CHAPTER XVIII.
The Apiarian s Monthly Manual, or Hints for the Management of Bees for every month in the year, upon the Depriving System.
JANUARY.
Should the cold be intense, no operation whatever should be performed on the Bees that requires the removal of the hives. If snow be on the ground keep the perforated sliders (page 18.) closely down that air may be admitted, but not a Bee allowed to escape until it be thawed; but immediately upon the disappearance of the snow remove the slider, and give them full liberty. Ihave known many stocks lost by not attending to this precaution, and more especially after a long confinement, do not suffer the snow to melt either upon the covers or hive-boards, but brush it off every day as it falls. Attend regularly to the condenser (page 92) which to boxes with flat roofs is a very necessary and useful appendage.
FEBRUARY.
Upon a mild day in this month let the floor board of each hive be cleaned, and a little food administered, should the stock of honey be very low. See that the coverings be sound, and that no moisture comes upon the top of the hives. Should it be found that any of the hives have perished, which will sometimes occur, and from causes which cannot be exactly ascertained, let them be immediately removed, and the honey which they contain taken out, and reserved for feeding those that may require it.
MARCH.
Clean the hive-boards again, and should any of the stocks require feeding, supply them, attending strictly to the directions given inChap. IX. Towards the end of this month place a vessel, containing water, near the Bees, as directed in page 3. This also will be found a good time to examine the pedestals upon which the hives stand, for after remaining for some years in the ground they are subject to decay at a few inches below its surface, especially if regard was not paid to the quality of the timber at the time of fixing them.
APRIL.
Clean the hive-boards for the last time, and supply food, if required, as before directed. The Wax-moth, that redoubtable enemy to Bees, appears this month; they may be seen frequently at twilight running upon the outside of the hives: destroy them as much as possible, and, as Huishsays, "frighten not away the Bats that fly about the hives, for they destroy numbers of them." A full supply of small hives, boxes, glasses, and adapters should now be provided, old ones cleaned, or new ones purchased. A few large hives also should be ready, for if from inattention to giving room and ventilation, a swarm should be compelled to leave their hive, they will be wanted.
Weak hives are now very subject to an attack from robbers, the best protection that can be afforded them is the slider, page 18, with the help of which three or four Bees will guard the entrance more effectually than many times that number without it.
MAY.
The time will now have arrived for supplying each stock with a small hive or other receptacle for honey, as directed inChap. IV. and should the season be a favourable one, the supply even of a second may be found necessary before the end ofthe month. Continue to destroy Queen wasps and hornets, and to watch carefully for moths. Should the bees of any hive appear inactive at this time, or should they not be seen to carry in pellets of farina whilst others are doing it, and this inaction continue for eight or ten days, lose no time in examining the hive, and should the moths have begun their work of destruction, which may be known by seeing the combs joined together by their silken webs, cut away the combs affected with a sharp knife, and the hive may, perhaps, be saved.
JUNE.
Strict attention should now be paid to room and ventilation, for, as has been said in page 24, if both these be carefully observed,swarming may be prevented altogether. Swarms may now be purchased as directed inChap. II. About the middle of the month, in good seasons, small hives and glasses may be taken off, full directions for which may be found inChap. V.
At the end of the month look for wasps' nests, and destroy them;—a very easy and effectual method of doing it is to fill a common squib or serpent case with a mixture of sulphur and gun-powder, in equal parts, with a very small quantity of nitre all finely powdered and rammed very hard into the case, set fire to it by means of touch-paper, and when in a state of ignition, stick it into the hole of the nest and place your foot upon it, when it ceases to burn let a person with a spade turn out the nest; in this manner a great number may be effectually destroyed in one night. And a more simple method than this, even, has been recently discovered: It is by putting turpentine in a bottle, and inserting the neck of the bottle into the hole leading to the nest and surrounding it with earth; very little turpentine is required, merely as much as will wet the sides of the bottle; if applied in the dusk of the evening every wasp will be dead by the following morning. "In no instance,"—says a Correspondent, in theGardeners' Chronicle,—"have I known itto fail of the desired effect, except in cases where the nest was deeper in the ground, or at a greater distance from the mouth of the hole than I had anticipated; a partial failure may sometimes occur where there happens to be two entrances to the nest, instead of one, but a second application the following evening is sure to prove effectual."
JULY.
Small hives and glasses must now be taken off as they are filled and sealed up, (and stored in cool places, observing to keep them in the same position as when standing upon the stocks,) and their places supplied by empty ones. Go on destroying wasps' nests.
AUGUST.
Continue to take off hives and glasses as they are filled, but supply no fresh ones, the honey season being now chiefly over.
SEPTEMBER.
Small hives remaining upon the stocks that are only partially filled with honey may now be taken off, providing the stock will not be too much impoverished thereby; wherever the chance of this presents itself leave them on through the winter, or until they are emptied by the bees; those partially filled hives taken from rich stocks may be given to weak ones, now, or in the spring as required. Robbers will at this time be carrying on their depredations, and should a serious attack be observed the sliders must be used as before directed.
OCTOBER.
Examine the coverings to the hives that they be all sound, and that no rain be admitted through them; the entrances may now be narrowed; if Taylor's slider be used (page 18) the side with three openings will be most proper for this season.
NOVEMBER.
Clean the floor-boards of the hives, and see that they stand firmly on their pedestals, contract the entrance so that only one bee can come out at a time, for at this season mice are likely to lodge themselves in the hives.
DECEMBER.
The same attentions are necessary this month as in the two preceding, but if the cold should be intense the hives must not be removed.
FINIS.
[A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [K] [M] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [V] [W]
London: Newby, Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square.
Figures 1-7Fig.Description1Improved Cottage Hive2Improved Cottage Hive with small hive affixed3Hive showing the opening on top4Small Hive with glass opening5Adapter for small Hive or Box6Knife for cutting out the comb7Box to be used instead of small Hive
Figures 1-7
Figures 8-10
Figures 8-10
Transcriber NoteThe text constantly refers to illustration figures from "The Cottager's Guide" by the same author and are included in the Fourth Edition. Therefore, a copy of the two Illustrations which show Figures 1-10 have been provided at the end of the volume.
Transcriber Note
The text constantly refers to illustration figures from "The Cottager's Guide" by the same author and are included in the Fourth Edition. Therefore, a copy of the two Illustrations which show Figures 1-10 have been provided at the end of the volume.