| By Author | [ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | Other Symbols ] |
| By Title | [ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | Other Symbols ] |
| By Language |
|
Download this book: [ ASCII ] Look for this book on Amazon Tweet |
Title: USDA, Bulletin No. 1. (N.S.) The honey bee: a manual of instruction in apiculture
Author: Benton, Frank
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.
*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "USDA, Bulletin No. 1. (N.S.) The honey bee: a manual of instruction in apiculture" ***
This book is indexed by ISYS Web Indexing system to allow the reader find any word or number within the document.
THE HONEY BEE: A MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION IN APICULTURE ***
Transcriber Note
Text emphasis denoted by _Italics_ and =Bold=.
[Illustration: Bull. 1, new series, Div. of Entomology, U. S. Agriculture.
Frontispiece.
An Apiary in Maryland.]
Bulletin No. 1. New Series. (Third Edition.)
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY.
THE HONEY BEE:
A MANUAL OF
INSTRUCTION IN APICULTURE
BY
FRANK BENTON, M. S.,
ASSISTANT ENTOMOLOGIST.
[Illustration]
WASHINGTON:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
1899.
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
U. S. Department of Agriculture,
Division of Entomology,
_Washington, D. C, May 27, 1899_.
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith for republication a manual
entitled, The Honey Bee: A Manual of Instruction in Apiculture, by
Mr. Frank Benton, who has been in charge of the apiarian work of
this Division for several years. The constant demand for information
concerning bee culture for a long time indicated a need for such a
public manual, and the work was begun and nearly completed under the
direction of my predecessor, Dr. G. V. Riley. The manuscript was
submitted September 20, 1895, and the edition of 1,000 copies was soon
exhausted. In April, 1896, Congress ordered a reprint of 20,000 copies,
in which some corrections and additions were made by the author. He has
also taken advantage of the reprint of another (the third) edition to
make some slight additional changes.
The apiarian industry in the United States is practically a development
of the last forty years, although isolated individuals were engaged in
this work long prior to that time. The importance of the industry at
the present day is not generally realized, and the following figures
will probably be surprising to many well-informed individuals:
Apiarian societies in the United States 110
Apiarian journals 8
Steam factories for the manufacture of beehives and apiarian
implements 15
Honey produced in the United States in 1869 (according to
United States Census Report) pounds 14,702,815
Honey produced in the United States in 1889 (according to
United States Census Report) pounds 63,894,186
Persons engaged in the culture of bees (estimated) 300,000
Honey and wax produced, at wholesale rates (Eleventh Census) $7,000,000
Mr. Benton's estimate of the present annual value of
apiarian products $20,000,000
As supplementary to these figures it may be stated that in addition
to the 15 steam-power factories there is a very largo number of smaller
factories, using mainly hand and horse power, which are engaged in the
production of supplies, such as hives, smokers, honey extractors, sections,
comb foundation, and other apiarian apparatus. It is estimated
by Mr. Benton that the present existing flora of the United States
could undoubtedly support, with the same average profit, ten times the
number of colonies of bees it now supports. This branch of agricultural
industry does not impoverish the soil in the least, but, on the
contrary, results in better seed and fruit crops. The total money gain
to the country from the prosecution of this industry would undoubtedly
be placed at several times the amount given in the table above
were we only able to estimate in dollars and cents the result of the
work of bees in cross fertilizing the blossoms of fruit crops. In support
of this it is only necessary to refer to the fact that recent investigations
by another division of this Department have shown that
certain varieties of pear are nearly or quite sterile unless bees bring
pollen from other distinct varieties for their complete cross fertilization.
I respectfully recommend the publication of this manual as No. 1 of
the new series of bulletins of this Division.
Respectfully, L. O. Howard,
_Entomologist_.
Hon. James Wilson,
_Secretary of Agriculture_.
PREFACE.
This treatise is designed to make the practical management of an apiary
plain to those whose acquaintance with the subject is limited, and to
direct such as may find in it a pleasant and profitable occupation to
a system of management which may be followed on an extensive scale
with the certainty of fair remuneration for the labor and capital
required. With this object in view the author has deemed it best to
treat the natural history of the bee but briefly, and also to give
little space to matters which are in question, or to different methods
of accomplishing given results, or to such as are only adapted to a
limited portion of the country, but rather to explain one settled way
widely applicable and which will lead to success. The methods advised
here are such as the author has found practical during an extended
experience, yet in regard to numerous details many works--both foreign
and American--have been consulted, none more freely than Langstroth on
the Honey Bee, revised by Chas. Dadant & Son, and Bees and Bee Keeping,
by Prof. F. R. Cheshire.
Many of the illustrations were specially prepared for this bulletin.
Some have been taken from publications of the Department of
Agriculture. These include some of the smaller illustrations of
honey-producing plants and also Plates III to X, which are from reports
of the Botanist of the Department. Plates II and XI, and figures 5, 6,
8, 44, 50, 51, and 76 are copied from Cheshire; figs. 08 and 69 from
Simmins. The Department is also under obligations to the A. I. Root
Company, to Chas. Dadant & Son, T. F. Bingham, Hayek Bros., Tan Allen &
Williams, and Dr. T. L. Tinker, for electrotypes.
Frank Benton.
Washington, D. C.
CONTENTS.
Page.
Chapter I.--Classification of the honey bee 11
The different species and races 11
Common East Indian honey bee, _Apis indica_ 12
Tiny East Indian honey bee, _Apis florea_ 13
Giant East Indian honey bee, _Apis dorsata_ 13
Common hive or honey bee, _Apis mellifera_ 15
Cyprians 15
Italians 16
Carniolans 17
German, common black or brown bees 18
Chapter II.--Kinds of bees composing a colony Bee
products and description of combs--Development of brood 19
Kinds of bees in a colony 19
Bee products and organs used in their preparation 21
Nectar and honey 22
Propolis 24
Bee poison and the sting 24
Water 25
Silk 25
Wax 25
Combs 26
Development of brood 28
The worker 29
The drone 30
Chapter III.--Quieting and manipulating bees 31
Chapter IV. Establishing an apiary: Time--Selecting hives
of bees--Moving bees Selection of site 35
Selection of stocks 35
Moving bees 37
Selection of site 38
Chapter V.--Hives and implements 40
Hives 40
Implements 47
Bee smokers 47
Veils 48
Honey extractors and honey knives 49
Wax extractors 50
Queen introducing-cages 50
Bee feeders 51
Section folders 52
Bee escapes 52
Foundation fasteners 52
Comb-foundation machines 54
Chapter VI.--Bee pasturage 56
Cultivation of honey plants 59
Bees as cross fertilizers 62
Honey and pollen producing plants 64
Chapter VII.--Spring manipulation 69
Transferring 71
Queenlessness in spring 74
Chapter VIII.--Securing surplus honey and wax 75
Extracted honey 75
Comb honey 79
Putting on sections 81
Production of wax 84
Chapter IX.--Rearing and introducing queens 87
Mailing queens 92
Introducing queens 93
Chapter X.--Increase of colonies 95
Natural swarming 95
Clipping queens 97
Automatic hivers 98
Prevention of after-swarming 98
Artificial increase 99
Dividing 100
Driving or brushing 100
The nucleus system 101
Prevention of swarming 101
Dequeening 102
Requeening 102
Space near entrances 103
Langdon non-swarming device 104
Selection in breeding 105
Chapter XI.--Wintering bees 106
Outdoor wintering 109
Indoor wintering 111
Chapter XII.--Diseases and enemies of bees 112
Diarrhea and dysentery 112
Foul brood 112
The wax moth 113
Braula or bee louse 115
Other enemies 115
Robber flies, dragon flies, etc. 115
Ants and wasps 115
Spiders 116
Toads and lizards 116
Birds 116
Mammals 116
Robber bees 116
Laying workers 117
Brief list of books and journals relating to apiculture 118
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PLATES.
Page.
An apiary in Maryland Frontispiece.
Plate I. Honey bees 16
II. Digestive system of bee 22
III. Alfalfa (_Medicago saliva_) 64
IV. Esparcet or sainfoin (_Onobrychis sativa_) 64
V. Sweet clover or melilot (_Melilotus alba_) 64
VI. Acacia (_Acacia constricta_) 64
VII. Mesquite (_Prosopis juliflora_) 64
VIII. Blue weed or viper's bugloss (_Echium vulgare_) 64
IX. Crimson clover (_Trifolium incarnatum_) 64
X. Alsike clover (_Trifolium hybridum_) 64
XI. _Bacillus alvei_ 112
TEXT FIGURES.
Fig. 1. Worker cells of common East Indian honey bee
(_Apis indica_) 12
2. Worker cells of tiny East Indian honey bee
(_Apis florea_) 13
3. Comb of tiny East Indian honeybee (_Apis florea_) 14
4. Worker cells of common honey bee (_Apis mellifera_) 15
5. Ovaries of queen and workers 19
6. Heads of queen and drone 20
7. Modifications of the legs of different bees 21
8. Head and tongue of _Apis mellifera_ worker 22
9. Wax disks of social bees 26
10. Comb building, side of hive removed 27
11. Cross section of brood apartment 29
12. Use of veil and bee smoker 31
13. Manipulation removing comb from hive 32
14. Manipulation tilting to bring reverse side of comb
to view 33
15. Manipulation reverse side of comb brought to view 33
16. Manipulation examining reverse side of comb 33
17. Quinby closed-end frames 34
18. Box hive prepared for transportation 37
19. Frame hive prepared for transportation 37
20. An apiary in Florida 38
21. An apiary in California 39
22. Ancient Greek movable comb hive 41
23. Dadant-Quinby form of Langstroth hive with cap and
gable roof 41
24. Langstroth frame showing construction 42
25. Form in which to nail frames 42
26. Lock-joint chaff hive 43
27. Manner of nailing hives 43
28. Section of improved tin frame-rest 44
29. The Langstroth hive (Dadant-Quinby form), cross
section showing construction 45
30. The Nonpareil hive 46
31. Dadant-Quinby form of Langstroth hive open 46
32. The Bingham bee smoker 48
33. Automatic reversible honey extractor 49
34. Quinby uncapping knife 49
35. Bingham & Hetherington uncapping knife 49
36. Excelsior wax extractor 50
37. Simplicity feeder 51
38. Fruit-jar bee feeder, bottom of feeding stage and
perforated cap shown separately 51
39. The Porter spring bee escape 52
40. Daisy foundation fastener 53
41. Fastening starter of comb foundation in frame 53
42. Spur wire-embedder 54
43. Comb-foundation machine 55
44. Willow herb (_Epilobium angustifolium_) 57
45. Wagner's flat pea (_Lathyrus sylvestris wagneri_) 59
46. Dwarf Essex or winter rape (_Brassica napus_) 60
47. Summer or bird rape (_Brassica napus_) 60
48. Sacaline or giant knotweed (_Polygonum sachalinense_) 61
49. Russian or hairy vetch (_Vicia villosa_) 61
50. Mountain laurel (_Kalmia latifolia_) 63
51. Apple (_Pyrus malus_) 63
52. Heath-like wild aster (_Aster ericoides_) 64
53. Transferring drumming the bees from a box hive into
a frame hive 71
54. Transferred comb and inserted queen cell 73
55. Uncapping and extracting honey 77
56. One-piece "V"-grooved sections 80
57. Super with section holders and sections in place 80
58. Dadant-Quinby form of Langstroth hive, elevated from
bottom board and slid back for ventilation in summer 82
59. Langstroth hive with combined surplus case and
shipping crate 83
60. Honey shipping cases 83
61. Boardman solar wax extractor 85
62. Comb showing worker brood and queen cells 88
63. Queen cells and worker brood in various stages 89
64. The Benton queen cage fur transporting a queen and
attendants by mail 92
65. Caging a queen for mailing 92
66. Queen introducing-cage 94
67. Hiving a swarm of bees 96
68. The Simmins non-swarming system, single-story hive
with supers 103
69. The Simmins non-swarming system, double-story hive
with supers 103
70. Beehives with Langdon non-swarmer attached 104
71. Percolator for preparation of winter food 107
72. The American straw hive of Hayek Bros 108
73. Davis hive with newspapers packed between inner and
outer cases and brood frames on end for winter 108
74. Double-walled hive adapted to outdoor wintering as
well as summer use below 40 C north latitude in
United States 109
75. An apiary in Vermont winter view 110
76. Cheshire anti-robbing entrance 117
MANUAL OF APICULTURE.
CHAPTER I.
=CLASSIFICATION OF THE HONEY BEE=
THE DIFFERENT SPECIES AND RACES.
A knowledge of the structural peculiarities and the life history
of bees will aid anyone who essays to manage them for profit in
determining more accurately what conditions are necessary to their
greatest welfare. It is not to be understood that such knowledge will
take the place of an acquaintance with those conditions under which
actual practice has shown that bees thrive, but that it forms a good
basis for an understanding of whatever practice has found best in the
management of these industrious and profitable insects. It will also
assist in pointing out in what way practice can be improved.
In a small treatise like the present one, the object of which is to
give in plain language the information needed by one who engages in
bee keeping primarily for profit, it is not possible to do more than
present a mere outline of classification and a few general facts
regarding structure. The reader who finds them interesting and valuable
in his work is reminded that the treatment of these matters in more
extended volumes, such as Langstroth's, Cheshire's, etc., will be found
far more so.
Singling out from the order Hymenoptera, or membranous-winged insects,
the family Apidæ, or bee family, several marked types called genera are
seen to compose it, such as _Apis_ (the hive bee), _Bombus_ (the bumble
bee), _Xylocopa_ (the carpenter bee), _Megachile_ (the leaf-cutter),
_Melipona_ (the stingless honey bee of the American tropics), etc. All
of these are very interesting to study, and each fulfills a purpose
in the economy of nature; but the plan of these pages can only be
to consider the first genus, _Apis_, or the hive bee. Incidentally
it may be mentioned that the plan of introducing the stingless bees
(_Melipona_) from tropical America has frequently been brought up with
the expectation of realizing important practical results from it. These
bees might possibly be kept in the warmer portions of our country, but
their honey yield is small, not well ripened, and not easily harvested
in good shape, since the honey cells are of dark wax, like that made
by our bumble bees, and they are not arranged in regular order, but in
irregular clumps like those of bumble bees. The writer had a colony
under observation last year, and experiments have been made with them
in their native lands as well as in European countries. Of the genus
_Apis_ the only representative in this country is _mellifera_, although
several others are natives of Asia and Africa.
THE COMMON EAST INDIAN HONEY BEE.
(_Apis indica_ Fab.)
The common bee of southern Asia is kept in very limited numbers and
with a small degree of profit in earthen jars and sections of hollow
trees in portions of the British and Dutch East Indies. They are also
found wild, and build when in this state in hollow trees and in rock
clefts. Their combs, composed of hexagonal wax cells, are ranged
parallel to each other like those of _A. mellifera_, but the worker
brood cells are smaller than those of our ordinary bees, showing 36 to
the square inch of surface instead of 29, while the comb where worker
brood is reared, instead of having, like that of _A. mellifera_, a
thickness of seven-eighths inch, is but five-eighths inch thick. (Fig.
1.)
[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Worker cells of common East Indian honey bee
(_Apis indica_); natural size. (Original.)]
_The workers._--The bodies of these, three-eighths inch long when
empty, measure about one-half inch when dilated with honey. The thorax
is covered with brownish hair and the shield or crescent between the
wings is large and yellow. The abdomen is yellow underneath. Above it
presents a ringed appearance, the anterior part of each segment being
orange yellow, while the posterior part shows bands of brown of greater
or less width and covered with whitish-brown hairs; tip black. They are
nimble on foot and on the wing, and active gatherers.
_The queens._--The queens are large in proportion to their workers and
are quite prolific; color, leather or dark coppery.
_The drones._--These are only slightly larger than the workers; color,
jet-like blue black, with no yellow, their strong wings showing
changing hues like those of wasps.
Manipulations with colonies of these bees are easy to perform if smoke
be used, and though they are more excitable than our common hive bees,
this peculiarity does not lead them to sting more, but seems rather to
proceed from fear. The sting is also less severe.
Under the rude methods thus far employed in the management of this bee
no great yields of honey are obtained, some 10 or 12 pounds having been
the most reported from a single hive. It is quite probable that if
imported into this country it would do more. These bees would no doubt
visit many small flowers not frequented by the hive bees we now have,
and whose nectar is therefore wasted, but very likely they might not
withstand the severe winters of the North unless furnished with such
extra protection as would be afforded by quite warm cellars or special
repositories.
THE TINY EAST INDIAN HONEY BEE.
(_Apis florea_ Fab.)
This bee, also a native of East India, is the smallest known species of
the genus. It builds in the open air, attaching a single comb to a twig
of a shrub or small tree. This comb is only about the size of a man's
hand and is exceedingly delicate, there being on each side 100 worker
cells to the square inch of surface (figs. 2 and 3). The workers, more
slender than house flies, though longer bodied, are blue-black in
color, with the anterior third of the abdomen bright orange. Colonies
of these bees accumulate so little surplus honey as to give no hope
that their cultivation would be profitable.
[Illustration: Fig 2.--Worker cells of tiny East Indian honey bee
(_Apis florea_); natural size. (Original).]
THE GIANT EAST INDIAN HONEY BEE.
(_Apis dorsata_ Fab.)
This large bee (Plate I, figs. 2 and 3), which might not be
inappropriately styled the Giant East Indian bee, has its home also
in the far East--both on the continent of Asia and the adjacent
islands. There are probably several varieties, more or less marked, of
this species, and very likely _Apis zonata_ Guér. of the Philippine
Islands, reported to be even larger than _A. dorsata_, will prove on
further investigation to be only a variety of the latter. All the
varieties of these bees build huge combs of very pure wax--often 5
to 6 feet in length and 3 to 4 feet in width, which they attach to
overhanging ledges of rocks or to large limbs of lofty trees in the
primitive forests or jungles. When attached to limbs of trees they
are built singly and present much the same appearance as those of the
tiny East Indian bee, shown in the accompanying figure (fig. 3). The
Giant bee, however, quite in contradistinction to the other species of
Apis mentioned here, does not construct larger cells in which to rear
drones, these and the workers being produced in cells of the same size.
Of these bees--long a sort of a myth to the bee keepers of America and
Europe--strange stories have been told. It has been stated that they
build their combs horizontally, after the manner of paper-making wasps;
that they are so given to wandering as to make it impossible to keep
them in hives, and that their ferocity renders them objects greatly
to be dreaded. The first real information regarding these points was
given by the author, lb 4 visited India in 1880-81 for the purpose
of obtaining colonies of _Apis dorsata_. These were procured in the
jungles, cutting the combs from their original attachments, and it was
thus ascertained that (as might have been expected in the case of any
species of Apis), their combs are always built perpendicularly; also
that the colonies placed in frame hives and permitted to fly freely
did not desert these habitations and that, far from being ferocious,
these colonies were easily handled by proper precautions, without even
the use of smoke. It was also proved by the quantity of honey and wax
present that they are good gatherers. The execution at that time of the
plan of bringing these bees to the United States was prevented only by
severe illness contracted in India.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.--Comb of tiny East Indian honey bee (_Apis
florea_) one-third natural sized. (Original.)]
These large bees would doubtless be able to get honey from flowers
whose nectaries are located out of reach of ordinary bees, notably
those of the red clover, now visited chiefly by bumble bees and which
it is thought the East Indian bees might pollinate and cause to produce
seed more abundantly. Even if no further utilizable, they might prove
an important factor in the production in the Southern States of large
quantities of excellent beeswax, now such an expensive article. Should
these bees and the common East Indian bee (_Apis indica_), previously
referred to, visit in the main only such flowers as are not adapted
to our hive bees, their introduction, wherever it could be made
successful, would, without decreasing the yield from our hive bees, add
materially to the honey and wax production of the country. Theoretical
conclusions as to the results of such an introduction can not be of
much account unless based upon an intimate acquaintance with the nature
and habits of the bees to be introduced. Enough is known of the small
bee to remove all doubt regarding the possibility of its successful
introduction, and it is also probable that the large one would prove
valuable. In neither case does there appear any possibility that evil
results might follow their introduction. There are also numerous other
varieties or species of bees in Africa and Asia about which no more or
even less is known, but to investigate them fully will require much
time and considerable expense. It is a subject, however, that should
receive careful consideration because of the possible benefits to
apiculture and the wider beneficial effects on agriculture.
THE COMMON HIVE OR HONEY BEE.
(_Apis mellifera_ Linn.)
Besides the common brown or German bee imported from Europe to this
country some time in the seventeenth century and now widely spread from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, several other races have been brought
here--the Italian in 1860, and later the Egyptian, the Cyprian, the
Syrian, the Palestine, the Carniolan (Plate I, figs. 1, 4, and 5), and
the Tunisian. Of these the brown or German, the Italian, and, in a few
apiaries, the Carniolan bees are probably the only races existing pure
in the United States, the others having become more or less hybridized
with the brown race or among themselves or their cultivation having
been discontinued. It should also be remarked that so few have kept
their Carniolans pure that purchasers who wish this race should use
caution in their selection or else import their own breeding queens.
There are many breeders of Italians from whom good stock can be
obtained. Egyptian bees were tried some thirty years ago, but only
to a very limited extent, and, as has been the case with Syrians and
Palestines imported in 1880, and whose test was more prolonged and
general, they were condemned as inferior in temper and wintering
qualities to the races of bees already here, it not being thought that
these points of inferiority were sufficiently balanced by their greater
prolificness and their greater energy in honey collecting.
[Illustration: Fig. 4.--Worker cells of common honey bee (_Apis
mellifera_); natural size. (Original.)]
The Tunisians, for similar reasons and also because they are great
collectors of propolis, never became popular, although a persistent
attempt was made a few years since to create sale for them under the
new name of "Punic bees," the undesirable qualities of the race having
previously been made known, under the original name, by the author,
who had tested them carefully for several years--a part of the time in
Tunis.
_Cyprians._--Bees of the race native to the Island of Cyprus have
produced the largest yield of honey on record from a single colony
in this country, 1,000 pounds in one season. Everyone who has fairly
tested them admits their wonderful honey-gathering powers and their
persevering courage in their labors even when the flowers are secreting
honey but scantily. They winter well and defend their hives against
robber bees and other enemies with greater energy than any other known
race. When storing honey Cyprians till the cells quite fall before
sealing, and thus the capping rests against the honey, presenting a
semitransparent or "watery" appearance, which is undesirable. They
are extremely sensitive, hence easily angered by rough or bungling
manipulators, and when once thoroughly aroused are very energetic
in the use of their stings. These faults have caused a very general
rejection of Cyprians, especially by those who produce comb honey.
Even the producers of extracted honey do not seem to have learned how
to manipulate Cyprians easily and without the use of much smoke, nor
how much more rapidly they could free their extracting combs from
Cyprian bees than from Italians. Nor have they seemed to count as of
much importance the fact that Cyprians, unlike Italians and German or
common bees, do not volunteer an attack when undisturbed; that they
will, in fact, let one pass and repass their hives quite unmolested
and even under such circumstances as would call forth a vigorous and
very disagreeable protest from the other races just mentioned. It is
to be regretted that there has been such a widespread rejection of a
race having such important and well-established excellent qualities.
It would be easier by selection in breeding to reduce the faults of
this race than to bring any other cultivated race to their equal in the
other desirable points.
Cyprians are smaller-bodied and more slender than bees of European
races. The abdomen is also more pointed and shows, when the bees are
purely bred, three light orange bands on the three segments nearest the
thorax. The underside of the abdomen is even lighter orange colored
nearly or quite to the tip. The postscutellum--the small lunule-like
prominence on the thorax between the bases of the wings--is likewise
orange colored instead of dull, as in European races. The rest of
the thorax is covered with a russet-brown pubescence. Cyprians are
the yellowest of the original races, and their bright colors and
symmetrical forms render them attractive objects.
_Italians._--Through the agency of the United States Department of
Agriculture bees of this race were introduced direct from Italy in
1860. There had previously been repeated individual efforts to secure
Italians bred in Germany, where the race had been introduced some years
earlier, and a small number of queens had been landed here alive in
the autumn of 1859, but most of these died the following winter and
the few remaining alive seem not to have been multiplied as rapidly
as those obtained in Italy by a purchasing agent of the Department of
Agriculture and landed here early in 1860. Their good qualities were
soon appreciated, and they had become well established and widely
spread long before the Cyprians, imported twenty years later. For
this reason, together with the fact that they cap their surplus combs
whiter than some other races and because less skill is required in
subduing and handling Italians, they have retained their popularity
over bees which, though better honey gatherers, are more nervous under
manipulation. Their golden-yellow color has also proved so attractive
to many that the good qualities of more somber-hued races--gentler,
better winterers, and better comb builders--have not received due
consideration. Italians are, however, certainly preferable to the
common brown or black bees, for they show greater energy in gathering
honey and in the defense of their hives against moth larvæ and robber
bees, while at the same time they are gentler under manipulation than
the blacks, though they do not winter as well in severe climates.
Bul. 1, new series, Div. of Entomology, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.
Plate I.
[Illustration]
Honey Bees.
1. Worker, Carniolan variety of _Apis mellifera_--twice natural size.
2. Giant honey bee of East India (_Apis dorsata_), worker twice
natural size.
3. Giant honey bee of East India (_Apis dorsata_), drone twice
natural size.
4. Drone, Carniolan variety of _Apis mellifera_ twice natural size.
5. Queen, Carniolan variety of _Apis mellifera_--twice natural size.
Italian workers nearly equal Garniolans in size, and show across
the abdomen when the latter is distended with honey not less than
three yellow bands, which approach more or less a reddish or dark
leathery color. By selection in some instances, and in others by the
introduction of Cyprian blood, Italians and Italian hybrids have
recently been bred which show four or five yellow bands or which are
even yellow to the tip of the abdomen. They are certainly pleasing to
the eye, and in case due heed has been given to the vigor and working
qualities of the stock selected when establishing the strain, no
valid objection can be brought against them except the tendency they
have to revert to the original type of Italians. This is due to the
comparatively short time they have been bred, and with each season's
selection will of course grow less.
_Carniolans._--These, the gray bees from the elevated Alpine province
of Carniola, Austria, are the gentlest of all races, and as, besides
their other good qualities, they winter the best of any, it is not
surprising to see that they have steadily grown in favor. Their sealed
combs are exceedingly white, as they do not fill the cells so full
that the honey touches the capping, and they gather little propolis,
qualities highly appreciated by the producer of comb honey. They
are quite prolific, and if kept in small hives, such as have been
popularized of late in the United States, are somewhat more inclined
to swarm than the other races introduced here. This tendency becomes
more pronounced when they are taken into a country whose summers are
hot, like ours, and their hives are not well shaded, as they have been
bred for centuries, with only slight introduction of outside blood,
in a climate where the summers are short and cool. Moreover, the
practice in Carniola is to place the long, shallow hives used almost
exclusively there, in beehouses and side by side, one above the other,
with intervening air spaces, so that at most only the front ends are
exposed to the sun. This management long continued has doubtless tended
to develop and fix more or less permanently in this race certain
characteristics which should be taken into account in their management
elsewhere. With these precautions they do well in all parts of the
United States. (See Plate I, figs. 1, 4, and 5.)
The Carniolan worker is readily recognized by its large form, less
pointed abdomen, and general ashy gray coat, the abdominal segments
especially presenting a ringed appearance on account of silvery white
hairs which cover the posterior half of each of these segments. By
crossing Carniolans with Italians or with Cyprians a yellow type with
silvery rings is produced, and by continued selection in breeding the
gentle disposition of the Carniolans can be secured with the greater
honey-gathering powers of Cyprians should these be employed in forming
the new strain.
_German, common black, or brown bees._--These bees are found commonly
throughout our country from ocean to ocean, both wild and domesticated.
Exactly when they were introduced from Europe is not known, but
considerable evidence exists which shows that there were no hive bees
(_Apis mellifera_) in this country for some time after the first
colonies were established; also, it was not until near the close of
the last century that they reached the Mississippi, and less than half
a century has passed since the first were successfully landed on the
Pacific Coast.
