“If e’er dank autumn, with untimely storm,The honey’d harvest of the year deform,Or the chill blast, from Eurus’ mildew wing,Blight the fair promise of returning spring,Full many a hive but late alert and gay,Droops in the lap of all-inspiring May.”Evans.
“If e’er dank autumn, with untimely storm,The honey’d harvest of the year deform,Or the chill blast, from Eurus’ mildew wing,Blight the fair promise of returning spring,Full many a hive but late alert and gay,Droops in the lap of all-inspiring May.”
Evans.
The reader must now perceive the importance of feeding, and that the transition from health to languor and death is less frequently to be ascribed to disease, than to the want of the necessarymeans to continue the vital energy. The suddenness of the unhappy change may reasonably lead the uninformed or improvident to suppose that an incurable malady has visited their hives:—so long as the store of honey lasted, there were health and prosperity; but that gone, famine commenced its ravages, and an extinction of the bees of course followed. A little foresight and a little trouble would have kept off the calamity. I am perhaps tediously particular in this notice. I wish to impress my noviciate bee-friends with the necessity of thus providing for their hives, that the most frequent agent of mischief,—hunger,—may be kept out of them. Still further let me also recommend to them, on the approach of winter to have the floors of their hives or boxes well cleaned from insects and their eggs, and from all heterogeneous matter. This is a business which the bees themselves, when the weather admits of it, are particularly attentive to; indeed they refrain, as much as possible, from dropping their excrement upon the floors, taking advantage of every fine day in winter to sally forth and get rid of it. This was proved by the experiments of Mr. Hunter: indeed they sometimes fall a sacrifice to their personal neatness in this respect, their bodies becoming so swelled, from the accumulation of fæces, as completely to disable them from flying, when the weatheris sufficiently favourable to admit of their going out; in consequence of which, they fall to the ground and perish.
Schirachand others recommend, in cases ofFaux Couvain, to cut out the infected combs, and to clean and fumigate the hive by burning aromatics under it.
InButler’sFeminine Monarchie, we are gravely told of a certain bee-mistress, who, finding her hives fruitless, and their tenants pining away with sickness, by the advice of another female, went to receive the eucharist, and having kept it in her mouth, placed it, on her return home, in one of the diseased hives. The plague ceased; honey accumulated; and, on examining the inside, she found a waxen chapel and altar, of wondrous architecture, and even bells of the same materials.—Gent. Mag. 1809. p. 316.
To prove that there is much of fancy in the traditional accounts respecting bee-maladies, I will mentionthe various hypotheses concerning dysentery.Columellaspeaks of its arising from the bees feeding upon honey collected from elm and spurge blossoms; my own neighbourhood abounds with both; but I never met with nor scarcely heard of dysentery among the bees here.Evelynin hisSylvaexpresses doubts upon the subject; andDr. Evanssays he made particular inquiries of some friends in Worcestershire, which(like this county—Herefordshire) abounds with elms, without obtaining satisfactory information.
Dysentery has also been said to be produced by a surfeit of vernal honey, simply as such, from whatever flowers derived: were this true it would occur in all neighbourhoods. With respect to its proceeding from their eating wax, I am decidedly of opinion that wax never constitutes any part of their food, under any circumstances; not a tittle of evidence can be adduced in support of such an assertion. Wax is an excrementitious matter, secreted among the abdominal folds of the bees for the sole purpose of constructing the honey and brood-combs: the scraps of wax that are observed in winter and spring upon the hive floors, and which, to the minds of common observers, convey the idea that they are crumbs caused by the bees consuming the wax for food, are produced by their nibbling the lids of the cells to uncover the honey. IfMadame Vicat’stheorywere correct, what would become of all the bees in Siberia and other northern regions? Huish says he never found honey in this country to candy in the combs, but adds that Bonner assured him thathehad experienced it.Videchapter onHoney.
KirbyandSpencehave given it as their opinion, that dysentery arises from the bees having an insufficiency of pollen or bee-bread toeat with their honey. We have no evidence that pollen constitutes any part of the food ofadultbees; and if it did, they have generally opportunities of storing it very abundantly, in the autumn, as well as in the spring: and such is the provident industry of bees, that a considerable surplus is always found in every stock-hive.
