CHAPTER II.
Directions for purchasing Bees.
The best time to establish an Apiary is from the middle of February to the middle of March, the stocks will have passed in safety through the winter, the combs are then empty of brood, light of honey, and the removal safe and easy. Stocks should be selected by a competent judge, as the weight alone cannot be relied on, a swarm of the preceding year should be selected, and one that contains not less than twelve pounds of honey; there are few commodities in which a person canbe so easily deceived as in a hive of Bees. I would therefore recommend the young Apiarian to take the opinion of some experienced person before he makes his purchase, a hive of the preceding year can only be known by a close inspection of the combs, which but few persons have courage enough to engage in; if the hive is not of the preceding year its weight is no criterion of its value, for an old hive always contains a large quantity of the pollen or dust of flowers which the Bees carry home on their legs, especially in the Spring and Autumn, it is an essential ingredient in the food with which they nourish their young, but good for nothing else, indeed the Bees will die of hunger upon the combs that are filled with it;—"Yet," says Gelieu, "they lay up useless hoards of it, which they go on augmenting every year, and this is the only point on which they can be accused of a want of that prudence and foresight so admirable in every other respect."
The Bees appear to be aware of the perishablenature of this substance, for they never fill a cell entirely with it, but leave room for a small quantity of honey in each cell containing pollen, before it is sealed up, by this means the air is most effectually excluded, and the pollen preserved for a considerable time; should, however, the Bees be compelled to consume the honey, from those cells containing pollen, before they can make use of it for their young, it moulds and become of no value, and causes them great labour to remove it. For, when in this state, they have no means of displacing it but by eating away the cells in which it is contained, and conveying it out of their hives in small pieces, about the size of peas, hard and mouldy. I have seen the entrance of old hives in the month of April almost filled up with these pellets of mouldy farina. The process is tedious, takes up much time, and the ravages made by it upon the combs appear irreparable; still in a short space of time, if the weather is favourable, the combs are repaired, as if no injury had befallen them, and filled withhoney or brood. It is a very heavy substance, so that if weight be the only criterion, farina will be purchased instead of honey, therefore in the purchase of old stocks it will be necessary they should weigh eight pounds more than swarms of the preceding year; in the purchase of swarms less experience is necessary, and by attending to the following rules, the young Apiarian will not be imposed upon:—
1st. That the swarm be purchased before the 14th of June, the longer before that time the better.
2ndly. That it does not weigh less than three pound and a half. I have known some swarms to weigh six pounds, but this is of rare occurrence.
It is very important to observe, that when a swarm of Bees is purchased it must be removed to the place in which it is to remain, upon the evening of the day it swarmed, for should the removal be delayed even till the next day, thecombs will in all probability be broken and the stock destroyed.
I should recommend the purchaser to send his own hive to the person of whom he intends to buy a swarm, and to desire him not to put any sticks across the interior of the hive, as is the usual custom, for they cause much trouble to the Bees in forming their combs, and render their extraction almost impossible. The prosperity of the hive will much (perhaps entirely) depend upon its being finally placed upon the evening of the day it swarmed.