till four in the
afternoon, if the atmosphere be loaded, or threatened with
storms. A burning sun, breaking through the clouds, and
beaming on the hive with its ardent rays, provokes the de-
parture of the swarm, and it suddenly leaves the hive. A
new cloud for a moment obscures the sun;—it is a cloud of
bees, whose balancings and undulations resemble large
flakes of falling snow, agitated by the air, and vibrating a
long time before they reach the ground.
JUNE.
No particular attention is necessary in this month, ex-
cept to take care of the swarms which may come off. The
author recommends the culture of artificial meadows, lu-
zerne, sainfoin, vetches, rape, &c., as early food for bees,
and buckwheat for continued and later food.
It was in the latter part of this month, when the sun
passed from the sign of gemini into cancer, that I made
the discovery of restoring hives, whose population had pe-
rished, by hatching the couvain, which still remained in the
egg state, by the simple effect of the action of the summer
sun.
JULY.
The buckwheat begins to blossom; and the bees collect
a prodigious booty from its flowers. Abundant swarms
are produced. The hives fill with combs. The lay of
_the queen is continued; and the labour of the drones,
fecundating the eggs, is excessive. The upper stories are
full of combs; the couvain of which, already hatched and
94
in activity, abandon, for the purpose of converting them ~
into magazines, to be stored with honey. The queens,
with their subjects, descend into the lower stories, where
the labour is pursued with the most astonishing ardour.
During. the whole of this month, these insects are in a con-
tinual agitation, from the dawn of day to the twilight of
evening. ,
In this month, all the swarms are in a situation to se-
cure their winter’s provisions, if the weather be favourable. -
Early swarms will sometimes produce other swarms; but
it is best to make these return, either to the mother-hive,
or join some other hive already well stocked with provi-
siens for the winter. ‘They will continue to labour, during
the remainder of the season, and the hive will become very
rich.
AUGUST.
In this month the bees swarm less frequently than in
the preceding. But they sometimes come off as late as
the 15th, and sufficiently vigorous to procure their win-
ter’s provision. The materials are still abundant. The
buckwheat begins to brown in August, but the vegetation
of the trees is renewed, and the transudation assures the
bees a continuation of an abundant harvest. They profit
by it, and accumulate their stores. ‘The queen continues
to lay, and the drones to fecundate. But this lay will not
hatch till the following year. It will then be tts country’s
hope, as it will furnish a new generation of drones, as those
of the present year will cease to exist, as soon as they be-
come useless. |
In this month particularly, nature presents a new phe-
nomenon, whose results afford the bees a prolongation of
harvest, as long as the frost will permit them to profit by
it. In addition to the transudation of trees, there is an
animal honey dew, for which we are indebted to the excre-
mentous dejections of small black pucerons, or vegetable
lice, which nature has appointed to intercept and pump out
the juices of certain trees, such as the maple, the linden,
chesnut, oak, &c., and by their dejections to provide a pro-
fitable resource to bees, and to a thousand other insects
which feed on it. ‘
We have doubtless made as much, and perhaps more
progress in the natural history of insects, than any other
people on the globe; but if we carefully compare the sum
-
eg
fatal er dr | 14 GRR
95
_of knowledge already acquired, with that which is still to
_ be learned, we shall be astonished at the immeasurable dif-
ference.
SEPTEMBER.
We have now arrived at the last month of tle year
in the culture of bees. The queen continues to lay, and
the drones continue to fecundate the eggs. However,
the moment approaches for the destruction of all those
individuals, who are a charge on the public. From the
eighth till the fifteenth of this month, (particularly in north-
ern climates,) a general attack is made on the drones, on
all points, and they are unmercifully massacred, and drag-
ged out of the hives by the neuters. All the young queens,
who have not departed with swarms, share the same fate.
The massacre extends to every living being of the species
of drones or queens, already hatched into worms or nymphs.
But the same lot does not extend to the eggs yet unhatched,
and which will not hatch until the return of spring. These
unhatched eggs do not fall under the general proscription.
Around and between the combs, and in the cells containing
these eggs, the bees pass the autumn and winter, and pro-
tect them from the enemies of the state. They never aban-
don them in autumn, winter, er spring, till they be hatched.
They (the eggs) are the only hope of the country.
The bees, however, are not diverted from their domestic
labours by these sanguinary operations. Those who are ac-
customed to field service, go and return to the hives as
usual, loaded with booty, and full of cheerfulness. ‘Those
of the interior continue to build, and the queen to supply
the cells with eggs. But the fecundation of these eggs
must be deferred till spring, till the birth of new drones,
hatched from eggs fecundated before the general massacre.
No disorder is observed among them. The morning-after
these tragic scenes, the upper stories of the pyramidal hives
are disposable, and on the first fair night of the second
quarter, or of the full moon, preparations may be made to
begin the harvest.
