How to manage the honey bee in New Zealand

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CHAPMAN'S HANDY-BOOK

14 is black; see that the bees are lively, not quiet and languid, and paying no attention to you when examining the hive. Now then, afer making your selection, you wish to move your bees some distance, therefore, when your hive is stocked, tie it up securely in a cloth, that same evening, and cary it to the place where it is to stand. It must on no account be moved again except to a considerable distance. The situation of the hives ought never to be changed, but I have seen people shift about their hives very inconsiderately; the change of place invariably weakens them, as the bees will return to their old residence, the environs of which are so familiar to them. A hive should remain as fixed to the spot as the ancient oaks, in the hollows of which they delight to establish themselves, where they have their young, their companions, their beloved queen, and all their treasures. When the young bees take wing for the first time, they do it with great precaution, turning round and round, and fluttering about the entrance, to examine the hive well before taking flight. They do the same in returning, so that they may be easily distinguished, conducting themselves nearly after the same manner as the workers of a newly hived swarm. When they have made a few hundred excursions, they set off wihtout examining the locality, and, returning in full flight, will know their own hive in the midst of a hundred others. But if you change its place you perplex them, much the same as you would be, if, during your absence, some one lifted your house, and placed it a mile off. The poor bees return loeaded, and seeking in vain for their habitation, either fall down and perish with fatigue, or throw themselves into the neighbouring hives, when they are speedily put to death. When hives are trasnported to a considerable distance, there is no fear that the beses will return. But this inconvenience would be sure to take place, and many of the working bees would prerish, if they were removed only a few hundred paces from the spot they have been accustomed to. The hive may not perish, but it will be greatly weakened. In my opinion, if the situation is to be changed at all, they should be removed at least a mile and a half.

Last edit over 1 year ago by KatrinaLMoore
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THE HONEY-BEE IN NEW ZEALAND 15

A new swarm may be confined for a day or two, if you want to carry it more than an evening's journey, for bees swarm with their honey bags full, and their first employment is to make wax, which is indoor work. The cloth which is tied over the bottom of the hive must be of such an open texture as to admit air freely, and yet not so open as to let any bees out. The stuff which I use for the purpose is that which is, I believe, called dairy canvas, and is made for straining milk. But if you want to take your bees to a great distance, down the coast for instance, and the voyage may last a week or a fortnight, it is best to let the hive stand for ten days or so in in your friend's apiary, then tie it up in the cloth as before, and hang it somewhere in the ship out of the light, or at all events, screened from the sun, where it can swing freely without knocking against the side of the vessel, and then you may carry your treasure to the most distant part of these islands in safety. A common straw hive is certainly the most handy for carrying bees any great distance for the cloth is more easily tied about it. You must look at it every now and then to see whether the bees are forcing their way out. They will try to do so, and when the cloth is taken off you will find that portion of its surface which was exposed to the bees carded into a sort of lint, by the action of their jaws. You will see their feelers pushed through the canvas in great numbers, searching for a passage into the open air. If you find they are making a hole, through which they will soon force a passage out, nothing is easier than to tie another fold of cloth over the bottom of the hive. Should the swarm be in a wooden box, the best way of securing it is to lash it firmly to a bottom board, with no door at all cut in it, and then push in litte wedges between the box and the board, so as to raise the hive about an eighth of an inch all round,. This will both tighten the lashings, and also give the bees a sufficient supply of fresh air; and it is much bettter to give it them in this way than at one single doorway, through a piece of perforated zinc or tin. For, in this latter case, the bees seeing light at only one point will often crowd so much to it, as to prevent the free entrance of the air.

Last edit over 1 year ago by KatrinaLMoore
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16. CHAPMAN'S HANDY-BOOK

