BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
The interior of this mass of bees represents ceaseless activity, ceaseless muscular exertion, and this exertion must have food on which to subsist. Consequently the bees inside the cluster must eat and they eat in proportion to the amount of work they are doing. The lower the temperature, the greater the activity and the more rapid the consumption of stores. Also the greater the cold, the more closely do insulating bees crowd together to protect heat generators inside the cluster.
tection is necessary but many experiments have indicated that it is a practice not likely to be overdone.
In experiments by Demuth and Phillips, of the Department of Agriculture, it was found that one of the most convenient ways of packing was to place four hives together in a large packing case, leaving little tunnels to the entrances. This packing case was insulated by a layer of three inches of material below the hives, five inches on the ends, six inches on the sides and from eight to twelve inches on top. They state that the amount of packing used was effective for the latitude of Washington, D. C., but that farther north greater thickness would probably be needed. It will be noted that the greatest thickness of insulating material was used on top of the hives. This agrees with the practice long employed by many beelepers and still in use in a great many places. Prior to the experiments of Demuth and Phillips it was not generally
and sometimes on the sides and back, and allow the front to remain exposed. By this system the moisture collected on the front or sides of the hive, ran down the walls and evaporated at the entrance. This method, too, gave excellent results for years and it is far preferable to no packing at all. Many beekeepers will be unable to go to the trouble and expense of providing the elaborate packing cases referred to above but it is within the easy possibility of any one to pack a colony at the top. The easiest way to do this is to remove the cover of the hive, lay a piece of burlap directly over the frames and on it place an empty super. The super is then filled with any material which will conserve heat, such as shavings, wheat chaff, cork dust or even leaves. Whatever material is used must be dry. Wet packing material does not insulate because the air spaces in it are more or less filled with water and heat can escape very easily. Such wet material too will freeze in solid mass and become still less useful.
## Chapter 10 Wintering
The bees should be packed before the weather becomes too cold in the fall. It has been found that if packing is delayed until cold weather, the bees may be so stimulated by the sudden warmth that they will start rearing brood and thus waste their stores and perish before spring.
The packing should be removed early enough in spring to allow the bekeeper to examine the colonies and to determine their condition. I have already indicated the value of this early spring inspection and it should not be neglected. However, if the weather remains cool the hive should be given some sort of temporary protection.
The value of this spring protection is often overlooked by the bekeeper who has carefully carried his stock over the winter. The colonies are to be protected, especially on those cold raw windy days when the cold "seems to go right through one." It goes "right through" the hives just as it does through your clothing andthe bees need protection at this time more than at any other because they now have a host of little ones to keep warm in addition to the wintered-over adults.
I mentioned that there were three factors in successful wintering but thus far I have talked chiefly of one of them--shelter. The next important factor is that of food and on it depends a great deal of the success one will have in bringing his bees through a winter. No matter how perfect the hives or how carefully they are packed, the bees will stand a good chance of dying if they do not have the right kind of food.
It has been the fashion for writers on apieulture to pass the buck on the subject of winter stores by saying ''The bees should enter the winter with _sufficient_ stores of good quality.'' I confess that I wondered for a long time just what they meant by ''sufficient'' and finally realized that they did not know themselves--at least not very definitely.
**WINTERING**
It is now generally known, however, that the amount of food required by a colony will vary greatly with the colony, with the season, and with the kind of food. It is small wonder that the older writers were not very clear on the subject. Experimentally it has been found that an average colony will consume during the winter months somewhere between fourteen and eighteen pounds of good honey. If fed with cane sugar sirup they will require less than half that amount. Supplied with honey dew they might require more. These figures, too, do not take into consideration the variations in styles of winter packing. A heavily packed hive will house its colony in comfort on much less food than will one that is exposed to the cold.
To accept such experimental figures as fixing a definite maximum consumption in an average winter may lead the bekeeper into trouble, however, because there are sometimes unforeseen conditions thatmust be met. For instance, last winter I had a colony of Italian bees that was short of stores in the fall. I fed them ten pounds of sugar sirup in addition to what honey they had and felt sure that they would "pull through" all right. Followed a very mild winter with early spring, and brood rearing began at a date unheard of before in our neighborhood. Consequently that colony ate up all of its stores and was on the point of starvation when I discovered its condition.
Therefore I would prefer to have an excess of food in the hive rather than to run the risk of the bees starving late in winter. If honey of good quality is on hand there should be around forty pounds of it. Half that quantity of good sugar sirup would probably be enough.
Sugar sirup is prepared by boiling two parts of sugar to one part of water. To this is added one ounee of tartaric acid to each fifty pounds of sugar to prevent it from crystallizing in the combs. Even
## Chapter Wintering
Though the colony is provided with plenty of honey it is a good plan to feed them a few pounds of this sugar sirup just before they are packed. This food is stored in the space nearest the cluster, it will be the first used and will assist in keeping the bees in good condition through the winter.