WildmanandHuishrecommend salt for preserving the health of bees; and their frequenting stable drains and other receptacles of urine gives countenance to this recommendation, as it seems probable that the saline matter contained in those fluids attracts the bees, their desire for it overcoming that repugnance to offensive odours which would otherwise occasion them to avoid such places. Even fresh urine has been recommended byRanconi, anItalianauthor, in case the bees should be attacked by dysentery;—in all probability a weak solution of salt would be more acceptable and equally efficacious. I always introduce a small portion of it into the syrup with which I feed my bees.Keyssays that they are not fond of salt.VidePage 186.
I will close this chapter on the Diseases of Bees with an extract from Nicholson’s Journal, vol. xxiii. p. 234: Scientific Intelligence.
“A large swarm of bees having settled on a branch ofthe poison ash, (Rhus Vernix,) in the county of West Chester in America, was takeninto a hive of fir at three o’clock in the afternoon, and removed to the place where it was to remain, at nine. About five the next morning the bees were found dead, swelled to double their natural size, and black, except a few, which appeared torpid and feeble, and soon died on exposure to the air.” This was attributed to their being poisoned by the effluvia of theRhus Vernix.
ENEMIES OF BEES.
Amongthe enemies of bees are enumerated various kinds of birds, poultry, mice, wax-moths, slugs, hornets, wasps, woodlice, ants, and spiders.
The most destructive enemies of the bee, in this country, arewasps, whose superior strength, boldness and number, enable them to commit great ravages in a hive. One wasp is supposed to be a match for three bees, and, to filch a belly-full of honey, will oppose a host of bees in a very daring manner.
Thewax-moth(Tinea mellonella) is also a dangerous enemy.Mr. Espinassesays that this is the smallest of the genus, and it is of a whitish brown colour. The butterfly usually appears about weak hives in April, and may be seen till the end of October. This insect is remarkably active in its movements; and if the approach to the hives be observed of a moonlight evening, the moths will be found flying, or running round the hives, watching an opportunity to enter; whilst the bees that have to guard the entrances against their intrusion, will be seen acting as vigilant sentinels, performing continual rounds near this important post, extending their antennæ to the utmost, andmoving them to the right and to the left alternately. Woe to the unfortunate moth that comes within their reach! “It is curious,” saysHuber, “to observe how artfully the moth knows to profit, to the disadvantage of the bees, which require much light for seeing objects; and the precautions taken by the latter in reconnoitring, and expelling so dangerous an enemy.” Adroitly gliding between the guards, the moths will often contrive to insinuate themselves, unperceived, into the hives, and riot upon the honey. When they have obtained possession, they deposit their eggs upon the sides of the combs; the caterpillar is formed and inclosed in a case of white silk; at first, it is like a mere thread, but gradually increases to the size of a quill, and during its growth feeds upon the wax around it. It seems very extraordinary, and would be almost incredible if the fact were not well attested, that such tiny creatures should live in the midst, and at the expense of myriads of such formidable insects as bees, protected as they are by coats of mail, armed with weapons of offence, and ever watchful of their treasure. Such, however, is the havoc sometimes made by these apparently insignificant, but active enemies, as now and then to compel a colony of bees to emigrate, and seek another habitation.