Many bee keepers, having more attractively colored and frequently
better bees, are inclined to consider this race as possessing hardly
any redeeming qualities, or at least to underrate these because
accompanied by undesirable traits. While it is true that they have
some serious faults, the latter are not so great as those of some
other races. They have become thoroughly acclimated since their first
importation, over two centuries ago, and besides possessing good
wintering and comb-building qualities, they will, when the flow of
honey is quite abundant, generally equal Italians in gathering. But
the disposition which bees of this race have of flying toward one
who approaches the apiary and stinging him, even though the hives
have not been molested, their way of running excitedly over the combs
and dropping in bunches when they are handled, besides stinging the
backs of the operator's hands, unless the whole colony has first been
thoroughly subdued and the bees induced to gorge themselves with honey,
or are constantly deluged with smoke, are very annoying to the novice
who undertakes to perform necessary manipulations with them, and may
even so discourage and daunt him as to cause the neglect of work of
great importance to the welfare of the colony. The easy discouragement
of bees of this race when a sudden check in the flow of honey occurs is
also a peculiarity which does not commend them. These things, tending
to reduce profits, often dampen the beginner's enthusiasm before
he has acquired the knowledge and skill necessary to make the work
genuinely successful. He had therefore better choose either Italians
or Carniolans, and use as breeders only queens that are known to have
mated purely.
The common race shows considerable variation in its markings and
qualities. The workers have a dull, rusty brown color, especially
about the thorax. Some strains are however much darker than others and
in general the drones are darker than the workers. In size workers,
drones, and queens of this race are intermediate between the other
European races and those from the Orient. The same care and skill
applied in the selection of breeding stock would result in as great
improvement in this as in any of the more attractive yellow races.
[Illustration: Fig. 5.--Ovaries of queen and workers: A, abdomen of
queen--under side (magnified eight times); P, petiole; O, O, ovaries;
_hs_, position filled by honey sac; _ds_, position through which
digestive system passes; _od_, oviduct; _co.d_, common oviduct; E,
egg-passing oviduct; _s_, spermatheca; _i_, intestine; _po_, poison
bag; _p.g_, poison gland; _st_, sting; _p_, palpi. B, rudimentary
ovaries of ordinary worker; _sp_, rudimentary spermatheca. C, partially
developed ovaries of fertile worker; _sp_, rudimentary spermatheca.
(From Cheshire.)]
CHAPTER II.
=KINDS OF BEES COMPOSING A COLONY--BEE PRODUCTS AND
DESCRIPTION OF COMBS--DEVELOPMENT OF BROOD.=
KINDS OF BEES IN A COLONY.
Each colony of bees in good condition at the opening of the season
contains a laying queen and some 30,000 to 40,000 worker bees, or six
to eight quarts by measurement. Besides this there should be four,
five, or even more combs fairly stocked with developing brood, with a
good supply of honey about it. Drones may also be present, even several
hundred in number, although it is better to limit their production to
selected hives, which in the main it is not difficult to accomplish.
Under normal conditions the queen lays all of the eggs which are
deposited in the hive, being capable of depositing under favorable
conditions as many as 4,000 in twenty-four hours. Ordinarily she mates
but once, flying from the hive to meet the drone--the male bee--high
in the air, when five to nine days old generally, although this time
varies under different climatic conditions as well as with different
races. Seminal fluid sufficient to impregnate the greater number of
eggs she will deposit during the next two or three years (sometimes
even four or five years) is stored at the time of mating in a sac--the
spermatheca, opening into the oviduct or egg-passage (fig. 5, _s_).
The queen seems to be able to control this opening so as to fertilize
eggs or not as she wills at the time of depositing them. If fertilized
they develop into workers or queens according to the character of the
food given, the size and shape of the cell, etc.; if unfertilized,
into drones. The queen's life may extend over a period of four or five
years, but three years is quite as long as any queen ought to be kept,
unless a particularly valuable one for breeding purposes and not easy
to replace. Indeed, if full advantage be taken of her laying powers it
will rarely be found profitable to retain a queen longer than two years.
Upon the workers, which are undeveloped females, devolves all the labor
of gathering honey, pollen, propolis, and bringing water, secreting
wax, building combs, stopping up crevices in the hive, nursing the
brood, and defending the hives. To enable them to do all this they are
furnished with highly specialized organs. These will be more fully
referred to in connection with the description of the products gathered
and prepared by the workers.
[Illustration: Fig. 6.--A, Head of queen, magnified ten times, showing
smaller compound eyes at sides, and three ocelli on vertex of head;
_n_, jaw notch. B, head of drone, magnified ten times, showing larger
compound eyes at sides, with three ocelli between; _n_, jaw notch.
(From Cheshire.)]
The drones, aside from contributing somewhat to the general warmth
of the hive necessary to the development of the brood, seem to have
no other office but that connected with reproduction. In the wild
state colonies of bees are widely separated, being located wherever
the swarms chance to have found hollow trees or rock cavities, hence
the production of many drones has been provided for, so young queens
flying out to mate will not run too many risks from bird and insect
enemies, storms, etc. Mating in the hive would result in too continuous
in-and-in breeding, producing loss of vigor. As we find it arranged,
the most vigorous are the most likely to reproduce their species.
At the time of the queen's mating there are in the hive neither eggs
nor young larvæ from which to rear another queen; thus, should she be
lost, no more fertilized eggs would be deposited, and the old workers
gradually dying off without being replaced by young ones, the colony
would become extinct in the course of a few months at most, or meet a
speedier fate through intruders, such as wax-moth larvæ, robber bees,
wasps, etc., which its weakness would prevent its repelling longer; or
cold is very likely to finish such a decimated colony, especially as
the bees, because queenless, are uneasy and do not cluster compactly.
The loss of queens while flying out to mate is evidently one of the
provisions in nature to prevent bees from too great multiplication, for
were there no such checks they would soon become a pest in the land. On
the other hand, the risk to the queen is not uselessly increased, for
she mates but once during her life.
[Illustration: Fig. 7.--Modifications of the legs of different bees:
A, _Apis_: _a_, wax pincer and outer view of hind leg; _b_, inner
aspect of wax pincer and leg; _c_, compound hairs holding grains of
pollen; _d_, anterior leg, showing antenna cleaner; _e_, spur on tibia
of middle leg. B, _Melipona:_ _f_, peculiar group of spines at apex of
tibia of hind leg; _g_, inner aspect of wax pincer and first joint of
tarsus. C, _Bombus_: _h_, wax pincer; _i_, inner view of same and first
joint of tarsus--all enlarged. (From Insect Life.)]
BEE PRODUCTS AND ORGANS USED IN THEIR PREPARATION.
Pollen and honey form the food of honey bees and their developing
brood. Both of these are plant products which are only modified
somewhat by the manipulation to which they are subjected by the bees
and are then stored in waxen cells if not wanted for immediate use.
Pollen, the fertilizing dust of flowers, is carried home by the bees in
small pellets held in basket-like depressions on each of the hind legs.
The hairs covering the whole surface of the bee's body are more or less
serviceable in enabling the bee to collect pollen, but those on the
under side of the abdomen are most likely to get well dusted, and the
rows of hairs, nine in number, known as pollen brushes, located on the
inner surface of the first tarsal joint (fig. 7, _b_), are then brought
into use to brush out this pollen. When these brushes are filled with
pollen the hind legs are crossed during flight and the pollen combed
out by the spine-like hairs that fringe the posterior margin of the
tibial joint--that above a in fig. 7. The outer surface of this joint
is depressed, and this, with the rows of curved hairs on the anterior
margin and the straighter ones just referred to forms a basket like
cavity known as the corbiculum or pollen basket, represented by
the longest joints of the legs, A, B, and C, fig. 7. Into this the
pollen falls, and with the middle pair of legs is tamped down for
transportation to the hive. Having arrived there, the bee thrusts its
hind legs into a cell located as near to the brood nest as may be, and
loosening the pellets lets them fall into the bottom of the cell. The
tibial spur (fig. 7, _e_) on each middle leg is, as Professor Cheshire
has pointed out, probably of use in prying the pellets out. The latter
are simply dropped into cells and left for some other bee to pack down
by kneading or pressing with its mandibles. Various colors--yellow,
brown, red, slate, etc., according to the kinds of flowers from which
gathered--frequently show in layers in the same cell. Often when partly
filled with pollen the cell is then filled up with honey and sealed
more or less hermetically with wax. The bees store the pollen, for
convenience in feeding, above and at the sides of the brood and as
near to it as possible, the comb on each side of the brood nest being
generally well stored with it.
[Illustration: Fig. 8.--Head and tongue of Apis mellifera worker
(magnified twelve times), _a_, Antenna, or feeler; _m_, mandibula, or
outer jaw; _g_, gum flap, or epipharynx; _mxp_, maxillary palpus; _pg_,
paraglossa; _mx_, maxilla, or inner jaw; _lp_, labial palpus, _l_,
ligula, or tongue; _b_, bouton, or spoon of the same. (Reduced from
Cheshire.)]
NECTAR AND HONEY.
The liquid secreted in the nectaries of flowers is usually quite thin,
containing, when just gathered, a large per centage of water. Bees suck
or lap it up from such flowers as they can reach with their flexible,
sucking tongue, 0.25 to 0.28 inch long. (Fig. 8, _l_.) This nectar is
taken into the honey sac (Plate II, _h.s._) located in the abdomen, for
transportation to the hive. It is possible that part of the water is
eliminated by the gatherers before they reach the hive. A Russian bee
keeper, M. Nassanoff, while dissecting a worker, discovered between
the fifth and sixth abdominal segments a small canal, to which he
attributed an excretory function, and Zoubareff, having noticed bees
ejecting a watery substance while returning from the fields, suggested
that this gland probably served to separate a portion of the water from
the nectar, the liquid deposited in the cells appearing to contain less
of it than that just secreted by the flowers.
Bul. 1, new series, Div. of Entomology, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.
Plate II.
[Illustration]
Digestive System of Bee (magnified ten times).
A, Horizontal section of body; _lp_, labial palpus; _mx_,, maxilla:
_e_, eye; _dv, dv_, dorsal vessel: _v_, ventricles of the same; No.
1. No. 2, No. 3, salivary gland systems, 1, 2, 3; _œ_, œsophagus;
_pro.t_, prothorax; _mesa.t_, mesathorax; _meta.t_, metathorax; _g,
g_, ganglia of chief nerve chain; _n_, nerves; _hs_, honey sac; _p_,
petaloid stopper of honey sac or stomach mouth; _c.s_, chyle stomach:
_bt_, biliary or Malpighian vessels: _si_, small intestine; _l_,
lamellæ or gland plates of colon; _li_, large intestine.
However this maybe, evaporation takes place rapidly in the heat of
the hive after the nectar or thin honey has been stored, as it is
temporarily, in open cells. Besides being thin, the nectar has at first
a raw, rank taste, generally the flavor and odor peculiar to the plant
from which gathered, and these are frequently far from agreeable. To
make from this raw product the healthful and delicious table luxury
which honey constitutes--"fit food for the gods"--is another of the
functions peculiar to the worker bee. The first step is the stationing
of workers in lines near the hive entrances. These, by incessant
buzzing of their wings, drive currents of air into and out of the hive
and over the comb surfaces. If the hand be held before the entrance
at such a time a strong current of warm air may be felt coming out.
The loud buzzing heard at night during the summer time is due to the
wings of workers engaged chiefly in ripening nectar. Instead of being
at rest, as many suppose, the busy workers are caring for the last
lot of gathered nectar and making room for further accessions. This
may go on far into the night, or even all night, to a greater or less
extent, the loudness and activity being proportionate to the amount and
thinness of the liquid. Frequently the ripening honey is removed from
one set of cells and placed in others. This may be to gain the use of
certain combs for the queen, or possibly it is merely incidental to
the manipulation the bees wish to give it. When, finally, the process
has been completed, it is found that the water content has usually
been reduced to 10 or 12 per cent, and that the disagreeable odors
and flavors, probably due to volatile oils, have also been driven off
in a great measure, if not wholly, by the heat of the hive, largely
generated by the bees. During the manipulation an antiseptic--formic
acid--secreted by glands in the head of the bee, and it is also
possible other glandular secretions, have been added. The finished
product is stored in waxen cells above and around the brood nest and
the main cluster of bees, as far from the entrance as it can be and
still be near to the brood and bees. The work of sealing with waxen
caps then goes forward rapidly, the covering being more or less porous.
Each kind of honey has its distinctive flavor and aroma, derived, as
already indicated, mainly from the particular blossoms by which it
was secreted, but modified and softened by the manipulation given it
in the hives. When the secretion is abundant in a flower having a
short or open corolla, hence one from which the bees find it easy to
obtain the honey, they will confine their visits to that kind if the
latter is present in sufficient numbers. Thus it is that linden, white
clover, buckwheat, white sage, mesquite, sourwood, aster, tulip tree,
mangrove, orange, and other kinds of honey may be harvested separately,
and each be readily recognizable by its color, flavor, consistency,
and aroma. When, however, no great honey yielder is present in large
quantity and the source is miscellaneous, all manner of combinations
of qualities may exist, introducing great and often agreeable variety.
Thus the medicinal qualities and the food value of different kinds of
honey differ as greatly as do their prices on the market.
PROPOLIS.
This substance, commonly known as "bee glue," is obtained by the bees
from the buds and crevices of trees, and is carried to the hives in
the corbicula or basket-like cavities on the outside of the tibial
joints of the workers' hind legs, the same as they carry pollen. The
workers with their mandibles scrape together and bite off the particles
of propolis, and with the front and middle legs pass them back to the
baskets, where the middle legs and feet are used to tamp them down. The
pellets can be readily distinguished from those of pollen, the latter
being dull and granular in appearance, while the freshly gathered
propolis is compact and shiny. This resinous material, which becomes
hard soon after it is gathered, is at first quite sticky, and the bee
bringing it requires aid in unloading. Another worker takes hold of
the mass with its jaws, and by united exertion they get it out of the
pocket, though often by piecemeal and in long threads. It is not stored
in cells, but is used at once to stop up crevices in the hives and to
varnish the whole interior surface, as well as to glue movable portions
fast, also in strengthening the combs at their attachments, and if the
latter are designed exclusively for honey, and especially if not filled
at once, the edges of their completed cells receive a thin coating of
propolis, which adds considerably to their strength. The bees often
make the flight hole smaller by filling a part of it with masses of
propolis, sometimes mixed with old wax. Carniolans gather the least
and Tunisians the most propolis of any of the different races. On this
account the former are better suited than the latter to the production
of fancy white comb honey.
BEE POISON AND THE STING.
The worker and the queen are supplied with another organ which is of
great importance to them, namely, the sting; for without this the
hard-earned stores of the hive would soon be a prey to all manner of
marauders, and the queen would be deprived of an organ of occasional
use to her in dispatching rivals, and of daily use to her during the
working season in the deposition of eggs. The darts work independently
and alternately, and are connected at the base with the poison sac,
without whose powerful contents such a tiny weapon would be wholly
ineffective. Poison glands pour an acid secretion--largely formic
acid--into this sac, whence it is conveyed to the tip of the sting
along the groove or canal formed by the junction of the sheath and the
darts. The sting being but an ovipositor modified also another purpose
in addition to oviposition, in the perfect female (the queen) its main
use is in placing the eggs in their proper position in the bottoms of
the cells.
Formic acid is known to have considerable antiseptic properties.
Chemical tests show its presence in well-ripened honey, but not in
freshly gathered nectar. The natural conclusion is that it has been
added by the bees to assist in the preservation of the honey. In what
manner it is supplied has frequently been questioned. Tests applied to
the blood of the bee show its presence there, and the secretions of the
head glands show still larger quantities. It is therefore reasonable
to suppose that these glands, as well as the poison glands themselves
secrete formic acid, and that the honey receives its portion from the
former, the head glands, upon being disgorged from the honey-sac or
during the manipulation to which it is subjected in the hive.
WATER.
During cold or cool weather much condensation of moisture takes place
in wooden hives as these are usually arranged. The water, collecting in
drops on the interior walls of the hive and on the cold, sealed honey,
often trickles down over the cluster of bees, to their great injury. It
has been claimed that when brood rearing begins this condensed moisture
will be utilized in the preparation of brood food. Very possibly it
may, yet its use is probably detrimental, since it is charged with
waste products of the hive--those of respiration, etc. In its absence
the water contained in the honey, if the latter has not granulated,
seems to be sufficient. Later, however, when no condensation takes
place in the hive and the greater number of developing larvæ require
considerable supplies of water in their food, special trips are made to
brooks and pools for it, and dew is often gathered from leaves.
SILK.
The larval bee produces a small amount of silk from glands in its
head. The pupal cell is partially lined with this. Later, as the bee
develops, there being no further use for the glands, they become
atrophied.
WAX.
The light colored pellets which are carried into the hive on the hind
legs of the workers, and which have been described as pollen, are often
mistaken for wax. The fact is, wax is not gathered in the form in which
we see it, except in rare instances, when, bits of comb having been
left about, small quantities will be loaded up and taken in as pellets
on the legs. Ordinarily it comes into the hive in the shape of honey
and is transformed by the workers within their own bodies into wax.
This production is wholly confined to the workers, for although the
queen has wax plates 011 the underside of the abdomen and wax glands
beneath them, yet both are less developed than in the workers and
are never used. The wax plates of the worker overlying the secreting
glands are well shown in fig. 9, those of the queen and of the related
genera, _Bombus_ and _Melipona_, being shown for comparison. During wax
secretion, that is, when combs are being built or honey cells sealed
over, a high temperature is maintained in the hive, and many workers
may be seen to have small scales of wax protruding from between the
segments of the abdomen on the underside. The molds or plates, eight
in number, in which the scales appear are concealed by the overlapping
of the abdominal segments, but when exposed to view (fig. 9, _a_) are
seen to be five-sided depressions lined with a transparent membrane.
The wax glands themselves are beneath this membrane, and through it the
wax comes in a liquid form. As the scales harden they are pushed out by
the addition of wax beneath. The bees pluck them out with neat pincers
(fig. 7, _a_ and _b_) formed by the articulation of the hind tibiæ
with the adjacent tarsal joints, pass them forward to the mandibles,
and mold them into the shape of hexagonal cells, meanwhile warming and
moistening them with the secretions of the head glands to render the
wax more pliable.
[Illustration: Fig. 9.--Wax disks of social bees: _a_, Apis mellifera
worker; _b_. A. mellifera queen; _c_, Melipona worker; _d_, Bombus
worker--all enlarged. (From Insect Life.)]
COMBS.
Wax is fashioned by the workers into cells of various sizes and shapes,
according to the use to be made of them. The most regular in shape and
size are the cells designed for brood (fig. 4). These combs in which
workers are bred show nearly 29 cells on a square inch of surface, the
combs being seven-eighths inch thick and the cells generally quite
regular hexagons in outline. Drone cells are larger, there being but
18 of them to the square inch of surface, and the comb is 1¼ inches
thick. The cells of combs designed only for honey are frequently more
irregular in shape, generally curve upward somewhat, and are often
deepened as the honey is stored in them, so that these combs sometimes
reach a thickness of 2 or 3 inches.
The cells in which queens are bred bear in size and shape some
resemblance to a ground or pea nut. They are often irregular in form,
being sometimes curved, or short and thick, according to the space
below their point of attachment, which is most frequently the lower
edge or the side edge of a comb, or sometimes a mere projection or
angularity in the general surface of a comb. Queen cells open downward
instead of being built horizontally like drone and worker cells (figs.
62 and 63).
[Illustration: Fig. 10.--Comb building--side of hive removed.
(Original.)]
Into the material used in constructing brood combs bees often
incorporate bits of wax and fiber-like gnawings of cocoons from
old combs in which brood has been reared, and if given cappings or
trimmings of combs they will work them all over and utilize most of
the material. Also when the bees have abundant supplies of pollen much
of this is incorporated into the material of brood combs, thus saving
the costlier substance--wax. Such combs show at once by their brownish
or straw color, even when first constructed, that they are not made of
wax alone. It will readily be seen from the above that the quantity
of honey consumed by the bees in producing a pound of comb must vary
greatly, for if the comb is designed for surplus honey it will be made
of newly secreted wax, while if for brood other material will, as
just stated, replace a portion of the wax. The amount of honey coming
in varies from day to day, and it is difficult to estimate how much
is consumed in feeding and keeping warm the brood: moreover, a high
temperature is required in the hive to facilitate the secretion and
working of wax, necessitating, of course, extra food consumption when
the outside temperature is low. Accordingly estimates as to the amount
of honey required to produce 1 pound of comb range from 5 pounds to 25
pounds. More accurate experiments are needed in this direction before
anything positive can be stated. Until then 18 to 20 pounds might be
looked upon as nearest the correct figure for white surplus combs, and
half as much for dull straw-colored or brownish combs built for brood
rearing.
DEVELOPMENT OF BROOD.
Ordinarily the winter cluster in a hive of bees occupies the more
central combs, four or five in number. Near the middle of this
cluster the queen deposits the first eggs of the season (which are
fertilized eggs) in the small-sized or worker cells. Under favorable
circumstances, that is, in a strong colony amply protected against
inclement weather, this deposition usually occurs in January, though
in a very mild climate some brood is generally present during every
month of the year, and the cessation of egg-laying is very short. The
eggs hatch on the third day after deposition into minute white larvæ,
to which the workers supply food in abundance. The composition of this
food has been the subject of much attention and more theorizing. It may
be considered as pretty certain that during the first three days of the
life of the larva its food is a secretion from glands located in the
heads of the adult workers--a sort of bee milk, to which, after the
third day, honey is added in the case of the worker larvæ, and honey
and pollen in the case of drone larva?. As this weaning proceeds both
worker and drone larvæ receive pollen, and in constantly increasing
proportions, in place of the secretion. But this rich albuminous
substance is continued to the queen larvæ throughout their whole period
of feeding; moreover, the quantity of this food supplied to each queen
larva is apparently super-abundant, for after it ceases to feed quite a
mass of the food somewhat dried out will be found in the bottom of the
cell from which a well-developed queen has issued. After assuming the
pupa form the young queen is attached to this food by means of the tip
of the abdomen, and it very likely continues for some time to receive
nourishment from the mass.
The following table shows approximately the time occupied in the
development of worker, drone, and queen:
+----------+---------+---------+---------+-----------------+
| | | | | From deposition |
| | Egg. | Larva. | Pupa. | of egg to imago.|
+----------+---------+---------+---------+-----------------+
| | _Days._ | _Days._ | _Days._ | _Days._ |
| Queen | 3 | 5½ | 7 | 15½ |
| Worker | 3 | 5 | 13 | 21 |
| Drone | 3 | 6 | 15 | 24 |
+----------+---------+---------+---------+-----------------+
The original circles of brood are gradually increased by the deposition
of eggs in the cells next outside those already occupied, and circles
are soon begun in the adjoining combs. In this way the space occupied
by the developing bees is gradually increased, while preserving the
general spherical shape of the brood nest thus formed, which, however,
the shape of the hive often modifies somewhat. As already mentioned,
each circle of brood has rows of pollen cells about it, chiefly above
and at the sides, and the combs on either side contiguous to the brood
are usually well packed with pollen. Outside of the pollen most of
the honey on hand is stored. Thus (fig. 11) a cross section made in
any direction through the middle of a hive in normal condition at the
opening of the active season should show this relative arrangement
of brood, pollen, and honey, which economizes most the heat of the
hive and the labors of the nurse bees, favoring in this way the rapid
increase of the population.
[Illustration: Fig. 11.--Cross section of brood apartment: _s, s_,
sides of hive; _t, t_, top-bars of frames; _h, p, l, sb_, combs
containing (_h_) honey, (_p_) pollen, (_l_) larvæ and eggs, and (_sb_)
sealed brood. (Original.)]
THE WORKER.
The worker larvæ are fed five days, and then the cell is given by the
adult bees a covering which is quite porous by reason of numerous
pollen grains incorporated into its mass, this openness of texture
being necessary to give the developing bee air to breathe. The larva
strength ens this capping by a loose webwork of silk within, extending
down the side but slightly and attached at its edges to the last skin
cast by the molting larva. This skin, extremely delicate and pressed
closely against the inside of the cell, forms the lining of its sides
and bottom. In about twelve days after sealing, that is, twenty-one
days from the time the egg was deposited, the imago, or perfect bee,
bites its way through the brown covering.
In the course of a couple of days it takes up the work of a nurse, and
in a week to ten days may appear at the entrance on pleasant days,
taking, however, but short flights for exercise, as ordinary field work
is not undertaken until it has passed about two weeks in the care of
brood. The worker then takes up also wax secretion, if honey is to be
capped over or combs built, although old bees can and do to a certain
extent engage in wax production.
THE DRONE.
Eggs left unfertilized produce drones and require twenty-four days
from the time they are deposited until the perfect insect appears.
They are normally deposited in the larger-sized horizontal cells, and
when the latter are sealed, the capping is more convex as well as
lighter-colored than that of worker brood, which is brown and nearly
flat.
The fact that drones develop from unfertilized eggs is to be noted
as having an important practical bearing in connection with the
introduction of new strains of a given race or of new races of bees
into an apiary. From a single choice home-bred or imported mother,
young queens of undoubted purity of blood may be reared for all of the
colonies of the apiary, and since the mating of these young queens
does not affect their drone progeny, thereafter only drones of the
desired strain or race and pure in blood will be produced, rendering,
therefore, the pure mating of future rearings fairly certain if other
bees are not numerous within a mile or two. Eventually also all of
the colonies will be changed to the new race and without admixture of
impure blood, provided always that the young queens be reared from
mothers of pure blood mated to drones of equal purity.
CHAPTER III.
QUIETING AND MANIPULATING BEES.
The demeanor of bees toward an individual depends largely upon his
bearing and treatment of them. Langstroth, in his excellent treatise,
Langstroth on the Honey Bee (p. 193, revised edition), says:
Let all your motions about your hives be gentle and slow; never crush
or injure the bees; acquaint yourself fully with the principles of
management, and you will find you have little more reason to dread
the sting of a bee than the horns of a favorite cow or the heels of
your faithful horse.
[Illustration: Fig. 12. Use of veil and bee smoker. (Original.)]
Most bee manipulators, however, grow somewhat indifferent to stings,
since in time they become so inoculated with the poison of the bee that
the pain of the sting is less severe and the swelling slight. _But to
avoid the stings is, with some of the races more recently introduced
into this country, simply a question of care in manipulation and a free
use of smoke._ It is not meant that the bees should be stupefied with
smoke, but merely alarmed and subjugated, and whenever they show any
disposition to act on the offensive recourse is to be had to smoke. It
is not necessary that the smoke should be from a particular source,
but that from certain substances, as tobacco, subjugates them more
quickly, while burning puffball stupefies them for the time. There are
some objections to these substances which do not apply to wood, either
partially decayed or sound, and as the latter when in a good smoker
holds fire best and is very effective, it is advisable to keep a good
supply at hand. Seasoned hickory or hard maple are best, though beech,
soft maple, etc., are good. The most improved bellows smokers, when
supplied with such fuel sawed 5 or C inches long and split into bits a
half inch or less in size, will burn all day and be ready at any time
to give a good volume of blue smoke, by which bees of most of the races
now cultivated in this country are subdued at once.
[Illustration: Fig. 13.--Manipulation--removing comb from hive.
(Original.)]
With Italian or black bees a puff or two of smoke should be given at
the hive entrance and the cover and honey board, or quilt, removed
slowly and carefully, smoke being driven in as soon as the least
opening is made and the volume increased enough to keep down all bees
as fast as the covering is removed. The smoker may then be placed on
the windward side of the hive to allow the fumes to pass over the top
and toward the operator. The frames may then be gently pried loose and
lifted out carefully, without crushing a bee if it can be avoided.
Crushing bees fills the air with the odor of poison, which irritates
the bees. So also when one bee is provoked to sting others follow
because of the odor of poison.
Too much smoke will often render certain manipulations difficult; for
example, when queens are to be sought out, or nuclei or artificial
swarms made, volumes of smoke blown in between the combs will drive
the bees from them so that they will cluster in clumps on the bottoms
of the frames or in the corners of the hives. A little observation and
judgment will enable one to know when the bees need smoke and how much
of it to prevent any outbreak on their part, which it is always best to
forestall rather than be obliged to quell after it is fully under way.
The frame hive as now made--with metal rabbets and arrangements
for surplus honey, and quilts instead of honey boards--reduces
propolization to a minimum and renders the danger of irritating the
bees by jarring when manipulating much less. As a prerequisite to rapid
and safe manipulation _perfectly straight combs are necessary_.
[Illustration: Fig. 14.--Manipulation--tilting to bring reverse side of
comb in view. (Original.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 15.--Manipulation--reverse side of comb brought to
view. (Original.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 16.--Manipulation--examining verse side of comb.
(Original.)]
