New Page 1

“Collateral Bee-Boxes: Or, a New, Easy, and Advantageous Method of Managing Bees” by Steven White.

Introduction:

The octagonal bee hive introduced in the mid 1600’s was in use well into the late 1700’s. It continued to be promoted by both Joseph Warder and John Thorley. That hive was useful in preventing swarming and provided a way to harvest honey without killing the bees as was common with straw a skep. The basic octagonal hive was adapted by these several authors to fit a management style they advocated.

However, a new idea was developing in hive construction. Steven White wrote a book titled “Collateral Bee-Boxes: Or, a New, Easy, and Advantageous Method of Managing Bees” in 1756. It is not a large book. His idea presented the beekeeper with a way to manage bees in a slightly different way. Rather than adding a box under the hive as was practiced by the octagonal beekeepers, White introduced the idea of adding a box adjacent to the primary box. In his own words, “The min drift therefore of all my observations and experiments has been, to discover an easy and cheap method, suited to the abilities of the common people, of taking away so much honey as can well be spared, without destroying, or starving the bees: and, by the same means, to encourage, rather than prevent swarming.”

His box was square and quite simple to build. According to his advice, this box was nine and five eights inches in height and breadth. In included a hole in the back to be filled with a glass for observation, and the sides were to include a space to be cut at the bottom the whole breadth of the box an inch in height and a passage made at the top three inches long and more than half an inch wide. These were passages for the bees to pass from one box into another box sit next to it when needed. These holes were to be covered with a slide called a shutter when not in use. To this main hive box, one could add boxes to the side as needed. Again in White’s words, “No directions are necessary for making the other box, which must be of the same form and dimensions: The two boxes differ from each other only in this, that the side of communication of the one, must be on your right hand; of the other, on your left.”

Comments on bees by White:

A certain degree of cold, and a greater degree of it an is commonly imagined, is favourable to bees in winter.
The sun ought to shine on the mouths or entrances for the bees.
The hives must be protected from the sun.
On killing bees – making a comparison between bees and sheep: it would be a criminal Piece of Cruelty, as well as folly, to butcher an innocent sheep merely for the sake of its fleece, which we might take again and again, without hurting it.
The proper time to take honey: “is in the middle of the day: and though the bees are active and busy at this time, yet as you stand behind the frame, you, will need no armour for the attack, except perhaps a pair of gloves, and a broad-brimmed hat slouched over your eyes.
On removing bees from a box of honey: I cut a square nich in a piece of deal more than half an inch wide; in this nich I hand a little trap door, made of a thin piece of tin, turning upon a pin, with another pin, crossing the nich a little lower, so as to prevent the hanging door opening both ways. This being placed close to the mouth (opening of the box) the bees wanting to get out will easily thrust open the door outwards, but cannot open it the other way to get in again.
On overstocking an area with bees: My scheme, I am well assured, will furnish them with stock, at a cheap and easy rate, but I must tell them once more, that they must find pasture.