In this country, where the apiary is generallysituated near the dwelling,birdsdo not commit any great ravages.Mr. Espinassethinks that in general they come only fordead beesandlarvæ, which may have been thrown out of the hives. But in America, according toMr. Hector St. John,the king bird, the protector of corn-fields from the depredation of crows, is a great destroyer of bees. After shooting these birds, Mr. St. John has found bees in their craws, from one of which he took as many as a hundred-and-seventy-one: on laying them all on a blanket in the sun, fifty-four of them returned to life, licked themselves clean, and joyfully went back to their hives. Many wonderful tales of this kind have been told,—such as the recovery of flies that had been inclosed for a considerable time in bottles of liquor (madeira). An instance of this is related by Wildman, who says his informant was a very ingenious and accurate gentleman:—that the madeira had been brought, in bottle, from Virginia to London, and that the flies when exposed to a warm sun for an hour or two, were so completely reanimated, as to take wing; thus putting to the test, as Wildman’s friend observed, the truth of the opinion, that a fly cannot be drowned.—A very marvellous tale was related last year in the newspapers, of the recovery of some apparently dead bees after the substance containing them had been submitted to a considerable heator to a chemical process. Mr. St. John’s statement is within the bounds of credibility: it seems to have been a case of suspended animation of short continuance, not produced by exposure to gas or to any liquid likely to prove deleterious to them; and it is well known that bees often recover even after suffocation with sulphurous gas. Bees may be immersed in water for a long time, without loss of life. Reaumur saw them recover after nine hours immersion. Dr. Evans accidentally left some eighteen hours in water; when laded out with a spoon and placed in the sunshine the majority of them recovered. Other animals, of analogous species, exhibit still more wonderful resurrections. De Geer has observed one species of mite to live for some time in spirit of wine; and Mr. Kirby states that being desirous of preserving a very pretty lady-bird, and not knowing how to accomplish it, he immersed it in geneva. “After leaving it,” says he, “in this situation a day and a night, and seeing it without motion, I concluded it was dead, and laid it in the sun to dry. It no sooner, however, felt the warmth than it began to move, and afterwards flew away.” This circumstance laid the foundation of Mr. K.’s study of entomology.
Of this adherence to life, advantage has been taken at the time of deprivation,—recourse having been had to immersion for removing a portion ofthe combs, the bees were afterwards spread on a cloth in the sun, and became reanimated. Dr. Derham says that he has known bees revive after remaining twenty-four hours under an exhausted air-pump. After long submersion the proboscis of the bee is generally unfolded, and stretched to its full length. The first symptom of returning animation, is a motion at its extremity, succeeded by a similar motion at the extremities of the legs. Having so far progressed towards recovery, the tongue is soon folded up again, and the bee prepared to resume its customary occupations.
Mothsandspidersshould be watched and destroyed in an evening, as at that time the former are hovering about, and the latter laying their snares; at that time too there would be less danger of annoying the bees, or of being annoyed by them. Wherever moths have gained possession of a hive, it is always necessary to destroy the bees, or to drive them into another hive.
Attention to the following particulars may guard the bees from many of their enemies. A frequent cleaning of the hive floors; the use of new or well cleaned hives; the timely renewal of the coverings, and keeping the ground bare around the apiary, particularly in front of it. This last precaution may also prevent the entanglement of the bees in rubbish or long straggling vegetables,should they on their return home fall down through fatigue or the weight of their loads.
Fromratsandmicethe surest safeguard is an appropriate position of the hives; traps may also be laid, and in winter the entrances into the hives contracted. It will be prudent likewise to case the legs of the bee-benches with tin. Bees in a healthy vigorous state will attack and kill an intruding mouse; but in winter it might commit great depredations, and cause the emigration of the bees on the return of warm weather. (Mr. Espinasse says that he has known a mouse take up his winter quarters in a hive, without destroying the bees.)
For protection againstants, which sometimes enter the hives and eat the honey,Mr. Cobbett, in hisCottage Economy, recommends that the pedestals or legs of the benches supporting the hives should be surrounded by a green stick, twisted into a circular form and covered withtar; and if the ant nest can be traced, thatboiling watershould be poured into the centre of it, at night, when all the family are at home. The tarring of the stick should be repeated every two or three days: the legs of the stool, or the posts on which the shed stands, may also be tarred. Some bees may be lost by sticking in the tar, but this disadvantage will be more than counter-balancedby the destruction of the ants.Slaked limemay be beneficially spread about a foot wide round the apiary. The usual custom has been to renew this sprinkling of lime every two or three days: but theexperiments ofMr. Coleridge(Southey’s Brazil, i. 645) show that this step is unnecessary: by exposure to the air, lime is converted into chalk; and according to Mr. C, (who states that the formic acid transpires from the bodies of ants so as to leave its traces upon the substances which they traverse,) if ants attempt to pass over chalk, the effervescence produced between the chalk and the acid will be so considerable as to burn their legs. It has been said that a bee cannot kill an ant, when bitten; but that the bee instead of making resistance, flies away and carries the ant with it.