With the common or black bees it is never safe to do without the veil
as a protection to the face, and with these bees it will also be very
difficult to avoid stings on the hands unless considerable smoke has
been driven into the entrance beforehand and time has been given the
bees to get well filled with honey before the hive is opened; even
then frequent recourse to smoke will generally be necessary. Blacks
are by far the most troublesome of all races about flying from their
hive entrances to sting in an unprovoked manner. Next to these are
the crosses containing the blood of the blacks. Italians have much
less of this disposition, and Carniolans and Cyprians rarely, then
latter almost never, fly from their hive entrances to attack unless
their hives have been disturbed. _Pure_ Cyprians can generally be
handled without the use of the bee veil by skillful bee manipulators
who understand the qualities of the race. Much of the work among pure
Italians can be done without a veil after one has gained experience
in manipulation. During four years' residence in Carniola the writer,
manipulating annually several hundred colonies of bees, never had
occasion to employ a bee veil. If no bees but gray Carniolans of pure
blood are in the apiary and some smoke is used a veil will never be
necessary. They maybe handled in all kinds of weather, early and late,
even during the night, yet with but a small part of the risk which
attends the manipulation of other races. Nor will it be necessary to
delude them with smoke from time to time, as one is obliged to do with
blacks. To dispense entirely with the bee veil is a more important
consideration, especially to the professional bee-master, than is at
first apparent to the inexperienced. Its use injures the eyesight
seriously, especially where one is obliged to strain his eyes for hours
to see eggs, larvæ, etc., in the cells, to hunt out queens and queen
cells, and adjust frames. Besides this, the hindrance to rapid work
which the veil causes, as well as the great discomfort in wearing it
for hours during hot weather, are considerations worth weighing.
[Illustration: Fig. 17.--Quinby closed-end frames. (From A B C of Bee
Culture.)]
To recapitulate: To secure easy, rapid, and safe manipulation
accurately made hives, with the frames, if hanging, arranged to rest on
folded metal rabbets, and the combs perfectly straight, are essential.
It is equally important also that some one of the gentler races be
kept Furthermore, a good bee smoker fed with dry fuel is necessary,
while the bee escape to clear supers without manipulation of combs is a
great help. Quilts, queen excluders, and bee escapes reduce the amount
of manipulation required, and at the same time facilitate what is
absolutely necessary.
In general, the best time to manipulate hives is when most of the bees
are busy in the fields. The young bees left at home are most easily
controlled and the old ones returning are generally laden.
CHAPTER IV.
=ESTABLISHING AN APIARY: TIME--SELECTING HIVES OF
BEES--MOVING BEES--SELECTION OF SITE.=
Spring is the best season to establish an apiary, especially for a
person unacquainted with the practical care of bees. Colonies in good
condition procured then are more easily kept in order by the novice
than if purchased in the fall. Mistakes in management may possibly be
remedied before the season closes, and by the time it is necessary to
prepare for the winter the learner will have gained a certain amount of
practical knowledge of the nature and requirements of the bees. If the
start be made late in the season mistakes, if they occur, may result
fatally before the proper remedy can be applied.
The beginner had better obtain his start by purchasing one or two
colonies of pure Italian or Carniolan bees in accurately made frame
hives and in first-class condition. These he should get from some
bee-master of repute near his own place, if possible, in order to
avoid expressage and possible damage through long confinement or
numerous transfers. The cost per colony may be $6 to $8; yet bees
at this price will generally be found much cheaper in the end, for,
though common bees in box hives may frequently be obtained for half
or even less than half as much, the cost, when finally transferred
into frame hives, fitted up with straight combs, and the common queens
replaced by Italians or Carniolans, will not be less. The possession
of a colony already in prime working order gives the novice a standard
with which to compare all others and often enables him to avoid costly
experiments. Another plan, also commendable, is to agree with some
neighboring bee keeper to deliver as many first swarms on the day they
issue as are wanted. These will give the right start if placed as soon
as received in hives with foundation starters and the frames properly
spaced--1⅜ inches from center to center, it being understood that the
swarms are early and prime ones, with vigorous queens. Only those
issuing from colonies that have swarmed the year before or from such as
were themselves second swarms of the previous year should be accepted.
Swarms from these will have queens not over one year old. It is better
to have queens of the current year's raising, but these can only be
obtained by taking the second or third swarms from a given hive, which
come later and are smaller, or by substituting young queens for those
which come with the swarms.
SELECTION OF STOCKS.
The relative Strength of different stocks may be determined by watching
the flight of the bees. The playing of the young bees in front of the
hive is apt to deceive one. This lasts but twenty minutes or so, but
a weak stock compared then with a strong one whose young bees are not
flying might be regarded as very populous. The young bees sporting in
front of the hive may be known by their light, fuzzy appearance, and
by the fact that as they take wing to leave the hive they turn their
heads toward the entrance and sail about it in semicircles, frequently
alighting on the flight board and taking wing again. They are thus
marking the location of the hive so as to be able to return to it, for
an attempt to enter another hive might result fatally to them. They
finally fly away in constantly widening circles. Field workers used to
the location fly in a direct line away from the hive. When the young
bees return they do not alight at once as do the field workers laden
with honey, but generally hover about the entrance until certain they
have reached the right hive. Having noted by their flight which stocks
seem to have the most bees, a closer examination can be made by blowing
a little smoke of any sort into the entrances and tipping the hives
back, if they stand on loose bottom boards. When not so constructed the
examination must, of course, be made by removing the top covering, or
if the combs are built in frames, some of these.
In addition to the strength of the colony, the number of combs
containing brood, straightness, kind and age of combs, amount of
honey on hand, the cleanliness and healthfulness of the colony are
points upon which full information is desirable. In April a good
colony located in a central latitude ought to have brood in five or
six combs; yet as ordinarily wintered it will be difficult to find
colonies having at this time more than three or four combs containing
brood. The combs should be straight, so that if in an old-fashioned
box hive they can be cut out and fitted without great waste into
frames, and if the hive is a frame one it is absolutely necessary to
have combs straight and built wholly within the frames in order that
the latter may be readily removed and returned to the hive. The less
drone comb the better. There will always be enough, an area half the
size of a man's hand being quite sufficient for each hive. The larger
size of the drone cells and greater thickness of the combs (1¼ inches)
will make it readily recognizable. If over one-eighth of the surface
is drone comb the colony should be rejected. If the combs are so old
as to be nearly black and to show cell walls much thickened they are
very objectionable. There should be several pounds of sealed honey
in each hive in early spring. Other things being equal, those stocks
which come through the winter with 20 pounds or so of sealed honey in
the combs will develop much faster than those having just enough to
last them until they gather fresh honey rapidly enough to supply their
daily needs. The presence of an abundance gives the bees courage.
They do not fear to draw upon their stores to supply the young that
are fast developing. The combs filled with honey part with their heat
only slowly when the outside temperature falls, and there is thus less
danger of a check in the development of the brood through too low
temperature in the hive.
[Illustration: Fig. 18.--Box hive prepared for transportation.
(Original.)]
If the surfaces of the combs, the frames, or the inner walls of the
hive are spotted with a brown, crumbly looking substance it is an
evidence that the bees have bad diarrhea during the winter or spring,
and if they have been badly affected not only will the combs and the
whole interior of the hive be soiled, the former perhaps so as to be
rendered almost worthless, but the bees will lack vitality, and will
soon dwindle in numbers, not being able to survive the first arduous
labors of the opening of the season. It is not always easy to determine
whether a stock in a box hive is affected with foul brood or not, for
the odor of decaying brood is not of itself sufficient to warrant such
a conclusion, although it is well to reject any hive having any putrid
odor about it. The natural odor of the hive, produced as it is largely
by honey, wax, pollen, and propolis, is not unpleasant to most people,
so that the presence of any disagreeable odor should arouse suspicion.
If larvæ that have turned black are seen in the cells, and the capping
of the sealed brood is sunken and in some instances perforated,
showing brown and ropy contents in the bottoms of the cells, and the
putrid odor is present, the existence of foul brood (_Bacillus alvei_
Cheshire) is pretty certain. This is a scourge much to be dreaded. Not
only should no hives or colonies be purchased from the same apiary, but
none in the vicinity of an apiary so affected.
[Illustration: Fig. 19.--Frame hive prepared for transportation.
(Orig.)]
MOVING BEES.
In moving bees the box hives should be turned bottom upward, the bees
driven back by blowing a little smoke on them, and a few loose rolls
of rags laid across the lower edges of the combs in such a manner that
a piece of sheeting, sacking, or preferably cheese cloth or other open
material may be tied over the whole lower end and drawn tightly, so
as to press the rolls against the combs and hold them in place. It is
even well to tack strips of lath outside of the covering, so placed
that they will cross the rolls of rags and press the latter more firmly
against the lower edges of the combs. Strips may also be tacked around
the lower edges of the hive to hold the cloth in place, or it maybe
fastened by winding with strong cord. The bees should be thus prepared
as late in the day as possible, care being taken that none escape, and
at dusk stood bottom upward in a spring conveyance or on straw or hay
several inches deep in the box of a wagon, with straw packed between
and around the hives. It is advisable to drive slowly, avoiding ruts as
much as possible. By turning the hives bottom upward the weight of the
combs rests on their points of attachment, and since in such hives the
combs are not always attached well down the sides danger of breakage
is lessened, especially when the rolls of cloth are pressed against
the edges of the combs. If the bees are in frame hives, the frames of
which have not been disturbed recently, it is likely that, with care in
driving, the combs will not get displaced. If necessary to use a sheet
or cloth to give ventilation, it should be tied over the top and the
hive placed in the wagon in the same position it occupied on the stand,
lest the combs, not being attached all the way down, should fall to one
side or the other. Except during quite warm weather and for long trips
it may not be necessary to adopt all the precautions here indicated,
although in case bees are to be transported on long journeys by rail or
water far more careful preparation is even necessary.
[Illustration: Fig. 20.--An apiary in Florida. (Reproduced from
photograph.)]
SELECTION OF SITE.
The apiary should be located where no surface water will collect
during heavy storms, yet the ground should not be very uneven, but
rather a gentle slope. In the colder portions of the United States
a south-eastern exposure is decidedly preferable, though in the
South the slope of the site is less important to the welfare of the
bees; a direct southern or south western exposure, however, will
be found extremely uncomfortable at times both for the operator and
for his bees. A windbreak, such as a board fence, a hedge, or a row
of evergreens on the north and west, is advisable as a protection
against sharp winds in winter and early spring, which keep many bees
from reaching their hives even when near the entrances. Some shade
is desirable, yet such density as to produce dampness is extremely
detrimental. In moist elevated regions, which are of course cool,
no shade will be needed, except temporarily for newly hived swarms.
Tall trees are objectionable in or near the apiary, because swarms
are likely to cluster so high as to render their capture difficult
and dangerous. Some of the self-hivers or nous warming devices now
offered for sale may with improvement yet accomplish the end in view,
but heretofore clipping one wing of each laying queen and using all
precautions to prevent after-swarming, making artificial swarms,
selection in breeding, or any other means known to limit swarming,
have not sufficed to prevent the occasional issuance of a swarm with
a queen having wings. Therefore it is advisable to have the apiary
located under or near low trees, where the hives can be readily seen
from the house. Carniolan, Italian, and Cyprian bees give less trouble
to passers-by or to live stock than do the ordinary brown or German
bees, or hybrids of these races, yet whatever race be kept, it is best
to have the apiary as secluded as the necessary or desirable conditions
will permit.
The frontispiece and figures 20, 21, and 75, taken from photographs of
apiaries located in different parts of the country, give a fair idea of
sites actually occupied and the arrangement of hive-.
[Illustration: Fig. 21.--An apiary in California. (Reproduced from
photograph.)]
CHAPTER V.
=HIVES AND IMPLEMENTS.=
The safest and best rule in making or selecting hives and implements
for the apiary is, _have them simple and accurate in construction_. A
plain box with frames and as few other loose parts as possible will
yield in the hands of a skillful bee-master far better results than the
most elaborately constructed bee palace manipulated by one who does
not understand the nature and requirements of bees; in fact, the most
experienced generally prefer the former. The important point to decide
in connection with any proposed modification or adjunct of the hive is
whether its adoption will more than compensate for the resultant loss
of simplicity. While zealously endeavoring to preserve simplicity of
construction, however, complete adaptability to the purpose designed
must be kept in view, and should not be sacrificed because of a
slight added expense. The bee keeper needs but few implements. With
even a limited number of hives, a smoker, a wax extractor, and a few
queen-introducing cages are the most necessary, and one or two bee
veils had better be added to the equipment, the total cost of which
need not exceed $5 to $6. If the intention be to produce comb honey,
and but a few hives are kept, then sections folded and with starters
in place had better be purchased, but with ten or more hives and time
during the winter season to prepare sections for the harvest, a section
folder and a foundation fastener, costing together about $3, may be
profitably added to the outfit. If only extracted honey is wanted a
honey extractor with one or two uncapping knives should be purchased
instead of the section folder and foundation fastener, the cost of the
outfit being in this case some $15 to $18. Fifty or even seventy-five
hives may be managed conveniently and economically with no greater
investment in implements than that indicated above, and if both comb
and extracted honey are wanted the cost of the outfit, it can readily
be seen, need not exceed $20.
HIVES.
In regard to the particular style or form of hive to be used to insure
the best results, it should be stated that while an intelligent
apiarist whose experience has been considerable may be successful with
almost any hive, even with poor ones, there can be no doubt that a hive
not only adapted to the nature of the bees but also to the climate of
the bee keeper's particular locality, and at the same time permitting
the rapid performance of all operations necessary in securing surplus
honey, will very materially affect the net profit of an apiary. This
being the case, the original cost of a hive, whether a dollar or two
more or less, is of small importance compared with the desirability of
securing convenience and simplicity in its management and of promoting
the welfare of the bees in winter and summer. Frame hives managed
with intelligence and skill are essential to the greatest success.
Inaccurately made frame hives, neglected, as is too frequently the
case, so that the combs are built irregularly between or across the
frames, are not one whit better than box hives. Even an accurately
built frame hive, if no attention is given to the spacing of the frames
when combs are being built, will soon present no advantages over a box
hive of the same dimensions and having the same space for supering
above the brood apartment.
[Illustration: Fig. 22.--Ancient Greek movable comb hive. (After _La
Maison rustique_, published in 1742.)]
The frame and hive most in use in this country is the invention of
Rev. L. L. Langstroth, and this hive, with slight modifications,
has been generally adopted in England and her colonies. It is also
becoming known and appreciated on the continent of Europe. The patent
on the frame the essential feature--expired many years ago, so that
anyone who may wish to do so is now free to employ the invention. It
is still used by many in the same form in which it was brought out in
1852. Others have changed the dimensions of the frames and given them
different names, while retaining the special feature of the inventor's
principle, namely, the loose-fitting frame suspended by the projecting
ends of its top bar on a continuous rabbet. The outside dimensions of
the Langstroth frame most in use are 17⅝ inches long by 9⅛ inches deep
(fig. 24). Mr. M. Quinby, one of the most practical and successful
bee-masters of our century, preferred frames 12 inches deep by 18
inches Long, and these are still used by many large honey raisers.
Other sizes are also used somewhat.
[Illustration: Fig. 23.--Dadant-Quinby form of Langstroth hive, with
cap and gable roof. (Redrawn from Langstroth on the Honey Bee.)]
The bars composing frames are usually made seven-eighths inch wide,
although some prefer to have the top bar 1 inch or even 1⅛ inches wide,
and the bottom bar is made by some as narrow as live-eighths inch or
even three-eighths inch square. The narrower bottom bar, at least down
to a width of five eighths inch, renders the removal of the frames
less difficult, and bees are brushed off a little more easily; but
when combs cut from box hives are to be fitted into the frames it is
not quite so easy to hold the pieces in the center of the frame by
means of transferring sticks and get the bees to fasten them securely
at the bottom as it is with full seven-eighths-inch bottom bars. Top
bars have been made by some hive manufacturers from one-fourth-inch to
three-eighths-inch strips, strengthened somewhat by a very thin strip
placed edgewise on the underside as a comb guide; but such bars are
much too light and will sag when filled with honey or with brood and
honey, and when section holders or other receptacles for surplus honey
or sets of combs are placed above them more than a bee space exists
between the upper and lower sets of frames or between the section
holder and the frames below, and the bees will fill in with bits of
comb between these, making it difficult to remove the top story or
any of the combs from it; indeed, an attempt under such circumstances
to remove combs from the top story generally results in tearing the
frames apart and breaking the combs, and if honey leaks out robbing
may be induced at some times of the year, all because of an error in
construction.
[Illustration: Fig. 24.--Langstroth frame; size, 17⅝ in. by 9⅛ in.
outside; _pn_, projecting nail. (Original.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 25.--Form in which to nail frames: _b_, button;
_db_, double button. (Original.)]
To avoid this the top bar should never be less than five-eighths inch
to three-fourths inch thick, while for long top bars seven-eighths-inch
or 1-inch strips are preferable. The side and bottom bars may be made
of one-fourth-inch strips. A corner is taken from the end of the top
bar by a cross cut made at exactly right angles on the underside of the
top bar, reaching to within one-fourth inch of the top of the bar, and
another cut from the end so as to meet the first-mentioned one. Each
side bar can then be nailed by one nail driven from above through the
top bar, and two driven through the side bar itself into the end of
the top bar. The bottom bar can then be nailed on, or, better still,
cut short enough to permit it to be inserted between the side bars,
the nails holding it to be driven through the latter. Nailing frames
loosely or without getting them exactly in true brings with it great
disadvantages. If only slightly out of shape they may swing together
at the bottom or touch the sides of the hive, and in either case will
be glued fast by the bees; also in the first instance the combs, which
are always built perpendicularly, will not be wholly within the frames.
To avoid these troubles it is essential, first, that the parts for the
frames be cut very accurately; second, that the frame be in exact shape
at the time of nailing; and third, that the nails be driven in quite
firmly; long, slender, flat-headed wire nails being necessary to secure
proper stiffness of the frame. Nails 1½ to 1¾ inches long made of No.
16 or No, 17 wire, or 4d. fine wire nails are the right size. Nailing
in a form, such as is shown by fig. 25, is therefore advisable. Greater
ease in withdrawing the frames from the hive is secured by making the
bottom of the frame one-fourth inch less in width than the upper part.
A round-headed nail or a curved wire staple driven through the side bar
at each lower corner into the end of the bottom bar and left projecting
one fourth inch will also facilitate the removal of frames and their
insertion in the hive without the crushing of bees, and hence allow
more rapid manipulation. (Fig. 24, _pn_.)
[Illustration: Fig. 26.--Lock-joint chaff hive. (From Gleanings in Bee
Culture.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 27.--Manner of nailing hives. (Original.)]
The hive to hold the frames should be the plainest kind of a box, the
frames resting on rabbets made in the upper edges. Constructing it
with lock joints, as shown in fig. 26, or by halving together the ends
of the boards, as in fig. 27, and, in either case, nailing in both
directions makes a strong hive body. The latter may be single-walled
for mild climates or where cellar wintering is practiced: but for
severe regions it is advisable to have permanent double walls with the
inter-spaces filled with chaff, ground cork, or similar material, or
else outer cases should be provided giving space between the latter
and the hive proper for dry packing. As the bees always try to glue
the frames fast by means of propolis, it is better to make them rest
on strips of tin, galvanized iron, or band iron. The rabbet should
therefore be made eleven-sixteenths inch deep, and the strip of iron or
other metal frame-rest nailed on so that its edge will project upward
five-sixteenths inch from the bottom of the rabbet. Folded strips of
tin as made by manufacturers of apiarian implements are preferable to
single strips nailed on, since they facilitate the sliding of frames
and do not cut the top bars where the latter rest upon them (fig. 28).
The projecting ends of the top bars being one-fourth inch thick, the
bars themselves come within one-eighth inch of the upper edge of the
hive. It is essential that the distance between the ends of the frames
and the hive should not exceed three-eighths inch, lest in time of
plenty the bees should build comb there; nor can less than one-fourth
inch space be allowed, for if the bees can not readily pass around the
ends of frames of the Langstroth type they will glue the frames to the
side walls of the hive, making it very difficult, if not impossible,
to remove them without breakage. If, as suggested, the frames are made
one-fourth inch shorter at the bottom than at the top, that is, 17⅜
inches at bottom and 17⅝ inches at top, the hive should then be 18⅛
inches inside from front to rear, the frames running in this direction.
[Illustration: Fig. 28.--Section of improved tin frame-rest: _A_,
folded edge on which frame rests; _B_ and _D_, nails. (From Gleanings.)]
If the frames are accurately made there will then be one fourth inch
space at each end of the frame just below the top bar and three-eighths
inch at each end of the bottom bar. Between the frames and the bottom
board, on which the hive rests, one-half inch space answers, but
five-eighths inch is preferable. The width of the hive will depend, of
course, upon the number of frames decided upon, 1⅜ inches being allowed
for each frame, and three-eighths inch added for the extra space at
the side. If a top story to contain frames for extracting is placed
over the brood chamber, its depth is to be such as to leave the space
between the two sets of combs not over five-sixteenths inch, and in
this, as in the lower story, the space between the ends of the frames
and the hive wall should be no more than three-eighths inch. A good way
to keep rain from beating in between the stories and also to retain
the warmth of the bees in outdoor wintering, yet admit of suitable
provision for the upward escape of moisture, is to have the second
story fit over the top of the lower one, and rest on ledges made by
nailing strips around the latter one-half inch below the upper edge. As
this makes the upper story nearly 2 inches larger from front to rear
than the lower one: it will be necessary when arranging this story for
frames to make the front and rear double-walled. This is easily done
by tacking on the inside of each end two half-inch strips, on which a
halt-inch board is then nailed. These inside end pieces should be only
wide enough to reach within three-fourths inch of the top edge of the
outer ends, and, like the lower story, should be finished at the top
with a metal rabbet for the frames to rest on, or the inside piece may
be made to come within three-eighths inch of the top and its upper edge
beveled so the frames can not be greatly propolized, an arrangement
which answers very well for this story.
[Illustration: Fig. 29.--The Langstroth hive--Dadant-Quinby form--cross
section showing construction. (From Langstroth.)]
As to the width of hives and consequent number of frames each story
is to hold, there has been of late much diversity of opinion. The
original Langstroth hive held ten frames in the lower story and eleven
frames in the second or top story. A demand for smaller-sized brood
chambers and uniformity of the stories having been created, the larger
hive-manufacturing establishments gave hives constructed to hold eight
frames the most prominent place in their catalogues, and by many it
was considered that those who adhered to the older, larger form did so
merely through conservatism. But after some years' trial a reaction in
favor of larger hives seems to have set in, especially among producers
of extracted honey. Many of the latter are finding that with carefully
bred queens even twelve-frame brood apartments give the best results.
The author's experience of over twenty-five years with frame hives
of various sizes and styles, both American and foreign, in widely
differing climates, convinces him that to restrict a hive to a capacity
of less than ten frames for the brood chamber is, in most localities,
undesirable, but it will frequently be found advantageous to contract
temporarily the space occupied by the bees. For extracted honey alone,
especially in any region having a short flow of honey, twelve-frame
capacity is preferable. Thin, movable partitions, known as "division
boards," enable one to contract the space at will, and the addition of
supers or top stories gives storage room for surplus honey. Some prefer
to have the hive in one story holding twice the usual number of frames
and contractible with a division board. The entrance is then usually
at one end, parallel with the combs, and the surplus honey is obtained
from the rear part of the hive, either in sections held in wide frames
or it is extracted with a machine from ordinary frames. This plan
renders access to all of the frames somewhat easier than when two or
more stories are used, but as the methods now most followed involve
on the whole less manipulation of individual frames than was formerly
deemed advantageous this superiority can not count for much--hardly
enough in fact to balance the limitation as to the number of frames and
the inconvenience of larger and more unwieldy hive bodies, covers, and
bottom boards.
[Illustration: Fig. 30.--The Nonpareil hire. (From Bee-Keeping for
Profit.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 31.--Dadant-Quinby form of Langstroth hive, open:
_a_, front of brood apartment; _b_, alighting board; _c_, movable
entrance block; _d_, cap; _e_, straw mat; _f_, carriage-cloth cover for
frames; _g, g_, frames with combs. (From Langstroth.)]
Small hives may yield excellent results in the hands of a skillful
bee-master, but an equal degree of skill will, in general, give as
good, if not better, returns from large hives, and the novice who may
not know just when or how to perform all operations will find himself
much safer with hives holding ten or twelve frames in each story, and
far more likely to secure good returns from them than from smaller ones.
A good, tight roof or cover is indispensable, well painted, so that
no drop of water can get in from above. A flat roof slanting from
front to rear will answer, but a ventilated gable roof with the sides
well slanted is far preferable. Above the sections or the upper set
of frames a piece of carriage cloth, enameled side down, should be
laid during the summer season to prevent too great escape of heat
above and to keep the bees from getting into the roof or propolizing
it. The cloth is more suitable than a board, since the latter when
propolized can not be removed without considerably jarring the bees.
If the carriage cloth be weighted with a board which has been clamped
with a strip across each end to prevent warping, there will be less
propolization of the sections above or building of bits of comb on the
tops of the frames when these have been used. To dispense with this
extra piece and also to render the gable cover flat on the underside,
the board which rests on the carriage cloth may be nailed to the cover
permanently. During very hot weather the quilt may be turned back and
the cover propped up.
The bottom board to the hive may be nailed permanently or the hive
may be merely placed on it. In either case the sides and back of the
hive should be wide enough to come down over the edges of the bottom
board and thus shed all water that runs down the outside of the hive.
A sloping board in front will facilitate the entrance of heavily laden
bees and many that fall to the ground will crawl in if the hive is
within 8 or 10 inches of the ground. Many persons place the bottom
boards directly on the ground, and the majority have them but 3 or 4
inches above the surface. By arranging them farther from the ground, at
least 6 or 8 inches, dampness is avoided and the ease in manipulation
is greatly increased. English manufacturers make the Langstroth hive
with permanent legs some 6 or 8 inches long. This is no doubt necessary
in the damp climate of that country, and even here the free circulation
of the air beneath the hive and the entrance of direct rays of sunlight
at times are so beneficial that there might well be a return to this
valuable feature, which was part of the original Langstroth hive.
Great accuracy of parts must be insisted upon in hives and frames, both
because covers and top stories should be made to fit interchangeably,
and because the bees carry out their own work with great precision,
so that ease in manipulation of combs can only be secured by nice
adjustment. Hives cut by machinery are therefore greatly to be
preferred, and though most of those kept in stock by apiarian
manufacturers do not include in their construction all of the features
mentioned above, they still answer in most particulars the requirements
of bee life, and, if proper protection for the winter be afforded, are
very serviceable.
IMPLEMENTS.
BEE SMOKERS.
No well-appointed apiary in these days is without one or more bee
smokers. The professional bee keeper who has once used a bellows smoker
would as soon think of dispensing with this implement as a skillful
cook would be disposed to go back from the modern cooking range to the
old-fashioned fireplace.
[Illustration: Fig. 32.--The Bingham bee smoker.]
For hundreds of years smoke has been used to quell and even stupefy
bees, and various forms of bee smokers have long been used; but the
modern bellows form, so far superior to the old clumsy implements which
oftentimes required both hands of the operator, or to be held between
the teeth, is purely an American invention. Mr. M. Quinby, one of the
pioneers in improved methods in apiculture in America, was the inventor
of the bellows smoker having the fire box at the side of the bellows
so arranged as to enable the operator to work it with one hand, and
when not in use to stand it upright and secure a draft which would keep
the fire going. Certain improvements on the original Quinby smoker
have been made without changing the general form of the implement, one
of the most effective and durable of these improved makes being the
Bingham direct-draft smoker. Other modifications are the Crane, with
a cut-off valve, the Clark, Hill, and Corneil smokers. The medium and
larger sized smokers, even for use in small apiaries, are preferable.
They light easier, take in all kinds of fuel, and hold fire better,
while they are always much more effective since they furnish a large
volume of smoke at a given instant, thus nipping in the bud any
incipient rebellion. The bee smoker and its use are well shown by figs.
12, 32, and 53.
VEILS.
Veils for the protection of the face will be needed at times--for
visitors if not for the manipulator. The beginner, however, should use
one under all circumstances until he has acquired some skill in opening
hives and manipulating frames and has become acquainted with the temper
and notes of bees, so that he will have confidence when they are
buzzing about him and will know when it is really safe to dispense with
the face protector. Veils are made of various materials. In those which
offer the least obstruction to the sight, black silk tulle or brussels
net is used, the meshes of which are hexagonal. Linen brussels net is
more durable than silk, as is also cotton, though the latter turns gray
in time and obstructs the vision. By making the front only of silk and
the sides of some ordinary white cotton netting the cost of the veil
is less, but it is not so comfortable to wear in hot weather, being
less open. A rubber cord is drawn into the upper edge, which brings
the latter snugly in about the hat band. By having the veil long and
full and drawing it over a straw hat with a wide, stiff brim, tying the
lower edge about the shoulders or buttoning it inside a jacket or coat,
the face is securely protected. (Fig. 12.)
