Volume 1

A treatise on the nature, economy, and practical management of bees / [Robert Huish].

  • Robert Huish
Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the nature, economy, and practical management of bees / [Robert Huish]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    77/456 page 31
    sequently no swarms are produced.* » Whenever this is observed, the adoption of the following method will be found to be of great service :—Watch at the entrance of one of your strongest hives, from the hours of eleven to two, the time at which the drones two species of drones, some large and others smaller; the latter of | which were, however, in the greater number. The destination of the former was to become the father of the Queen, and the drones of the first class; and the latter to be that of the common Bees, and the drones of their own species. _ I have attended to this particular in the examination of all my hives, but I never could discover more than one species of drones. The following may be perhaps the cause which led those naturalists into this error:—The drones, arising from the brood of the preceding year, and which were hatched early in the spring, had attained their full growth, when those of the first brood of the spring being just born, had not yet attained their full size. I know that, in contradiction to this sentiment, it is held by some apiarians, that the Bee, in emerging from its cell, has attained its full growth ; I would, however, recommend to those Gentlemen to try to thrust either a Bee, or a drone into one of the breeding cells, and he will find that the capacity of their bodies is-too large for the dimen- sion of the cell. * The Rey. Mr. Thorley ts the only apiarian who asserts that a hive will swarm without drones. He says, in his Enquiry into the Nature, _ Order, and Government of Bees, p. 74, 2d edit. “ that to his certain knowledge, the’ Bees sometimes breed all the summer season without drones. Several poor and weak stocks, which have but few Bees, and but little honey, have not any drones among them all the season, and yet these shall increase, prosper, and breed drones the following sum- mer. I will give my readers,” he says ‘ only one instance instead of a multitude: | ‘Once I had a stock of Bees, which not only bred great numbers all the spring time, but alsoswarmed without any drones, as I was fully assured from the most strict and constant observation. Had there been one single drone in it, my eye or ear would certainly have discovered him. wer “ The old stock continued to prosper, and in about a month or six weeks, some drones, though few comparatively, appeared in it. ““'The new swarm increased in numbers all the summer, but had no drones among them till the following spring. And J add further, that I have oftentimes known weak stocks, which have not bred drones for the space of about two years.” There is no wonder in Nature which an apiarian has not seen, 4. ae
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3