Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/886

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The dcftruflion of thefe creatures has yet lefs to be faid for it in reality, than appears at firft to be the cafe, for the wax would have mffercd no diminution during the winter, and it would only have been the price of a few pounds ot Honey that would have been loft, for the preferring a fwarm much more ufeful than feems generally fuppofed. It may happen fometimes indeed, that a fwarm may perifh at the end ot tour or five years, but it much more frequently happens that they live eight or tenj nay, there are inftances offome having lived more than thirty years. In this cafe, how vaft a deftruction is occafioned by the killing that fwarm at four years old, which would have lived fix and twenty years longer, and fent out three or four young fwarms every year ? It will be eafily feen from this, how great the incrcafc of bees would be in a few years, compared to what it is, if this one barbarous cu- ftom only could be fet afide among us, which not only de- stroys, in this cafe, three times twenty-fix fwarms, but all thofe fwarms which, in the common courfe of things, would have been produced by each of thefe, a number much greater than can be at firft imagined.

If inftead of deftroying the bees every time we take their Heney % we would try a little to preferve their lives, the thing would not be found fo difficult as many may think ; it would be no great difficulty to get them all into another hive ; and in fome cafes they might be the means of preferving another fwarm. There are many weak fwarms, as they are called, which all perifh during the winter. The true caufe of the death of thefe, is their being fo few in the fwarm ; and, if inftead of deftroying all the bees of a well-peopled hive, they Ihould be added to one of thefe weak fwarms, both would in this cafe be preferved, and their works, in the fucceeding fum- mer, would amply repay the finall quantity of Honey necef- fary to feed them with in the winter.

Montfott, in his treatife of bees, mentions a law made by the great duke of Tufcany, inflicting a punifhment on any perfon who was known to deftroy a fwarm of bees j and if the fame law were in force among us, the confequence would be, that we ihould fuon have a much larger quantity of wax and Honey annually produced from the vaft encreafe of thofe bees, which an ill-placed avarice devotes every year to deft ruction. Befide the great number of bees annually de- stroyed in this manner, there are a very great number that perifh every winter between the months of November and April ; fo that of large fwarms that went into the hives in the beginning of winter, there are but finall remains in the be- ginning of the fucceeding fummer.

The authors who have written of bees, have faid much about the difeafes of bees, and their proper remedies ; but Mr. Reau- mur has reduced the whole to a much fmaller compafs, and affirms, that the two great deftroyers of bees arc hunger and cold, and that whoever will take care to guard them from thefe during the winter, will always find as many alive in the hives in fpririg as went into thein in autumn, Reaumur's Hift. Inf. v. io. p. 357.

There is great nicety to be obferved, however, in the manage- ment in order to the preferving them j for it often happens that the carefully defending them from the cold, is the very occafion of their dying of hunger. The wife author of na- ture has fo provided for thefe animals, that at fuch feafons as the fields ceafe to afford them a plentiful ftore of food, they ceafe to want fo large a quantity of it ; the fame cold that nips the plants, and keeps them from flowering, nips alfo the bees, and puts them into a ftate in which they perfpire very little, and therefore require very little nourifhment. Nay, in the coldeft time of the year they perfpire fo very little, that their life is in no danger, even if they take in nothing at all to replace their lofs.

If the hives are examined in the time of fevere frofts, which they may be without any danger, for the bees are in fo torpid a ftate, that the hive may be turned upfide-down, and moved any way, without putting any of them in motion ; they are there always found in large clufters near the center of the hive, between the combs. When a thaw comes on, and the fun Dimes upon the hive, the warmth wakens the bees out of their lethargy, they begin to move about, and ufe their wings ; but as the neceffity of eating comes on with their livelincfs and motion, and the fields at that time afford them no food, they are obliged to have recourfe to the combs, and eat out of their cells the Honey and rough wax which they had ftored up for that occafion.

They always, on this occafion, begin with the lower combs, and, as they have occafion, they gradually advance to the up- per. This might feem an odd procedure, as the Homy of the lower combs was laft of all collected ; but that is the very rcafon why it is the propereft to be firft eaten, for it is that Honey which was collected in the autumn, and which is always found to be lefs proper for keeping, than fuch as is col- lected in the fpring and fummer months. It ihould feem, that as the winter is the feafon that kills the bees, the more fevere the winter proves, the more it Ihould deftroy them. But this is found not to be the cafe ; but on the contrary, the wanneft winters are the moft deftructive of them, as they keep them in an eating ftate, and do not fupply them with any food abroad. It is always found alfo that thgfe

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{Warms which were hived late, that is, fuch as nave had Duf a little time to collect their ftores, during the time they have been together before the winter overtakes diem, are moft liable to perifh before the return of the fpring, ifthey are not fupplied with Honey to prevent it.