M. Reaumurwas of opinion that ants were not to be reckoned among the enemies of bees; and he relates an instance of their living as very close neighbours, yet in perfect harmony. The ants established themselves between the glass panes of his bee-box and the wooden shutters which covered them; and as a similar circumstance occurred toBonnet, and in other of Reaumur’s hives also, it seems probable that the ants took up their quarters in this situation for the sake of the equable warmth that the bees would impart to their eggs. “Ants were withoutthe hive,” says Reaumur, “and bees within; a single glass only separating two nations, so different in manners, in customs, and genius. The bees were abundantly provided with a dainty of which ants are exceedingly fond, I mean honey. The ants had just reason to be apprehensive that the bees would be uneasy, and jealous to preserve so precious a treasure. Nevertheless the utmost harmony and concord prevailed between the two nations. Not a single ant was tempted to enter the hive, how strongly soever she might be invited by the fragrance of the honey; nor did any bee disturb the ants, though superior to them in power; the several individuals, on each side, went in and out peaceably; they would meet in the way without teazing or molesting one another: respect on one side, and complacency on the other, were the foundation of this peace.”—Nat. History of Bees, p. 352.
The destruction ofqueen waspsandqueen hornetsin the spring, and of wasps’ and hornets’ nests in the summer, will prove the best security against those formidable enemies. None but queen wasps and queen hornets appear in the spring. Everyone which is then annihilated would probably have been the founder of a kindred colony, and every colony of wasps at a moderate computation may be calculated to produce at least 30,000 in a season. These destroyers may often be watched to their homes andexterminated in the night, by brimstone, gunpowder, or boiling water.
The wooden guards invented by Espinasse, or the tin guards of Huish, will be very useful in case of a formidable attack, and had better be made use of if an assault be apprehended from these predatory insects.
Powder and shot are the only protectors from the visits ofbirds.
The exclusion ofpoultrymust be left to the ingenuity of the apiarian.
In an ungenial autumn, it is not uncommon forbees that are ill-managed and not properly fed, to plunder the hoards of their own species, and bees that have thus acquired predatory habits, become great annoyers of industrious and well-fed colonies; they are known by the name of corsair bees. On these occasions spies are said to be sent our to ascertain the respective strengths of neighbouring colonies, and to select the weakest for attack.They make similar attacks upon the nests of humble-bees, as well as upon the bees themselves; in the former case they will carry off almost the whole of the stores that have been collected, unrepulsed by its proprietors; and in the latter case, saysHuber, “the humble-bee, accustomed to such exactions, yields up its honey, and resumes its flight.” In both cases it renews its labour in the fields, and repairs with its surplustreasure to its usual asylum, and that even after repeated robberies.Mr. Hubbardsays that he has known repeated instances of weak stocks being expelled from their hives by strong ones.The best remediesfor this evil arethe contraction of the entrances, as for guarding against wasps,or a change in the situation of the hives.
Dr. Darwinin hisPhytologiahas related an instance of a besieged hive being removed to a distant and more easterly part of the same garden: the assailants in this case did not follow, and the bees resumed their usual occupations. Removal to a still greater distance would seem to promise more certain relief. In order to raise their courage above its natural height when thus attacked,Schirachrecommends mixing a little wine or brandy with honey, and presenting it to the bees that are besieged.
Huberhas called the attention of Naturalists to what he designatedas a new enemy of bees, theSphinx AtroposorDeath’s-head Hawk-moth, to which his attention seems to have been first directed in 1804. This gigantic moth, which derives its name from having upon its back a mark somewhat resembling a death’s head, has, from this cause together with its size, (which at first caused it to be mistaken for a bat,) produced great alarm amongst the people of some countries, being regarded by them as the harbinger of somecalamity.Kuhnspeaks of its having been noticed in the apiaries of some monks at the close of the last century, as well as in the bee-houses of other persons: andCampbell, in hisTravels, mentions it as plundering the wild bees inAfricaof their honey. This moth makes its appearance towards the close of summer: it has the faculty of emitting a shrill mournful cry, which, when threatened by the vengeance of the bees, has the power of disarming their fury. It operates upon them like the voice of their queen, and thus enables the moth to commit the greatest ravages in the hives, with perfect impunity. Huber ascertained that it could not produce the same effect upon humble-bees; for whenevertheirnests are entered by one of these insects, it is immediately attacked and driven out. One that Huber introduced into a nest of humble-bees was actually stung to death by them, but not till many wounds had been inflicted upon its most sensible part, the belly. On dissecting one of these moths, he found a table-spoonful of pure honey in its abdomen. The proceedings of bees, when attacked by theSphinx Atropos, as detailed in the Chapter onInstincts, will suggest to the apiarian the best plan to be adopted, whenever this formidable insect shall invade their territories.