HONEY EXTRACTORS AND HONEY KNIVES.
[Illustration: Fig. 33.--Williams' automatic reversible honey
extractor.]
The honey extractor (fig. 33) consists of a large can, within which a
light metal basket revolves. The full combs of honey, from which the
cappings of the cells have been removed by a sharp knife, are placed
inside the basket and after several rapid revolutions by means of a
simple gearing are found to have been emptied of their contents. The
combs, only very slightly damaged, can then be returned to the hives to
be refilled by the bees. If extra sets of combs are on hand to supply
as fast as the bees need the room in which to store honey, great yields
can often be obtained. A good extractor should be made of metal, and
the basket in which the combs are revolved should be light, strong, and
doubly braced on the outside so that the wire-cloth surface, against
which the combs press, will not yield. The wire cloth used, as well
as all interior parts of the extractor, should be tinned, as acids
of honey act on galvanized iron, zinc, iron, etc. Wire cloth made of
coarse wire and with meshes one-half inch square is often used, but it
injures the surface of new combs and those very heavy with honey more
than that made of about No. 20 wire and with one-fourth-inch meshes.
[Illustration: Fig. 34.--Quinby uncapping knife.]
[Illustration: Fig. 35.--Bingham & Hetherington uncapping knife.]
For removing the wax covering with which the bees close the full cells
a peculiarly shaped knife, known as an uncapping knife, is needed
(figs. 34 and 35). The blade, which should be of the finest steel to
hold a keen edge, is fixed at such an angle with the handle as to keep
the hand that grasps the latter from rubbing over the surface of the
comb or the edges of the frames. The form of knife with curved point is
best adapted to reach any depression in the comb, which, if uncapped
and emptied of its honey, will likely next time be built out even with
the general surface. Dipping the knife in hot water facilitates rapid
work, and of course the heavier-bladed knives hold the heat better than
thin bladed ones, and are for this reason preferred by some; also
because they more surely lift the capping clear from the surface of the
comb.
WAX EXTRACTORS.
A solar wax extractor is needed in every apiary; several are kept
running in many large apiaries. Extractors which render wax by steam
are also used. To the latter class belongs the improved Swiss wax
extractor (fig. 36). This implement, invented in Switzerland and
improved in America, consists of a tin or copper vessel with a circle
of perforations in the bottom near the sides to let in steam from a
boiler below, and within this upper vessel another receptacle--the comb
receiver--made of perforated zinc. Its use, as well as that of the
solar wax extractor, is described under the head of "Wax production."
[Illustration: Fig. 36.--Excelsior wax extractor.]
Within a few years wax extractors employing the heat of the sun and
known as solar wax extractors have come into general use (fig. 61).
The essential features in all the forms that have been devised are a
metal tank with a glass cover and usually a wire-cloth strainer, below
which is placed the receptacle for the wax, the whole so arranged as to
enable one to tilt it at such an angle as will catch the direct rays
of the sun. The effectiveness of the solar wax extractor is increased
by having the glass doubled, and adding also a reflector, such as
a mirror or a sheet of bright metal. An important advantage of the
solar wax extractor is the ease with which small quantities of comb
can be rendered. By having this machine much is therefore saved that
might be ruined by wax moth larvæ if allowed to accumulate, besides
serving at the same time to increase these pests about the apiary. The
wax obtained by solar heat is also of superior quality, being clean,
never water-soaked nor scorched, and also light in color, owing to the
bleaching action of the sunlight.
The cost of a medium-sized solar wax extractor does not exceed that of
the larger Swiss steam extractors, yet of the two the former is likely
to prove by far the more valuable, even though it can be used only
during the warmer months.
QUEEN-INTRODUCING CAGES.
In every apiary there should be several of these on hand. The best are
such as permit the caging of the queen directly on the comb over cells
of honey. A little practice will enable anyone to make very serviceable
and cheap cages for introducing queens. From a piece of wire cloth
having ten to twelve meshes to the inch cut a strip 2 inches wide; cut
this in pieces 4¼ inches long, roll each piece around a stick to give
it a cylindrical form, lap the edges, and sew with a piece of wire.
Then in one end of this cylinder make slits three-quarters inch apart
and three-quarters inch deep, and bend over the tongues thus formed so
as to close this end of the cage. With the flat end of a pencil press
warm wax or comb into the bottom inside to give it firmness. Then
unravel five or six strands of the wire cloth at the other end. The
wire points left after unraveling these strands may be pressed into
the comb so as to confine a queen and four or five of her attendant
workers. (Fig. 66.)
Most of the queen-mailing cages are arranged to admit of their use in
introducing the queens also, so that when received it is only necessary
to withdraw a cork and place the cage on top of the brood frames, thus
admitting the bees to the candy. They will eat their way in and release
the queen in twenty-four to forty-eight hours. This plan is very good
for such as lack experience in handling queens, and hence might injure
them by grasping the abdomen, by pinching the thorax too hard, or by
catching the legs on the wire cloth of the introducing cage.
[Illustration: Fig. 37.--Simplicity feeder. (From A B C of Bee
Culture.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 38.--Fruit-jar bee feeder. Bottom of feeding stage
and perforated cap shown separately. (Orig.)]
BEE FEEDERS.
During warm weather liquid food may be placed in any open receptacles
which can be set in the upper stories of the hives. Tin fruit or
vegetable cans that have been used may be made to serve the purpose,
a wooden float for each or some bits of comb being put in to keep the
bees from drowning; but during cool weather feeders arranged to admit
the bees but not permit the escape of heat had better be employed.
Glass fruit jars with metal caps are generally at Land, and make
excellent feeders by merely punching a few holes in each cap. After the
jar is filled with liquid food and the cap screwed on tightly it is
inverted over a feed hole in the quilt or honey board. The cap, or top
story, with cover, protects the whole, and it is very easy to see when
more food is wanted by merely raising the cover slightly. If arranged
on a feeding stage covered on the underside with wire cloth, as shown
in fig. 38, feeding may be accomplished without being troubled by the
workers.
Feeders of various forms constructed of wood or tin, or of these
materials combined, most of them serving the purpose excellently, are
offered in catalogues of apiarian manufacturers.
SECTION FOLDERS.
Sections can be folded or put together readily over an accurately made
block just large enough to fill the space inclosed by a section, and
several machines to facilitate the work in case it is to be done on a
large scale have been devised.
BEE ESCAPES.
[Illustration: Fig. 39.--The Porter spring bee escape.]
The bee escape (fig. 39) is an important labor-saving invention for the
honey producer. A number of them may be regarded as necessary in every
apiary. They are inserted in holes bored in a honey board and used in
freeing supers from bees, as described under "Honey production."
FOUNDATION FASTENERS.
_For sections._--Several styles of implements for fastening thin
foundation in sections have been devised. All of them do the work well.
A simple one, which is also low priced, is Parker's; Clark's and the
Daisy are also highly recommended, and A. C. Miller's is very complete,
working automatically. The latter, and the Daisy shown in fig. 40, each
require the use of a lamp.
_For frames._--If the top bars of the frames have a slot or saw kerf
one-eighth to three-sixteenths inch deep on the underside, made by
passing them lengthwise over a circular saw, sheets of foundation
can be very readily fastened by slipping the edge into this groove
and running melted wax along the angle formed on each side by the
foundation and the top bar. Or a wedge-shaped strip may be crowded in
at the side and secured with small wire nails. If the top bar is flat
on the underside it will be necessary to press the foundation firmly
against it; that is, to incorporate the edge of the wax sheet into the
wood of the top bar by rubbing it with a smooth bit of hard wood or
bone, such as a knife handle, moistening this implement to prevent the
wax from sticking, and then fix it firmly by pouring melted wax down
the other side. In the case of top bars having triangular comb guides
or a projecting tongue on the underside the foundation can be securely
fastened by merely cutting five or six slits three-eighths to one-half
inch deep in one edge of the foundation and bending the tongues thus
formed in alternate directions so as to place the V-edge of the top
bar between them, when they can be firmly attached to the top bar by
rubbing with a knife handle as before. Soapsuds or starch water may
be used to advantage in moistening the knife handle. The foundation
roller (fig. 41), a small disk of hard wood which revolves in a slot
at the end of a handle and costs but a few cents, does effective work
in fastening foundation in brood frames; in fact, it is rather better
than the knife handle for the work just mentioned, except that it will
not reach into the corners of the frames, and to secure the foundation
there the knife handle must still be used. The roller will need to be
moistened the same as the knife handle.
[Illustration: Fig. 40.--The Daisy foundation fastener. (From
Gleanings.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 41.--Fastening starter of comb foundation in frame.
(Original.)]
It is particularly important that the sheets of foundation be well
fastened, for if one edge breaks loose with the weight of the bees
it will crumple down in such a way as not only to ruin that comb, or
rather to prevent the building of a good comb in the frame in question,
but also very likely in the adjoining frames if they have not been
previously built out; and in this case damage will probably result to
them. To prevent bulging of the comb it is also essential that the
sheets of foundation, if not wired, be narrower than the inside depth
of the frame and shorter than its inside length. A full inch of space
should be allowed between the bottom bar and the sheet of foundation,
and a half inch at each end for two-thirds of the way up.
[Illustration: Fig. 42.--Spur wire-embedder. (From Gleanings.)]
With these precautions swarms may even be hived on full sheets of
foundation without wiring the frames: but the practice will probably
continue of using starters, chiefly in the case of swarms, and, when
full sheets are employed, of alternating them with combs already built
out. Some prefer to wire the frames even though it is considerable
trouble, for the combs require less attention while in process of
construction and are firmer for shipping, for use in the extractor,
or for any other manipulation. Three or four horizontal wires will
suffice. No. 30 annealed tinned wire is the preferable size and
quality. The end bars of the frame are pierced by four holes, the first
1 inch below the top bar. A small tack secures the end of the wire,
which is then passed back and forth and drawn up so as to leave no
slack. The four horizontal wires, 2 inches apart, will be sufficient
to render combs quite secure. After fastening the foundation to the
top bar in the usual way the wires are embedded in the wax by a spur
embedder, which is a small wheel with grooved teeth (fig. 42). Where
large numbers of frames are to be wired a current of electricity from
a small battery will do the work more neatly and quickly than the spur
embedder.
The disadvantages of wiring frames are, first, its expense, caused
chiefly by the time employed in doing it; and second, the fact that
wherever the wire does not get embedded into the midrib of the
foundation, as is sure to happen in many cases, the rearing of brood is
interfered with, and also, under the methods employed by the majority
in wintering, moisture is very likely to cause the combs to cleave from
the wires, whereupon the bees are disposed to gnaw the combs away from
the wires in spots and not rebuild them.
These disadvantages, except that of expense, are overcome by
incorporating fine wire in the sheets of foundation when they are
rolled. The sheets are trimmed with wooden shears, which leave the ends
of the wires projecting. These are then glued to the bars of the frame.
The added expense is again the main objection, except to those who wish
to ship colonies or nuclei, or transport them from place to place for
pasturage.
COMB-FOUNDATION MACHINES.
The first attempts to give bees outlines of cells as a basis for comb
building were made in Germany. The top bars of the frames were coated
on the underside with beeswax, and a strip of wood having the outlines
of bees' cells cut on it was then pressed against this wax so as to
form a guide which should lead the bees to build their combs within the
frames. This was only a comb guide, but was succeeded by small strips
of wax having the outlines of bees' cells pressed on them by hand,
a block of wood being engraved for this purpose. The general use of
comb foundation, especially of the full sheets, was only made possible
through the improved means of manufacturing it developed in the United
States. The slow process of hand stamping was succeeded by its rapid
production on machines, the essential feature of which is two engraved
cylinders between which the warm sheet of wax is made to pass (fig. 43).
[Illustration: Fig. 43.--Comb-foundation machine. (From Langstroth.)]
Such machines are now made in numerous patterns costing from $15 up.
Foundation is made with flat-bottomed cells and also with the same form
as that given by the bees to combs constructed wholly by themselves.
Both sorts are readily accepted by the bees and built out. Both these
kinds are also made in various qualities and weights. Only a good
quality of perfectly pure beeswax should be accepted. Brood foundation
is made in light, medium, and heavy weights. For use in section boxes
thin surplus and extra thin surplus are made of light-colored wax. When
full sheets are used in sections it is better to have it extra thin
lest there should be a noticeable toughness of the midrib, technically
known as "fishbone." For unwired frames the medium or heavy brood-comb
foundation should be employed.
Until used it is best to keep comb foundation between sheets of paper
and well wrapped, since if long exposed to the air the surface of the
wax hardens somewhat, but if well packed it may be used years after it
was made with almost the same advantage as when first rolled out.
It requires considerable skill to make foundation successfully, and
those who use but a small amount will do better to purchase their
supply. The high quality of nearly all of the foundation thus far
supplied in this country has also justified this plan. Should the
practice of adulterating wax become as common among comb-foundation
manufacturers in this country as on the continent of Europe no doubt
many more would procure machines and make their own foundation.
CHAPTER VI.
=BEE PASTURAGE.=
Bees obtain their food from such a variety of sources that there
are few localities in our country where a small apiary could not be
made to yield a surplus above its own needs. Even in the center of
our larger cities bees placed on the roofs of stores and dwellings
have often furnished quite a surplus gathered from the gardens of
the city and its environs. Again, in regions where the soil is too
light, rocky, or wet to admit of profitable cultivation, it is often
the case that honey-producing plants abound; indeed, waste land is
frequently far more profitable for the honey-producer than fields that
have been brought under cultivation, especially when the latter are
mainly devoted to grain or potato raising, for insignificant weeds
in field or swamp often yield honey abundantly, and among the best
yielders are certain forest trees, whose blossoms, by reason of their
distance from the ground and in some instances their small size, escape
notice. Showy flowers made double by the gardener's skill, such as
roses, dahlias, chrysanthemums, etc., have rarely any attraction for
our honey bees. Moreover, the small number of these ornamental plants
usually found in any one locality renders the honey yield, even in
case they are abundant secreters of nectar, so slight that they are
of little value. The novice who is seeking to determine the honey
resources of his locality should therefore not be led into error by
these. He should compare the flora of his locality with reliable lists
of honey-producing plants, and, if possible, consult some practical
bee-master familiar with his surroundings. And all information on this
score should be fully accepted only after careful verification, as it
is very easy for anyone to be deceived regarding the sources of given
honey yields--plants which produce abundantly one season not always
yielding the next, or those that produce honey freely in one portion
of the country not yielding anything in another. Soil and climate, the
variations of successive seasons, and all other conditions affecting
plant growth--conditions which even the most skillful scientific
agriculturists admit are exceedingly difficult to understand, and in
many respects, as yet unexplainable--influence the amount and quality
of nectar secreted by a given plant.
The danger of overstocking is largely imaginary, yet in establishing
a large apiary it is of course essential to look to the natural
resources of the location, and especially to decide only upon a place
where two or more of the leading honey-producing plants are present in
great numbers. In the North, willows, alder, maples, dandelion, fruit
blossoms, tulip tree (frequently called whitewood), locust, clovers
(white, alsike, crimson, and mammoth red), with alfalfa and melilot,
chestnut, linden or basswood, Indian corn, buckwheat, fireweed,
willow-herb, knotweeds, mints, cleome, golden-rods, Spanish needle, and
asters may be cited as the chief sources of pollen and honey; and of
these the tulip tree, locust, white clover, alfalfa, melilot, linden,
and buckwheat furnish most of the surplus honey. The fruit blossoms,
with the exception of raspberry, come so early that a small proportion
only of the colonies are sufficiently strong to store surplus, and of
course this statement applies with still more force to plants which
blossom before apple, pear, cherry, etc. Some of the clovers, mustard,
rape, cultivated teasel, chestnut, barberry, sumac coral berry,
pleurisy root, fireweed, borage, mints, willow-herb, Spanish needles,
cleome, etc., though yielding well, are only found abundantly over
certain areas, and do not therefore supply any considerable portion
of the honey that appears on the market, though when any of them are
plentiful in a certain locality the bee keeper located there will find
in nearly all cases that the surplus honey is greatly increased thereby.
[Illustration: Fig. 44.--Willow herb (_Epilobium angustifolium_). A,
young flower: _s_, stigma turned back: _a_, anthers; _l_, lobe or pod.
B, older flower: _s_, stigma turned forward; _a_, anthers: _l_, lobe.
C, spike of flowers. D, section of pollen grain: _e_, extine; _i_,
intine; _ti_, thick intine; _f_, fovilla. E, growing point of pollen
grain: _e, e_, extine; _i, i_, intine; _f_, fovilla; _pt_, pollen tube.
(From Cheshire.)]
In the middle section of our country, from Maryland, Virginia, and
North Carolina westward, most of the sources named above are present,
although the maples (particularly hard maple) furnish less, and fruit
bloom, the clovers, linden, and buckwheat are not as great yielders
as in the North. Sourwood or sorrel tree, mountain laurels, sour gum
or tupelo, huckleberry, cowpea, magnolia, and persimmon make up in
part for these, the sourwood being especially important, while in some
localities certain species of asters yield very abundantly. The tulip
tree (known commonly as poplar) is a greater yielder than in the North,
while in the western portion of the middle section the Rocky Mountain
bee plant or cleome and more extensive areas of alfalfa and melilot are
very important sources.
In the more southern States fruit bloom is far from being as great a
source of honey as in the North, though with the extension of orange
groves in Florida and Louisiana an increased production of very fine
honey maybe looked for in those States. The titi, magnolia, palmetto,
and black mangrove yield well in some parts, and sour gum (tupelo or
pepperidge), cotton, and pennyroyal are sources not to be overlooked.
In Texas horsemint and mesquite, the latter also extending farther
West, furnish fine yields, while many mountain localities of southern
California are clothed with white and black sages--wonderful honey
producers. In certain localities there the orange and other fruit
orchards, and also wild buckwheat, give the bees excellent pasturage
for a portion of the year.
Certain small homopterous insects, such as plant-lice, bark-lice,
mealy-wings, and some leaf-hoppers, which congregate on the leaves or
bark of various plants and trees, notably pines, oaks, and beeches,
and suck their juices, secrete a sweet liquid, which is often taken
up by bees as it falls on the surrounding vegetation. This secretion,
commonly known as honeydew, or plant-louse honey, is usually of an
inferior qua lit y, though that from pine-tree aphides is sometimes
fairly good. Most of it granulates very soon after having been
gathered, sometimes even before the cells have been sealed.
Under peculiar conditions of the atmosphere sweet exudations, also
known as honeydew, drop from the leaves of certain plants and are
eagerly taken up by the bees. This substance is sometimes very abundant
and of excellent quality. It should not, however, be confounded with
the secretions of extra-floral glands such as are possessed by the
cowpea, horse bean, partridge pea, and vetches. These seem to be
natural productions for the purpose of attracting insects to the
plants, while the former is apparently an accidental exudation through
the plant pores, brought about very likely by some sudden change of
temperature. Both are, however, merely the saccharine juices of the
plant, and when refined by the bees may become excellent honey.
CULTIVATION OF HONEY PLANTS.
In all localities there will probably be found intervals during
the working season when bees will find very little or even nothing
gather, unless supplied by cultivation. When possible it is ah best
to till in such intervals with some honey-producing plant which at
the same time furnishes some other product--fruit, grain, forage,
green manure, or timber. The attempt to cultivate any plant for its
honey alone has not thus far been found profitable, in practice,
however promising it may seem theoretically. Catnip (_Nepeta
cataria_), motherwort (_Leonurus cardiaca_), globe thistle (_Echinops
sphærocephalus_), figwort (_Scrophularia nodosa_), bee balm (_Melissa
officinalis_), borage (_Borago officinalis_), Rocky Mountain cleome
(_Cleome serrulata_), melilot or sweet clover (_Melilotus alba_), and
linden (_Tilia americana_) have all been recommended repeatedly and
tried here and there somewhat extensively. But thus far the hope of
securing a sufficient increase in the crop of honey to pay for the
cultivation of these plants has in all cases had to be abandoned.
With the appreciation in value of agricultural lands the prospects
for the profitable cultivation of any crop for honey alone are still
further removed. Yet the writer is fully convinced that in the future,
especially in the older portions of our country, eminent success in
bee raising will require much more attention to the furnishing of
artificial pasturage for the bees, a close study, in fact, of the
bee flora of one's locality, and a systematic effort to supply the
deficiencies by sowing self-propagating honey plants, and such as may
be cultivated with profit for other reasons besides their honey yield.
[Illustration: Fig. 45.--Wagner a flat pea (_Lathyrus sylvestris
wagneri_).]
[Illustration: Fig. 46.--Dwarf Essex or winter rape (_Brassica napus_).]
Among those plants which have just been mentioned as having been
cultivated at various times for their honey alone, the linden for shade
and ornament as well as for timber, catnip for sale as an herb or to
secure its seed, and melilot for forage or green manuring are the only
ones which, under present conditions, might in some cases be profitably
cultivated. There may be introduced with advantage, however, all such
honey-producing plants as, with one sowing or planting, will readily
propagate themselves and without cultivation extend their area along
roadsides and over waste lands, always excepting of course such as may
become troublesome weeds. For this purpose most of the plants referred
to above are available, and many others which like these are adapted to
one portion or another of our country might be added, as, for example,
pleurisy root or butterfly weed (_Asclepias tuberosa_), Indian currant
or coral berry (_Symphoricarpos symphoricarpos_), viper's bugloss
(_Echium vulgare_), lady's thumb (_Polygonum persicaria_), horsemint
(_Monarda citriodora_), willow-herb (_Epilobium angustifolium_),
etc., but of course it can not be expected that they will thrive and
thoroughly establish themselves without further attention, except
in such localities as present very favorable conditions for their
growth. Furthermore, there is always the risk that a plant which yields
honey abundantly in one part of the country may not do so in another
region, even though it grows well, so that it is necessary in most
cases, especially with wild plants, to test them anew before extensive
introduction, no matter how well established their reputation as honey
producers may be elsewhere.
[Illustration: Fig. 47.--Summer or bird rape (_Brassica napus_).]
Among plants of economic value in other directions fruit trees and
shrubs are to be counted as of much importance to bees. The apple and
the cherry yield well, the others less, though the gooseberry, were it
more plentiful, would be of considerable value. Strawberry blossoms
are, in general, visited sparingly and yield only a small amount, but
the raspberry, coming later, when the colonies are stronger, is a most
important source, greatly liked by the bees, and furnishing as fine a
quality of honey as is known. Ten acres in raspberries will furnish
pasturage for three weeks to 75 or 100 colonies of bees. Mustard for
seed, and rape for pasture and seed, may be made to furnish much to
the bees in early spring. Buckwheat honey is dark and strong, but is
relished by some, and when well ripened is good winter food for bees,
so that whenever this plant can be made to blossom at a time when the
bees find nothing better and a crop of grain can also be harvested from
it, a plentiful supply should by all means be sown: the clovers, white,
alsike, crimson, and mammoth or medium red may be sown for pasturage,
hay, forage, for purposes of green manuring, or for seed, and honey of
fine quality obtained if a sufficient number of blossoms are allowed to
appear.
[Illustration: Fig. 48.--Sacaline or giant knotweed (Polygonum
sachalinense).]
[Illustration: Fig. 49.--Russian or hairy vetch (Vicia villosa).]
Alfalfa (_Medicago sativa_), a most important honey producer as well
as perennial forage crop, can be grown over a much greater area of the
United States than has heretofore been generally supposed. Sainfoin
(_Onobrychis sativa_) and serradella (_Ornithopus sativus_), both most
excellent honey plants, have not received the attention they merit
either North or South. Japan clover (_Lespedeza striata_) is grown
profitably in the South, and more even might be expected from the
introduction of sulla clover (_Hedysarum coronarium_) there, the latter
a great honey producer. Chicory, even on poor soil, is a good honey and
pollen plant. Northern bee keepers should try the dwarf (quick-growing)
varieties of cowpeas (_Vigna sinensis_) extensively grown in the
South for forage and green manuring. Vetches are of recognized value
for the same purposes, especially the Russian hairy vetch (_Vicia
villosa_). Sacaline (_Polygonum sachalinense_) and flat peas (_Lathyrus
sylvestris_) are visited by bees, and in certain situations may be
found of value otherwise. Peppermint (_Mentha piperita_) yields well in
July and August. Parsnips (_Pastinaca sativa_) when grown for seed are
assiduously visited by bees for honey during June. July, and August.
Gorse or furze (_Ulex europæus_) for forage may prove valuable in some
localities here, as it is highly esteemed in some parts of Europe.
Its odorous yellow blossoms, much frequented by bees, appear in May.
Filbert bushes (_Corylus avellana_) will grow in many portions of our
country, yielding, besides nuts, an abundance of early pollen, even in
February or March. The carob tree (_Ceratonia siliqua_) succeeds in the
Southwest, yielding a crop of economic value, besides a harvest in
late summer for bees. It is also a fine ornamental tree. There are no
finer shade or ornamental trees for the lawn or roadside than lindens
(basswoods) and horse-chestnuts. To these chestnut, locust, sourwood,
and tulip trees may be added. The timber of all is useful; and since
they are great honey yielders their propagation near the apiary is very
desirable.
Bees range ordinarily within 2 or 3 miles in all directions from their
homes, but sometimes go farther. Pasturage to be especially valuable,
however, should be within 2 miles, and less than a mile distant to
the main source is quite preferable. The advantage is probably not so
much in the saving of time in going back and forth, for bees fly with
great rapidity, but because when sudden storms arise, especially those
accompanied by high winds, the heavily laden bees are more likely to
reach home safely and the hive will not be decimated of its gathering
force.
BEES AS CROSS-FERTILIZERS.
Allusion has already been made in this bulletin to the importance of
bees in the complete cross fertilization of fruit blossoms and to the
fact that certain varieties of pears have been found to be completely
self-sterile, requiring, therefore, pollen from other varieties before
they can develop perfect seeds and fruits. It is interesting to study
the ways in which cross fertilization of plants is secured through the
visits of insects. The part that bees perform in the development and
perpetuation of numerous ornamental and economic plants is thereby
clearly shown. Space will only permit the introduction here of one or
two examples. The willow-herb, which is an abundant secreter of nectar
and thus attracts bees freely, illustrates one feature in pollination
by bees. A young blossom of this plant (fig. 44, A) shows the stamens
maturing and shedding their pollen, while the pistil remains curved
downward and with closed stigmas. In the older flower (fig. 44, B), the
stamens having shed their pollen and begun to wither, the pistil has
straightened up and exposed its stigmatic surfaces for the reception
of the pollen which a bee chancing to come from a younger blossom is
likely to bring. Self-pollination is thus positively prevented and
cross fertilization is insured.
In the mountain laurel the anthers are held securely by little pockets
in the corolla, so that as the flower opens the stamens are found bent
over (fig. 50, B) ready to be liberated (fig. 50, C) by the visit of a
bee. When the stamen flies up the pollen is discharged from the anther
and dusted on the underside of the bee. The latter as it alights on the
next flower naturally touches the stigma first and rubs off some of the
pollen it has brought from the last flower visited. It then proceeds to
secure the nectar of the flower on which it has just alighted, and in
doing this liberates the stamens of this flower and gets dusted again
with pollen, which it carries to the next flower.
[Illustration: Fig. 50.--Mountain laurel (_Kalmia latifolia_). A,
flowering branch. B, expanded flower: _ap_, anther pocket. C, section
of expanded flower: _ap, ap_, anther pockets; _s_, stigma: _a_, anther
(free); _pg_, pollen grains in shower: _ca_, calyx. D, section of
flower bud: _ap_, anther pocket. E, stamen more enlarged: _a_, anther;
_po_, pores; _pg_, pollen grains; _f_, filament. (From Cheshire.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 51.--Apple (_Pyrus malus_), showing structure of
flower and result of imperfect fertilization. A, blossom: _s_, stigmas;
_a_, anthers; _p_, petal; _s′_, sepal; _ca_, calyx; _d_, dissepiment.
B, cross section of imperfectly developed fruit: _f, f_, fertilized
carpels; _u_, unfertilised carpel. (From Cheshire.)]
