There are some astounding, verging on absolutely bonkers, beekeeping techniques here, as well as interesting designs for equipment. Réaumur certainly enjoyed trying out ideas! The point of this strategy is to move the bees away from the skep's load of honey so it can be harvested.
I include a version of the following disclaimer with each installment:
I have translated and used the illustrations appropriate to the text, positioning the particular part of a larger illustration near the text it illustrates. The entire plate is also included. In the original book you would have been flipping back and forth all the time to see what the text was referring to.
I could not find a translation, (although that sounds implausible). I used Google Translate, common sense and an ancient memory of French class to make sense of the plate descriptions, so don't quote me unless accuracy is not important.
TENTH MEMORY.
MEANS OF MAKING THE BEES
OF A HIVE MOVE INTO ANOTHER
OF A HIVE MOVE INTO ANOTHER
And how one can examine, one by one, all those of the Hive.
Planche 35 -
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| 2017 NOTE: An aventail or camail is a flexible curtain of mail attached to the skull of a helmet that extends to cover the throat, neck and shoulders. Part or all of the face, with space to allow vision, could also be covered. |
EXPLANATION OF THE FIGURES OF THE TENTH MEMORY.
Plate XXXV.
Figure 1 is that of a camail suitable for putting under cover against the stings of the bees on the face, head, and neck of him who is obliged to disturb them, and even to irritate them.
That is to say, of sieve-cloth, c, c, cords, which serve to fasten one of the sleeves on one of the arms, and of cords, which are fitted to hold the coat exactly on the chest.
Figure 2 shows one of these dryers, by means of which the bees which have been drawn from the bath as dead are re-aired and reanimated.
The walls of this drying-room are made of a sieve-cloth, extended and fixed on a wicker frame. In g, finish the wicker frame, go, can be called the collar of the dryer. This neck might be longer than it is here, and it would be only more convenient.
It is expedient to put a ring of wire at in opening o,o; it keeps it round in the times when the bees are to be brought in, and what is more important, in that where they are to be taken out of the dryer.
The c cord is used to bind the neck of the dryer, so that the bees which have recovered vigor can not leave them until they are permitted, and handles which make it possible to handle the dryer without risk, even when the bees become very lively.Figure 3 shows the dryer frame on which the screen cloth can be applied and stopped as shown in Figure 2.
Figures 4 and 5 show from these doors or valves that M. de Moraiec has imagined to put on the hives whose males they wish to destroy.
Figure 4 has four open holes, and only one part covered by a valve.
The four holes in FIG. 5 each have a valve.
The opening which has entered the lower edge of the hole, and that of the door, is sufficient to let a bee pass freely. But the drone-drone can only go out by raising the valve, and it is no longer possible for him to lift it when he wishes to return.
Figure 6 shows a hive which has been turned upside down to make its bees pass into another hive; it has been made to enter the ground to the right, so as to keep it thus reversed.
Figure 8 shows the hives r r, s,s .
Figure above, surrounded at their junction by a large towel bound around them with string to close all the passages which the bees could find.
Figure 9 shows the ruchess, of the preceding figures, placed on the top of the hive; many flies have already entered, and others continue to go.
Figure 10 is that of the hive r, of Figures 6, 7, and 8, of which the majority of the flies have been expelled, and of which those which remain leave to go towards the hive, is a sheet on which the hive R, has been shaken, a board arranged like a bridge to abridge the way to the flies that are en route to the hive sf.
Figure 11 shows a tub full of water, in which a hive has been bathed. The bees float on the water of this vat.
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It is equally important for those who are raising bees in the field to profit by their labors, and those who are chiefly interested in learning their history, to know the means of forcing those of one hive to pass into another.
All the wax and honey of the hive from which they were driven is taken.
If this process seems to be somewhat unjust, at least cruelty is not joined to injustice, as it is practiced in many countries, where, in order to seize everything that these flies (bees) have picked up (honey), they have the barbarity to destroy them, where they are all suffocated in their own habitation.
There are even circumstances in which it is to render them a good service, only to make them leave a dwelling which is filled with wax cakes, although it is to establish them in another which is devoid of everything.
When these false moths (wax moth?), of which we have spoken in the third volume, have multiplied too much in a hive, the Bees have nothing better to do than to leave. They would not be able to build as many cells as these false worms destroy.
I must say that I bathed the bees of three hives the first days of April, one on the 5th, the other on the 9th, and the other on the 11th, and I bathed two others at the end of the same month, the 25th.