96
CHAPTER XXV.
À LIST OF TREES, AND PLANTS IN GENERAL, MOST SOUGHT
AFTER BY BEES.
Althea,
Apricot,
Almond tree,
Strawberry tree,
Balm,
Horsemint,
Sweet broom,
Cherries, in all their varie-
ties,
Chesnuts,
Oaks, in all their varieties,
Succory, in flower,
Orpine, do.
Citron, and all trees of that
family,
Cabbage in flower, in all its
varieties,
Gourds,
Cypress,
Dandelion,
Thorns, in all their varieties,
Raspberry,
Strawberry,
Beans, peas, and vetches,
Flowers in general of all
plants, (this is a sweeper,)
Furze, in all its varieties,
Golden sheaf,
Gillyflower,
Mallows,
French beans, in all their va-
rieties,
Simple hyacinths,
Safron,
Sainfoin,
Fir,
Buckwheat,
Savory,
Sage,
Willow,
Thorn bush,
Iris, (flags,) in all varieties,
Simple jonquille,
Lavender,
Laurel,
Lentil,
Luzerne,
Lilies,
Great ‘chesnut of India,
Balm gentle, *
Dwarf wild cherry,
Mustard,
Yarrow,
Rape i in flower, in all varie-
ties,
Simple narcisuses
Oranges,
Wild marjorum,
Simple poppy, in all varie-
ties,
Passe velour, or velvet flow-
ers,
Parsley in flower,
Cowslip,
Burnet,
Oleaginous plants,
Pine,
Pear,
Apple,
Prune,
Prussier, or pine of Bor-
deaux, and all resinous
trees,
Réséda, or cross-leaf,
\
à
SF Se eee
c "Rosemary, Creeping thyme,
‘Bramble, or blackberry, Sunflower, =
! 4
As
AA
RE
dot, of Fay
1
97.
Simple roses, in all their va- Service,
ian arieties, | | Violets, in variety.
Note by the Translator —The whole of this schedule might be con-
densed into a few words, viz. all kinds of flowers afford food for bees.
In the number of the preceding plants, the golden sheaf
: (la gerbe d’or,) should be particularly distinguished, because
it begins to flower when most other plants have ceased to
_ flower; and whose flower forms a head, or tuft, like an
- ear of wheat, and preserves its perfume and aroma till
near the end of November. This plant is always covered
with bees during the last month of summer, and the first
two months of autumn, whenever the weather is favourable
_ for the bees to go abroad. Wherever bees are cultivated,
Pd i. elle a 1-20
this plant ought also to be cultivated. It is perennial, grows
- in tufts, or clusters, and expands. It grows on the poorest
lands, among heath, on chalky and limy thin soil. One
acre of the meanest ground, planted with golden sheaf,
would supply more than a hundred swarms of bees with
sufficient nourishment in autumn, te complete their winter
stock of provisions. | ;
In general, we ought to cultivate, and have near the api-
ary, all the plants which begin to flower in February and
March, and also, all the plants, such as the golden sheaf,
+ which retain their flowers and aroma till checked by
the frosts of autumn. Bees, always active and laborious,
avail themselves of the latest, as well as of the earliest mo-
ments of the vegetation of all flowering plants.
All well informed cultivators of bees say, that all ve-
getables contain the principles of honey, and only differ in
the more or less quantity. Consequently, bees can coilect
nourishment proportioned to the abundance of their natural
food, in every country in which they live. But the vast and
rich meadows, enamelled with flowers, the fields whitened
with buckwheat, the plains gilded with the flowers of rape
and wild cabbage, the immense forests garnished with all
sorts of trees, present the bees with profusion, wherewith to
supply their daily wants, and unlimited provisions to fill
their magazines. The mountains, covered with rosemary,
Javender, thyme, and other aromatic plants; and lands co-
j
vered with furze and broom, furnish an abundant supply. |
Their harvest continues as long as the vegetation of the —
plants lasts, especially in the flowering season, and when —
that is over, the succeeding fruits furnish immense resources |
for the bees. Finally, in the autumn, when every thing |
see
seems to be exhausted, the black pucerons arrive, which.
nature has created, to tap the yearling shoots of certain.
bees.
=a
CHAPTER XXVI.
A VIEW OF SOME OF THE ADVANTAGES DERIVED FROM THE
_ INVENTION OF THE PYRAMIDAL HIVE. .
trees, pump out the sap, and deject it for the benefit of the -
One chief advantage which society owes to the pyramidal —
hive is, the preservation of the bees. They will subsist for
centuries, if they be not destroyed by unforeseen causes,
which no attentions could prevent. There is no necessity
to destroy, rob, smoke, or transvase them, to obtain their
yearly products. They, of their own mere motion and in-_
stinct, surrender, annually, to their proprietors, a box full
wax and honey, when they descend from the upper to the
lower stories, to continue their labours.
