TO FEED AT THE T-HOLE, OR BACK OF THE HIVE. 94 stant supply. At about the third of an inch above the collar and the perforated zinc which lies above it, (N.B. the perforated zinc must of course have a hole in it, the same size as the collar, that the Bees may travel up,)-is placed a piece of glass, exactly the same size as the feeding trough. This will prevent the Bees flying out; and you may have the pleasure of seeing them take to that food kindly with which you have supplied them. This is perhaps the very best way of feeding, for as hot air goes up, the feeding trough will always be of the same temperature as the Hives, and so the Bees will not get chilled,-which they often are, if you feed them below. The next cut shows a feeder made on exactly the same plan, but with the feeding trough made to fit to the T-hole of the Hive. The same cut also shows another mode of feeding. A little shallow pond, about a quarter of an inch deep, is cut in the middle of the bottom board. A large gimblet hole is driven from the outside of the Hive into this pond, half the way down. In the bottom board, just outside where the Hive stands, a hole is bored, with a centre bit, into the gimblet hole, the size of the rim of an old physic bottle, which you intend to apply to the nobler use of feeding the Bees. Fill it with Bee-food, and turn the neck neatly down into this hole; it must fit tight, and then by means of atmospheric pressure, 95 FEEDING BY ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE. the hard word, the meaning of which I have already explained to you,-this physic bottle will act just like the zinc Bee-feeder. If you have side boxes, put a piece of comb full of Bee-food into one of them; draw out the slides, and the Bees will then carry the supply you have given them into the centre box, and store it up. Lastly, I will tell you how to strengthen a weak stock, the combs of which do not come down to the bottom board. Turn the Hive up in the evening, softly slip the comb in, stop up the T-hole, and leave them in until the morning. The Bees will then have cleared it. Repeat this as often as needed. JOHN EVELYN, OF SAYES COURT. 95 Now, then, I think I have said enough about feeding; remember, Don't be stingy, nothing is wasted. Now, before I end this Letter, I will give you two Bee Calendars; one from the Kalendarium Hortense, of good John Evelyn, of Sayes Court, more for its curiosity than its use; as I would rather advise you to follow my plain monthly orders, which I have myself proven. Do AT LEAST ALL which I there tell you is needed, and when you do that well, go on to something farther; it is A good thing to learn to walk, before you begin to run, in other things beside Bee-keeping. Do not laugh too much at Mr. Evelyn; he has told us all he knew, and I for one am much obliged to him. 96 EVELYN'S BEE KALENDAR, VERSUS MY OWN. Extracts from EVELYN's "Kalendarium Hortense." January.-Turn up your Beehives, and sprinkle them with a little warm sugar and sweet wort; do it dexterously. February.-Half open your passages for the Bees, or a little before (if weather invite), but continue to feed weak stocks, March. By this time your Bees sit; keep them close night and morning, if the weather prove unkind. April.-Open now your Beehives, for now they hatch; look carefully to them, and prepare your Hives, &c. May. Now set your Bees at full liberty; look out often, and expect swarms. June. Look to your Bees for swarms and casts, and begin to destroy insects with hoops (?), canes, and tempting baits; gather snails after rain. July. Now begin to straiten the entrance of your Bees, and help them to kill their Drones, if you observe too many; setting the new invented cucurbit glasses of beer mingled with honey to entice the flies, wasps, &c., which waste your store. August.-Now vindemiate and take your Bees towards the expiration of this month, unless you see cause by reason of the weather, or season, to defer it until mid-September; if your January.-Leave your Bees quite quiet. He is a poor Bee-master who has now to feed his Bees; a worse, who does it by sprinkling. February.-Put your Bees back to their summer stands, if you have moved them, as soon as the weather and early crocusses invite; weigh your stocks first, and jot down the weights. March.-Begin to feed light stocks; do it with no sparing hand, but as though you loved them, Keep the entrance narrow. April.-Go on feeding; enlarge the entrance; get all ready for swarming. Sow borage, mignonette, and other Bee flowers, if you have room. May. Make the entrance large; give room to those you do not mean to swarm. Keep an eye on your swarming stocks; give them plenty of water, but so that none may drown themselves. June.-Look out for swarms and casts. Join casts or unite to weak stocks; (TAKE CUPS AND BELLGLASSES, IF FULL;) WHEN THEY SWARM, BE QUIET, YET BOLD, AMONG YOUR BEES. July. Take side boxes when full. If the flowers fail near you, send your bees to clover fields or lime trees; do not let the distance be less than three or four miles, or many will stray back. August.-Send your Bees to common or heather land. They travel well in a spring cart, stuffed with straw to break the jolts. As soon as flowers begin to fail, take up your EVELYN'S FEEDING. 96 stocks be very light and weak, begin the earlier. September,-No longer now defer the taking of your Bees; straitening the entrances to such Hives as you leave to a small passage, and continuing your hostility against wasps and other robbing insects. Bees with the fungus, or rags dipped in water. Join the Bees (see Letter I.) to your other stocks. September.-Feed the stocks which are to stand, if not heavy enough. Protect the food, so that strange Bees and wasps may not get to it. December.-Now feed your weak stocks. October.-Go on feeding early in the month, if it be needed. Market your honey, and refine your wax. November.-Put your Bees into winter quarters, or if you have no dry, dark, and quiet place, put a hurdle before them; weigh them first. December.-Do nothing to your Bees. Make Hives. Write out the notes which you have jotted down the year past. And be thankful to God for the money you have got for your wax and honey, and don't waste it. I have printed this Calendar from Evelyn's book, which of course is not in the hands of many Beekeepers, as it shows how very little people knew of their Bees then, and what strange fancies they had about them. Evelyn, like many other old writers, seems to have fancied that the Bees sit upon their eggs, like hens. This must be a queer sight, at all events, and I should much like to see it, though I am sure I should have to look very long without so doing. His mode of feeding, too, was very rude and hurtful to his Bees, though, I am sorry to say, I know some people now-a-days who do the same. |