EXOTIC BEES.
Beesare, in all probability, the most universal of all animals; and notwithstanding their impatience of cold, they seem adapted to live in all climates. They are accordingly to be met with in every quarter of the globe, and in every quarter they seem to flourish, if duly attended to.
In all tropical climates there are little black bees without stings.Those of Guadaloupe are only half the size of those in Europe, and are rounder in their form. They build in hollow trees, or in the cavities of rocks by the sea-side, where they lay up their honey in cells about the size and shape of a pigeon’s egg; these cells are of a black or deep violet colour, and joined together, so as to leave no space between them; they hang in clusters almost like a bunch of grapes; each cell somewhat resembles a small bottle or bladder; when filled with honey the cell is closed up.
The honey collected by these bees is said not to be so unpalatable nor so surfeiting as that of Europe. By unpalatable I conceive the writers merely to mean, that it has less of that peculiar flavour which European honey possesses. A writer in the 15th volume of the PhilosophicalTransactions, states that their honey is always in a fluid state, and as clear as rock water, forming an agreeable beverage, which taken on an empty stomach in the quantity of about half a pint, acts medicinally in about two hours, but not so when taken with the meals.
There is a species of bees in Guiana which gather very delicious honey, and have no stings. These also construct their combs in a different manner from the hive-bee of our hemisphere. According to Huber’s translator,there are bees in India that construct under the boughs of a tree a single comb of very large dimensions. The most interesting account of exotic bees that I have met with, is in Mr. Basil Hall’s highly instructive and entertaining Journal written on the coasts of Chili, Peru and Mexico, in 1820, -1, and -2, of which I shall here give a transcript.
“From the Plaza, we went to a house where a bee-hive of the Country was opened in our presence. The bees, the honey-comb, and the hive, differ essentially from those in England. The hive is generally made out of a log of wood from two to three feet long and eight or ten inches in diameter, hollowed out, and closed at the ends by circular doors, cemented closely to the wood, but capable of being removed at pleasure.
“Some persons use cylindrical hives, made ofearthenware, instead of the clumsy apparatus of wood; these are relieved by raised figures and circular rings, so as to form rather handsome ornaments in the verandah of a house, where they are suspended by cords from the roof, in the same manner that the wooden ones in the village are hung to the eaves of the cottage. On one side of the hive, half-way between the ends, there is a small hole made, just large enough for a loaded bee to enter, and shaded by a projection to prevent the rain from trickling in. In this hole, generally representing the mouth of a man, or some monster, the head of which is moulded in the clay of the hive, a bee is constantly stationed, whose office is no sinecure[J], for the hole is so small, he has to draw back every time a bee wishes to enter or to leave the hive. A gentleman told me that the experiment had been made, by marking the sentinel; when it was observed that the same bee continued at his post a whole day.
[J]If the Mexican bees enter the hives with as much rapidity and in as great numbers as Reaumur states they do in this part of the world, it would indeed be no sinecure. He observes that the population of a hive amounts to 18,000, and that a hundred enter in a minute; if as many go out in the same time, I think the sentinel must rather stand on one side of the entrance than within it.
[J]If the Mexican bees enter the hives with as much rapidity and in as great numbers as Reaumur states they do in this part of the world, it would indeed be no sinecure. He observes that the population of a hive amounts to 18,000, and that a hundred enter in a minute; if as many go out in the same time, I think the sentinel must rather stand on one side of the entrance than within it.