The cross section of an imperfectly developed apple shown herewith
(fig. 51, B) illustrates the importance of complete fertilization of
fruit blossoms. The seed vessel at u shows only an abortive seed,
and the side of the fruit nearest this point is also correspondingly
undeveloped. This is owing to imperfect or complete lack of
fertilization of this carpel, five distinct fertilizations being
necessary to produce a perfect fruit. Bees being, during the period
of fruit blossoms, the most abundant insects that might effect the
necessary distribution of the pollen of these flowers, the importance
is at once seen of having an apiary in or near the orchard. Continued
rainy or cold weather may keep the bees confined to their hives much of
the time during fruit bloom, hence it is advisable to have them near
at hand and in numbers proportionate to the size of the orchards, so
that even a few hours of sunshine will assure their making a thorough
distribution of the pollen. In the absence of accurate experiments
regarding the number of colonies of bees required to insure proper
fertilization in the orchard, and also in view of the fact that
surrounding conditions vary greatly, it is difficult to say exactly how
many colonies are positively necessary for a given number of trees.
However, four or five well-populated hives for every hundred large
apple trees will doubtless suffice, even though no other hive bees are
within a mile of the orchard. The bees of a neighbor's apiary are often
quite sufficient for the orchardist's purpose, the benefit resulting
from their labors being, therefore, mutual, though the orchardist
doubtless derives in this case greater advantage from them than does
their owner himself. Escaped swarms lodged in forest trees in the
vicinity of the orchard are sometimes sufficiently numerous to perform
the work well. The great value of bees as cross fertilizers makes their
destruction a serious injury to the interests of the fruit grower.
Therefore spraying with arsenicals during fruit bloom should never be
practiced. The injurious insects can be reached quite as well before
and after the blooming period.
[Illustration: Fig. 52.--Heath-like wild aster (_Aster ericoides_).
(Original.)]
Bul. 1, new series, Div. of Entomology, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.
Plate III.
[Illustration]
Alfalfa (_Medicago sativa_).
Bul. 1, new series, Div. of Entomology, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.
Plate IV.
[Illustration]
Esparcet or Sainfoin (_Onobrychis sativa_).
1, 2. 3, 4, parts of flower; 5, pod; 6, 7, seed
Bul. 1, new series, Div. of Entomology, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.
Plate V.
[Illustration]
Sweet Clover or Melilot (_Melilotus alba_).
Bul. 1, new series, Div. of Entomology, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.
Plate VI.
[Illustration]
Acacia (_Acacia constricta_),
Bul. 1, new series, Div. of Entomology, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.
Plate VII.
[Illustration]
Mesquite (_Prosopis juliflora_).
Bul. 1, new series, Div. of Entomology, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.
Plate VIII.
[Illustration]
Blue Weed or Viper's Bugloss (_Echium vulgare_).
Bul. 1, new series, Div. of Entomology, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.
Plate IX.
[Illustration]
Crimson Clover (_Trifolium incarnatum_).
Bul. 1, new series, Div. of Entomology, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.
Plate X.
[Illustration]
Alsike Clover (_Trifolium hybridum_).
HONEY AND POLLEN PRODUCING PLANTS.
In the following lists the intention has been merely to indicate
the main sources from which our hive bees secure honey and pollen.
Anything like a complete enumeration of those plants of the United
States visited by hive bees would occupy far too much space for a brief
treatise like this. Many plants are therefore omitted which secrete
nectar freely but which are abundant only locally; others are left
out because they secrete only at rare intervals, or under peculiar
conditions, or are visited by bees only when some better honey source
fails; others again because, though secreting well and readily yielding
their honey or pollen stores to the bees, they are not often present
in sufficient numbers in any one locality to enable the bees to add
materially to their surplus stores. Such plants are, however, often of
great value because they cause the bees to rear brood during intervals
between the times of storing surplus honey and thus keep the colonies
populous for successive harvests.
Besides the main honey plants it would be easy to name for any
locality quite a number of secondary importance which are frequented
by honey bees, yet even though the localities were but a few miles
apart scarcely any two lists would agree either as to the plants to
be included or as to their relative importance. The following honey
and pollen producing plants are therefore of wide distribution or of
special importance in certain localities.
For convenience separate lists are given for the three sections of the
United States made by the parallels of 35° and 40° N. The flora of the
western portion of each section differs of course greatly from that of
the eastern part of the same section. Only the most important honey
yielders among those of local interest in the extreme Southwest and
the West have been included in the lists, and the chief range of each
has been noted. An effort has been made to indicate by the type the
relative importance of the plants as pollen and honey producers.
NORTH AND NORTHEAST.
[Above 40° N.]
Red or Soft Maple (_Acer rubrum_) April.
Alders (_Alnus_) April.
Elm (_Ulmus_) April.
Willows (_Salix_) Apr.-May.
_Dandelion_ (_Taraxacum taraxacum_ = _T. officinale_ of
Gray's Manual) Apr.-May.
_Sugar_, _Rock_, or _Hard Maple_ (_Acer saccharum_ = _A.
saccharinum_ of Gray's Manual) Apr.-May.
_Juneberry_, or _Service Berry_ (_Amelanchier canadensis_) May.
Wild Crab Apples (_Pyrus_) May.
GOOSEBERRY and CURRANT (_Ribes_) May.
PEACH, CHERRY, and PLUM (_Prunus_) May.
PEAR and APPLE (_Pyrus_) May.
Huckleberries and Blueberries (_Gaylussacia_ and _Vaccinium_) May-June.
COMMON, BLACK, or YELLOW LOCUST (_Robinia pseudacacia_) May-June.
European Horse-chestnut (_Æsculus hippocastanum_) May-June.
Common Barberry (_Berberis vulgaris_) May-June.
TULIP TREE, or "WHITEWOOD" (_Liriodendron tulipifera_) May-June.
Grapevines (_Vitis_) May-June.
Rape (_Brassica napus_) May-June.
_White Mustard_ and _Black Mustard_ (_Brassica alba_ and
_B. nigra_) June.
RASPBERRY (_Rubus_) June.
WHITE CLOVER (_Trifolium repens_) June-July.
ALSIKE CLOVER (_Trifolium hybridum_) June-July.
Edible Chestnut (_Castanea dentata_ = _C. sativa_ var.
_americana_ of Gray's Manual) June-July.
ALFALFA, or LUCERN (_Medicago sativa_) June-July.
LINDEN, or BASSWOOD (_Tilia americana_) July.
Smooth Sumac (_Rhus glabra_) July.
_Buttonbush_ (_Cephalanthus occidentalis_) July.
MELILOT, BOKHARA, or SWEET CLOVER (_Melilotus alba_) July-Aug.
Indian Corn (Zea mags) July-Aug.
Melon, Cucumber, Squash, Pumpkin (_Citrullus_, _Cucumis_,
and _Cucurbita_). July-Aug.
_Fireweed_ (_Erechthites hieracifolia_) July-Sept.
Chicory (_Cichorium intybus_) July-Sept.
GREAT WILLOW-HERB (_Epilobium angustifolium_) July-Aug.
KNOTWEEDS (_Polygonum_, especially _P. pennsylvanicum_ and
_P. persicaria_). Aug.-Sept.
BUCKWHEAT (_Fagopyrum fagopyrum_ = _F. esculentum_ of
Gray's Manual). Aug.-Sept.
Indian Currant, or Coral Berry (_Symphoricarpos symphoricarpos_
= _S. vulgaris_ of Gray's Manual) Aug.-Sept.
Thorough wort, or Boneset (_Eupatorium perfoliatum_) Aug.-Sept.
_Bur Marigolds_ (_Bidens_, especially SPANISH NEEDLES,
_Bidens bipinnata_). Aug.-Oct.
Wild Asters (_Aster_) Aug.-Oct.
GOLDEN-RODS (_Solidago_) Aug.-Oct.
MIDDLE SECTION.
[Between 35° and 40° N.]
Redbud (_Cercis canadensis_) Mar.-Apr.
Alder (_Alnus rugosa_ = _A. serrulata_ of Gray's Manual) Mar.-Apr.
Red or Soft Maple (_Acer rubrum_) Mar.-Apr.
Elm (_Ulmus_) Mar.-Apr.
Willows (_Salix_) Mar.-May.
_Dandelion_ (_Taraxacum taraxacum_ = _T. officinale_ of
Gray's Manual) Apr.-May.
_Apricot_ (_Prunus armeniaca_) Apr.-May.
_Juneberry_ or _Service Berry_ (_Amelanchier canadensis_) Apr.-May.
Wild Crab Apples (_Pyrus_) Apr.-May.
_Gooseberry_ and _Currant_ (_Ribes_) Apr.-May.
Rhododendrons (_Rhododendron_) Apr.-May.
_Peach_, _Cherry_, and _Plum_ (_Prunus_) Apr.-May.
_Pear_ and _Apple_ (_Pyrus_) Apr.-May.
CRIMSON CLOVER (_Trifolium incarnatum_) Apr.-May.
Huckleberries and Blueberries (_Gaylussacia_ and _Vaccinium_) May.
American Holly (_Ilex opaca_) May.
_Black Gum_, _Sour Gum_, _Tupelo_ or _Pepperidge_
(_Nyssa aquatica_ = _N. sylvatica_ of Gray's Manual) May.
Manzanitas (_Arctostaphylos_) (California) May.
COMMON, BLACK, or YELLOW LOCUST (_Robinia pseudacacia_) May.
Barberry (_Berberis canadensis_) May.
TULIP TREE, or "POPLAR" (_Liriodendron tulipifera_) May.
Mountain Laurel (_Kalmia latifolia_) May-June.
Grapevines (_Vitis_) May-June.
_Persimmon_ (_Diospyros virginiana_) May-June.
WHITE CLOVER (_Trifolium repens_) May-June.
_Alsike Clover_ (_Trifolium hybridum_) May-June.
RASPBERRY (_Rubus_) May-June.
COWPEA (_Vigna sinensis_) May-Aug.
EDIBLE CHESTNUT (_Castanet dentata_ = _C. saliva_ var.
_americana_ of Gray's Manual) June.
_Chinquapin_ (_Castanea pumila_) June.
Catalpas, or Indian Bean Trees (_Catalpa_) June.
MAGNOLIA, or SWEET BAY (_Magnolia glauca_) June
LINDEN, or "LINN" (_Tilia americana_ and _T. heterophylla_) June.
SOURWOOD, or SORREL TREE (_Oxydendrum arboreum_) June-July.
_Oxeye Daisy_, or _Whiteweed_ (_Chrysanthemum leucanthemum_) June-July.
ALFALFA (_Medicago saliva_) (West) June-Aug.
MELILOT, BOKHARA, or SWEET CLOVER (_Melilotus alba_) June-Aug.
Smooth Sumac (_Rhus glabra_) July.
_Buttonbush_ (_Cephalanthus occidentalis_) July.
CLEOME, or "ROCKY MOUNTAIN BEE PLANT" (_Cleome serrulata_ =
_C. integrifolia_ of Gray's Manual) (West) July-Aug.
Indian Corn (_Zea mays_) July-Aug.
Cucumber. Melon. Squash. Pumpkin (_Cucumis_, _Citrullus_,
and _Cucurbita_) July-Aug.
_Knotweeds_ (_Polygonum_, especially _P. pennsylvanicum_ and
_P. persicaria_) July-Sept.
_Buckwheat_ (_Fagopyrum fagopyrum_ = _F. esculentum_ of
Gray's Manual) Aug.-Sept.
Wild Asters (_Aster_, especially HEATH-LIKE ASTER,
_Aster ericoides_) Aug.-Oct.
Thoroughwort, or Boneset (_Eupatorium perfoliatum_) Aug.-Oct.
Bur Marigolds (_Bidens_, especially SPANISH NEEDLES,
_Bidens bipinnata_) Aug.-Oct.
Golden-rods (_Solidago_) Aug.-Oct.
SOUTH.
[Below 35° N.]
Redbud (_Cercis canadensis_) Feb.-Mar.
Alder (_Alnus rugosa_ = _A. serrulata_ of Gray's Manual ) Feb.-Mar.
Red or Soft Maple (_Acer rubrum_) Feb.-Mar.
Elm (_Ulmus_) Feb.-Mar.
Willows (_Salix_) Feb.-Mar.
Dandelion (_Taraxacum taraxacum_ = _T. officinale_ of
Gray's Manual) Feb.-Mar.
_Apricot_ (_Prunus armeniaca_) Feb.-Mar.
WILD PENNYROYAL (_Hedeoma pulegioides_) Feb.-Mar.
Carolina Cherry, or Laurel Cherry (_Prunus caroliniana_) March.
Juueberry, or Service Berry (_Amelanchier canadensis_) March.
ORANGE and _Lemon_ (_Citrus_) Mar.-Apr.
_Cottonwoods_, or _Poplars_ (_Populus_) Mar.-Apr.
TITI (_Cliftonia monophylla_) (Florida and southern Georgia,
westward.) Mar.-Apr.
Gooseberry and Currant (_Ribes_) Mar.-Apr.
_Peach_, _Cherry_, and _Plum_ (_Prunus_) Mar.-Apr.
_Pear_ and Apple (_Pyrus_) Mar.-Apr.
Huckleberries and Blueberries (_Gaylussacia_ and _Vaccinium_) April.
_Crimson Clover_ (_Trifolium incarnatum_) April.
BLACK GUM, SOUR GUM, TUPELO, or PEPPERIDGE
(_Nyssa aquatica_ = _N. sylvatica_ of Gray's Manual) April.
BALL, or BLACK SAGE (_Romona stachyoides_, _R. palmeri_,
etc. = _Audibertia stachyoides_, etc., of the Botany of
California) (California) April.
GALLBERRY, or HOLLY (_Ilex glabra_) Apr.-May.
Manzanitas (_Arctostaphylos California_) Apr.-May.
Acacias (_Acacia_) Apr.-May.
_Common_, _Black_, or _Yellow Locust_ (_Robinia pseudacacia_) Apr.-May.
Persimmon (_Diospyros virginiana_) Apr.-May.
EDIBLE CHESTNUT (_Castanea dentata_ = _C. sativa_ var.
_americana_ of Gray's Manual) Apr.-May.
Chinquapin (_Castanea pumila_) Apr.-May.
Catalpas (_Catalpa_) Apr.-May.
MAGNOLIAS (_Magnolia_) Apr.-May.
Rhododendrons, Rosebays, Azaleas (_Rhododendron_) Apr.-May-June.
MESQUITE (_Prosopis juliflora_) (Texas and westward) Apr.-July.
_Cowpea_ (_Vigna sinensis_) Apr.-Aug.
TULIP TREE, or "POPLAR," (_Liriodendron tulipifera_) May.
Mountain Laurel (_Kalmia latifolia_) May.
Grapevines (_Vitis_) May.
_Raspberry_ (_Rubus_) May.
China Berry, China Tree, or Pride of India (_Melia azedarach_) May.
WHITE SAGE (_Ramona polystachya_ = _Audibertia polystachya_
of the Botany of California) (California) May-June.
SOURWOOD, or SORREL TREE (_Oxydendrum arboreum_) May-June.
SAW PALMETTO (_Serenoa serrulata_) (coasts of Georgia
and Florida) May-June.
HORSEMINT (_Monarda citriodora_) May-July.
BANANA (_Musa sapientum_) May-Sept.
LINDEN, or "LINN" (_Tilia americana_, _T. pubescens_, and
_T. heterophylla_) June.
_Bed Bay_ (_Persea borbonia_ = _P. carolinensis_ of
Gray's Manual) June.
Indian Corn (_Zea mays_) June-July.
_Cucumber_, _Melon_, _Squash_, _Pumpkin_ (_Cucumis_,
_Citrullus_, and _Cucurbita_) June-July.
BLACKWOOD or BLACK MANGROVE (Aricennia nitida) (Florida) June-July.
ALFALFA (_Medicago sativa_) June-Aug.
MELILOT, BOKHARA, or SWEET CLOVER (_Melilotus alba_) June-Aug.
COTTON (_Gossypium herbaceum_) June-Aug.
WILD BUCKWHEAT (_Eriogonum fasciculatum_) (California) June-Oct.
CABBAGE PALMETTO (_Sabal palmetto_) (coasts of South Carolina.
Georgia, and Florida) July-Aug.
_Japan_ or _Bush Clover_ (_Lespedeza striata_) Aug.-Sept.
Bur Marigolds (_Bidens_, especially SPANISH NEEDLES,
_Bidens bipinnata_) Aug.-frost.
Wild Asters (_Aster_, especially HEATH-LIKE ASTER,
_Aster ericoides_) Aug.-frost.
Golden-rods (_Solidago_) Aug.-frost.
BLUE GUM and RED GUM (_Eucalyptus globulus_ and _E. rostrata_)
(California). Dec.-Mar.
CHAPTER VII.
=SPRING MANIPULATION.=
The first examination in the spring should be mainly for the purpose
of ascertaining whether or not the honey stores have been exhausted.
It should be early, and hence not so extended as to risk the loss of
much warmth from the brood apartment. Merely lifting one edge of the
quilt or, if the bottom board is a loose one, tipping the hive back so
as to get a view in between the combs will often suffice. Should there
not be at least the equivalent of two full frames of honey it is best
to supply the deficiency at once. Without disturbing the brood full
combs may be substituted at each side for the empty ones. If combs
stored with honey and sealed over are not in reserve liquid honey or
sugar sirup may be poured into empty ones and placed in the hives at
night. A less dauby plan is to use one or more feeders directly over
the brood nest, supplying several pounds of food at once. An excellent
way is to give at one time all they need in the shape of a cake of bee
candy, made by mixing fine sugar with just enough honey to produce a
stiff dough. This cake of candy should be wrapped in heavy paper (half
parchment, or such as is used for wrapping butter is good) and laid on
top of the frames, after having punctured the paper in several places
with a pencil or sharp stick to give the bees ready access. Two or
three twigs or strips of wood laid across the frames before the cake is
placed on them will also give the bees a better opportunity to reach
the food.
If the food be given in small quantities brood rearing will be
encouraged and still greater supplies of food will be called for,
rendering it absolutely necessary to give a large amount at once or
continue the feeding until natural sources fully supply the needs
of the bees and brood, otherwise both may starve. Three pounds of
sugar dissolved in one quart of water will make a suitable sirup for
spring feeding. Dry sugar may be used instead of sirup. The bees will
liquefy it themselves if they have access to water. For stimulative
purposes honey; s better than sugar, "strained honey" being better than
extracted. This is because of the greater amount of pollen which the
strained product contains, the pollen being highly nitrogenous, hence
capable of building up muscular tissue. But if the liquid honey is
one-half more in price per pound than sugar the latter would doubtless
be the more economical, certainly so if a plentiful supply of good
pollen in the combs or fresh from the fields can be had. Eye flour put
in sunny places and sprinkled with honey to attract the bees will be
collected until new pollen comes.
When the weather has become sufficiently settled to render safe the
inspection of the brood combs, or, in general, when the bees fly the
greater part of each clear day, the work of the queen may be inspected.
Should the comb having the largest area of brood in it be toward one
side of the hive it is best to locate it as near the center as may
be, placing on either side successively those combs having smaller
circles of brood and on each side of these the combs containing no
brood, but well stored with pollen, while those having honey only
will come still outside of these. The brood nest will then have an
opportunity to develop equally in all directions. Empty combs are of
little use at this time outside of the brood nest as thus arranged,
and should be replaced by combs of honey if the latter is needed, or
removed altogether. If the combs are well crowded with bees and the
queen shows by her regular and compact placing of the brood, as well
as by the quantity she seems to have, that she is vigorous and thus
capable of accomplishing more than any ordinary brood nest will require
of her at this time of the year, a frame filled with worker comb may
be slipped into the center of the brood nest. This will be taken
possession of immediately by the bees, cleaned and warmed up, whereupon
the queen will soon have it filled with eggs. From time to time other
combs may be added in the same manner. If cautiously and judiciously
followed this plan, supplemented by liberal stores, will increase the
brood area and eventually the population of the hive. But the utmost
caution is needed, for if done too early cool weather may cause the
bees to cluster more closely and result in the chilling of some part
of the brood which has thus been spread. The very object sought is not
only missed, but the loss of brood will prove a serious setback to
the colony. The escape of any of the warmth generated by the bees, as
also sudden changes in the weather, should be guarded against. Warm
covering above and outer protection are therefore absolute necessities
if the best results are to be attained. With favorable weather for the
development of brood it is certain that stimulative feeding, if made
necessary by the fact that the natural honey resources of the country
will not alone bring the strength of the colony fairly up to the
desired standard by the opening of the harvest, is to be begun six to
seven weeks before the opening of the honey flow from which surplus is
to be expected.
If, however, this honey flow comes so early that it is likely to be
preceded by weather unfavorable to the development of brood, it will be
necessary to allow for this by beginning the stimulation even earlier,
so that it may be done more gradually, and the greatest care will have
to be taken to retain all the heat of the brood nest. Should the main
flow be preceded by a lighter one, especially if the latter comes some
weeks before the chief harvest, it may be important to watch the brood
nest closely lest it becomes clogged with honey to the exclusion of
brood, inclining the bees not to enter surplus receptacles placed above
and causing the colony to be weak in numbers later in the season. This
state of affairs can be easily avoided by the timely use of the honey
extractor, since the brood combs, emptied of the honey which the
workers in an emergency have stored wherever they found vacant cells,
are made available for the queen. Before the main harvest opens it may
even be necessary in order to keep the combs filled with brood to feed
back gradually this extracted honey or its equivalent; but by taking
it away and returning it gradually the object sought will have been
accomplished, namely, keeping the combs stocked with brood until the
harvest is well under way, or as long as the larger population thus
gained in the hive can be made available.
It is in this getting workers ready for the early harvest--hives over
flowing, as it were, with bees--that the skill of the apiarist is taxed
to its utmost. The work properly begins with the close of the summer
preceding the harvest, for the first steps toward successful wintering
should be taken then, and unless wintered successfully the colony can
not be put in shape to take full advantage of an early honey harvest.
Good judgment in the application of the hints given in this chapter,
with careful and frequent attention, will bring colonies to the chief
spring or early summer flow of honey in good condition, with plenty
of bees and with combs well stocked with brood, provided they have
wintered well and have good queens.
TRANSFERRING.
If colonies have been purchased in box hives, it is advisable at the
first favorable opportunity to get them into frame hives.
[Illustration: Fig. 53.--Transferring--drumming the bees from a box
hive into a frame hire. (Original.)]
Early in the season--that is, in April or May in middle latitudes,
before the brood nest has reached its greatest extension and while the
hive contains the least honey--it is not a difficult matter to drive
the bees from their combs, cut out the latter, and fit them into
frames. If the combs thus fitted in are held temporarily in place in
the frames, the bees, under whose care they should be placed at once,
will fasten them securely in a few hours or days at most. To drive
the bees from the box hive proceed as follows: Toward the middle of
a pleasant day blow smoke into the hive to be transferred, and after
the bees have been given a few minutes in which to lap up their fill
of honey, invert the hive and place over the open end an empty box,
or the frame hive itself, making whichever is used fit closely on
the hive (fig. 53). By rapping continuously for some minutes on the
hive the bees will be impelled to leave it and cluster in the upper
box. A loud humming will denote that they are moving. The hive thus
vacated may then be taken into a closed room and one side pried off to
facilitate the removal of the combs. The box containing the bees is to
be placed meanwhile on the spot originally occupied by the box hive,
the bees being allowed to go in and out without restraint, only two
precautions being necessary, namely, to shade the box well and provide
for ventilation by propping it up from the bottom, leaving also, if
possible, an opening at the top. When the combs have been fitted into
frames, the hive containing them is placed on the original stand and
the bees shaken from the box in front of it.
In filling the frames with combs cut from a box hive, the largest and
straightest sheets having the most sealed worker brood in them should
be selected first and so cut that the frame will slip over them snugly,
taking pains, as far as possible, to have the comb placed in the frame
in the same position in which it was built, since most of the cells,
instead of being horizontal, are inclined upward, the inclination of
the deeper store cells being greatest. The comb, if not heavy, can be
held in place temporarily by slender wire nails pushed through holes
punched in the side and top bars. Before the introduction of wire
nails the writer used long thorns pulled from thorn-apple trees, which
served the purpose very well. In the case of combs heavy with honey
or brood or pieced more or less it will be safer to use, in addition
to a few wire nails, a pair or two of transferring sticks. These are
simply slender strips of wood slightly longer than the depth of the
frame and notched at each end. By placing such a stick on either side
of the comb and winding annealed wire around the top and bottom ends
so as to draw the sticks firmly against the surface of the combs the
latter will be held securely in the frames. The midrib between the rows
of cells should be pressed neither to one side nor the other; thus,
if cells on one side are deeper than those on the other, they should
be shaved down, unless the honey will be cut into too much, in which
case the comb maybe allowed to project on one side until it has been
fastened in the frame and the hive has been generally put in order by
the bees, the point being not to force them to try to manage too much
running honey at one time, lest robbing be induced. In many instances
the comb when pressed into the frame will seem to be so firm as not to
need nails or sticks, but in the heat of the hive, and with the weight
of the bees that will cluster on it to repair the cut edges and fasten
them to the bars of the frame, unsupported combs are very apt to give
way, creating disastrous confusion. Thus the sticks, nails, or their
equivalent should always be used (fig. 54). All frames should be filled
with perfectly straight combs so as to be interchangeable. With care in
fitting in and some trimming and pressing into shape afterwards, fully
three-fourths of the worker combs cut from box hives can be made into
good, serviceable combs in frame hives. The process is much facilitated
if such combs are used in the extractor during the first season or two
after transferring.
[Illustration: Fig. 54.--Transferred comb and inserted queen cell.
(Original.)]
Should the time be near the swarming season the combs will be so filled
with brood and honey that the task will be much greater, and the
transfer should be postponed until three weeks after the first swarm
issues. The brood left by the old queen will have matured and issued
from the cells by that time, and the young queen, if no accident has
happened to her, will have begun laying; yet there will usually be only
eggs, with perhaps a few very young larvæ, present in the combs at this
time, so that the cutting out and fitting of the latter into frames
will not be as troublesome nor attended with so much waste as just
before the swarm issued.
Still another plan--one which it would not be best to employ before
fairly warm weather has set in, but which will render the work of
transferring the lightest--is to turn the box hive bottom upward and
place on it the brood apartment of a frame hive, having in it frames
filled with worker combs or with comb foundation, arranging at the same
time to give the bees ready access from their combs to those above and
no entrance to their hive except through the frame hive above. This can
easily be done by making a temporary bottom board for the frame hive,
with several holes through it, or with one large one about the size of
the open end of the box hive. As soon as it is perceived that the queen
has taken possession of the new combs--as she will be almost certain
to do, especially if one of the combs placed above contains some
brood--a piece of queen-excluding zinc placed over the opening between
the two hives will keep her above, and three weeks later, when all the
brood in the combs below has matured, the box hive may be removed and
the combs transferred to frames, if worth using in this way; but if
old or composed of drone cells or very irregular in shape these combs
may be rendered into wax, after extracting any honey that may happen
to be in them. Inverting the box hive will generally cause the bees
to remove what honey they have stored in the combs. This honey will
be utilized in building out the foundation placed in the added story,
or, having these combs completed, the bees will store in them whatever
remains. Should the queen fail to enter the superposed hive, the plan
may be adopted of driving her with her workers into the added story, as
described on page 72. When the lower combs have been nearly deserted it
will be safe to assume that the queen has gone into the upper hive with
the main force of workers, and the excluder zinc may be inserted.
QUEENLESSNESS IN SPRING.
The loss of a queen during winter or early spring can generally be
discovered by noticing just at nightfall, after the first or second
general flight, which colonies are restless and continue to buzz
excitedly when the others are humming in a contented manner or have
quieted down for the night. The workers of the queenless colony run in
and out excitedly, searching over the front of the hive. Should it be
opened they will not resent the intrusion, but, remaining on the combs,
will at once set up a loud and prolonged buzzing. These symptoms become
less pronounced from day to day. If a comb containing brood be inserted
during this period it will be hailed with evident delight, manifested
by the eager crowding of the bees from all sides toward it. A contented
hum replaces the sound of mourning, and if young worker-larvæ are
present preparations, as described on pages 88-89, are begun at once
to rear a queen. However, if much reduced in numbers the colony should
be joined to one with a queen, or several queenless ones united. The
latter may be smoked and simply shaken or brushed together. But bees
that have been queenless long when added to those that have not yet
missed their own queen will frequently be killed at once. The queen
should therefore be taken from her own bees and caged for thirty-six to
forty-eight hours in the hive which has previously been queenless, and
her own bees added when she is released. (See page 94.) A board leaned
against the front of the hive will cause the bees to note their change
in location when they fly out and they will then easily find their new
quarters when returning from their flight.
CHAPTER VIII.