Another advantage derived from the pyramidal hive is, :
that the honey collected in this manner, is always extreme-
ly pure. It is not infected by dead bees, nor the old sloughs
of the nymphs, nor couvain remaining in the cells, which
are always corrupted when the bees are destroyed or trans-
vased by smoke. | ‘
If this pure honey be not pressed with the wax, but al-
lowed to flow spontaneously from the cells, there is no
doubt it would have much less of that disagreeable taste,
which it contracts when pressed from combs filled with
dead bees, old nymphs, and couvain. |
It is presumable that this observation will be understood,
see -
and it will be readily conceived, that honey extracted in-
this manner, must be infinitely superior to that furnished
by ordinary manipulation, and that it would be much easier ~
to blanch and convert into common or refined sugar.
Hart » Lg “
ae * + AN ULE NB
ge OUR | #7 \4 ue à eet
PATES À = ? eh art
‘i atic | : sh RU à
Le à # nee
"A ie - 99
_ There is no danger, as some suppose, that a great num-
. ber of bees, in the same establishment, would suffer for the
want of subsistence. M. De Guérapin, proprietor in the
_ department of Aisne, has an apiary of from seven to eight
hundred hives, and if there were double the number, the
bees would not fail to find their necessary subsistence.
It is still less to be feared, that by following my plan to
__ preserve bees, they would increase to such numbers as to
-_ mcommode society. This fear is ill-founded. Would te
"heaven the reproduction of these insects was as abundant
à as the resources for their subsistence! and commerce would
_ not be taxed every year with an advance of more than
. thirty millions (francs) to procure in foreign countries the
supply of wax, which religion and luxury consume annually
. in the empire. |
The twenty-seventh chapter contains what M. Ducouedic
çcalls his polemic dispute with MM. Lombard and Bose,
and is of no interest to the American reader.— Translator.
POSTSCRIPT.
À RECAPITULATION OF THE PROCESS AND RESULTS OF MY EX-
PERIMENTS ON THE COUVAIN.
To understand what the couvain is, from which nature
forms the bee, we must consider it at five different epochs.
First. When the couvain is only an ego laid by the
queen, and not fecundated by the drones. EN
Second. When the egg has been fecundated by the drones.
Third. When the germ, contained in the fecundated egg,
passes from nothing into life, and from which a worm is.
hatched. © SOR Br a
Fourth. When the insect ceases to be a worm, and is me-
tamorphosed into a nymph. a M LAON TE
. Fifth. When finally, this nymph undergoes a second me-
tamorphosis, and becomes a bee, : ee eet)
These preliminaries concerning the cradle of the bee, |
: «is | AN RE | y y :
SRE TA (
nee ee =
ae oe By : ES
ey tty i :
SEA HAINE È JR
“à Oy SP
Py eal 3 |
| 6
NC DUR STE sae NRA
100 ae x.
should be well understood before we SA ss
the nature of this insect. We will now devel
ture under these five different points of view. —
“Ist. The egg of the queen mother, before it is
by the drones, contains only an imperfect germ,
never hatch so long as it remains in that impert
The egg laid by the queen is glued to the bottom
cell, and the ceil is never closed till the ess is fecunda
But, if the-egg has been laid after the massacre. of t
drones, the cell must remain open till spring, after the b
_of new drones, hatched in the same hive, from eggs fi
dated the preceding year, before the massacre.
But why does this cell remain open, from one season to
‘the other? The answer is in the solution of the following a
observation. | Baty | i
2d. As soon as the ess has been fecundated by the
drones, the neuter bees of the interior seal up the cell con- w
taining it with a pellicle of wax; and the germ of the insect
to be produced remains shut up in the cell. Se
This waxen pellicle is never broken but by the insect it.
_ self, when it shall arrive at a state of perfection. È
a “But the ege which is not fecundated, is not considered
by the family as capable of furnishing a subject to the state. si
‘This is the reason why the cell which contains it is not —
. closed with a waxen pellicle. This never will be, till the
_ ege deposited, be fecundated by the drones. FF
$d. ‘The waxen pellicle, which closes the entrance of the —
cell, is an order of nature, instinctively executed by the
bees, for the better eee of the. individual which is
to be produced, a a
This individual will rest in that species of. titine
autumn and winter. On the return of spring, the heat of
the atmosphere. increasing that of the interior of the hive,
the egg will ferment, and” the: nn passes from nothing
into life, will produce a Worm. | se
| . ath. Pi, soon as pe worm comes out où the eat it the
Fm nes before it bes “à
4 th. F de A: this ny | i
5 4 of its op rene, which te
om i is a ea divest
401
t leaves i in its cell. It immediately, of itself, bursts the
raxen pellicle, and joins the family, whom it knows, and by
thom itis known. It makes essay, is on the wing, and in
ture forms the bee. While this insect is in the cradle, it
requires no kind of nourishment.