“When it is ascertained by the weight that the hive is full, the end pieces are removed, and thehoney withdrawn. The hive we saw opened was only partly filled, which enabled us to see the œconomy of the interior to more advantage. The honey is not contained in the elegant hexagonal cells of our hives, but in wax bags, not quite so large as an egg. These bags or bladders are hung round the sides of the hive, and appear about half full, the quantity being probably just as great as the strength of the wax will bear without tearing. Those near the bottom being better supported, are more filled than the upper ones. In the centre of the lower part of the hive, we observed an irregular-shaped mass of comb furnished with cells, like those of our bees, all containing young ones, in such an advanced state that when we broke the comb and let them out, they flew merrily away. During this examination of the hive, the comb and the honey were taken out, and the bees disturbed in every way; but they never stung us, though our faces and hands were covered with them. It is said, however, that there is a bee in the country which does sting; but the kind we saw seem to have neither the power nor the inclination, for they certainly did not hurt us; and our friends said they were always ‘muy manso,’ very tame, and never stung any one. The honey gave out a rich aromatic perfume, and tasted differently from ours, but possessed an agreeable flavour.”
From the periodicals of the last year, I haveobserved that there has been an importation of the stingless bees into this country. I doubt the success of their establishment here, as the fruits of their labours may very soon become the prey of wasps and corsair bees, and even of the hive-bees which, in a dearth of honey or when from a paucity of numbers a hive is weakly defended, will commit depredations upon one another. The stingless bees having no weapon of defence which enables them to cope with armed assailants must soon be exterminated. In their native clime, where there is an abundance of sweets, no temptations to predatory attack may occur; but in our hemisphere, as Buffon has observed, there are hundreds of lazy creatures, fond of honey and disliking labour, that would, but for the weapons of defence possessed by our bees, invade their hives and carry off the treasures.
Honey-bees do not appear to have been among the native productions of North America, though they have now become general throughout that continent. When established there, they extended themselves somewhat in advance of the white population; in consequence of which they were called by the native Indians, the white man’s flies, and were regarded as indicating the approach of European settlements.—Jefferson’s Virginia.
An elegant modern writer has observed upon this subject, that “a few years ago the hum of abee had never been heard on the western side of Alleghany Mountains: but that a violent hurricane having carried several swarms over that lofty ridge, they found there a new unexhausted country, singularly favourable to their propagation, where they have multiplied, till the whole of those boundless savannahs and plains have been colonized by these indefatigable emigrants.”
From what I have said above, it would seem that the bees of all tropical climates store their honey in cells or bags of large dimensions; but from Mr. Basil Hall’s account it appears that the bees of South America build small cells also, resembling those of our hive-bees; and in all probability this is the case with those of other hot climates, and that these small cells are merely used as receptacles for the young brood.
SEPARATION OF WAX AND HONEY.
Afterdeprivation, the box or hive containing the combs should be kept in a warm room, till it is convenient to drain it of its contents, as the more fluid the honey, the sooner and the more completely will it run off; this is of course a reason for not deferring the draining longer than can be avoided.
The combs should be separated from the boxes or hives with the broad spatula and the double-edged instrument recommended in chapter XI. and placed afterwards on a clean dish. The waxen covers, on both sides of the scaled combs, should be sliced off, when by placing them on a hair sieve the honey will run through tolerably fine, and may be caught in an earthen pan. For prime purposes the purest combs should be selected, and their honey passed through a separate sieve. Mr. Isaac recommends letting this fine honey drop through the sieve into a silk sarse, such as is used by the apothecary for sifting fine powders, and from the sarse into an earthen pan; this would enable the apiarian to obtain his honey in a more depurated state. The sarse must be first wetted, or the honey will not runthrough it. If the weather be cool, this business should be done in a room where there is a fire.
The ordinary combs may be chopped up, or broken down with the hands, and together with the refuse combs after draining, may be thrown into as much clear water as will cause the wax to swim: the whole may remain in this state for some days to dissolve all the honey for making common mead; or the combs may be spread out upon broad dishes, and set before the bees in an evening, as also the utensils which have been employed during the process, first strewing them over with short straws, to prevent the bees from smearing their wings. The former is the best mode of disposing of the refuse combs and utensils, as the latter is apt to produce quarrelling and robberies.
