country wanderings towards the end of summer, even now when the twentieth century is two decades old, still bring to light many ancient and curious things. within an hour of london, and side by side with the latest agricultural improvements, you can still see corn coming down to the old reaping-hook, still watch the plough-team of bullocks toiling over the hillside, still get that unholy whiff of sulphur in the bee-gardens where the old-fashioned skeppists are “taking up” their bees.
burning-time came round usually towards the end of august, sooner or later according to the turn of the season. the bee-keeper went the round of his hives, choosing out the heaviest and the lightest stocks. the heaviest hives were taken because they contained most honey; the lightest because, being short of stores, they were unlikely to survive the winter, and had best be put to profit at once for what they were worth. thus a complete reversal of the doctrine of the survival of the fittest was artificially brought about by the old bee-masters. the most vigorous strains of bees were carefully weeded out year by year, and the perpetuation of the race left to those stocks which had proved themselves malingerers and half-hearts.
there was also another way in which this system worked wholly for the bad. if a hive of bees reached burning-time with a fully charged storehouse, it was probably due to the fact that the stock had cast no swarm that year, and had, therefore, preserved its whole force of workers for honey-getting. under the light of modern knowledge, any stall of bees that showed a lessened tendency towards swarming would be carefully set aside, and used as the mother-hive for future generations; for this habit of swarming, necessary under the old dispensation, is nothing else than a fatal drawback under the new. the scientific bee-master of to-day, with his expanding brood-chambers and his system of supplying his hives artificially with young and prolific queens every third year, has no manner of use for the old swarming-habit. it serves but to break up and hopelessly to weaken his stocks just when he has got them to prime working fettle. although the honey-bee still clings to this ancient impulse, there is no doubt that selective cultivation will ultimately evolve a race of bees in which the swarming-fever shall have been much abated, if not wholly extinguished; and then the problem of cheap english honey will have been solved. but in ancient times the bee-gardens were replenished only from those hives wherein the swarming-fever was most rampant. the old bee-keepers, in consigning all their heavy stocks to the sulphur-pit, unconsciously did their best to exterminate all non-swarming strains.
the bee-burning took place about sunset, or as soon as the last honey-seekers were home for the night. small circular pits were dug in some quiet corner hard by. these were about six or eight inches deep, and a handful of old rags that had been dipped in melted brimstone having been put in, the bee-keeper went to fetch the first hive. the whole fell business went through in a strange solemnity and quietude. a knife was gently run round under the edge of the skep, to free it from its stool, and the hive carefully lifted and carried, mouth downwards, towards the sulphur-pit, none of the doomed bees being any the wiser. then the rag was ignited and the skep lowered over the pit. an angry buzzing broke out as the fumes reached the undermost bees in the cluster, but this quickly died down into silence. in a minute or two every bee had perished, and the pit was ready for the next hive.
that this senseless and wickedly wasteful custom should have been almost universal among bee-men up to comparatively recent times is sufficiently a matter for wonder; but that the practice should still survive in certain country districts to-day well-nigh passes belief. if the art of bee-driving—a simple and easy method by which all the bees in a full hive may be transferred unhurt to an empty one, and that within a few minutes—were a new discovery, the thing might be condoned as all of a piece with the general benightedness of mediæval folk. but bee-driving was known, and openly advocated, by several writers on apiculture at least a hundred years ago. by this method, just as easy as the old and cruel one, not only do the entire stores of each hive fall into the undisputed possession of the bee-master, but he retains the colony of bees complete and unharmed for future service. he has secured all the golden eggs, and the goose is still alive.
those who desire to make a start in beemanship inexpensively might do worse than adopt a practice which the writer has followed for many years past. as soon as the time for the bee-burners’ work arrives, a bicycle is rigged up with a bamboo elongation fore and aft. from this depend a number of straw skeps tied over with cheese-cloth. a bee-smoker and a set of driving-irons complete the equipment, and there is no more to do than sally forth into the country in search of condemned bees.
it is usually not difficult to persuade the cottage apiarist to let you operate on his hives. as soon as he learns that all you ask for your trouble is the bees, while you undertake to leave him the entire honey-crop and a pour-boire into the bargain, he readily gives you access to his stalls. the work before you is now surprisingly simple. a few strong puffs of smoke into the entrance of the hive under manipulation will effectually subdue the bees. then the hive is lifted, turned over, and placed mouth upwards in any convenient receptacle—a pail or bucket will do, and will hold it as firmly as need be. your own travelling-gear now comes into use. one of the empty skeps is fitted over the inverted hive. the two are pinned together with an ordinary meat-skewer at one point, and then the skep is prised up and fixed on each side with the driving-irons, so that the whole looks like a box with the lid half-raised. now you have merely to take up a position in front of the two hives, and begin a steady gentle thumping on the lower one with the palms of the hands.
at first, as the combs begin to vibrate, nothing but chaos and bewilderment are observable among the bees. for a moment or two they run hither and thither in obvious confusion. but presently they seem to get an inkling of what is required of them, and then follows one of the most interesting, not to say fascinating, sights in the whole domain of bee-craft. evidently the bees arrive at a common agreement that the foundations of their old home have become, from some mysterious cause or other, undermined and perilous; and the word goes forth that the stronghold must be abandoned without more ado. on what initiation the manœuvre is started has never been properly ascertained; but in a little while an ordered discipline seems to spread throughout the erstwhile distracted multitude. in one solid hurrying phalanx the bees begin to sweep up into the empty skep. once fairly on the march, the process is soon completed. in eight or ten minutes at most, the entire colony hangs in a dense compact cluster from the roof of your hive. below, brood-combs and honey-combs are alike entirely deserted. there is nothing left for you to do now but carefully to detach the uppermost skep: replace the cheese-cloth, thus securing your prisoners for their journey to their new home; and to set about driving the next stock.
