ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY New York State Colleges OF Agriculture and Home Economics AT Cornell University EVERETT FRANKLIN PHILLIPS BEEKEEPING LIBRARY li'H COi CD! Oi ^5 rv3i G3i The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924066723143 A MANUAL OF BEE-KEEPING. MANUAL OF BEE-KEEPING. JOHN HUNTER, LATE HONORARY SECRETARY OF THE BRITISH BEEKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. " Some have taught That Bees have portions of ethereal thought. Endued with particles of heavenly fires. For God the whole created mass inspires.''—Vikml. FOURTH EDITION. bonbon: W. H. ALLEN & CO, 13, WATERLOO PLACE. 1884. CLAY AND TAYLOll, riUNTEliS PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. In my position as Honorary Secretary of the British Bee- keepers' Association, I was frequently asked to recommend a moderately priced book, which would instruct the inquirer how properly to manage his Bees;' to my great regret I was unable to give a satisfactory reply, being acquainted with no work embracing the requisites of cheapness and completeness up to our then standard of knowledge, to bring it within the means of the many. The best work in the English language was unquestionably 'Langstroth on the Honey Bee'; but this, pub- lished in America, costs here ten shillings and sixpence. All others that I knew did not explain the various systems and apparatus sufficiently, or were too costly for general use. It was universally acknowledged that the Apiarian Exhibition of 1874 had given an immense impetus to Bee-culture, and I had great hopes that one of our clever and learned Bee-masters would have announced during the following Winter a new Work on the subject, which would fulfil the desired conditions ; but the ist day of February, 1875, arrived, and I had not heard the wished-for news ; so, reluctant to let the Spring appear without the needed help, I resolved, faute de mieux, to attempt the work myself; and, having sought and found a publisher, began and completed the First Edition of this little Manual in my leisure evening hours of the same month of February. The Second Edition followed the first so rapidly that very little enlargement or correction was requisite, but between the publication of the Second Edition to the present time a lapse of three years has occurred, during which time Apiculture has made such rapid strides that the necessity has arisen to thoroughly revise the whole work, and, in addition, bring vi PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. prominently before Bee-culturists the modern introduction and use of sectional supers and comb foundation, which jointly will, if I mistake not, revolutionize the art of honey raising in Great Britain, as it has already done in America. Until the British Bee-keeper is awake to the necessity of sending his honey to market in the best saleable form, he cannot hope to compete with our enterprising friends across the Atlantic, who are at this present time invading the honey markets of Europe with the same bold energy they have shown with other crops. In the preparation of this Volume my aim has been to give the best possible information on the subject it was in my power to obtain, and, without attempting to rely solely on my own personal knowledge, I have gleaned materials for the work from every available source. I have been particularly indebted in this way to 'Langstroth on the Honey Bee,' the various 'Bee Journals ' of America and Europe, the articles of Mr. Cheshire in 'The Country,' 'The Journal of Horticulture, ' 'King's Bee- keepers' Text Book,' and 'Neighbour's Apiary.' I have, I believe, in most cases acknowledged the auttior from whom I have borrowed. If, in any instance, this is omitted, it is uninten- tionally ; therefore I hope to be pardoned. My aim has been to make known the various new inventions and appliances in Apiculture, and to encourage the culture of the Bee, by showing what wealth is lost to the nation at large by its neglect, and to give, in a popular and handy form, practical instructions to the novice which may start him fairly on the road to profitable Bee-keeping in a merciful and rational manner. Is it too presumptuous to hope, also, that the adept may herein find some useful hints and facts with which he was not acquainted ? Earnestly trusting that my work may not be in vain, I am, &c., ^ „. JOHN HUNTER. 5, Eaton Rise, Ealing, Middlesex. May, 1879. .. .. CONTENTS. Preface Natural History of the Honey Bee I Combs . 23 Bee-keeping . 33 Natural Swarming 52 Artificial Swarming 64 Hives . 70 Guide Combs, and Comb Foundation 106 Supers and their Management 112 The Honey Extractor or Slinger . 121 Queen Cages . 