=SECURING SURPLUS HONEY AND WAX.=
If the colonies of bees have been brought to the opening of a given
honey flow with a powerful population recently hatched it will require
no great skill to secure a good crop, granted, of course, that the
flowers actually do secrete the nectar. In the ordinary course of
events some colonies are likely to come through to the early harvest
in good shape, but if all those contained in a large apiary are in
prime order at this time it is good evidence of skill on the part of
the attendant, this even though the weather and other circumstances
may have favored his work. To secure a yield of surplus honey the part
remaining to be done, if all goes well, is merely to put the surplus
receptacles in place, admit the bees, and remove the combs when filled
and sealed. But if swarming complications arise the whole of the bee
keeper's skill and ingenuity may again be called into requisition to
keep the forces together and storing in the surplus receptacles. Should
the expected harvest not come--that is, should the flowers from which
the yield is anticipated not secrete honey, or should they bloom when
the weather would not permit the bees to fly--of course no amount of
skill could make up the deficiency. In such a case all that can be
done is to carry the colonies through to the next honey yield in good
shape--to keep up (by feeding if necessary) the populousness of the
colonies. The flow may begin suddenly or before it is looked for; it
may be excellent for only a very short time, a day or two even, and be
cut off short in the midst of its greatest abundance. Thus the skill
lies in having the colonies ready for whatever may come and a force
sufficient to store the whole season's surplus in a few days.
EXTRACTED HONEY.
One of the most important points in securing extracted honey is to
have a large stock of surplus combs. These, with the strong colonies
of bees to utilize them, and the honey extractor, are the great
requisites of the producer of extracted honey. As fast as the bees
can cover and utilize them, these combs are added to the colonies,
one or two at a time from the opening of the season until the brood
apartment is full. As soon as more combs than the lower story will
hold are needed a second story filled with combs may be added, or but
two or three may be placed in it at one side with a division board
next to them. It is a good plan to sort over the combs of the brood
apartment, removing several of the less regular ones, or if all are
alike as regards regularity and in having worker cells only, but some
contain considerable honey and little brood, these are to be removed
and the empty space filled in with good worker combs. The removed
combs should be placed in the top story, which, if the weather and
the strength of the colony permit, is to be filled out with combs at
once. The strongest colonies will, of course, begin work first, and
can often spare partly filled combs to be placed in the top stories
of less populous colonies, thus encouraging the latter to begin work
in the upper stories. It is safe to say that in general more than
twice the yield of honey can be obtained from colonies supplied during
the whole honey flow, with all the completed combs they are able to
utilize, than can be expected from colonies that have to build all of
the combs for their surplus while storing. Completed combs not being
available, comb foundation in full sheets should be employed. During
the early part of the harvest this will be drawn out very quickly and
aid greatly in securing the honey which otherwise might be lost for
want of store combs as fast as might be needed. During a fair yield the
foundation will pay for itself the first season in the extra amount
of honey, and the combs, properly cared for, can be used year after
year--indefinitely, in fact--for extracting. The best of them should be
picked out constantly to replace less desirable ones that may be found
in the brood apartment, or to give to new swarms destined to produce
extracted honey. Some prefer for the surplus cases frames half the
depth of ordinary brood frames, finding them easier to manipulate.
Whenever the combs of a top story are nearly filled, and before they
are completely sealed, it may be lifted up and another story, filled
with empty combs, placed between it and the brood apartment, and this
may be continued until the end of the honey flow, and all may be left
on the hive during the warm weather. It would, of course, be easier
to add the new stories successively at the top--that is, above the
partially filled surplus stories--and this plan works well as long as
the honey flow is abundant, but when put on just as the yield slackens,
even if but little, or when the weather is cool, the bees may refuse to
begin work in the new super unless it is placed between the partially
filled ones and the brood apartment. Leaving the filled top stories
on the hives for some time permits the more complete evaporation of
the moisture contained in the newly gathered honey, and by marking
the stories the honey from a certain source, when the yield has been
sufficient to get the combs filled and sealed, can be extracted by
itself. If the supply of combs is insufficient to hold the whole
amount gathered, it must then be extracted as fast as sealed, lest the
bees, lacking ready cells in which to deposit their surplus as fast
as gathered, hang idly about, or if space for new combs exists, only
slowly provide these, losing meanwhile much of the harvest. When sealed
the honey will generally be found fairly ripened, though it may improve
by being stored in open buckets or cans in a dry, warm room.
[Illustration: Fig. 55.--Uncapping and extracting honey. (Original.)]
The process of extracting is extremely simple, and a little practice
will enable an observing person to do it well (fig. 55). As indicated
above, some judgment is required in the selection of combs, regard
being had to the future condition of the colony. The filled comb-, as
fast as removed, are placed in a light case the size of a hive, or a
tin can made specially for the purpose, covered closely to prevent the
access of robbers, and taken to the extracting room, which should be
bee-proof. It is not always necessary to use such care in excluding all
bees, but the novice should practice it until he learns to distinguish
by the actions of the bees when such precautions may be dispensed
with. Whenever possible the stories containing surplus honey should
be lifted up and honey boards containing bee escapes slipped between
them and the brood apartment early in the morning of the day before
the extracting is to be done, in case the bees are still gathering,
otherwise the night before will do. The combs will then be free from
bees, or nearly so, when the operator wishes to remove them, and will
contain no honey gathered within twenty-four hours, the last day's
gathering having also been ripened considerably during the night
preceding the insertion of the escapes. When the queen has not been
restricted in her laying to the lower story by means of excluders,
this plan of freeing the combs of bees will fail in case the escapes
are placed on lower stories above which the brood and the queen may
be. The only way then will be to remove the combs one by one, after
smoking the bees to quiet them, and shake or brush off the latter into
the top story. Italians can not be shaken off unless their bodies are
pretty well filled with honey, but they may be safely brushed off after
smoking. For this a single large feather from the left wing of a turkey
is best. Other races can be shaken off after smoking. Eastern bees
should never be brushed from the combs when extracting, nor at any time
unless they are gorged with honey. They can all be shaken off easily,
and will need less smoke than the European races.
When much extracting is to be done, top stories of hives or light
cases with cloth covers, weighted with a rod sewed into the loose
edge, may be used to hold the full combs as fast as taken from the
hives, and these, placed on a wheelbarrow, cart, or car, can be easily
transported to the extracting room. The uncapping knife, kept in hot
water when not in use, is passed rapidly under the capping of the
sealed combs, the point of it being used to reach depressed surfaces.
The loosened cappings drop into a sieve resting over a pan, or into
the upper part of a can specially designed to receive cappings. The
small amount of honey removed with the cappings drains through the
strainer and is drawn off below. The uncapped combs are placed in
the extractor at once. As the cells generally slant upward more or
less, especially those built for store cells outside the brood nest,
the throwing out of the honey is facilitated by placing each comb in
such a manner as to bring the top bar at the right hand, the basket
being revolved in the most natural way--that is, from right to left.
A little practice will enable the operator to note the speed required
in order to free the combs entirely from honey, which will depend, of
course, upon the consistency of the honey and the length of time combs
are revolved. While it is, in general, best to avoid extracting from
combs containing brood, cases will arise where it is necessary. If the
brood is sealed, there will, be less liability of injuring it than
when open cells containing larvæ are placed in the extractor; but a
moderate degree of speed continued somewhat longer will usually bring
the honey out without disturbance to the immature bees. Three persons
can work together very advantageously--one to remove the surplus cases
or combs from the hives, free them of their bees, and bring them into
the extracting room, where two assistants uncap and extract the honey.
If the bees are not gathering honey and are therefore prone to rob,
the person who removes the combs from the hives should be assisted by
an active boy who can cover hives or cases quickly or lift the latter
when necessary. The combs when emptied may be returned at once to the
hives if the bees are still engaged in storing. The slight damage which
they have sustained under the uncapping knife or in the extractor will
soon be repaired; indeed, with a little experience the uncappers will
be able to smooth and trim irregular combs in such a way as to render
them straighter after they have been through the extractor. It is
particularly desirable, in order to straighten the combs of transferred
colonies and get them in good working trim, that they be run for
extracted honey during the first year or two; moreover, a good yield of
extracted honey is more likely to be obtained from recently transferred
colonies than comb honey, especially if the manipulators are beginners
in the work.
When the extracting is done after the close of the gathering period,
the greatest care should be taken not to start robbing. The surplus
combs should be returned to the hives just before nightfall, and not
even a taste of sweets of any kind should be left exposed. The object
in returning the combs is to have them cleaned up, and also to have
them under the protection of the bees until cool weather puts a stop
to the destructive work of wax-moth larvæ. When sharp frosts occur,
the surplus combs may be removed from the hives and placed in a dry,
cold room. An open loft (if not infested with mice or if the combs are
protected from the latter) is a good place, and it is much better to
place the combs so they do not touch each other.
COMB HONEY.
The general directions given in the preceding chapter on spring
manipulation to secure populous colonies apply as well to those
designed for comb honey as to those which are to produce extracted
honey. If any difference is to be observed it is even more important
that the former be brought to the opening of the honey flow with the
brood combs compactly filled with developing bees to the exclusion
of honey, than that the latter should be so; and colonies not strong
enough to enter sections readily, if at all, may still be utilized, and
often do fairly well in the production of extracted honey.
The old-fashioned surplus boxes holding 25 to 30 pounds are regarded
quite as relics of the past by those who use frame hives and produce
comb honey in fine marketable shape, and even if for home consumption
the pound (fig. 50) and 12-pound sections are always preferred, since
they are so cheap, permit the use of comb foundation, and are in neat
shape and of convenient size for the table.
[Illustration: Fig. 56.--One-piece V-grooved section. (From Gleanings.)]
Section holders (fig. 57) with sections folded and in place, each
section supplied with thin foundation, preferably full sheets, but at
least guides, should be in readiness before the opening of the harvest.
Forty to fifty sections for each hive should be prepared. One-piece
sections, if bought in the flat, should be placed in the cellar for two
or three days before folding. If the section back of the V-joints is
then moistened slightly they can be set up rapidly without breakage.
Sections made of white poplar are by far the neatest looking and do
not cost much if any more than basswood, so that bee keepers might
show their disapproval of the wholesale destruction of our basswood or
linden timber by resolutely refusing to buy sections made of that wood.
The four-piece sections, if well made, are preferable to the one-piece.
The latter do not keep their shape as firmly as the four-piece
sections, which are made with lock joints at all the corners.
[Illustration: Fig. 57.--Super with sections and section holders in
place: A, super; D, separator; E, sections; F, follower; G, wedge.
(From Gleanings.)]
The foundation for sections should be the quality known as "thin
surplus" or, preferably, if full sheets be used, "extra-thin surplus."
These grades are made of selected, light-colored wax, and 1 pound
furnishes full sheets for 100 to 125 standard sections (4¼ by 4¼
inches). The sheets should be cut no larger than 3¾ inches square.
These will take up about three-sixteenths of an inch in fastening,
which will leave nearly one-half inch space between the lower edge and
the bottom piece of the section and allow the foundation to stretch
while being drawn out. This is necessary, otherwise the partially
completed comb will bulge as soon as it reaches the bottom of the
section. In cutting foundation either for sections or frames one
edge--the one to be attached--should be perfectly straight. To secure
this not more than six to ten sheets (depending on their thickness)
should be laid in one pile, and a sharp, thin-bladed knife, as well
as a straight rule, used. Two or three piles may be laid side by
side and with a rule long enough to reach across them all a dozen to
thirty sheets can be cut at a time. Dipping the knife in warm water
facilitates the work.
The sheets are fastened in the section by the use of one of the
machines mentioned on page 52. They secure the wax to the wood by
pressure combined in some instances with heat. Fig. 40 shows one of
these. The simplest form consists merely of a sliding lever hinged to
a block. It is intended to be fastened by means of screws to a table
or bench, and is then ready for use when the lever is moistened with
honey, starch water, or soapsuds along the edge which is to touch the
wax sheets. The foundation is laid flat on the top piece of the section
in such a way that the straight edge passes the center line one-eighth
of an inch, and the whole is then slipped under the lever. The latter
is brought down with a sliding motion toward the operator and at the
same time the foundation is bent up at right angles to the top piece.
If the wax is slightly soft it will adhere firmly. A heated brick
placed before the pile of starters will keep the edges soft enough if
the work is done in a moderately warm room.
Starters half to three-fourths inch in width are sometimes used at the
bottoms of sections to secure firm attachment of combs there. Bees
incline to gnaw these bottom starters away unless the top pieces of
foundation reach within one-half inch of them. Top starters an inch or
less in width may be used alone as comb guides when it is desirable to
avoid great outlay for foundation.
The use of strips of tin or wood as separators (fig. 57, D) between the
sections insures straight combs with smooth surfaces, thus convenient
to handle and ship.
The sections furnished with starters or full sheets of foundation are
slipped with separators into supers and piled away ready for use as
soon as the harvest opens.
PUTTING ON SECTIONS.
It is better not to put surplus honey receptacles on the hive until the
honey flow actually begins, as, of course, no work will be done in them
until then. Moreover, all the heat is needed in the brood apartment
during the early part of the season. The bees might also become
discouraged by the large amount of empty space and might not begin work
in it at all before swarming. The sections would also be soiled by the
bees crawling over them and daubing them with propolis.
The bee keeper who is familiar with the honey-producing flora of his
locality will note the development of the flower buds of any plant
from which he expects a crop and will be able to judge accurately by
a glance at the colony when sections are needed. The beginner will do
well to consult carefully the list of honey-producing plants given in
the chapter on "Bee pasturage," and also endeavor by inquiry in his
neighborhood to ascertain what other sources, if any, are within the
reach of his bees. The usual time of blooming of all principal honey
plants should be noted, and the management to secure populous colonies
having been in accordance with the directions given in Chapter VII on
"Spring manipulation," the opening of the first blossoms of any one of
the important honey yielders should be the signal for placing supers
with sections on all hives intended for comb honey production. Should
these indications not be sufficient, there is still another which
no one could mistake. It is to examine the tops of the brood combs
from time to time and note when the store cells between the brood and
the top bar are being made deeper by added wax. The fresh, whitened
appearance which such combs present when viewed from above readily
distinguishes them from the yellow or dark combs wholly built during
previous seasons. The lower edges of partially completed combs will
also show additions at the same time.
[Illustration: Fig. 58.--Dadant-Quinby form of Langstroth hive,
elevated from bottom board and slid back for ventilation in summer.
(Redrawn from Langstroth.)]
It having been determined that the time to put on sections has arrived,
the quilt used over the frames is removed and the super, with section
holders, sections, and separators in place, is set over the frames. A
clean enameled or carriage-cloth quilt should be laid over the tops
of the sections, if these are open above, and this weighted down
with a board which has been clamped to prevent warping. At this time
the flight hole should be full width and the hive protected from the
direct rays of the sun during the hotter portions of the day. With
small, single-walled hives, such as hold eight combs or less, it may be
necessary, if the hives are crowded with bees, to raise them slightly
from the bottom board or slide them back, so as to give small openings
at the rear. Mr. Simmins's plan of placing below the brood nest a hive
chamber with starters only in the frames permits the bees to avoid
clustering too compactly and yet to keep up their work inside during
extremely hot weather. Ventilation and shading of hives assist greatly
toward the prevention of swarming, and having bred the colony up until
it is sufficiently strong to take advantage of the harvest, and having
reached the opening of that harvest, it is desirable by all means to
keep the forces together as long as the flow lasts. (Fig. 58.)
[Illustration: Fig. 59.--Langstroth hive with combined surplus case and
shipping crate. (Original.)]
The supers should be removed as fast as fairly filled. The bees are
slow in sealing over the outside sections; therefore it is better not
to lose time waiting for these to be completely capped, but replace
the whole with a new set. Some prefer to lift up the super when about
three-fourths completed and place the empty one below--that is, between
it and the brood chamber. The objection to this plan is that by the
time the sections placed above have been fully completed they will have
more or less propolis daubed on them and the combs will be considerably
soiled by the bees running over them. A better plan to secure the
completion of the outside sections is, after removing a number of
supers, to select enough incomplete Sections to fill one super, Which
is then placed on a strong colony for completion, or the partly filled
sections may be used in the middle of new supers as bait sections to
induce the bees to cluster and begin work in them at once.
[Illustration: Fig. 60.--Honey shipping-cases. (From Gleanings.)]
Notwithstanding such precautions for the prevention of swarming
as shading the hives, ventilation, having only young queens, and
the removal of the outside combs, substituting for them frames of
foundations or starters near the center of the brood nest, swarms
will sometimes issue, especially from hives devoted to comb-honey
production. The best plan in this case is to hive the swarm in a clean
new hive whose frames have been filled with starters and place this on
the stand of the parent colony, moving the latter to a new position
or more feet away. The swarm in its new quarters will then be joined
by the rest of the field workers from the parent hive, and the whole
tone, reunited and having for some days no brood to care for, will
constitute a strong colony for storing honey. The super of partly
finished sections should be lifted, bees and all, from the parent hive
and placed on the brood chamber of the new colony.
The supers should be promptly removed at the close of the honey
harvest, honey boards with bee escapes in them being used to free
them from bees, as described under the head of "Extracting." If the
gathering season for the year has also ended, an examination of
the brood apartment should be made to determine whether feeding is
necessary, either to prolong brood rearing or for winter stores.
PRODUCTION OF WAX.
The progressive apiarist of the present time does not look upon the
production of wax in so great a proportion compared with his honey
yield as did the old-time box-hive bee keeper. The latter obtained much
of his honey for the market by crushing the combs and straining it out,
leaving the crushed combs to be melted up for their wax. Before the
use of supers late swarms and many colonies quite heavy in honey were
smothered by the use of sulphur; the light ones because their honey
supply would not bring them through the winter, and the very heavy
ones because of the rich yield in honey. Frequent losses of bees in
wintering and through queenlessness gave more combs for melting, as
without frame hives; honey extractors, or comb-foundation machines, the
vacated combs were not often utilized again. The wax from the pressed
combs was all marketed, since there could be but little home use for it.
The bee keeper of to-day, after having removed the honey from the
combs by centrifugal force, returns them, but slightly injured, to be
refilled by the bees, and at the end of the season these combs are
stored away for use in successive years, or he secures the surplus,
also apart from the brood, in neat sectional boxes, to be marketed as
stored--that is, without cutting.
The wax must therefore come from the cappings of combs where extracted
honey is produced, from occasional broken comb, bits of drone comb
that are cut out to be replaced by worker comb, from unfinished and
travel-stained sections from which the honey has been extracted, or
from old brood combs that need to be replaced. Since the price per
pound of extracted honey is usually not less than one-third and that
of comb honey one-half the price of wax, and it has already been
indicated (p. 28) that some 12 to 15 pounds of honey may in general be
safely reckoned as necessary to produce 1 pound of comb, it can readily
be seen that it is much more profitable to turn the working force,
in so far as possible, to the production of honey rather than wax,
taking only as much wax as can be produced without lowering the yield
of honey; and what wax is taken is practically turned into honey the
following year, for it is made into comb foundation, which, judiciously
used, increases in turn the season's yield of honey.
Wax being so much more valuable than honey, it behooves the bee keeper
to save even the smallest pieces of comb; but during warm weather they
must not be left long or they will serve as breeding places for the
wax moth, unless fumigated with burning sulphur or exposed to the fumes
of bisulphide of carbon two or three times each month until no more
eggs of the moth remain.
The old way of rendering wax was to put the combs into a sack made of
some open stuff', weight this down in a kettle of water, and boil for
some time. The wax rose, and when cold was removed in a cake. This
process, besides being dauby, often yielded inferior wax--burned,
water-soaked, or filled with settlings.
[Illustration: Fig. 61.--The Boardman solar wax extractor. (From
Gleanings.)]
The most approved method of rendering wax is, for moderate-sized
apiaries at least, by means of the solar wax extractor (fig. 61),
already mentioned under the head of "Implements." Its management is
very simple. The machine is placed in the sunniest spot in or near the
apiary, and all of the wax cappings, after having been drained of honey
or worked over by the bees, as well as bits of comb, are thrown into
the receiver above the wire strainer, the glass is adjusted, and the
whole is turned so that the direct rays of the sun enter. More bits
of comb are added from time to time during the day. The melted wax
trickles through the strainer and collects in a tin placed at the lower
edge of the tank or melter. The cake is removed each morning, it having
cooled and contracted during the night sufficiently to cause the mass
to cleave readily from the vessel.
The solar wax extractor can be used during four or five months of the
year in the more northern States, and for a longer time in the South.
To render wax at other times steam heat is best. When available a jet
from a boiler may be connected with a barrel or vessel containing the
combs and a large amount rendered in a short time. In smaller apiaries
a steam extractor for use over a boiler on the stove may be employed
(fig. 30). The manner of using these extractors is simple. The cappings
and bits of comb to be rendered are placed in an inside basket made of
perforated metal. Upon placing this over a water boiler, into which it
tits closely, the steam rises through holes in the bottom of the upper
can and readily penetrates the mass. The melted wax runs out through a
spout at the lower edge of the upper can and is caught in a pan partly
filled with warm water. As fast as the mass in the perforated can
settles away more bits of comb are added. The dark residue remaining
is composed of cocoons, pollen, and accidental impurities. These
may, however, contain considerable wax which they have absorbed as it
melted. This waste may be avoided in a great measure if the combs are
broken up and soaked in rain water for twenty-four hours before melting.
Cakes of wax, if designed for the comb-foundation manufacturer, will
be acceptable just as they come from the wax extractor, but if for the
general market they should all be remelted in order to purify them.
This must be done with care or the wax will be seriously injured.
Iron vessels will discolor it, and as well or spring water frequently
contains iron, the use of rain water, whenever it is to come in contact
with the melted wax, will be found more desirable. It is best to
melt the wax slowly, for if heated too rapidly the particles become
disaggregated and take up a certain quantity of water, the mass loses
its luster, and becomes pale and granular. In this condition its market
value is low. Remelting slowly, especially in a solar wax extractor,
will restore it.
These difficulties in purifying wax may be avoided if it is melted in
a tin or copper vessel and in a water bath, that is, the melter is to
stand within a larger vessel containing sufficient water to surround
the former. As much wax as possible should be melted at one time, and
when convenient the inner can is left standing in the water, so that
the wax remains liquid some time, permitting the impurities to settle.
These may be shaved from the bottom of the cake and remelted if they
contain much wax.
CHAPTER IX.
=REARING AND INTRODUCING QUEENS.=
So much of the bee keeper's success depends upon the strength of
his colonies, and this in turn upon the character of the queens
heading these colonies, that he needs to be well informed as to what
constitutes a really good queen and how to produce such, and, having
this knowledge, it will be profitable to be constantly on the alert to
see that all colonies are supplied with the best queens procurable.
With a queen from a poor strain of bees, or an unprolific one from a
good strain, a colony, even in a season of abundant honey secretion,
will give little or no return, while the seasons are not frequent
during which one given a fair start and having a large, prolific queen
of an active honey-producing strain can not collect a fair surplus
beyond its own needs. Admitting this, it will be plain to all that
queen bees differ proportionately in value as much as horses or cattle,
and the keeper of bees who does not know how to select and produce the
best can not be called a bee-master.
When bees swarm they generally leave a number of sealed queen cells
in the parent colony. With blacks and Italians there are usually 6 to
10; rarely more than a dozen. Carniolans generally construct about
two dozen, but under favorable conditions can be induced to build 75
to 100 good cells at a time. Fig. 62 represents a comb from a hive of
Carniolans which had built at one time 70 queen cells. Cyprians usually
make 30 or 40 queen cells, but may greatly exceed this number under the
best conditions, while Syrians nearly always exceed it, sometimes even
building as many as 200; and the writer has seen 350 cells constructed
at one time by a single colony of bees in Tunis. It might be thought
that where so many were constructed only a small proportion of them
would produce good queens. Such is not the case, however; for in
general a much larger proportion of the cells formed by these eastern
races produce well developed queens. But in all hives some queen cells
are undersized. This may be because they are located near the bottom
or sides, where space for full development is lacking, but in many
instances it arises from the fact that they are formed last, and larvæ
that are really too old to make full sized, perfect queens have to
be used. These smaller cells are usually smooth on the outside and
show thin walls. In selecting cells only the large, slightly tapering
ones, an inch or more in length and straight, should be saved. Yet
good queens may frequently be obtained from crooked cells, in case the
latter are large and extend well into the midrib of the comb.
[Illustration: Fig. 62.--Comb showing worker brood and queen cells.
(Original--from photograph.)]
When a laying queen is removed from a colony during the working season,
eggs and larvæ of all ages are left behind. As indicated in Chapter
II, any egg which has been fertilized may be made to develop into a
queen. So also larva? from such eggs may, up to the third day, be
taken to rear from without danger of producing inferior queens. Cells
in which to produce queens will be started over some of these larvæ
on the edges of the combs, or, by tearing down partitions and thus
enlarging the lower portion of the cell, a beginning is obtained for
a queen cell. Fig. 63 shows such queen cells constructed over eggs
or larvæ originally designed to produce workers. They are known as
emergency cells. The young larva is at once liberally supplied with
a secretion, which is probably a production of the glands of the
head, and which analyses have shown to be rich in nitrogen and fatty
elements, being similar to that given at first to the worker larva.
This is continued throughout the whole feeding period, while, as Dr.
Von Planta has shown, in the case of the workers and drones, after the
third day the proportion of the constituents of the larval food is so
changed that they receive much less albumen and fat and more sugar.
It is chiefly the influence of this food which causes the larva that
would have developed as a worker to become a queen. The latter has
somewhat changed instincts,, and its reproductive system is developed,
instead of abortive as in the case of the worker. The size of the cell,
and, to a less extent perhaps, its position, no doubt influence this
development, but the food seems to be the main factor, for small cells
built horizontally, if their larvæ are supplied with the food designed
for royal larvæ, will be found to contain queens, and frequently these
queens, even though small, are quite prolific, and show in all respects
the instincts of a queen.
[Illustration: Fig. 63.--Queen cells and worker brood in various
stages. (Original.)]
It is believed by most queen raisers that in order to secure the best
development of the young queens a colony should be allowed to build but
a few cells at a time. That their belief is not well founded is shown
by the facts just cited concerning the large numbers of well-developed
queen cells which produce also perfect and prolific queens. It lies
within the skill of the bee-master to establish conditions favoring
the production of food for the queen larvæ--the so called "royal
jelly"--and this having been brought about, there need be no hesitancy
in permitting the construction of hundreds of queen cells in one colony
if such numbers are needed.
It was formerly the plan, after removing the queen from a colony
in order to secure queen cells, to trim the lower edges of the
combs containing eggs or very young larvæ, or to cut out strips of
comb about an inch wide just below worker cells containing eggs or
just-hatched larvæ. This practice gave the bees space in which to
build perfect full-sized cells, but it had certain disadvantages. Good
worker combs were mutilated, often quite ruined, in order to secure
the construction of the cells and also in cutting out the latter.
Cells so formed are often in groups so close together that they can
not be separated without injury to numbers of them, necessitating, if
desirable to save all, a close watch, or at least frequent examination,
for hours or even days, since all the queens are not likely to emerge
at the same time.
To remedy this Mr. O. H. Townsend, of Michigan, devised a plan which
is described in Gleanings in Bee Culture for July, 1880 (Vol. VIII, p.
322). It consists in cutting combs whose cells contain eggs or freshly
hatched larvæ into narrow strips and pinning or sticking these on
the sides of brood combs in such a manner that the cells containing
the eggs or larvæ from which queens are desired shall open downward.
Mr. Townsend removed the larvæ from some of the cells, believing
that he secured better developed queens by limiting the number, and
also because he could then cut them out more easily for insertion in
separate hives. In the succeeding number of Gleanings (August, 1880),
Mr. J. M. Brooks, of Indiana, illustrated a plan for securing even
greater regularity. This consists in shaving off the cells on one side
down nearly to the midrib of each strip of worker comb containing the
eggs or larvæ selected to rear queens from, and then sticking these
strips on the undersides of horizontal bars nailed in ordinary comb
frames. Mr. Henry Alley, in his work on queen rearing, published in
1883, recommends sticking the prepared strips, shallow cells downward,
on the lower edges of combs which have been trimmed so as to round
downward. This leaves plenty of space for the full development of queen
cells, the eggs or larvæ in alternate cells having been removed as in
the plans previously mentioned. All conditions being favorable, many
cells conveniently located are thus secured, and if the exact age of
the eggs or just-hatched larvæ has been noted the time the young queens
will emerge may be known beforehand, so that preparation can be made
for them. Nuclei--small clusters of bees containing a quart to two
quarts--are to be placed in separate hives and given combs, emerging
brood, and a supply of food, and to each of these a mature cell is to
be given. The nuclei thus prepared may be confined to their hives with
wire cloth and placed in a cellar for two or three days, and when set
out, just at dusk (p. 117), the bees will adhere to their new location.