A certain degree of cold is therefore neceflary in the winter for the preferving thefe creatures j but on the other hand a too great degree of cold deftroy s them. The moderate win- ters therefore are the belt for them, fince in the extreme fe- vere ones they die of cold, and in the extremely mild ones of hunger. It is certain that the bee is more able to bear the cold than others of our infects, in a Jingle ftate ; but as thefe creatures are preferved among the combs, in great clufters to- gether, and under the covert of a warm hive, the degree of cold is much fmaller there than abroad, where any fingle bee would inevitably perifh. This is eafily understood by the fa- miliar companion between one man's Sleeping on the open ground in a field, in a very fevere night, and a number of men fleeping together in the fame night under a clofe tent erected in the fame field ; in all probability the fingle cxpofed perfon would perifh, while the others received no injury. Reaumur's Hift. Inf. v. ro. p. 360.

As the number of bees in the hive occafion a warmth that preferves them all, the obfervation of their perifhing in the winter, when they are but few in number in the hive, is very eafily explained. It may feem ftrange that an infect, which is cold to the touch, ihould be able to diftufe a warmth of this kind ; but it is proved by experiment to be fo in the hives j and this warmth is obferved to be much lefs during the time that they are ftili and quiet, than at thofe times when they flutter their wings about.

Varro and Columella are of the number of the old writers on hufbandry, who give that eafy method of bringing the bees to life when they feem dead with the cold, which is now practifed in many places. This is the laying hot allies about the hive, or fprinkling them on clufters of bees which lie feemingly dead at the bottom.

The bees, while they remain alive and in a good condition in the cold weather, are found in clufters, which are compofed of great numbers of them hanging to one another by the legs : When the cold becomes fo intenfe as to prevent their mo- tions, and deftroy the ufe of their limbs, their legs lofe the hold, and they fall down in great numbers to the bottom of the hive, where they feem to be abfolutely dead. In this condition they may be taken into the band without any dan- ger of hurt from their flings ; and yet in this ftate they may be recovered to life by fprinkling them over with warm aih.es. This, however, is but a flovenly method ; and as the warmth is the only thing wanting, it may be much more conveni- ently given by bringing the hive into a warm room, and on this the bees will all be feen to revive. In feafons of lefs fe- vere cold, it will be fufficient to take up the bees that lie as dead, and warm them on a diih by the fire rill they come to themfelves, and crawl about, and then put them under the hive again. But if the weather continue fevere, the mouths of the hive muft be flopped up, and it muft be placed in a fiifficiently warm place, till fome warmer weather come on. This warming the motionlefs bees found at the bottoms of hives in winter, never fails to bring them to life if done in time ; but if it be deferred till they have lain in this ftate fe- veral days, it feldom fucceeds. It is a very great number of bees that may be preferved during the courfe of a winter, by watching the hives in this manner, and bringing all that are found at the bottom to the fire to recover them j and this is a much better method than the removing the hives into a warmer place ; which though fometimes abfolutely neceflary, yet is never to be done when it can any way be avoided, as it always is attended with many ill confequences ; fo that the beft method feems to be, in very fevere winters, the taking in only thofe hives which have but few inhabi- tants, and the leaving out thofe which are well peopled, where the number of the creatures will preferve one another, and the few that fall down from the clufters may he-recovered by warmth from time to time. Reaumur's Hift. Inf. v. 10. - P- 382. As it is much to be wifhed, however, that a method could be found of preferving all the hives from mifchief, and yet leaving them in their places where they ftand in fummer, Mr.- Reaumur tried many things on this head : The firft and moft familiar method he attempted, was the covering them over with ftraw, in order to keep out as much of the cold air as poflible. This he did by fettlng up fticks in the ground, at ieven or eight inches every way from the bafe of the hive, and fo tall that their points reached as many inches above the top of the hive j then putting ftraw fo as to fill up all the vacant fpace between the fticks and the fides of the hive. Among feveral hives which he defended in this manner, the bees of feveral were all found dead in the fpring, but on ex- amining the hives it appeared that they had died of hunger, not of cold ; for there was never any Honey found in the combs of thefe hives.

The antients mention a very extraordinary method of prefer- ving the bees in their hives, which was the filling up a confi- derable part of the vacancy of every hive with the bodies of I faiaU