126 Feeders and Feeding 132 Drone and Bee Traps HS Quieting Bees 149 Foreign Bees, and the Methods of Ligurianizing AN Apiary 156 Queen-breeding and Nucleus Hives 164 Driving 172 Transferring Combs and Bees to Frame Hives 176 Diseases and Enemies of Bees 181 Ventilation of Hives 189 Honey and its Sources 193 Stings 197 Removing Bees 202 Preparation of Wax 203 Robbing 204 Draining Honey from the Combs, and how to make use of it . 205 Recipes 207 ... viii CONTENTS. "PAGE Stings . igS Removing Bees . 202 ^'reparation of wax . 204 Robbing . 204 Draining Honey from the Combs, and how to make USE OF IT . i . , . 206 Recipes . 208 ! — A MANUAL OF BEE-KEEPING. NATURAI. HISTORY OF THE HONEY BEE. " What atom forms of insect life appear And who can follow Nature's pencil here?" Mrs. Barbauld. From the very earliest historic times, the Hive Bee has been cultivated by man for the sake of the delicious honey and useful wax that it produces, as well as studied for the manifold lessons it furnishes in industry and physiology. The busy merchant, when wanting a symbol for his house, could find no better sign than the "Bee-hive." How common the axiom, " A very Hive of industry." The poet and the moralist fails not to quote our little friend as an example to the young; and the beautiful hymn of Dr. Watts, ' The Little Busy Bee,' can never be forgotten as a memory of our early days, and in ages to come will be taught to our children's children with the same loving wish of a good result as was hoped for us. To the naturalist and man of science, the Bee affords a never-ending store of Nature's wonders ; although philosophers, from Aristomachus, four centuries before the Christian era, Cicero, Pliny, Philiscus, Virgil, Theo- phrastes, Plutarch, and Columella, to those of modern times, Maraldi, Reaumur, Sir Christopher Wren, the illustrious blind Huber, and Lord Brougham, all wrote B 2 A MANUAL OF BEE-KEEPING. upon and studied the Bee, the wonders it unfolds are not yet exhausted. The patience and sagacity of the naturalist have had an ample field for exercise in the study of the structure, physiology, and domestic economy of Bees; their pre- servation and increase have been objects of assiduous care to the agriculturist; and their reputed perfection of policy and government have long, been the theme of admiration, and supplied copious materials for argument and allusion to the poet and the moralist of every age. The accurate investigation of life within a Bee-hive has, from the old form of the latter's construction, been beset with so many difficulties that very often wrong deduc- tions have been drawn from supposed facts discovered, and succeeding authors without confirmation have un- wittingly promulgated errors, until much of the written history had become little better than fable, the correc- tion of which is left to our own time and daily improving means of observation. In Great Britain and on the Continent of Europe there is cultivated, so far as I know, but one species of Hive Bee, although of this there are several varieties. Our common English, or Black Bee, has been scientifically named Apis Mellifica; and the Italian, or Ligurian Bee, Apis Ligustica; but all entomologists agree that they are one and the same species. Dr. Gerstacker even goes so far as to consider the Egyptian Bee, Apis Fasciata, and another African Bee, Apis Adansonii, as varieties also. The best authorities are in a difficulty as to which Bee should rank as the species—whether to say Apis Mellifica var- Ligustica or vice versa. The former, I think, is • the more generally adopted ; but our distinguished hymenopterist, Mr. Frederick Smith, late of the British Museum, seemed to ; NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY BEE. 3 consider the most highly coloured as the typical form and it is possibly more correct to give the precedence to Apis LigusHca, but it cannot be decided satisfactorily until we know in what country the Hive Bee really originated. Physiologically I can detect no difference between Ligurians and Black Bees. Individuals vary in size as well as in colour; but, on dissecting a number of each variety, the difference is nil, and no microscopist could separate a series of any given organs of both, if mixed indiscriminately. Some observers have asserted that the tongue of the Ligurian Bee is considerably longer than our British native Bee, by which means it is enabled to reach the nectar in the red clover, which its ally cannot do; but I have carefully measured with the micrometer a great many of both varieties, and I do not find more than the one hundredth of an inch difference in favour of the Ligurian, so small a difference being probably attribut- able to mere accident of breeding.