Sugar sirup is the best possible winter food for bees for the reason that it is almost completely consumed within the body of the bee. There are often weeks and months at a time when the bees are unable to fly and as a result they must retain within their intestines the waste matter contained in the food they eat. If wintered in a warm climate they might be fed almost anything that was sweet, but in the North where the winters present a problem, they should be given food which will be as free from waste as it may be. Sugar is the ideal food, good white honey is next in value and dark honey and honey dew are the poorest possible.
In the report of their experiments with wintering bees, Demuth and Phillips compare a colony with a furnace and the illustration is so good that I will not attempt to improve on their words but will quote it just as it is given. They say: "Let us assume that we have a furnace for heating a building so constructed that ashes may be removed only when the temperature of the outside air is warm. If the house has thin walls and many openings, the furnace can not maintain a high temperature in extreme cold weather, the amount of fuel is increased, the ashes accumulate rapidly and dog the furnace, and in a desperate effort to raise the house temperature we would probably burn out the furnace. On the other hand, if the house is well built and heavily insulated, a low fire will suffice, and as a result there will be a minimum amount of ashes. The better the fuel, the less the amount of ashes in either case.
**"It** is permissible to compare a colony of bees as a unit of heat production with this furnace. If the bees are in a single walled hive in a cold climate, the colony must generate a great amount of heat, must consume much more honey, and feces will accumulate rapidly. As the bees are unable to discharge their feces until the temperature of the outer air is high enough for flight, the 'furnaee' is clogged. The bees are 'burned out' by excessive heat production, and, even worse than in the case of the furnace, the irritation resulting from the presence of feces causes still more heat production. On the other hand, if abundantly insulated, the heat generated is conserved, the consumption of stores and the amount of feces are reduced, and the bees can readily retain the feces until a flight day, in any place in which the bees can be kept. The better the stores the less the amount of feces in either case. We should not expect much of a furnace in an open shed, and we have no more right to expect good results from a colony wintered in a thin walled hive in a cold climate, or even in a better hive placed in a windy location."
The third factor that I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter was that of numbers--the population of the bee city. A small colony will not have enough bees to form a cold resisting cluster in severe weather. They will bunch up in a compact ball and the number on the inside will not be great enough to generate the needful heat. There will be no surplus of warm bees to crawl out of the cluster and relieve the cold members of the insulating layer. Consequently the entire cluster becomes ehilled through and quietly passes on to a bee heaven where there is plenty of white clover and no smoke.
In order that the bees may winter to the best advantage the colony should be strong in numbers at the end of the summer and these bees which are to winter over should be as young as possible. In other words, brood rearing should be encouraged up to the time of frost.
## Chapter 16in my life. And I dislike to write on any subject on which I lack first-hand information.
The principles of cellar wintering, however, do not differ from those of outside wintering except that more stress must be laid on the factor of food. Bees wintered in a cellar must pass several months without flight. Consequently the food must be of the best quality. The cellar itself furnishes the insulation to the hive and in many ways it provides ideal wintering. It is not a practice for the beginner with bees, however, and in these chapters I have always had in mind the enthusiastic amateur, either actual or prospective, rather than the confirmed victim.
* [1]Alfalfa, 132.
* [2]Alsike clover, 129.
* [3]American foulbrood, 107.
* [4]Annual honey crop, 12.
* [5]Ants, 122.
* [6]Apple honey, 147.
* [7]Artificial honey, 141.
* [8]Asters, 144.
* [9]Basswood, 134.
* [10]Bee hunting, 68.
* [11]trees, 21.
* [12]Bees, black, 43.
* [13]breeding, 45.
* [14]Carniolan, 46.
* [15]Caucasian, 46.
* [16]Cyprian, 46.
* [17]drones, 50.
* [18]eggs, 52.
* [19]German, 43.
* [20]hybrid, 43.
* [21]Italian, 44.
* [22]life-history, 46.
* [23]queen, 51.
* [24]races of, 43.
* [25]transferring, 73.
* [26]wild, 66.
* [27]worker, 46.
**Vails,** 60.
**Wax,** 50.
**modh,** 180.
**Where to keep bees,** 17.
**White clover,** 125.
**Wild bees,** 66.
**raspberry,** 139.
**Wind pollination,** 4.
**Wintering,** 149.
**Winter cluster,** 155.
**Worker bees,** 46.
**Yellow poplar,** 187.
Copr
Cord aleg (Jours, C. A. Llew.
In the year 1886 there was published a little book written by me entitled "A Year Among the Bees." In 1903 it was enlarged and appeared under the title "Forty Years Among the Bees." In preparation for the present edition I undertook the revision with little thought: of the number of changes to te made or the number of pages to be added in order to bring it fully up to date (about one-eighth being new matter), but it is hoped that the changes and additions may make it of more value to the reader. As I began bekeeping in 1861, fifty years ago, the present name seems appropriate.
However much some personal friends may like the Irief biographical sketch that occupies the first few pages, others may think that the space could have been better occupied. There remains, however, the privilege of skipping those few pages.