...... I must repeat, that more than once I have lost more than three-quarters of the bees, and sometimes more like seven-eighths.
It is only after several operations have been repeated and repeated, even the most simple, that we succeed in avoiding all accidents that prevent success, and that it is possible to make them as risk free as possible.
The disadvantages to be avoided in order to make the bath of the bees successful can be divided into those of two different times - those problems during the bathing of flies until they have been drawn out of the water, as drowned, and those problems which have come after they have been taken from the water until they are hived.
The greater the size of the tub of water, the less we shall have to fear from the bath.
For having bathed two hives in the water of the same tub, which had no more diameter than the hives which I had successively entered, I lost almost all their bees.
When the quantity of water which surrounds the honey-cakes is small, this water soon finds itself too much effected by the same bees which are introduced into it. The violent state in which they find themselves compels them to expel honey from both their ends. The water in which too much honey and too many slimy excrements have been diluted, becomes itself too sticky.
The bees moist with this water are in a state similar to those which have been coated with oil.
The viscous matter, which enters into their stigmata, fixes it in order not to leave it any more, it stops the breathing, or it makes it too difficult. One sees the effect of this water, even on the body of bees, those which have been wet only by ordinary water dry a reddish color, whereas the others dry well, never they become reddish again, remain of a shining brown.
In order to avoid the bad effect of such a water, two large buckets will be placed next to each other. In one of these buckets, we shall be content to plunge the base of the hive to about an inch or two in height. While a man supports it in this state, another will beat the hive with a wand.
The flies, troubled by blows and the sound of this wand, are determined to fly - several fall into the water, the number of those falling there is greater than that of the others. By moving the hive a little, and producing agitations in the water, these bees are conducted to its surface. They are gathered with a skimmer or with a polka-dot sieve, and are carried in the second In the water of which those who still had an appearance of life, ended in losing it.
Finally, the hive is entirely dipped in the water only when the flies that remain there are obstinate and stay on the comb. After a few moments the hive is removed from the water, its combs are detached, and the flies that have remained on it are swept with a feather. They are dropped into the first tub.
...
After passing the flies into the second tub, when they appear in it, they will be carried on towels, laid out on a large table, either in a room or in the air, according to the season.
With the towels, the flies will be wiped off, and dried as soon as possible. I lost a large part of the bees in a hive when I immediately placed them wet on a wooden table and placed them too wet in jars. (For this chapter I am using the word "jar" for "poudrier".)
I still lost many of those of another hive, which had, however, been well wiped, because I put too many into each jar.
...
The glass jars, with which I have employed many kinds of operations of this kind, and for several which have very well succeeded, are, nevertheless, vessels of the least proper to complete the drying of the bees.
The greater part of the water which the heat causes to evaporate from the body of the flies, attaches itself to the glass as it leaves the bees. Now, and this is a remark which I have had occasion to make more times than I would have wished, the heat which would be able to revive the bees under any other circumstances, promptly kills those that are wet.
These buckets, we shall be content to plunge the base of the hive to about an inch or two in height; While a man will support her in this state, another will beat her with a wand.
The flies, troubled by blows and the sound of this wand, are determined to fly; several fall into the water, the number of those falling there is greater than that of the others. By changing the hive a little, and producing agitations in the water, these bees are conducted to its surface. They are gathered with a skimmer or with a polka-dot sieve, and are carried in the second in the water of which those who still had an appearance of life, ended in losing it.
Finally, the hive is entirely dipped in the water only when the flies that remain there are obstinate to stay on the combs. After a few moments the hive is removed from the water, its cakes are detached, and the flies that have remained on it are swept with a feather. They are dropped into the first tub. In some of the operations, which were not successful, I took the cakes while the hive was under the bucket, and overturned.
I did not think how bad this process was.
The broken combs permitted a great deal of honey to be poured out, and the water on which it was contained was taken over, and the water became too sticky. A further advantage is that it is necessary to beat the hive before it is completely plunged in water, is that there are very few flies in the cells, the blows of the wand cause them to leave it:
Besides that it always has the risk to draw them when they have lost all movement, it is long
after passing the flies into the second tub, when they appear in it, they will be carried on towels, laid out on a large table, either in a room or in the air, according to the season.
With the towels, the flies will be wiped off, and dried as soon as possible. I lost a large part of the bees in a hive, to content myself with leaving them a little drained on a wooden table on which they were immediately placed, and having placed them too wet in jars.
I still lost many of those of another hive, which had, however, been well wiped, because I put too much into each jar.
