University of Virginia Library

Bees and Honey.

WHAT blind Huber found out about bees, by years of
patient and laborious observations and study, and
much more than that, any intelligent person can now
verify for himself in the course of a few weeks. In a word,
every fact of importance, concerning the natural history of
the bee, can be verified and studied in that short time by the
aid of the invention of movable combs.

By the use of honey-extractors the production of honey
can be largely increased; by the use of Improved Smokers
perfect control can be had of the fiercest bees, and comb
foundation puts it into the bee keeper's power to keep the
combs straight and beautiful, to control the multiplication of
drones, and to stimulate greatly the production of comb-honey.

In short, bee-keeping is now so much a science and a certainty
that it seems strange that everyone who has a home,
in a region productive of honey, should not engage in its production;

at least so far as to secure for his own table an abundance
of this—nature's own most delicious sweet.

The introduction of Italian bees has also added greatly to
the interest, the pleasure and the profits of bee-keeping. The
writer believes he was the first person to introduce the Italian
bee into Virginia. He remembers vividly the interest with
which the express package containing his pure, tested twenty
dollars Italian queen was received; the anxiety with which
she was introduced to a black hive, whose queen had been
removed; and the joy with which he looked on her first
hatched golden-banded workers and beautiful drones; the interest
with which, in his walks in the surrounding country, he
would discover his Italian beauties around on the flowers for
a distance of two or more miles from his apiary. It was
amusing, too, to see the estimation held of himself by some of
his neighbors, as a lunatic destined for the asylum at Staunton,
because he had paid twenty dollars for a bee. And it
was very satisfactory after five years to receive twenty dollars
for one of his own queens from a neighbor who had made
himself most conspicuous in ridiculing such folly. Then the
pleasure there was in raising these golden queens, in mating
them successfully with Italian drones, and in seeing their beautiful
golden-banded workers, so gentle and yet so brave to
defend their stores from robbers, and so much more industrious
than the common bees. I never had a more fascinating
recreation than bee-culture in all its details, and it is still a
joy to me to take hurried snatches at it in the intervals allowed
in a busy life.

Other foreign varieties of bees have been introduced into
this country, the Cyprian, the Egyptian, &c., &c., but the
writer has not had sufficient experience with them to give an
estimate of their value. But he is sure that the Italian is a
great acquisition. Queens, too, can now be bought much
more cheaply than when they were first introduced. Hives
are also much cheaper and section boxes for surplus honey
much more easily obtained. These sections present comb
honey to the purchaser in its most attractive form.

Extracted honey can be kept indefinitely and with far less
trouble than comb honey. All pure honey will candy in the
course of time, but it is easily restored to its original state by
heating in a vessel of water to the temperature of 180°, which
simply redissolves the crystals which constitute the candy.

To many persons, however, bees are a terror. Yet with a
pair of rubber gloves, a bee veil costing twenty-five cents,
and a good smoker, the most timid may soon become emboldened.
Let me show how little there is to fear. This
occurred in my own apiary last winter: Seeing a swarm just
beginning to come out of one of my hives, I ran to it, soon
found the queen on the grass in front trying to rise, and imprisoned
her in a little wire cage. Seeing my daughter standing
in the door, I called to her to run to me. She came with
a broad hat on, no protection for her face, and her arms bare
to the elbow. "What do you want, father?" "Just hold this
cage." In a short time the bees found the imprisoned queen,
gathered lovingly around her, and the whole swarm settled
on my daughter's hand and arm, a peck or more of them.
After she had stood there with them until they all settled,
and I had called out everybody near to look at the beautiful
sight, I took her to a hive, made ready for them, and taking
hold of her arm shook the swarm down in front, and in they
all went happy in their new home, and my daughter received
not a sting, though she certainly had a new sensation.

Many parts of Virginia are favorable to bee-culture. White
clover is perhaps our best honey plant, and most widely distributed.
Red clover will grow everywhere with proper attention.
South of James River "Sourwood" affords much
beautiful honey, as do also many of our native trees, such as
lindens and poplars. Catnip is a great honey plant and blue
thistle promises to be equally good. Buckwheat often gives
a supply, when most needed, at the close of the season.
Piedmont Virginia is an exceptionally good honey region,
especially the mountain sides. These having their flowers to
mature in succession from the bottom to the summits, greatly
prolong the honey season. Anywhere in this region with intelligent

attention hives may easily be made to yield fifty
pounds each every year, which even at ten cents a pound is a
good return for the investment. Often the yield may be far
greater than this. As to overstocking, inasmuch as the honey
of each flower must be gathered in a few hours after its opening,
it would seem could not occur till there were bees enough
in a locality to visit every such flower.

Half a million more people than are now engaged in beekeeping
in Virginia might find delightful and profitable employment
in it, if they be only willing to make their living in
an honest, Scriptural way, according to the Word, which says:
"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread."