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    Bees for Beginners (Bee Keeping Series)
    Bees for Beginners (Bee Keeping Series)
    Bees for Beginners (Bee Keeping Series)
    Ebook167 pages1 hour

    Bees for Beginners (Bee Keeping Series)

    By E. H. Taylor

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    About this ebook

    This vintage book contains a complete guide to bee-keeping, with information on hive constructions and management, the natural history of bees, harvesting, swarming, and all other related aspects. Highly accessible and full useful tips, this book will be of considerable utility to the modern reader with an interest in keeping bees, and would make for a worthy addition to collections of allied literature. Contents Include: “A Reviving Industry”, “Her Majesty the Queen Bee”, “Drones and Workers”, “The Bee City”, “The Beginner's First Steps Swarming”, “The Year in the Hive”, “The Honey Harvest”, “Cleanliness or Disease”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this book now in an affordable, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on keeping bees.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateApr 16, 2013
    ISBN9781447486602
    Bees for Beginners (Bee Keeping Series)

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      Book preview

      Bees for Beginners (Bee Keeping Series) - E. H. Taylor

      CHAPTER I

      A REVIVING INDUSTRY

      AN ANCIENT CRAFT

      IT was several centuries ago that William Lawon wrote in his diary: and I will not count her any of my good housewives that lacketh either bees or skilfulnesse about them. This is surely a good motto for the prospective beekeeper of to-day to take to his home, and it will at any rate provide him with a suitable opening to broach his decision to have a beehive in his garden. Possibly it may even instil a desire in the hearts of the gentler members of his family to attain the standard of perfection laid down by the old writer. For if beekeeping were part of the necessary accomplishments of the good housewife in the days when nothing but the old-fashioned straw skep was known, it should surely not be neglected now that modern hives and appliances have made management and control so much easier, and reduced, almost to vanishing point, those dangers commonly associated with the working end of the bee. It cannot be too often pointed out that nervousness of being stung is almost entirely confined to those who have no knowledge of bees, and the best way to overcome it is to keep bees oneself, and learn those few simple precautions and rules that provide almost complete immunity from any risks on this score.

      It may, perhaps, be wondered why a knowledge of beekeeping should ever have been considered an important qualification in the management of a household, but a little consideration of the conditions ruling a few hundred years ago will soon convince us of the important part that the apiary must have played in the life of the country.

      HONEY THE ONLY SWEETENING MATERIAL

      The use of honey dates from very early times; the ancients regarded it as a dew from heaven and a gift of the gods. Hippocrates gave it to his patients, and looked upon it as a cause of longevity. Poets sang its praises. Moses promised the Israelites a land flowing with milk and honey, and Solomon urged its use.

      Most of us experienced the difficulties of the shortage of sugar during the war, but we are inclined to forget that it is only comparatively recently that sugar has been introduced into this country at all. Before it was available the only sweetening substance in use was honey, and this was consequently one of the staple articles of diet. Not only did it take the place of our modern jams and marmalades, but it was required for all kinds of cooking in which we now use sugar. From it was prepared also the drink called mead—the staple intoxicant of Saxon and early English days, and a popular country drink in many districts up to the middle of last century.

      THE IMPORTANCE OF BEESWAX

      Then again, the production of beeswax was an important matter in days when candles were the principal means of lighting, and when tallow and other waxes were less easily obtained.

      The end of the honey harvest. Bees gathering nectar from Michaelmas Daisies.

      Such conditions as we have described existed in Russia up to the outbreak of the Great War, and in many rural districts the peasants used honey almost exclusively in place of sugar. Beeswax was also required in enormous quantities for use in the religious services of the Russian Church. In one province—namely, Ekaterinoslav—there was said to be an average of four hives to every inhabitant.

      Since the introduction of cheap sugar, and the substitution for beeswax of inferior animal and mineral waxes, the industry of beekeeping in the United Kingdom has fallen from its place of importance, but in America, Canada, and many Colonies it has reasserted itself in recent years, and become one of the leading minor rural industries; and signs are not wanting that the advantages of a revival in this country are being increasingly realized.

      BEEKEEPING SUITABLE FOR ALL

      The suitability for the smallholder or cottager is great, the initial capital outlay required is small, and from a modest beginning it is possible to build up a large apiary. The attention which it is necessary to give to the hives is less than that required by any other live-stock, and moreover it is not of an arduous nature: there is no irksome cleaning-out to be done, no daily feeding to be rigidly adhered to.

      For the country resident and for the farmer the call to keep bees should be equally strong, for they represent not merely an interesting and fascinating hobby, but a department of their farm and garden that should pay them well, not only directly by the production of honey, but indirectly by the increased yield of fruit obtained by proper fertilization of the blossom in garden and orchard. It is not too much to say that without bees the maximum crops of fruit from any tree or orchard cannot be obtained.

      NATIONAL IMPORTANCE

      Apart from these advantages to the individuals, there is a national reason why the revival of the industry should receive every encouragement. We are importing every year thousands of pounds’ worth of foreign honey (much of it very inferior) and there is no reason whatever why all this money should not be kept in the country. English honey is the finest in the world; it is a highly nutritious and health-giving food, especially valuable for children, and there are few who cannot afford to keep a hive of bees in their garden. The day is not far distant when this ancient craft of the countryside will once more come into its own, and it will be the rule rather than the exception for every garden to have its beehive.

      THE BEEMASTER

      How seldom is the word Beemaster heard nowadays! Fifty years ago it was a common designation, and in many cases a profession. In those times our villages held a master-hedger, a master-thatcher, a master-slater, recognized past masters (as we say even today) of their art, and themselves proud of their pre-eminence. And amongst these skilled craftsmen was the beemaster, steeped in the lore of this wonderful insect, his knowledge gained in part by experience and observation, and in part by instinct.

      In these days of modern hives and appliances, anyone, even children, can of course keep bees, and be reasonably sure of a moderate yield of honey. When straw skeps were the only type of hive, however, and when exact knowledge of the habits and life history of the bee was much more scanty than it is now, real experience and observation were necessary to control and manipulate the bees and to secure a good yield of honey. And even to-day the really large harvests (one to two and a-half cwt. of honey per hive) are almost invariably obtained by those who carefully watch and study their bees, and, one is almost tempted to add, by those who are fond of their bees.

      Reproduced from The Management of Bees.—S. Bagster, 1864.

      A quaint type of old beehouse holding about six skeps.

      SUPERSTITIONS THAT REMAIN

      The remarkable habits and vagaries of bees, which even now are imperfectly understood have, given rise to many strange beliefs and customs. One that is still largely practised to-day is the ceremony of telling the bees of any death in the family. This is regarded as being of special importance if the death is that of the master of the house. Every hive is visited, three knocks are given, and a piece of crepe attached to the outside of the hive.

      A profitable corner of the garden.

      Another belief that was widespread at one time was that startling noises would prevent a swarm of bees from flying away, and most of

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