How to manage the honey bee in New Zealand

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THE HONEY-BEE OF NEW ZEALAND. 29

of hiving his bees which may have settled there, if he but set to work quietly and perseveringly. Do not use thick gloves, or any of those other articles of bee dress which you will sometimes see recommended. For any thing which hinders you from moving about with ease - anything which prevents you from handling your bees with a gentle touch - anything, in fact, which makes you awkward, or shows that you are timid umongst them, will be less likely to protect you from stings than to draw them down upon you. The bees too are particularly gentle when in the act of swarming, however irascible the parent hive may have been up to that time. If the swarm has alighted on a small bough, nothing is easier than to hive them. Spread a cloth on the ground, and on it place the bottom board of the hive. An assistant must then hold the stem, on which the bees are settled, on each side of the cluster, so that it may not fall to the ground, when you with a sharp knife cut it off. Place the twig, with the bees hanging to it, gently on the bottom board, and then set your hive over it, propping it up on one side, that the bees which are still on the wing may find their way in. Lap the cloth round over the hive on all sides but this one, and otherwise shade it well from the sun, and your work is done till the evening, when you must set the hive where it is to stand. You should, however, keep an eye upon them, or else when you go to move your hive you may find it empty, the bees having flown. The Rev. J. G. Wood says truly that for the most part all the details of bee-management can be best learned from practice, and the study of the essential objects which details are intended to secure. It is also to be observed, that such details are unsettled to this hour, and vary among the best apiarists. Almost the entire success of bee management depends upon the capabilities of the apiarian to take advantages of all the various changes which must take place according to the variations of temperature, locality, and seasons. While, therefore, it would display great presumtion on the part of a beginner to dispense with the rules which the extensive experience of veteran bee-masters has enabled

Last edit over 1 year ago by Pam Donnelly
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them to lay down, it would also be the mark of a mind very contracted and deficient in resources, were he slavishly to follow these rules without deviating from them, when circumstances would point out that a different course must be adopted. Great caution must be observed in acting on new principles. Many treat their bees as if they were utterly insensible beings, who cared not the least how they were lodged or fed, and who fancy they can manoeuvre a hive of bees as easily as they can a flock of sheep. Bees MUST be treated according to their instincts, and if constantly thwarted by the ignorance of their master, will never thrive properly. Indeed, a man who hopes to get a decent harvest from his hives, and at the same time to manage them on a wrong principle, will effect about as much success as a gardener might, who strove to improve the quality of a peach by grafting it upon a strawberry. The principle of grafting here is right enough, but the application is wrong. So if a man learns any number of correct ideas from books, yet if at the same time he does not learn the application, he will do but little good. So with regard to the much vexed question of theory and practice: a mere theorist will never succeed in securing any particular harvest, while the narrow-minded man who rests his whole hopes on acting in precisely the same manner in which his fathers acted, will never advance the culture of bees one item. To make a perfect bee-master, then, pracitce and theory must be united - the theory sound, the practice decided. And this is a point that cannot be too closely attended to. When the apiarian has made up his mind to adopt any particular course, he must carry out that determination in a most decided manner. And here I may remark, that to learn by heart a number of instructions respecting any operations upon bees - say hiving a swarm - and acting upon those instructions, are two very different things. When, after carefully committing to memory certain rules, the young apiarian goes out, hive in hand, to attack a swarm which has just settled on a branch of a tree, he naturally finds a slight misgiving steal over his mind as he approaches the living mass, and gets within range of the stragglers that