Scarcely had I left the quarter or the third part of the jar;
And it is too much for the quarter to be full, by placing the first immediately on the wood, I had wished to put out of danger of perishing those who would too soon recover forces,
may, as they often do, stick to the napkins, and leave their stings.
But when they have been kept in the water for a long time, they have to wipe them before they are able to sting. In order not to run the risk itself of feeling the sting of a few, it is necessary to take with a spoon of silver, the pile which has just been wiped, and which it is desired to bring into the jar.
The glass jars, of which I have employed many kinds of operations of this kind, and for several which have very well succeeded, are, nevertheless, vessels of the least proper to complete the drying of the bees.
The greater part of the water which the heat causes to evaporate from the body of the flies, attaches itself to the glass as it leaves the bees. Now, and it is a remark which I have had occasion to make more times than I would have wished, the heat which would only be able to revive the bees under any other circumstances, promptly kills those that are wet.
Several times, after having seen all the bees in a jar, revived and in motion, I saw them perish in less than a quarter of an hour without being able to attribute their death to any other cause than to the heat which had caused the water to penetrate into their stigmata, although this heat could only have been agreeable to dryer flies, or those held in a less humid place.
I have thought of a way of making them sustain the same heat without danger. I substituted
for the glass jars, other vases, which I call drying-rooms, and have all the advantages we can wish them.
These are baskets in the form of bottles, the walls of which are the most coarse and consequently the clearest sieve.
Four uprights of the same wood, of which the baskets are made, are fastened by each end to a circle, to a ring of the same material. One of the rings larger than the other, forms the bottom of the dryer, and the smallest, in fact, the collar.
It is on this frame that a sieve-cloth is sewn, which surrounds it on all sides. It is, however,
It would be useless to point out how these dryers have more advantage over the glass jar, but I must say that these same dryers made me think about having wiped the bees crudely.
There was nothing better to sink them more thoroughly, and without exposing them to losing their sting, than to stretch them on large sieves, from which they are then drawn with a silver spoon to put them in the dryers. We see that the size of the dryers is arbitrary.
The most important thing is to think of returning the bees to a hive only after they have regained their vigor, only after they have become well dried, only after having seen them in groups or garlands in the dryers.
To have been too much in a hurry to put them into a hive, I have nearly lost all those I had bathed, and they fell one upon another at the bottom of the hive where they collected in a mass too thick from which the moisture could not escape.
Those which were below the first strata, and still more those which were in the last strata, were overwhelmed by the weight of the flies of the upper strata, and were too weak to escape.
The excrements which they rendered, moistened by the water which they found among them, extended themselves upon their stigmata, and placed them in a state in which the aid which I wished to give them too late was useless to them. It was not till the next day, that is to say, at the end of twelve hours, that I saw them in such a bad condition, that I wished to heat them.
But we shall have a happier success. A few flies of each hive will scarcely be lost if they are bathed and dried with the precautions which have just been indicated.
The warmest times may not be the most favorable to this operation: besides the first bees I bathed at the end of December, I bathed those of a hive on the 10th of November in the middle of a garden, In the morning when the thermometer was only two degrees above freezing;
I lost as few of these bees as it is possible to lose in the happiest change of hive.
I will add, in passing, that among these bees, which is very important, is to think of bringing the bees into a hive only after they have regained all their vigor, They became very reddish, only after having seen them in groups or garlands in the drying-rooms.
To have been too much in a hurry to put them back in a hive, I have nearly lost all those I had bathed, and they fell one upon another at the bottom of the hive; They found them collected in a mass too thick, and of which the moisture could not escape.
Those which were below the first strata, and still less those
Which were in the last layers, were overwhelmed by the weight of the flies of the upper strata, and were too feeble to escape.
The excrements which they rendered, moistened by the water which they found among them, extended themselves upon their stigmata, and placed them in a state in which the aid which I wished to give them too late was useless to them; For it was not till the next day, that is to say, at the end of twelve hours, that I saw them in such a bad condition, that I wished to heat them.
But we shall have a happier success; We shall scarcely lose a few flies from each hive, if we bathe them and dry them with the precautions which have just been indicated.
The warmest times may not be the most favorable to this operation: besides the first bees I bathed at the end of December,
I bathed a beehive on the 10th of November in the midst of a garden, at one o'clock in the morning, when the thermometer was only two degrees above freezing;
I lost, however, few of these bees, that it is possible to lose them in the happiest change of hives. ...