The combs having been cleared as completely as possible, the finest should be boiled in water enough to float them, till they are thoroughly melted: the melted mass should be poured into a canvass bag, made in the form of a jelly bag, with a draw tape or string at the top, and then be suspended over a tub or pan of cold water. The strings of the bag being tightly drawn, the expression may be effected in various ways. Some press the bag between two strong round sticks, tied or strapped together at their ends, so as to resemble a pair of nut-crackers, with which twopersons may by repeatedly stripping down the sides of the bag, express the whole of the wax. Others express it by making an inclined plane of a board about four feet long, placing one end of it in the tub or pan of water, and the other against the breast of the assistant, who puts the bag on the board and passes a round stick firmly down it, as long as the wax will run. A screw press, made hot, would of course answer the purpose better than either of the above modes.
The crumbled combs might be put over the fire, in a steam kettle, with water under it, and the wax which runs through might be afterwards melted again and passed through the bag. The new combs will melt almost entirely; but the old ones, owing to their cells having received so many linings, will preserve their form, the wax running from them but in small quantities.
The vessel used for melting the wax should be capable of containing a good deal more than is put into it, as the contents may boil up suddenly, and occasion loss and inconvenience as well as danger. The wax having been separated from the water in which it was melted, should be remelted with just water enough to prevent burning; and having been well skimmed, may be poured into proper moulds for forming cakes, the vessels being first rinsed with cold water toprevent the wax from adhering to them. The melted wax should be placed near the fire and covered over, to cool gradually, or the cakes will be liable to crack. If it be desirable to have the wax in a very pure state, it may be boiled over and over again with fresh water.
WAX.
Waxis a solid compact unctuous substance, generally of a yellow colour. It is secreted by animals and vegetables, but the vegetable secretion of it is often combined with resin.
Bees-waxmay be said to be a concrete animal oil, holding the same relation to the fixed oils that resin does to the essential oils. It is secreted by certain small sacklets on the body of the bee, as occasion requires, for constructing the combs in which the family provision and the young brood are deposited; the wax of commerce is procured by melting down these combs, in the manner already described.
Prime waxis of a bright yellow colour and an agreeable odour, somewhat like that of honey. The best is procured from combs which have been either wholly unoccupied, or occupied by nothing but honey. When first secreted, it is white, semitransparent, and very fragile: it afterwards becomes stronger, and assumes more or less of a yellow hue. This deepening of colour is owing, partly, to its being covered with a yellowish varnish by the bees, (for an account ofwhich see “Architecture” and “Propolis,”) and is partly the effect of age.
Independently of its colour, the goodness of wax may also be estimated by the passing of the thumb nail forcibly over its surface: if good, the nail will pass with a kind of jerk; but if no obstruction be felt, the wax may be looked upon as adulterated with suet, or some similar substance.
The averagequantity yielded by a common hive, is about half a pound of wax to fifteen pounds of honey; the quantity of both may be considerably increased by storifying.
White waxis nothing more than the yellow wax that has been exposed in thin flakes or shreds to the action of the sun and air. There is an apparatus for melting and reducing the wax into shreds or ribbands, but the process of conversion, under any circumstances, is tedious and dependent on the weather. “The following,” says Mr. Parkes in his Chemical Essays, “is the usual process, as it is conducted in England. Common bees-wax is melted upon hot water; and when in a fluid state, it is laded out of the copper, together with a part of the water, into a wooden vessel; and in this it is allowed to remain a few hours, for the impurities to subside from it. The purified wax is then put, while still hot, into a cullender full of holes, through which it runs, and falls upon a revolving metallic roller, which dipsinto cold water contained in a vessel placed underneath. As the melted wax runs through the cullender upon the revolving roller, the motion of the cylinder forms it into thin shavings, which cool as they come in contact with the water, and fall in an accumulated heap into the water below. These shavings of wax, being now in a suitable form for absorbing oxygen, are taken out of the tub, and exposed in a field to the action of the atmosphere, till they become sufficiently white.”
Bees-wax formsa considerable article of commerce, and large quantities of it are annually imported into this country from the Baltic, the Levant, the Barbary Coast, and North America. In some parts of Europe and America wax is very extensively employed in the religious ceremonies of the inhabitants. Humboldt informs us that upwards of 80,000 pounds worth is annually imported from Cuba to New Spain, and that the total export from that island in 1803 was worth upwards of 130,000l.By far the greater part of this wax is the produce of the hive-bee, though no inconsiderable quantity is procured also from various species of wild bees, as well as from certain trees which I shall notice presently.
