"The preservation of the Bees unhurt, uninjured, very many of them undisturbed at all,--the quantity of honey that may be had,--and the very superior quality of that honey, are advantages of Mr. Nutt's mode of Bee-management, over the barbarous, stifling system, that cannot fail to recommend it to the adoption of every friend of humanity,--to every lover of the delicious sweet,--and to every apiarian who has nothing beyond self-interest in view.
"One word more, and I have done. There are, I observe with pleasure, persons of considerable influence among your subscribers, and probably there may be persons of still greater influence among your readers. To such I would most respectfully suggest the propriety of doing something to reward Mr. Nutt for the services he has already rendered the Honey-Bee and the cause of humanity. I--an obscure, country clergyman, know not how to set about procuring it; but a _premium was never more richly deserved_.
"Though longer than I intended, when I sat down to write, I hope you will find no difficulty in giving the foregoing communication a place in your pages; and, in this hope, I beg to subscribe myself,
"Gedney-Hill, near Wisbech, October 20th, 1831."
As my reverend correspondent has introduced the subject of _driving_ Bees from their full hive into an empty one, in order that they may be deprived of their honey and wax, and has animadverted upon that practice with some severity, I will take the opportunity of here stating my objections to it.
Mr. Huish, in his treatise on Bees, has twice described the manner in which "_driving a hive_" may be performed; but nowhere, that I can find, has he once recommended it. In a note (in page 24) he says---that "by _driving a hive_ may be understood the act of obliging the Bees to leave their own domicil, and take refuge in another. This is performed by placing the full hive under an empty one, (or he might have said, by placing an empty hive upon the full one inverted) and by gently tapping the lower hive the Bees will ascend into the upper, and the lower one then remains vacant for experiments, or the purpose of deprivation." He afterwards (in page 252) gives a more detailed account of the manner of performing this operation; and having done so, he presently observes that "by the driving of the Bees a number is unavoidably killed." I do not find that Mr. Huish himself practises it further than for the purpose of making experiments; and that, having made those experiments, he returns the driven Bees to their hives and to their treasures in them. In short, he describes it to his readers because they may wish to be acquainted with it, and not because he approves of it. I mention this because I consider Mr. Huish to be respectable authority on such a subject.