Full colonies, whose queens it is desired to replace, may also be made
queenless about two or three days beforehand, and when mature the cells
inserted one each in these. In cutting out the cell a small piece of
comb, triangular shaped, 1½ to 2 inches long and about 1½ inches broad
at the top, is to be left attached to it whenever practicable, since
it will then be easy to insert it in one of the combs of the queenless
colony or nucleus, by cutting out a corresponding triangular piece.
Fig. 54 shows a queen cell inserted in a brood comb. It is safest not
to cut the cells out until they are within twenty-four to forty-eight
hours of their full maturity. In case a nucleus or colony has not been
queenless long enough to make it ready to accept a queen cell, the
latter may be placed in a cell protector made of wire cloth or of a
spiral coil of wire and then inserted between the central combs of the
hive. The lower end only of the protector is open, so that the upper
portion of the cell--the part easily bitten open by the workers--is
wholly covered.
Queen nurseries on the general plan devised many years ago by Dr.
Jewell Davis, of Illinois, are used to hold surplus maturing cells and
the young queens, after emerging, for which colonies or nuclei are not
ready at once. These nurseries consist of compartments about 1½ inches
square, made of wood and wire cloth, and so arranged that they may be
suspended in the center of a colony of bees, a frame being filled with
them for this purpose. Each compartment contains a bit of soft candy to
sustain the life of the queen in case the bees fail to feed her. Spiral
coils of wire somewhat longer than those used as queen-cell protectors
have been arranged with a metal cup for food, so that, in principle,
they are the same as the compartments of the Davis queen nurseries and
are used for the same purpose.
The young queens will usually mate when from five to seven days old,
flying from the hive for this purpose. If any undesirable drones are
in the apiary they may be restrained from flying by means of excluder
zinc over the hive entrances, permitting only workers to pass in and
out. In a day or two after mating the queen generally commences to
deposit eggs, and is then ready for use in the apiary or to be sent
away as an "untested queen." To enable her to rank as a "tested queen"
it will be necessary to keep her three weeks or a little longer in
order to see her worker progeny and ascertain by their markings that
the queen has mated with a drone of her own race. As both tested and
untested queens are usually raised from the same mothers--the best in
the given apiary--either may be obtained for honey production; but for
use as breeders only tested queens which have been approved in every
way should be purchased, unless, indeed, the purchaser prefers to buy
several untested queens, which can usually be obtained for the price
of one approved and selected breeder, and do his own testing, trusting
that among them one or more may prove valuable as a breeding queen.
"Warranted queens" are untested queens sent out with a guaranty that
they have mated purely. If few or no drones of another race are in the
vicinity of a breeder, he is tolerably safe in doing this. The proper
plan is for the breeder to keep a record of the brood of all such
queens and replace such as show that they have mismated.
Exact records of the ages of all queens should be kept, and notes on
the qualities of their progeny are desirable, while in some instances
particulars as to pedigrees are valuable.
[Illustration: Fig. 64.--The Benton cage for transporting a queen and
attendants by mail. (Original.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 65.--Caging a queen for mailing. (Original--from
photograph.)]
MAILING QUEENS.
Queens are now transported nearly always by mail, and sent to all parts
of the United States, and even to distant foreign countries, the cage
used almost exclusively being the one shown in fig. 64 or some slightly
modified form of the same. No attempt was ever made to patent this
cage, and as the construction is obvious from the figure given here,
anyone who desires can make and use it. The food usually employed in
these cages by queen breeders is a soft candy recommended many years
ago as bee food by the Rev. Mr. Scholz, of Germany. The Scholz candy
is made by kneading fine sugar and honey together until a stiff dough
has been formed. Some think it an improvement to heat the honey before
adding the sugar. The Viallon shipping candy consists of four parts
of brown sugar and twelve of white sugar, with two tablespoonfuls of
honey and one of flour to each pound of the mixed sugars; these, with a
little water added, form a batter, which is boiled until it commences
to thicken, when it is poured into the food compartment of the mailing
cage. Mr. I. R. Good recommended for use in queen cages a mixture
of granulated sugar and extracted honey; hence this candy has since
been known as the Good candy. The bees fed on it leave loose granules
of sugar in the cage, and these becoming moist often daub the whole
interior in such a way as to cause the death of queen and workers. It
is therefore not adapted to long journeys.
The food for the journey having been placed in the end opposite that
containing the ventilating holes, a bit of comb foundation is pressed
down over it to assist in retaining the moisture, the food compartment
having also previously been coated with wax for the same purpose. The
cover, with perhaps a bit of wire cloth between it and the bees to
give greater security, together with the address and a 1-cent stamp,
completes the arrangement for a queen and eight to twelve attendant
workers to take a journey of 3,000 miles. A special postal regulation
admits them to the mails at merchandise rates (I cent per ounce). For
transportation to distant countries of the Pacific a larger cage and
more care are necessary to success. A recent estimate by one of the
apiarian journals places the number of queens sold and thus transported
in the United States annually at 20,000.
INTRODUCING QUEENS.
Most of the mailing cages are arranged so that when received the
removal of the wooden lid and also of a small cork at one end will
permit the bees to eat their way out when assisted by those of the hive
to which the queen is to be given. The cage is laid, with the wire
cloth down, on the frames of a colony that has previously been made
queenless. In twenty-four to forty-eight hours the queen will usually
have been liberated, but it is safer not to disturb the combs for four
or five days lest the bees, on the watch for intruders when their combs
are exposed, regard the new queen as such, and, crowding about her in a
dense ball, sting her instantly or smother her.
Colonies having only young bees accept queens readily, so that when a
swarm has issued and the parent stock has been removed to a new stand
the time for queen introduction is propitious. During a great honey
flow queens are accepted without much question, if any at all. They may
at such times nearly always be safely run in just at dark by lifting
one corner of the cover or quilt of a queenless hive and driving the
bees back with smoke. The new queen, having been kept without food and
away from all other bees for a half hour previously, is then slipped
in and the hive left undisturbed for several days. This and similar
methods of direct introduction without cages, having been developed and
advocated by Mr. Samuel Simmins, of England, are known as the Simmins
methods of direct introduction of queens.
In the fall and at all times when honey is not coming in freely, caging
the queen for a few hours or days is desirable. A cage which permits
the queen to remain directly on the comb itself is infinitely superior
to any other. Fig. 66 shows a pipe-cover cage as made by the author,
the size of which may be greater if circumstances require--that is,
when it seems advisable, with a queen of great value, to include under
the cage a number of cells containing emerging brood. Ordinarily the
size here shown will suffice. The queen is caged before a closed window
on a comb of honey with five or six recently emerged bees taken from
the hive to which she is to be introduced. The comb holding the caged
queen is to be placed in the center of the queenless colony, where the
bees will cluster on it, yet with the end of the cage pressed firmly
against the adjoining comb, so that the cage will remain in place even
though a heavy cluster should gather on it. On the following day, just
before dark, the queen should be released, provided that upon opening
the hive the workers are not packed densely about the cage trying to
sting her through it. In the latter case she should be left twenty-four
or even forty-eight hours longer, and in the autumn it is generally
advisable to keep her caged several days or even a whole week. If left
longer than one day all queen cells should be hunted out and destroyed
a few hours before releasing the queen. Feeding while the queen is
caged is a good plan if gathering is not going on briskly. Upon freeing
the queen, diluted honey drizzled down between the combs will serve to
put the bees in a good humor for the reception of the new mother bee.
The entrance of the hive should be contracted for a short time so that
but a few bees can pass in or out at a time.
[Illustration: Fig. 66.--Benton queen-introducing cage. (Original.)]
The conditions necessary to success in introducing queens are complied
with by the above plan, namely: The bees are queenless long enough
to have become fully aware of the fact, yet usually not long enough
to have started queen cells; the strange queen is caged a sufficient
length of time to acquire the peculiar odor of the hive to which she
is to be given; the bees are all at home when the queen is released,
and thus all become thoroughly gorged with food and are well disposed
toward the new queen. No robber-bees come about, and by morning all is
in order.
As queens mate only once (p. 19), and workers and drones live but a few
weeks or at most a few months (p. 20), if an Italian, a Carniolan, or
other choice queen mated to a drone of her own race, be introduced to a
given colony the bees of this colony will soon be replaced by others of
the same race as the queen introduced. All of the colonies of an apiary
may thus be changed; or, from a single breeding queen the apiary may be
supplied with young queens pure in blood, and, since these (even though
mated to drones of another race) will produce drones of their own blood
the apiary will soon be stocked with males of the desired race.
CHAPTER X.
=INCREASE OF COLONIES.=
NATURAL SWARMING.
An abundant secretion of honey and general prosperity of the
colony--with combs crowded with bees and brood--are the immediate
conditions which incite a colony of bees to swarm. If a colony in
prosperous condition be found when the gathering season has fairly
opened, with eggs or larvæ in partly finished queen cells, a swarm
may be expected in a few days should the weather continue favorable.
The first one from a given hive usually issues within twenty-four to
forty-eight hours after the sealing of the first queen cell. In the
case of strong colonies this may occur in favored situations in the
North early in May, in the Middle States in April, and in the extreme
South in March. But most of the swarms will come, in each section, a
month later. When the flow of honey is prolonged the period during
which swarms may issue is also extended, and in case a second flow
occurs in midsummer, after an interruption, a second swarming period
may occur.
The outward indications immediately preceding swarming are a partial
cessation of field work on the part of colonies that have been
industriously gathering and the clustering or loitering of the workers
about the entrances at times when they have usually been engaged in
collecting and when other colonies no more populous are at work.
Apparently many are awaiting the signal to migrate, while some seem
not to have caught the spirit, but continue their field work. Suddenly
great excitement seizes the workers that happen to be in the hive at
the time. They rush forth pellmell, accompanied by the old queen, and
after circling about for some minutes cluster on some neighboring tree
or shrub.
It very rarely happens that a swarm fails to cluster before leaving,
but it may do so if it has swarmed before and returned to the hive
because the queen failed to accompany it. Spraying water on the leaders
or advance portion of the swarm from a force pump, firing a gun among
them, or throwing the reflection from a mirror on them will disconcert
the absconding swarm and nearly always cause the bees to settle, but
the remedy must be at hand and applied instantly.
[Illustration: Fig. 67.--Hiving a swarm. (Original--from photograph.)]
When a swarm has fairly settled it is best to hive it as soon as
possible, lest others coming out may join it, occasioning a loss of
queens, and sometimes of bees, or much trouble in separating them.
The operation of hiving may appear very formidable to the novice and
attended with great risks, but a little experience will dispel such
apprehensions. The bees before swarming usually fill their sacs with
honey and are quite peaceable, so that by the use of a little smoke
in hiving there is seldom any difficulty. But to be doubly sure the
novice should sprinkle sweetened water over the cluster, and at the
same time wear a veil to protect his face. Of course, the hive has
been ready for some time and has been standing in the shade so it will
not be heated. If the cluster should be on a small limb which can be
readily cut off, it can be laid down in front of the new hive, which
should have a full-width entrance or be raised up in front. The bees
will go trooping in, but if not fast enough gentle urging of the rear
guard with a feather will hasten matters. If the bees have clustered
on a branch which it is desirable to preserve, yet where the hive can
conveniently be placed directly under the cluster and close to it, the
swarm may be shaken into the hive at once (fig. 67); or the hive may
be located on the stand it is to occupy and the bees shaken into a
large basket or into a regular swarm catcher and poured in front of the
hive. If the cluster is on the body of the tree it will be necessary
to place the hive near and smoke or brush the bees into it. They will
go up more readily than down, and may often be dipped with a small tin
dipper or a wooden spoon and poured in front of the hive. Whatever plan
be pursued, expedition is advisable, and it is best before leaving
them to see that nearly all of the bees are inside of the hive: at
least no clusters, however small, should be left on the tree, as the
queen might be among those left behind, in which case the swarm would
desert the new hive and return to the tree or go wherever the queen had
settled, or, failing to find her, would return to the hive whence they
had issued, unless meanwhile some other swarm should issue, which they
would be likely to join. A few bees flying about or crawling excitedly
over the spot from which the main part of the swarm has been removed
need not be heeded. They will find their way back to the stand from
which they came. As soon as the swarm is fairly within the new hive the
latter should be carried to its permanent stand, and well shaded and
ventilated. It is better policy, however, to place the hive containing
the first swarm on the stand of the parent colony at once, removing the
latter to a new location. The new swarm, having the old queen, with
nearly all of the flight bees, will be in prime condition for storing
honey, so that supers may be placed on it as soon as it has made a fair
start in its new home--that is, on the second or third day after the
swarm was hived. If there are uncompleted supers on the parent colony
which has been removed, they should be lifted over to the new hive on
the second or third day, as the parent colony, having parted with so
many of its workers, will not be able to store at once. But the new
swarm, placed in a clean hive with starters only, will be in shape to
store in sections at once and produce the whitest combs and honey which
the source of the yield will permit.
CLIPPING QUEENS.
To prevent swarms from absconding and to facilitate the work of hiving
them, as well as to keep track more easily of the ages of queens, many
persons prefer to clip the wings of their queens as soon as mated. The
first season one of the large or primary wings is clipped half away;
at the opening of the second season the Other large wing, and the
third season an additional clip is taken from one of the large wings,
and with it a portion of one of the secondary or smaller wings. With
finely pointed scissors this operation can be performed while the queen
is loose on the combs, but there is much danger of clipping one or more
of her legs also. If she be caught by her wings with the thumb and
first finger of the right hand, and then grasped by the thorax with
the thumb and first two fingers of the left hand, her wings can easily
be reached with the scissors. It will not do to grasp the queen by the
abdomen? and of course there should be but little pressure exerted on
the thorax. There are some objections against clipping. The queens,
being unable to fly, are liable to get lost in the grass or stray into
the wrong hives when they swarm during the absence of the attendant.
They certainly look unsightly when thus maimed, and occasionally the
bees are more disposed to replace such queens than unmutilated ones. It
is of course preferable to lose one of these occasionally rather than
the whole swarm. When the queen is clipped the operation of hiving is
very easy if the bee keeper is on hand to catch the queen as she falls
from the entrance to the ground. When the swarm is fairly out and while
the bees are still circling in the air an empty hive should be set in
place of the one from which the swarm has issued. The bees, missing
their queen, will soon begin to return to their old location and will
shortly crowd the entrance of the new hive. When about one-fourth have
entered the queen may be allowed to run in, and the treatment will then
not be different from that given any newly hived swarm.
AUTOMATIC HIVERS.
Thus far the automatic hivers have been only partially successful, so
that the experimental stage has not yet been passed; but the practical
perfection of such a device is looked forward to with considerable
confidence.
PREVENTION OF AFTER-SWARMING.
The parent colony, removed from its old hive as soon as the first
swarm issues, will rarely cast a second swarm, especially if a young
queen is at hand to be introduced within a day or two. The surplus
queen cells are likely to be destroyed by this young queen, with the
assistance of the workers. A laying queen will be readily accepted
by a colony which by swarming and removal has lost its old bees,
and ten to fifteen days will be gained in the production of brood.
Unless increase is especially desired it is best to limit it in this
way to first swarms. If still less increase is wanted, methods which
will be referred to later may be followed to prevent swarming as far
as possible, and such chance swarms as do issue may be returned to
the parent hive. If the queens are two or more years old, they may
in most instances be profitably destroyed at this time and young
ones introduced from nuclei; but whether introducing young queens or
returning the swarm with its old queen, great care must be taken to
destroy every queen cell, otherwise the introduced queen may be killed
or the swarm may again issue. If, however, no young queen is at hand
and it is desirable to replace the old queen, all cells but one may be
destroyed, but this must on no account be jarred or dented. The danger
of overlooking a cell where the hive is crowded with bees makes this
method somewhat uncertain: moreover, when the bees have once got the
"swarming fever" they may swarm again without preparation in the way of
queen cells. It is also very troublesome to remove supers to get at the
brood combs. These difficulties will induce many who may wish to limit
the number of their colonies to prefer hiving the swarms on starters
of foundation on the old stands and giving them the supers, while the
parent colonies are placed near them with entrances turned away for
a few days. The flight bees return, of course, to the old stand. The
parent colony should be turned a little each day so as to bring it
in five or six days side by side with the hive containing the swarm,
which is on the old stand, and make its front face in the same way. By
lifting it a day or so later, while the young bees are flying, over to
the opposite side of the old stand and turning its entrance away from
that of the hive on this stand, the bees that are flying, as well as
those that have marked their last location, will join the swarm: and if
the same operation be repeated at the end of another week most of the
remaining bees will find their way within a day or two into the hive on
the old stand. About this time--that is, some fifteen or sixteen days
after the issuance of the first swarm--the young queen will commence
laying and may be put in place of the old one which issued with the
swarm. If honey is still coming in, the young queen, with accompanying
bees, may usually be safely introduced at this time by shaking them in
front of the hive from which the queen has been removed, both lots of
bees having been smoked beforehand so as to get them to fill themselves
with honey: or the two combs between which the queen is found may be
lifted, with adhering bees, and placed in the center of the colony to
which the queen is to be given. Before doing this it is best to smoke
the latter pretty thoroughly, and if two of the brood combs from this
hive have been removed a few hours before and placed, after their
bees have been shaken off, in the colony to be united, and all other
combs taken away from the latter, the bees, with their queen, will
be clustered on these brood combs, and they may be lifted up without
disturbance and placed in the middle of the other hive, whose supers
and cover are to be put in place at once and the bees left to quiet
down and resume storing. Under these circumstances the loss of a queen
will be very rare: nevertheless, in the case of an exceptionally
valuable one, cages and other methods are advisable. (See Chapter IX.)
ARTIFICIAL INCREASE.
The time lost in watching for swarms and hiving them, the occasional
losses of swarms, and the vexations attendant upon their issuance, such
as their clustering in tall trees, uniting and killing queens, and the
delay in their swarming when the time has come for it, have led bee
keepers to devise methods which would save their time and avoid as far
as possible the uncertainties connected with this feature of their
work. Where increase is desired the question is one of considerable
importance. In the more northern States, where the main honey yield
comes on suddenly and is abundant for a short period only, and swarming
is confined mainly to a period of four to six weeks, or even to three
weeks if the colonies are of pretty uniform strength, this question
has less weight; but farther south, where the yield is more prolonged
and the period during which swarms are liable to issue is sometimes
extended over three or four months, it is of considerable moment, and
the bee master who intends to multiply the number of his colonies will
do well to follow some good system of control.
DIVIDING.
The simplest method of artificial increase is to lift from the populous
colony a portion of the combs, with adhering bees, and place them in
another hive near the parent colony, taking care that the part without
any queen should have a majority of the bees and should be on the old
stand. If a mature queen cell is at hand to give to this part a day or
two after the division, the new colony will soon have a laying queen,
should all go well. But this last point will need looking after ten
days or so later. Should a laying queen be at hand to supply to the
queenless portion of the divided colony, the queen found in the hive at
the time of the division had better be left in that part of the colony
which remains on the original stand, since the old bees will of course
return to that spot and will not as readily receive a strange queen
as will the removed portion of the colony which has parted with its
flight bees. By introducing a laying queen when the division is made
the deposition of eggs will be begun a week earlier than if a cell only
should be given. At this season of the year this will make a difference
of a good many thousands of workers, and will also prevent the bees
from clogging the brood combs with honey, as they would if left without
a laying queen for a week or more. The supers are to be placed on this
part on the old stand, which, having most of the flight bees, will be
far better able to store surplus than the other portion. The plan of
making the division nearly equal is quite objectionable in case it is
followed closely by the main honey flow of the season, for it places
neither colony in the best condition for immediate storing. But if only
a moderate yet continuous honey flow, followed by a larger yield, is to
be anticipated, both parts will have time to become populous, and the
equal division, if done in time--that is, before the "swarming fever"
has taken hold of the colony--will be likely to prevent swarming.
DRIVING OR BRUSHING.
In case, however, some immediate work is expected of either part of
the divided colony, it is preferable to make the division in such a
way as to secure about all of the flight bees as well as most of the
young bees, which will soon become flight bees, in the hive on the old
stand. This may be done by shaking or brushing nearly all of the bees
from the combs of the hive to be divided, or, if the latter is a box
hive, the swarm may be driven into an empty box, as described under
"Transferring," in Chapter VII, and then hived as an ordinary swarm,
the parent colony receiving also the same treatment as described under
"Natural swarming."
THE NUCLEUS SYSTEM.
Perhaps the safest plan, considering that the yield, even when one is
acquainted with the flora, can not be foretold, is to follow the plan
of making nuclei, and, as soon as these have laying queens, building
them up gradually to full colonies by adding frames of brood, frames
filled with worker comb, or with comb foundation, or merely starters,
as may seem best. This system, besides being safe, has certain other
advantages. It leaves the parent hives strong for the working season,
yet tends to discourage swarming, because whenever colonies become
overcrowded, and before they have contracted the swarming fever, one or
more brood combs are removed and the colony is thus induced to continue
work in the brood chamber to fill the empty space, while, of course,
they are kept supplied with plenty of storage room above for surplus
honey. Furthermore, it is easy to exchange the young queen of the
nucleus, as soon as she commences laying, with the queen of the full
colony. If the nucleus has been started early, the full colony will
thus secure a queen of the current season's raising sufficiently early
to reduce greatly the probability of its wanting to swarm that year,
even though permitted to get very strong, as it is almost certain to do
under such circumstances. These nuclei build straight combs and may be
relied on to build, even without foundation, worker comb only.
On the whole, a rational method of artificial increase is preferable to
natural swarming; but experience and judgment in carrying it out are
required to make it advantageous. It should be cautiously undertaken by
the beginner, and the main reliance placed upon natural swarming until
the bee keeper is familiar with the bees' way.
PREVENTION OF SWARMING.
The most commonly practiced and easily applied preventive measure is
that of giving abundant room for storage of honey. This to be effective
should be given early in the season, before the bees get fairly into
the swarming notion, and the honey should be removed frequently,
unless additional empty combs can be given in the case of colonies
managed for extracted honey, while those storing in sections should be
given additional supers before those already on are completed. With
colonies run for comb honey it is not so easy to keep down swarming as
in those run for extracted honey and kept supplied with empty comb.
Free ventilation and shading of the hives as soon as warm days come
will also tend toward prevention. Opening the hives once or twice
weekly and destroying all queen cells that have been commenced will
check swarming for a time in many instances, and is a plan which
seems very thorough and the most plausible of any to beginners. But
sometimes swarms issue without waiting to form cells; it is also very
difficult to find all cells without shaking the bees from each comb in
succession, an operation which, besides consuming much time, is very
laborious when supers have to be removed, and greatly disturbs the
labors of the bees. If but one cell is overlooked the colony will still
swarm. The plan therefore leaves at best much to be desired, and is in
general not worth the effort it costs and can not be depended on.
DEQUEENING.
The removal of a queen at the opening of the swarming season
interferes, of course, with the plans of the bees, and they will then
delay swarming until they get a young queen. Then if the bee keeper
destroys all queen cells before the tenth day, swarming will again be
checked. But to prevent swarming by keeping colonies queenless longer
than a few days at most is to attain a certain desired result at a
disproportionate cost, for the bees will not store diligently when
first made queenless, and the whole yield of honey, especially if the
flow is extended over some time or other yields come later in the
season, is likely, or even nearly sure, to be less from such colonies,
while the interruption to brood rearing may decimate the colony and
prove very disastrous to it. The plan is therefore not to be commended.
REQUEENING.
Quite the opposite of this, and more efficacious in the prevention
of swarming, is the practice of replacing the old queen early in
the season with a young one of the same season's raising, produced,
perhaps, in the South before it is possible to rear queens in the
North. Such queens are not likely to swarm during the first season,
and as they are vigorous layers the hive will be well populated at
all times and thus ready for any harvest. This is important inasmuch
as a flow of honey may come unexpectedly from some plant ordinarily
not counted upon, and also since the conditions essential to the
development of the various honey-yielding plants differ greatly, their
time and succession of honey yield will also differ with the season,
the same as the quantity may vary. Young queens are also safest to
head the colonies for the winter. The plan is conducive to the highest
prosperity of the colonies and is consistent with the securing of the
largest average yield of honey, since besides giving them vigorous
layers it generally keeps the population together in powerful colonies.
It is therefore to be commended on all accounts as being in line with
the most progressive management, without at the same time interfering
with the application of other preventive measures.
[Illustration: Fig. 68.--The Simmins non-swarming system--single-story
hive with supers: _bc_, brood chamber; _sc_, super; _st_, starters of
foundation; _c_, entrance. (Redrawn from A Modern Bee-Farm.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 69.--The Simmins non-swarming system--double-story
hive with supers; _bc_, brood chamber; _sc_, supers; _st_, chamber with
starters; _e_, entrance. (Redrawn from A Modern Bee Farm.)]
SPACE NEAR ENTRANCES.
Arranging frames with starters or combs merely begun between the
brood nest and the flight hole of the hive while the bees are given
storing space above or back of the brood-nest (figs. 68 and 69) La
a plan strongly recommended by Mr. Samuel Simmins, of England, and
which has come to be known as "the Simmins non-swarming method," some
features of it and the combination into a well defined method having
been original with him. It is an excellent preventive measure, though
not invariably successful even when the distinctive features brought
forward prominently by Mr. Simmins--empty space between the brood
combs and entrance, together with the employment of drawn combs in the
supers--are supplemented by other measures already mentioned; but when,
in addition to the space between the brood and the flight hole, the
precaution be taken to get supers on in time, to ventilate the hive
well, and to keep queens not over two years old, swarming will be very
limited. If to these precautions be added that of substituting for the
old queens young ones of the current season's raising, before swarming
has begun, practical immunity from swarming is generally insured.
[Illustration: Fig. 70.--Beehives with Langdon non-swarmer attached:
_A, B_, hives; _S, S′_, supers; _D_, non-swarming device; _e, e′_,
entrances corresponding to hive entrances; _sl_, slide for closing
entrance; _c, c′_, conical wire-cloth bee-escapes; _ex, ex′_, exits of
same. (From Insect Life.)]
LANGDON NON-SWARMING DEVICE.
This device (fig. 70, _D_), first described and illustrated in Insect
Life for April, 1893 (Vol. V, No. 4), is designed to do more than
merely prevent swarming. The following claims are made by the inventor:
(1) It prevents all swarming without caging queens, cutting out
queen cells or manipulation of brood combs.
(2) Two light colonies that would not do much in sections if
working separately make one good one by running the field force
of both into the same set of supers.
(3) No bait sections are needed, as the bees can be crowded into
the sections without swarming.
(4) The honey will be finished in better condition, that is, with
less travel stain, because the union of the field forces enables
them to complete the work in less time.
(5) There will be fewer unfinished sections at the close of the
honey harvest for the reason just mentioned.
(6) Also for the same reason honey can be taken off by the full
case instead of by the section or holderful.
(7) Drones will be fewer in number, as a double handful will often
be killed off in the closed hive while the other is storing
honey rapidly.
(8) Artificial swarms and nuclei can be more easily made, as combs
of brood and bees can be taken from the closed hive in which the
queen can be found very quickly.
(9) It enables one to care for more than twice as many colonies as
under the swarming system.
Results according with the claims mentioned above have been reported
from various localities, but numerous adverse reports have also been
given, the latter indicating clearly that some modification of the
device is necessary if it is to be made generally serviceable. A
further trial of the principle under varying conditions and climates
will also be required to decide its exact value.
The manner of using the device is simple. Before the colonies swarm
the device is attached to the fronts of two adjacent hives. The slide
(fig. 70, _sl_) having been inserted at one end of the device, the bees
returning from the fields are all run into the other hive, on which the
supers are then placed. Before the colony, thus made doubly populous,
decides to swarm, the slide and supers are both changed to the other
hive. This is repeated every four or five days during the swarming
period.
SELECTION IN BREEDING.
Some races of bees show greater inclination than others toward
swarming, and the same difference can be noted between individual
colonies of a given race; therefore, whatever methods be adopted to
prevent or limit increase, no doubt the constant selection of those
queens to breed from whose workers show the least tendency toward
swarming would in time greatly reduce this disposition. Indeed, it is
perfectly consistent to believe that persistent effort, coupled with
rigid and intelligent selection, will eventually result in a strain
of bees quite as much entitled to be termed non-swarming as certain
breeds of fowls which have been produced by artificial selection are to
be called non-sitters. These terms are of course only relative, being
merely indicative of the possession of a certain disposition in a less
degree than that shown by others of the same species. It might never
be possible to change the nature of our honey bees so completely that
they would never swarm under any circumstances, and even if possible it
would take a long period, so strongly implanted seems this instinct.