Such few bees as die on the passage will also be carried to the entrance, which they will help to block up, so that at last the whole swarm may be stifled. But by wedging up the box all round, the bees will have breathing places everywhere, and you will see them, if you peep in, not struggling to get air at one place only, but running about in every direction on the floor board, like children playing at puss in the corner The reason why I advise you to take with you a hive of about ten days old, and from that to three weeks, is this, that a swarm of that age will have built a certain quantity of comb, and laid up honey enough to serve them for the voyage, and yet the combs will not be so heavy with honey or brood, as to put them in danger of breaking down; or even should you be so unfortunate as to get one, or even all the combs, broken down by a sudden blow, the bees will not be smothered in their own honey, as I have known to be the case with a heavy hive. They will get themsevles clear in a very short time from the fallen combs, from which they will draw enough food to last their voyage, whilst they themselves will hang in clusters from the top. When you reach your new home with this large batch of fellow immigrants, do not set them at liberty till the evening. If you are in a hurry, and open the hive directly, the bees will rush out in greaat confusion; many of them, if they have been long shut up, will fall on to the ground, and if it be wet will not rise again. Or a still worse result may follow. If the combs have all been broken down during the voyage, and the bees much annoyed at it, the whole swarm, Queen and all, will rise at once, and take to the woods as irregular squatters, instead of remaining to colonize your garden in a systematic way. Wait, I say, till the evening and just after sundown, if you hear that the bees are all quiet, undo the lashing, and get someboy to lift the hive up a little from its board; then, if any combs are broken down, remove them quietly, and the following morning you will have the pleasure of seeing your fellow-colonists going as regularly to work as though they had been in their new station for years. I only hope you may be as industrious. and then like them you will most probably succeed.

Last edit over 1 year ago by KatrinaLMoore
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THE HONEY-BEE IN NEW ZEALAND. 17

In the winter a heavier hive may be safely moved to a new station, for by that time the combs will be more firmly fixed, not only to the top of the hive, but also to the sides; and as there will be no longer any brood in the combs, they will be relieved from this great weight. But as most people choose the summer for their own movements, I suppose that bees will generally have to make the journey at the same time. And this journey they always should make in company with any settler going to a distant station; for the benefit they will do to him is very great; but more of this when I come to speak of bee produce. Some people put cross sticks in all their hives, thinking them needful to support the combs. If very securely fixed, they may be useful in hives which are to be carried to a distance, but in no other cases ought they to be used, as I shall presently show; they are the greatest nuisances when you come to take the honey, and are useless at all other times. A comb will not break down as long as the hive is not moved, and is protected from the direct rays of the sun; trust the bees to do their own work securely; there are no bunglers amongst them. One other hint I will now give touching the removal of your bees: when you come to turn a hive up, to lash it to its board, to look inside, or to cut out some honeycomb, first ascertain how the combs run in the hive; I mean from front to back, or from side to side. The combs, you know, are all parallel to each other, like a number of books hung up to dry on strings, with a quarter of an inch between them. When you know which way they run, be very careful to turn up the hives so as to keep the combs always in their own planes. This may be rather too difficult for some of my readers; but it is of the greatest importance; and as I bought my own experience dearly, by making a miserable smash of a fine parcel of combs in a hive which I turned up the wrong way, I am willing that you should have it at a cheaper rate, without making your bees pay the penalty of your ignorance. We will now suppose that you have got your bees and set them to work,

Last edit over 1 year ago by Pam Donnelly
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18 CHAPMAN'S HANDY-BOOK.

but you may have the complaint we often hear, you may have no garden, or your garden is too small, or you may be a settler in the country where flowers are few and far between, and as you look around not a vestage of cultivation visible, nothing but fern, flax, and ti-tree, a popular writer says never fear for your bees, for in the very heart of a town, without a flower in sight, the bees will thrive as well as the richest garden, for one or two miles round on all sides is yours for the use of your bees, never mind though the pasture be entered on other peoples' title deeds. If you have space for a bit of flower garden near your beehives the food they provide will save a few journeys to the bees and pay you well in the increase of honey - first then, have no double flowers in your garden, as the bees never touch them. The "Times Bee Master" says, "On that magnificent standard rose, so rich in delicious perfume and so very lovely, a bee never alights, but the sweet briar and hedge rose are favourites and much frequented." Sow, then, near your hives lemon thyme in abundance, and cultivate rosemary, lavender, laurustinas, primrose, violet, sweet briar, honeysuckle, wallflower (single) sage, borage, mignonette, mallow, lime. hyssop, Spanish broom, hawthorn, heath, sunflower, St. John's wort, and melilotus leucantha, as they are all rich in honey and farina. Observe a bee, says Kirby, that has alighted on a flower. The hum produced by the motion of her wings ceases, and her work begins. In an instant she unfolds her tongue, which was previously rolled up under her head. With what rapidity does she dart this organ between the petals and the stamina! At one time she extends it to its full length, then she contracts it; she moves it about in all directions, so that it may be applied to the concave and convex surface of the petal, and sweep them both, and thus by a virtuous theft, she robs it of all its nectar. All the while this is going on, she keeps herself in a state of constant vibratory motion. Flowers, though the chief, are not the only sourcs from which the bee derives the material of honey and wax. She will also eat sugar in every form, treacle, the

Last edit over 1 year ago by Pam Donnelly
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