Last edit over 1 year ago by Pam Donnelly
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are dashing about with a very ominously sharp hum, that appears to his mind very suggestive of stings, and causes him to assure himself of the exact locality of his bottle of hartshorn. However, he nerves himself for the attack, recollects that the hive is to be placed below the swarm, and then a smart tap is to be given to the branch. So he sprinkles sugar and beer in the hive, places it under the swarm, takes a very long stick, and standing at a respectful distance, administers a rather feeble tap to the fatal branch. No effect is produced, and he gives another tap rather more powerful than the last. The obstinate bees still remain fixed to their branch like a quaker's hat to his head, and no perceptible effect is produced excepting a kind of general movement in the swarm, which appears to indicate an intention on the part of the bees to hold together rather closer than before. Having now gained some courage, he once more uplifts the stick, and permits it to descend upon the branch with rather more violence than in either of the former assaults. Down go some hundred bees or so into the hive, where they are heard buzzing away in a most frantic manner, and filled with indignation at the unceremonious manner in which their wings are clogged with the sticky compound in the hive, while the remainder rise in a disturbed mass from their branch. The terrified bee-keeper, losing all the remainder of his presence of mind, throws the long stick at the swarm, and takes to his heels, too happy to find any place of refuge from his winged foes. In a few minutes he emerges just in time to see his swarm disappearing over his hedge, and immediately the vigorous tinkling of keys and warming-pans assure him that others are engaged in the pursuit of the bees which he has permitted to escape. Next time he remembers that if the swarm be intended to fall into the hive, the branch must be struck very sharply indeed. In this as in every other occupation, great decision is necessary, as the bees are very irascible creatures, and any fumbling about their dwellings or themselves irritates them marvellously, while a bold and rapid course of proceeding appears to astonish them out of the power of doing injury. Indeed it is said that a skilful operator can turn up a hive

Last edit over 1 year ago by Pam Donnelly
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and cut out combs with impunity while the bees are hard at work within. To return to what Mr. Cotton was saying:- If they settle on a branch which is too long to cut off, or one which you do not like to destroy - an apple tree, for example - you must vary your mode of action. Have the hive held close under the swarm, so that the long beard of bees may hang down into the hive itself, till it touches the bottom (or rather the top), then give the bough a sudden shake, and the bees will fall down into the hive; brush off into it with a feather any clusters which may still be clinging to the bough; then, still holding the hive in the same position, put the bottom board on it, as a sort of cover to the bees. By the help of another person turn the hive into its proper position, and set it on the ground, near the foot of the tree on which they settled. After four or five minutes' confinement, raise up one side of the hive by means of a stick, so as to give the bees who are still flying about access to their fellows, and if the queen is safely hived, they will all speedily join her. But if you see that the stream of bees is setting out of the hive rather than into it, you may suspect that all is not right; search any cluster which you may see lying on the ground near the hive, any bunch which may still be on the tree, and if you see the queen, seize her gently and put her into the hive. If you have not nerve sufficient to enable you to search for her majesty, just wait till the cluster outside is large enough to be sure the queen is among them, and do the same thing over again. There is a DARING GENTLENESS required in managing bees that can only be learned by practice - that both Mr. Wood and Mr. Cotton tries to impress upon young bee masters.

Second Swarms

give more certain signals of swarming. If you put your ear close to the top of the hive in the still of the evening, some days after the first swarm has risen, you will hear these signals, cries very unlike any other ever heard from a beehive. One cry is that of the reigning queen, the other is that

Last edit over 1 year ago by Lizprobert
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of a full grown queen bee, still confined in her cell, where she is kept by the worker bees a close prisoner; for if she had her will, and was allowed to come forth before the moment of swarming, either she or the reigning queen, would fall in single combat. When this noise is heard in a strong stock look out for some more swarms. A bee master who has only been used to the English rate of increase, will be perfectly surprised, and as it were overwhelmed, with the multitude of swarms which will issue from his hives in one season, after his apiary has been established a year or two. So he does not get his hives ready in time, and he is often in great straits in swarming time. I will give one amusing instance: A carpenter who has been many years in New Zealand, and is perhaps in consequence very procrastinating in his habits, was surprised by his first swarm rising when he did not expect it. He had no hive at all ready. Fortunately he had heard that the queen may be captured and that when she is so, the swarm will not go away: so he poked about with his finger among the cluster until he found the queen; caught her, and put her in a tumbler to keep her safe. He then went to his house, thinking it time to set about making a bee box. It was a very hot day: so he left his door open. He had not been long at work when he saw the whole swarm follow him into his house where his bench stood, upon one end of which they clustered, while he was hard at work with hammer, plane, and saw, at the other. It seemed as though they had come in to see what he was about, while he was so long in bringing them a hive; and they found, as many customers had done before, that his work was not begun, when it ought to have been finished. However, he tried to make up for lost time, and hoped they would not be in a hurry to go. Just half an hour and he would be ready for them. He never plied his hammer so fast before. He had not even time to whistle a tune: so, whilst he worked the bees sang. They waited quietly, expecting their future home; were safely housed in it as soon as finished, and were doing well when I last saw them, as I trust he may be doing; - the first carpenter who ever built a house with so many homeless tenants watching its completion.

Last edit over 1 year ago by Lizprobert
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