But to modify it is within the reach of any intelligent breeder who
will persistently make the effort. Such work should be undertaken in
experimental apiaries where its continuance when a single point has
been gained will not be affected by the changes of individual fortunes.
Many features connected with swarming still remain mysteries. The whole
subject requires still more study, and its full elucidation would no
doubt be of great practical value to apiculture. The field is inviting.
CHAPTER XI.
=WINTERING BEES.=
There will be little complaint of losses in wintering bees, whether in
a cold climate or a warm one, whether indoors or outside, provided the
following points are observed with each colony:
(1) _The colony must have a good queen._--By a good queen is meant one
not over two years old and which shows no signs of failure during the
latter part of the season. It is preferable to have a queen of the
current season's raising. Such a queen, if reared from good stock and
under good conditions during the latter part of the summer, will be in
her prime the following spring, and if no other conditions are lacking
will have her colony strong for the harvest.
(2) _Plenty of good bees._--Bees that are several months old or that
have gathered a heavy fall harvest of honey are not good to depend
upon for the winter. They drop off gradually of old age before there
are young bees to fill their places, and the queen, however prolific,
not having bees enough to cover her eggs, can not bring up, as she
otherwise would, the strength of the colony to a proper standard in
time for the harvest. There should be young bees emerging at all times
up to the month of October, or, in the South, even later.
(3) _Good food and plenty of it._--Any well-ripened sealed honey
that is not crystallized is good winter food. Honeydew stored by
bees and honey from a few flowers (cruciferous plants, asters, etc.)
crystallizes in the combs soon after it is gathered and the bees are
obliged to liquefy it as they use it. They can not do this well in dry,
cold weather, and dampness within the hive, though it might enable
the bees to liquefy the crystallized honey, is otherwise inimical to
bee life, especially so during winter. Some of the crystallized food
is also wasted; hence the bees may starve even though the fall weight
indicated sufficient stores for winter. Disastrous results are very
likely, therefore, to follow the attempt to winter on such food.
The removal of all pollen when preparing bees for winter has been
advised by some, who assert that it is unfit winter food and produces
dysentery. It will not, of course, alone sustain the life of the adult
bees, but if all conditions are right no more of it will be eaten than
the bees require to repair the waste of bodily tissue, and this being
slight in winter the consumption is small as long as other food lasts.
The pollen grains which by accident find their way into honey as the
bees gather it would probably be quite sufficient to supply this waste
in the case of the adult workers and no harm would result to these bees
from the substitution of other combs for those containing pollen. But
good colonies should begin brood rearing in January or February, and
pollen or a suitable substitute for it containing nitrogen most then
be present or the nurse bees will be subjected to a fearful drain on
their vitality to supply the rich nitrogenous secretion required by
the developing larvæ; in fact, they can not do so long, and the colony
dwindles. This absurd theory that bees can not have access to pollen in
winter without detrimental results can best be answered by referring to
the well-known fact that a colony in a large box or straw hive, freely
ventilated, yet having some part of the hive protected from drafts
of air and kept dry, will almost invariably come out strong in the
spring if populous in the fall, heavy with honey, and having a young
and vigorous queen. The pollen, it could not possibly be claimed, had
been injurious to such colonies, although they always gather and store
it without restriction, and are not disturbed in the possession of it.
In truth, their stores of pollen have constituted an important factor
in their development, and the strong instinct which they have toward
making accumulations of pollen for winter use and which they have
exercised for thousands of years undisturbed is of great benefit to
them.
[Illustration: Fig. 71.--Percolator for preparation of winter food.
(Original.)]
Other conditions being equal, those colonies having the most honey
stored compactly in the brood apartment and close about the very
center where the last brood of young bees should emerge, are the ones
which will winter best. Forty pounds for a northern latitude and 30
in the middle sections of the Tinted States may be considered only a
good supply. When natural stores are found to be lacking in the brood
chamber, the best substitute is a sirup made of granulated sugar, which
should be fed early in the autumn as rapidly as the bees can manipulate
it and store it away. If given slowly the bees will be incited to rear
brood unseasonably, and will consume much of the food in this way.
If several pounds be given at a time--placed in the top story of the
colony to be fed, just at nightfall--it will be stored away quickly,
so that in a week at most the full winter stores will be completed.
The bees will seal it over better if fed slowly at the last; that is,
after the main feeding. Sirup made by percolation of cold water through
a mass of sugar and then through some porous material, as cotton, is
what is called a completely saturated solution; that is, it contains
all the sugar the water can be made to hold, and will not trouble
by granulation (fig. 71). The same difficulty is avoided by adding
well-ripened honey to moderately thick sirup, about one-fourth or
one-fifth as much honey as sirup. Molasses, brown sugar, glucose, etc.,
are not suitable for winter stores for bees.
[Illustration: Fig. 72.--The American straw hive of Hayek Bros.]
[Illustration: Fig. 73.--Davis hive with newspapers packed between
inner and outer cases, and brood frames on end for the winter.
(Original.)]
It is poor policy to permit bees to enter winter quarters without an
abundance of stores--better twice the amount that will be actually
consumed than merely enough to enable them to live through.
(4) _The bees must be kept dry and warm._--A substantial hive with
a tight roof will keep rain and snow from the cluster; but the bees
must have air even during the severest weather and also when in their
most quiescent state; hence the question of ventilation has to be
considered. It has occasioned more discussion and experimentation
than any other point concerned in the wintering of bees. The amount
of ventilation both indoors and outside, whether upward ventilation
or lower ventilation, or both, and whether through the wooden walls
of the hive alone, have given rise to thousands of experiments based
on all sorts of theories, and innumerable losses have resulted. The
matter is really more complicated than would seem at first thought. The
warm air about the bodies of the bees (the winter temperature of the
cluster being about 72° F.) coming in contact with the cold surfaces
of combs of honey in ordinary hives, or with the inner Avails of such
hives, condensation and deposition of moisture occurs. During severe
weather this accumulates in the shape of hoarfrost, which, melting with
a rise of temperature, trickles down over the combs, the walls of the
hive, and the bees themselves, and, entering the honey cells through
the somewhat porous capping, sours the honey with which it mixes. The
soured food, dampness, and chilling of the bees combine to bring on
diarrhea, which is sure to weaken and decimate the colony if it does
not exterminate it. To avoid these troubles the surplus moisture of the
hive must be carried away by free ventilation, which at the same time
supplies pure air, but which does not create drafts in the hive nor
permit such an escape of heat as will chill the cluster through. Straw
hives (fig. 72) do this well; also the forms shown in figs. 73 and 74
if well packed over the combs and ventilated above the packing.
[Illustration: Fig. 74.--Double-walled hive adapted to outdoor
wintering as well as summer use below 40° north latitude in the United
States. Thickness of each wall, ⅜ inch; space between walls, 2 inches,
packed with dry chaff or ground cork. (Original.)]
(5) _There should be no manipulation out of season._--Breaking up the
cluster and exposing the individual bees and their combs to a low
temperature, as well as causing them to gorge themselves with honey
when an opportunity for a cleansing flight may not occur soon, are also
causes which bring on diarrheal difficulties. Feeding to complete the
winter stores, when necessary, should be done soon after the last honey
flow, so that the bees will settle down for the winter on the approach
of cool autumn days. After this they are better off if left undisturbed
until the final work of preparing them for winter is done, which, if
the hive is well arranged, will be no material disturbance to the bees.
It is always preferable not to be obliged to touch the brood combs or
disturb the cluster when the weather is too cold for the bees to fly
freely.
OUTDOOR WINTERING.
A consideration of the requirements above mentioned leads at once to
the essential features of any plan of outdoor wintering that may be
followed in the colder portions of our country with uniform success,
namely, the presence in the colony of a vigorous queen less than two
years old; a good cluster of healthy bees bred the latter part of the
season, that is, of sufficient numbers so that when closely clustered
during quite cool weather late in October or November not less than six
spaces between the brood combs, and preferably eight or nine spaces,
shall be occupied by a good number of bees, or that the cluster shall
be at such a time not less than 8, and preferably 10 to 12, inches
in diameter; the stores should consist of 30 pounds of well-ripened
honey or thick sugar sirup, stored and mostly sealed over and about
the bees; since in a long, shallow hive the heat is too diffused,
combs much longer than deep should be on end for the winter, to enable
the bees to economize their natural warmth; free access of pure air,
but without the creation of drafts, hence the entrance should be
indirect or screened in some manner; the ventilation should permit the
gradual passing away of the moisture-laden air of the hive, but not
the escape of heat, hence 6 or more inches (in the coldest portions of
the United States 10 or 12 inches) of dry, porous material, soft and
warmth-retaining, should be on all sides of the cluster and near to
it, the whole being protected by waterproof walls from any access of
outside moisture. Care to establish in all cases conditions similar
to the above before bees cease flying in the autumn will insure the
apiarist against any serious losses in wintering out of doors, even in
the severest portions of our country.
[Illustration: Fig. 75.--An apiary in Vermont--winter view. (Reproduced
from photograph.)]
In the extreme South, where bees can fly out at any time of the year,
little extra precaution is needed for the winter beyond seeing that the
stores do not become exhausted during a drought or a protracted rain,
when no honey can be gathered. Just in proportion to the severity and
length of the winter season the above general rules may be looked upon
as applicable, always bearing in mind, however, that in the variable
climate of the middle section of the country many of the precautions
strictly essential in a colder climate may still be profitably
followed, although fair results may be expected in the main without
their strict observance.
INDOOR WINTERING.
Dry cellars or special repositories are utilized in those portions
of the country where the cold of winter is extreme and likely to be
somewhat continuous. Economy of food is one of the chief advantages,
but two-thirds as much, or about 20 to 25 pounds per hive, are needed
to bring a colony through if conditions are favorable. The colonies,
prepared as regards bees, queens, character of stores, etc., the same
as for outdoor wintering, are carried into the cellar or repository
just before the first snows come or severe freezing occurs. Caps are
removed or lifted up and cushions or mats laid on the frames. Light is
excluded and all other disturbing influences in so far as possible,
the effort being made to keep the temperature at about 42° F. during
the earlier part of the winter. Later, especially after brood-rearing
may have been begun, a somewhat higher degree is admissible--45° to
46°, some even allowing it to go up to 50°. No definite rule can be
given, however, since much depends upon the humidity of the air, etc.
As long as the bees remain quiet the temperature is not too high and is
preferably to be maintained. Should they become exceedingly restless,
and the opportunity occur during a winter thaw to give them a cleansing
flight, it will be advisable to return them for a few hours or a day or
two to their summer stands, and when they have flown and quieted down,
replace them in the cellar or repository. In the spring there should
not be too great eagerness to get them out of the cellar, provided
they are not restless. Their confinement indoors makes them somewhat
sensitive to the outside cold, and due caution should be observed, else
the ranks of the workers will become greatly decimated before young
ones appear to take their places.
The same questions regarding ventilation of hives indoors that
puzzle many in the case of those left on their summer stands have
been discussed over and over. All that is necessary, however, is
to consider the same points, the question being less complicated,
though, by reason of the greater uniformity between the temperature
surrounding the cluster of bees and that outside the hive when the
latter is in a suitable winter repository. Some have reported success
in wintering in damp cellars, yet it is probable that such success was
purely accidental, or rather occurred in spite of the dampness of the
repository, the other conditions very likely having all been favorable,
especially as regards ventilation of the cellar, and the important
points of having good stores and an even temperature, which should be
several degrees higher than is required in a dry cellar. Wintering in
a damp repository is, however, attended in general with such risks
that it should by all means be avoided, and the bees, even in a severe
climate, intrusted preferably to their summer stands, if well prepared
as regards their stores and populousness.
CHAPTER XII.
=DISEASES AND ENEMIES OF BEES.=
DIARRHEA AND DYSENTERY.
In the chapter on wintering bees allusion has been made to certain
conditions which bring about diarrhea in bees. Not only will soured or
fermented honey produce this disease, but thin honey also, by requiring
too great exertion on the part of the bees to get rid of the surplus
moisture taken into their bodies, may indirectly cause the disease.
Repeated complaints have been made by those located near cider mills
that the apple juice collected by their bees was the cause of diarrhea
and dysentery. Aphidid secretions sometimes have the same effect.
Prolonged and intense cold in the interior of the hive, especially if
the stores are not of the best quality, causes distention and resulting
weakness and soiling of the hive and combs. Dampness and chilling of
individual bees frequently cause it. The effort some make to avoid the
dampness often results in the chilling, for the cover is removed, and
also some portion of the packing or the quilt or honey board to let the
air pass through to dry the interior. The true remedy is a cleansing
flight and warmth in the hive. Should the weather not be favorable
for this out of doors, the hive may be brought into a warm room and a
cage of wire cloth 2 or 3 feet square placed over the entrance. When
thoroughly warmed up the bees will fly in this and find their way back
into the hive. It is best to leave them in the warm room two or three
days, lowering the temperature gradually before returning the hive to
its outside stand.
FOUL BROOD.
This disease, being highly contagious, is dreaded most of all by the
bee keeper. It is due to the presence of minute vegetable organisms
in the body of the bee, the larva, or the egg, which prey upon its
tissues. These, as Prof. Frank Cheshire has shown, are bacilli, which,
multiplying with marvelous rapidity by division and also by spores,
are carried from hive to hive, until from a single infection the whole
apiary is soon ruined. The particular bacillus which is commonly known
as foul brood Professor Cheshire has described as _Bacillus alvei_,
or hive bacillus, as it affects not only the brood but also the adult
bees. (See Pl. XI.) The first symptoms noticeable in the hive are its
lack of energy, then dead larvæ turned black in the cells, and finally
sunken caps, some of them perforated slightly over larvæ and pupæ.
Bul. 1, new series, Div. of Entomology, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.
Plate XI.
[Illustration]
Bacillus Alvei (Cheshire).
[Drawn from nature by Frank R. Cheshire for Jour. R. Micr. Soc., and
here reduced one-sixth from the original plate.]
Fig. 1.--Residue of larva three days dead of _bacillus alvei_;
_b_, bacilli. Spores and degenerated trachæ cover the field.
Fig. 2.--Healthy juices of bee larva.
Fig. 3.--Juices of larva (living) with disease in acute stage;
_a a_, leptothrix forms.
Fig. 4.--Brood cells from a diseased colony; _a a_, cells containing
healthy forms.
Fig. 5.--Cultivation in sterilized agar-agar showing the colony form of
bacillus.
Fig. 6.--Same cultivation twenty-four hours later.
Fig. 7.--Spore changing into bacilli.
Fig. 8.--Bacillus passing into spore condition.
All of these symptoms may, however, be present when no foul brood
exists; but if, upon opening some of the cells whose caps are sunken
or slightly punctured, a brown, ropy, putrid mass is found, which,
when lifted on the end of a sliver of wood, glides back into the cell
or strings down from the mass like thick sirup, it is pretty certain
that foul brood is present. Caution is necessary or it maybe spread
all through the apiary. The hands, as well as all tools used about
the infected colony, should be cleansed by washing in a solution of
corrosive sublimate (one-eighth ounce dissolved in 1 gallon water)
before going to another hive. If but few are found diseased they should
be burned at once--at night, when all the bees are at home. If all
or nearly all are affected, or if the disease does not seem virulent
and other apiaries in the neighborhood are not endangered thereby, a
cure may be attempted. Removal of all of the combs and confinement
of the bees in an empty box, obliging them to fast until some drop
from hunger, followed after releasing them by liberal feeding, will
frequently effect a cure, as indicated many years since by Mr. M.
Quinby. The hives may be disinfected by washing in carbolic-acid
water and used again. A second removal of the bees and fasting may
be necessary in some cases. It will also be well to feed medicated
sirup--1 part of carbolic acid, or phenol, to 600 or 700 parts of
sirup. Many omit the fasting, but destroy all combs and frames and
supply comb-foundation starters, removing four days later all combs
built and giving a second lot of starters. It is well to supplement
this treatment with feeding of medicated sirup. Phenol having been
suggested to Professor Cheshire as a remedy, he experimented until he
found that if a sirup containing 1 part of phenol to 400 or 500 parts
of the food be poured in the cells adjacent to the brood, and the
diseased brood, after brushing off the bees, sprayed with a solution of
1 phenol to 50 water, a cure was speedily effected. The great risk of
spreading the disease, as well as the time and expense which a cure by
drugs by the fasting process involves, will cause immediate destruction
to be resorted to as the cheapest in the end if taken in time.
_Bacillus gaytoni_, also described by Professor Cheshire, is
characterized by loss of hairy covering on the part of the workers and
their crawling out of the hives over the ground, constantly wriggling
their bodies until death occurs. It yields, according to Professor
Cheshire, to the same remedies as Bacillus alvei, but having been less
destructive and being far more likely to disappear without effort to
cure it, less attention has been given to it. Lately, however, it
has been alarmingly destructive in some of the extensive apiaries of
California. Colorado, and Texas, so that some simple remedy would be
very welcome.
THE WAX OR BEE MOTH.
The larva of a moth known to entomologists as _Galleria mellonella_
Linn. gnaws passages through the combs of the bees, especially those
in or near the brood nest, often proving very destructive in weak or
neglected colonies. The popular name, wax moth, was doubtless given
on the supposition that the food of the larva was chiefly wax; but
when an attempt to rear them on this substance in its usual commercial
purity is made slight development only results. Probably chemically
pure wax would not be touched by the larva; but in combs containing the
larval skins left by developing bees, or containing brood or pollen,
they reach their highest development if left undisturbed during warm
weather, finding ample nourishment in the nitrogen-containing pollen
and animal tissues left by the molting larvæ. To protect themselves
from the bees they line their galleries through the combs with a strong
web of silk and are able to retreat or advance rapidly through them
when attacked. The observing bee keeper will occasionally notice the
moths resting during the daytime on the corners of the hives or under
the roof projections or edges of the bottom boards. Its color is dull
or ashy gray, with light and dark streaks, making it so nearly like a
protruding sliver of a weather-beaten board as to protect it materially
from its enemies when resting on any unpainted surface that has been
long exposed. At nightfall the moths may be seen flitting about the
hive entrances, seeking an opportunity to enter and deposit their eggs.
If prevented by the bees, which are then instinctively on the alert,
they deposit in the crevices between the hive and stand or between the
hive and cap. The minute larvæ as they emerge soon make their way into
the interior of the hive. It is possible also that some of the eggs
of the moth may be left where the bees crawling over them carry them
into the hive by accident, the freshly laid egg adhering readily to
any substance it touches. In the northern and middle sections of the
United States two broods are reared, the first appearing in May, the
second and larger brood in midsummer or even August. The eggs deposited
by the last brood develop slowly in the cooler autumn weather, but
usually reach the pupal stage, in which they normally pass the winter.
Individual moths may, however, be seen about the apiary during June and
July, and even into the autumn, so that egg deposition is constantly
going on, and any combs removed from the hive and left unprotected by
bees, especially if in a warm apartment or a closed box, will soon be
in complete possession of the destructive larvæ, which wax fat and
soon reduce them to a mass of webs. The only remedies are to keep the
combs under the constant protection of the bees, or, if the colonies
are not populous enough to cover them fairly, the combs should be hung
so as to leave a space between them in a cupboard or large box which
can be closed tightly, so as to subject them for some time to the fumes
generated by throwing a handful or two of sulphur on live coals, or to
the odors of bisulphide of carbon in an open vial. Caution is needed in
the use of the latter, since it is highly inflammable.
Oriental races of bees are more energetic than others in clearing out
wax-moth larvæ, and Carniolans and Italians more so than the common
bees. But in colonies always supplied with good queens the wax-moth
larvæ make little headway, and it is therefore only the neglected
hives that are seriously troubled. Moth-trap attachments or moth-proof
hives are therefore of no use, unless, in the case of the former,
larvæ seeking a secure place in which to pupate may be caught; but
that implies frequent examination, and the same or less attention to
the colony itself will suffice to do away with almost any breeding of
moths. Hives proof against the entrance of wax-moth larvæ would, as
the statements here made regarding the breeding habits of the moth
indicate, exclude the bees also. From the foregoing it can be readily
seen that the attentive apiarist no longer regards the wax moth as a
serious pest.
BRAULA OR "BEE LOUSE."
A wingless dipteron, _Braula cæca_ Nitsch, known under the common name
of "bee louse," is a troublesome parasite on bees in Mediterranean
countries, the adults, which are very large in proportion to the host,
gathering on the thoraces of the workers, rarely of the drones, but
in great numbers on the queens. The writer has removed seventy-five
at one time from a queen, though ordinarily the numbers do not exceed
a dozen. When numerous they render the queen weak by the removal of
vital fluids. The insect has frequently been imported to this country
on queens with attendant bees, but thus far has probably gained no
foothold. Likely it will never do so in the North, but the case might
be different in any region resembling southern Europe in climate, and
it is by all means advisable to remove every one from any queen or
worker arriving here infested with them.
OTHER ENEMIES.
_Robber flies, dragon flies, etc._--Several species of _Asilus_ and
related predaceous Diptera do not live upon injurious insects alone,
but also capture and devour honey bees. They are more destructive in
the South than elsewhere. The same is true of the neuropterous insects
known as mosquito hawks, dragon flies, or devil's darning needles.
There seems to be no remedy for any of these except that of frightening
them away when noticed about the apiary. The "stinging bugs," belonging
in the hemipterous family Phymatidæ, often capture and destroy workers
as they visit the flowers. No remedy is practicable.
_Ants and wasps._--Some of the larger ants and social wasps are very
troublesome to the apiarist in tropical and even in subtropical
regions. They seize the workers and cut them in pieces with their
powerful jaws. Having once reduced the hive defenders, they even make
bold to enter and carry off the queen as well as help themselves to
honey. Trapping them with honey or with meat and killing them, as well
as destroying the nests when found, are the only remedies. The paper
nests are easily burned away, while an effectual remedy against ants is
to open the hill and pour in an ounce or two of bisulphide of carbon.
_Spiders._--Webs made about hive entrances often capture bees as well
as wax moths, and, notwithstanding this last-mentioned point in their
favor, they had better be removed.
_Toads and lizards._--These devour many bees, and whenever found near
the hives should be destroyed or removed to the vegetable garden.
_Birds._--Swallows and kingbirds have been accused of eating many bees.
It is probable that the destruction of injurious insects by them more
than makes amends for the bees taken. This was clearly proven in the
case of the kingbird, stomachs of which, examined at the United States
Department of Agriculture, showed only a very small percentage of honey
bees, and these mostly drones.
MAMMALS.
Mice gaining access to the hive during winter gnaw out among the combs
a nest cavity and eat honey, pollen, and bees. Low entrances, covered,
if found necessary, with a strip of tin, will prevent the mice from
gnawing larger holes, yet permit the bees to pass in and out. Skunks
sometimes disturb hive entrances and catch bees as they come out. This
is particularly vexatious in the winter, when colonies should be left
quiet. In mountain localities, bears, led by their fondness for honey,
still occasionally overturn beehives. The remedies for both of these
are, of course, shooting or trapping.
ROBBER BEES.
When forage is scarce in the field, bees belonging to different
colonies often wage fierce wars over the stores already in hives.
Thousands are killed and the victors relentlessly carry off as booty
every drop of honey from the vanquished hive, leaving its bees to
starve miserably. A great stir and loud buzzing in the hive of the
conquerors attests their rejoicing over the ill-gotten gains. Nor have
they any code of morals which inclines them to select as opponents
forces equal in strength to their own. With them "all's fair in war."
Their only object is plunder, and they therefore select the most
defenseless, a colony disorganized through loss of its queen being an
especial mark for a combined attack.
Extreme caution to prevent robbing is always advisable. A little
carelessness or neglect in the apiary early in the spring or toward
the latter part of the season may result in much loss. It is easier to
prevent robbing than to check it at once or without loss after it is
well under way. Leaving honey exposed about the apiary often induces
robbers to begin their work; hence extracting and similar work must
be done in bee-proof rooms whenever the bees are not gathering honey
freely. It may at such times be necessary to do all manipulating early
in the morning, before many of the bees have begun to fly, or later in
the day, after they have ceased, or even under a tent made of mosquito
netting and placed temporarily over the hive to be manipulated.
Queenless and weak colonies should be put in order if possible before
the honey flow ceases. In any event the entrances of such hives should
be contracted until but few or even no more than one bee can gain
access to the interior at one time. Professor Cheshire has devised an
excellent entrance block to prevent or check robbing. This is shown in
fig. 70, and is so simple that anyone can make it. When contracted and
placed at the hive entrance it will be seen that the robbers must make
their way through a narrow and bent passage, something they are loath
to attempt, especially if at the first onset they find the passage well
guarded.
[Illustration: Fig. 76.--Cheshire anti-robbing entrance: _st_,
stationary piece; _s_, slide; _p_, pin or stop. (Redrawn.)]
If robbing has begun it may sometimes be stopped by throwing coarse
grass or weeds over the entrance of the hive attacked, or by leaning
a pane of glass against its front, the entrance being, of course,
contracted as indicated above. These plans tend to confuse the robbers
for a time, and meanwhile the rightful occupants of the hive may be
able to organize for defense. If convenient the colony attacked may be
moved a distance of a half mile or more and placed as far as possible
from other apiaries until it can recuperate. Another plan in extreme
cases is to put the colony in a dark cellar for a few days, confining
the bees to the hive with wire cloth, so as to allow plenty of
ventilation, as described under the head of "Moving bees." When brought
out of the cellar it is well to place the colony on a new stand, apart
from the other bees, contract the entrance, and lean a board against
the front of the hive. It is also safest to bring it out late in the
day, even just at dusk, so the bees will begin flying from it gradually
and not attract the attention of robbers. It may be well, when removing
a colony from its stand to save it from robbers, to put in its place
a hive with combs containing a little honey and pollen. The robbers,
instead of scattering and entering adjacent hives, will continue to
visit the same stand, their numbers gradually diminishing as the honey
gives out and the pollen is sucked dry. If meanwhile the entrances of
adjoining hives have been contracted and these colonies are fairly
strong and in normal condition, individual robbers will be successively
repulsed as they appear. Quiet will thus be eventually restored.
LAYING WORKERS.
Although laying workers are not strictly enemies of their kind, their
work hastens the extinction of the colony to which they belong, in case
the latter has become queenless and is without the means of rearing
another queen. They cause the expenditure of the stores and strength
of the colonies in a vain though well-meant endeavor to perpetuate
their species; the eggs which laying workers deposit, and for whose
development through the larval stage much honey and pollen are
required, only resulting in the production of a lot of drones, for the
most part weak and dwarfed.
If not discovered until the hive is nearly depopulated, the remaining
old bees should be brushed off, and the combs, after the sealed drone
brood has been unmapped and jarred out, may be distributed among other
colonies. Should the affected colony still be worth saving, combs
containing emerging bees should be added and a queen introduced a few
days later, or a queen cell inserted, as soon as the added brood has
stocked the hive well with young bees.
=BOOKS AND JOURNALS RELATING TO APICULTURE.=
The following are among the leading books and journals relating to
apiculture:
BOOKS.
Langstroth on the Honey Bee. Revised edition, 1889. By Chas. Dadant
& Son.
Quinby's New Bee Keeping; or The Mysteries of Bee Keeping Explained.
1884. By L. C. Root.
The A B C of Bee Culture: A Cyclopædia of Everything Pertaining to the
Care of the Honey Bee. By A. I. Root.
Advanced Bee Culture: Its Methods and Management. 1891. By W. Z.
Hutchinson.
Bees and Bee Keeping, Scientific and Practical. By Frank R. Cheshire.
In two volumes: Vol. I (scientific), Vol. II (practical). Published
in London, England.
The Bee Keeper's Guide; or Manual of the Apiary. By A. J. Cook.
A Modern Bee Farm and its Economic Management. By S. Simmins. Published
in London, England.
The Blessed Bees. By John Allen.
Bee Keeping for Profit. By Dr. G. L. Tinker.
JOURNALS.
The American Bee Journal. Weekly. Chicago, Ill.
Gleanings in Bee Culture. Semimonthly. Medina, Ohio.
The Bee Keepers' Review. Monthly. Flint, Mich.
The American Bee Keeper. Monthly. Falconer, N. Y.
The Progressive Bee Keeper. Monthly. Higginsville, Mo.
The Southland Queen. Monthly. Beeville, Texas.
The Western Bee Keeper. Monthly. Denver, Colo.
* * * * *
Transcriber Note
Minor typos corrected. Illustrations repositioned where they split
paragraphs.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "USDA, Bulletin No. 1. (N.S.) The honey bee: a manual of instruction in apiculture" ***
Copyright 2023 LibraryBlog. All rights reserved.