Upon this subject a modern writer, after lamenting the increasing neglect of bee-culture in this country, has not hesitated to use the following contemptuous, though somewhat extravagant,language. “There is hardly bees-wax enough produced in England to answer the demand for lip-salve alone; but importation from America supplies all our wants, for the quantity obtained in that country is annually increasing.” “Little thinks the ball-room beauty, when the tapers are almost burnt out, that the wax by whose light her charms have been exalted was once hidden in the bells and cups of innumerable flowers, shedding perfume over the silent valleys of the Susquehanna, or nodding at their own reflected colours in the waters of the Potomac and Delaware.”
The uses of wax in making candles, ointments, &c. are well known.
According to Buffon, the bees-wax of tropical climates is too soft for any but medicinal purposes.
There is a species ofwax, which is generally regarded asof vegetable origin, and which is afforded by various trees, plants and fruits. The light down which silvers over the surface of prunes and other stone fruits, has been shown by M. Proust to be wax, the leaves and stem of theCeroxylonalso, afford it in considerable quantity, if bruised and boiled in water; but the trees which afford it in greatest abundance, are theMyrica cerifera angustifoliaor wax-tree of Louisiana, and theMyrica cerifera latifoliaof Pennsylvania, Carolina, and Virginia. The latter is now naturalized in France: it flourishes also in the dry lands of Prussia, and,from the productiveness of its berries, it seems surprising that its culture is not more general.
The mode in which thismyrtle waxis obtained is as follows. Towards the end of autumn the natives gather the ripe berries, boil them in water, skim off the wax which rises, strain it off from its impurities, and set it to drain, after which, they remelt and form it into masses. Four pounds of berries yield about one pound of wax.
From the wax thus procured, they make soap and candles. The soap manufactured from it is said to be excellent, and to wash linen perfectly white; the candles afford a good light, without smoke or guttering; their perfume is highly agreeable, not only during the time that they are burning, but for a considerable time afterwards.
Mr. Sparrman suspects that myrtle wax is deposited upon the berries by insects, and Du Valde has given an account of a white wax made by small insects, round the branches of a tree in China, in great quantity, which is there collected for medical and economical purposes. (Description of China, vol. i. page 230.) Myrtle wax therefore may not be a vegetable product.
According to the experiments of M. Cadet and Dr. Bostock, thismyrtle wax differs in some respects from, bees-wax. It differs from it in colour, different specimens of it assuming different shades of yellowish green: its smell is also different;myrtle wax, when fresh, emitting a fragrant balsamic odour. It has in part the tenacity without the unctuosity of bees-wax, and somewhat of the brittleness of resin. Its specific gravity is greater, insomuch that it sinks in water, whereas bees-wax floats upon it; and it is not so easily bleached to form white wax.
Analysis of Wax.
“The formation of resin and wax has been explained thus:—That when a volatile or a fixed oil is expelled out of plants, and has its surface exposed to the air, the first becomes a resin by losing hydrogen, the second a wax by absorbing oxygen.”—Parkes’s Chemical Catechism, p. 244, 11th edit.
HONEY.
Honeyis a well known, sweet, tenacious, substance, which in fine weather is continually secreting in the nectaries of flowers, chiefly from certain vesicles or glands situated near the basis of every petal, from whence it is collected by bees and other insects. The domestic honey-bees consume a portion of this honey for food, at or near the time of gathering; but the principal part is regurgitated and poured into the cells of the hive, for the use of the community in winter:—so very abundant are these collections, in favourable seasons, as to afford to the apiarian an extensive share of them, without distressing the provident hoarders. Mr. Wildman states that in the year 1789, he purchased a glass filled with exceedingly fine honey-combs, weighing 63lbs., which had been collected within a month, and that the hive which it had surmounted still contained a full supply for the winter’s consumption of the bees. This however was an unusual quantity; a hive or box, of the dimensions recommended in this work, may be considered as well stocked when it yields from 30 to 40lbs. of honey.
The honey intended for early use, and for thenursing-bees and drones, is deposited in cells which are allowed to remain open, and is probably of an inferior sort; whilst the finest honey, which is laid up in store for winter, is placed in the most inaccessible parts of the hive, and closed in the cells with waxen lids.