‘But I am not satisfied by reporting this process of na-
… of which is so easy, that the least informed of our country
Tabourers can conceive and put in practice himself.
After the massacre of the drones, there remains in the
a Which is to hatch on the return of spring.
… [nthis situation, let the bees be removed by some cing
L of transvasement into an empty hive, without combs, or
couvain. Let them be plentifully nourished with honey.
. This new hive will very soon be filled with combs, the cells
of which, the queen mother will supply with eggs, as fast as
they are made.
When spring arrives, drones will be hatched in all the
other hives, but none in this. The other hives will produce
swarms, but this will produce none. Besides, this hive,
which was strong in early spring, every day grows weaker,
because it has no productive couvain to repair its daily loss.
it will soon come to its end, for want of whe ge bees, as.
well interior as exterior. |
They may be left to perish, and afterwards re- estab-
lished.—But first let the cells be examined. The queen —
has deposited eggs in all the cells, but they are all open— __
not one of them is sealed with the pellicle of wax, which
the bees place over those cells, where the couvain has been
Jecundated, because it is in their instinct, to suspend the
application of the pellicle, till the act of fecundation has
been performed.
Now this being the law of nature, itis evident that the
queen’s eggs must be fecundated by the drones, before they
are fit for procreation.
For this work of procreation, among the bees, there is no.
intercourse between the queen and drones.
Bees never place a pellicle of wax on a cell where the ~
queen has deposited an egg, until the egg has been fecun-
_ dated; and in this, as in all their other L'aide à their |
+ suiinet never mistakes.
My
Un
“iy ?
a ati
the fields. ‘This is the manner in which the author of na-
ture. I will illustrate it by an experiment, the execution *.
cP hive nothing but the queen, the neuters, and the couvain, —
"e')
gal’
to receive visits or nourishment from (what has been term-. _
ed) its nurses. al le a
_. As soon as this worm escapes from nothing into being, it
_ that no members, neither feet nor claws, are to be seen, —
| ‘ , | ae net 7 mh
The fecundated egg, sealed up with the pellicle of wa:
hatches at the very time intended by nature, and produces …
a worm. ‘This worm, thus sealed up, is not ina situation |
hes
spins a robe, in which it wraps itself from head to tail, so !
and it can neither walk nor move.
This worm, thus enveloped, can neither eat nor drink; M
and as soon as its robe is spun, passing from the state of ”
worm to that of nymph, it can have no appetite.
The change of this insect, from the state of nymph to.
that of bee, takes place the instant the robe is finished ;
| when it immediately strips it off, bursts the pellicle of |
_ ‘wax, joins its companions, and flies to the fields. . |
It is therefore demonstrated, that whatever metamor-
phosis the couvain undergoes, from the egg to the bee, it is
operated on by the immutable order of nature. And as we
owe all these changes to the law of nature, the eggs, where
_ the insects have perished in the hive, may be hatched with-
out the aid of bees, nurse, or nourishment, when nature has.
furnished the two grand essentials of hatching, viz. fecun-
dation by the drones, and atmospheric warmth, on the pas-
sage of the sun from the sign of cancer to gemini.
* But let us return to the hive which we have seen perish,
£ and let us resuscitate and make it more brilliant than be-
This hive may be re-established, by catching some drones
from another family, as they come out or go into the hives.
They must be confined in a cone of paper, till night. They
must then be introduced into the dead hive, where the eggs
are yet unfecundated. ‘These drones find the eggs, and
instinctively fecundate them; and the sun will cause them
to hatch, although the cells be not sealed, and cannot be
sealed, because as yet, there are no working bees to per-
form the service. Such is the force of the power of nature..
But there is another mode, infinitely more profitable for —
the proprietor. ‘That is, to set this hive on the top of an-
other, in which a new swarm is just housed; this instantly
forms the Scottish hive.
The drones of this new swarm will soon fecundate the
eggs in the upper box, and the neuters will seal the cells®
=
) De * J “ :
} ‘ à
p xs À k
* fail à
ae '
x , ee * 2
¢ 2 N
hes ;
les The family will ra idly increase Rs
e f the season, the combs will be filled
Ts th hive, having served for a de x
n of the phenomenon in question, will become p
idal in the spring following, and afford a full
autumn of the same year. à
ay a | DUCOUEDIC, 4
: oF the Society for the Encouragement of Tata Industry, |
Of Agriculture, ¥
_ And ad other ste societies,
THE END.
yi
¥
ERA Nes got ee PEO OMNSTEION, J
Ko Se 0 he) dre H iy M yaa
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