Most of the pictures are from photographs taken by myself or under my immediate supervision, at least so far as concerns "touching the button"; the East:nan Kodak Co. "did the rest."
C. C. Miller.
Marengo, Ill., 1911.
One morning, five or six of us, who had occupied the same bed-room the previous night during the North American Convention at Cincinnati, in 1883, were dressing preparatory to another day's work. Among the rest were Bingham, of subker fame, and Vandervort, the foundation-mill man. I think it was Prof. Cook who was chaffing these inventors, saying something to the effect that they were always at work studying how to get up something different from anybody else, and, if they needed an implement, would spend a dollar and a day's time to get up one "of their own make," rather than pay 35 cents for a better one ready-made. Vandervort, who sat contemporatively rubbing his shins, druly replied: "But they take a world of comfort in it." I think all bee-keepers are possessed of more or less of the same spirit. Their own inventions and plans seem best to them, and in many cases they are right, to the extent that two of them. having almost opposite plans, would be losers to exchange plans.
In visiting and talking with other bee-keepers I am generally prejudiced enough to think my plans are, on the whole, better than theirs and yet I am always very much interested to know just how they manage, especially as to the little details of common operations, and occasionally I find something so manifestly better than my own way, that I am compelled to throw aside my prejudice and adopt their better way. I suppose there are a good many life myself, so I think there may be those who will be interested in these bee-talks, wherein, besides talking something of the past, I shall try to tell home-tls's stay how I do, talking in a familiar manner, without feeling obliged to say "we" when I mean "I." Indeed I shall claim the privilege of putting in the pronown of the first person as often as I please, and if the printer runs out of big I's toward the last of the book, he can put in little i's.
Moreover, I don't mean to undertake to lay down a methodical system of bee-keeping, whereby one with no knowledge of the business can learn in "twelve short lessons" all about it, but will just talk about some of the things that I think would interest you, if we were sitting down together for a familiar chat. I take it you are familiar with the good books and periodicals that we as bee-keepers are biest with, and in some things, if not most, you are a better bee-keeper than I; so you have my full permission, as you go from page to page, to make such remarks as, "Oh, how foolish!" "I know a good deal better way than that," etc., but I hope some may find a hint here and there that may prove useful.
I have no expectation nor desire to write a complete treatise on bee-keeping. Many important matters connected with the art I do not mention at all, because they have not come within my own experience. Others that have come within my experience I do not mention, because I suppose the reader to be already familiar with them. I merely try to talk about such things as I think a brother bee-keeper would be most interested in if he should remain with me during the year.
to-day, for they were just coming into existence. I recall that we children, upon hearing of a free school in a neighboring village. decided that it must be a very fine thing, for what else could a free school be than one in which the scholars were free to whisper to their heart's content? The teachers, in too many cases, seemed to be chosen because of their lack of fitness for any other calling. The one concerning whom I have perhaps the earliest recollection was a man who _distinguished_ himself by having a large family of boys named in order after the presidents, as far as the United States had at that time progressed in the matter of presidents, and who _extinguished_ himself by falling in a well one day when he was drunk.
But with the advent of free schools came rapil improvement, and I made fair progress in the rudiments, even though the advancement of each pupil was entirely independent of that of every other. Indeed, there was no such thing as a _class_ in arithmetic. Each one did his "sums" on his slate, and submitted them to the "master" for approval, the master doing such sums as were beyond the ability of the pupil, in some cases a more advanced pupil doing this work in place of the teacher. Tom Cole was a beneficiary of mine, and every time I did a sum for him he gave me an apple. I do not recall that I lacked for apples, and apples then _end_ there were worth 12% cents a brshel.
## parents.
When ten years old I suffered a loss in the death of my father, the greatness of which loss I was at that time too young fully to realize. He was an elder in the Presbterian church, but for one of those days very tolerant of the views of others. He was most lovable in character, and the wish has been with me all through my life that I might be as good a man as my father. I think he was chiefly of English extraction, although his ancestors had for many generations lived in this country. Hisfather had tried to make a tailor of him, but he did not take kindly to that business, and became a physician.
My mother was German, her father and mother having both come from the fatherland. Like many others at that day, her education never went beyond the ability to read, and I am not sure that her reading ever went outside of the Bible. Possibly confining her reading to so good a book was one reason why she was a woman of remarkably good judgment, and to her credit he
it said that she spared no pains to carry out the dying wish of my father that the children should be allowed to secure an education. She was a faithful Methodist, and although belonging to the two different churches, my parents usually went to church together, first to one church and then to the other.
When my mother married the second time, she married a Methodist, and as the children came to years of discretion they were impartially divided between the two
Figure 1: Home of the Author (from the Southwest).
While yet in my teens I taught school in Shellsburg, and afterwards in Johnstown. I entered Jefferson College at Canonsburg, Pa.. which college was afterward united with Washington College, and from there went to [Union College, at Schenectaiv, N. Y. This last undertaking was a bit reckless, for when I arrived at Schenectady I had only about thirty dollars, with nothing to rely on except what I might pick up by the way to help me to finish up my last two years in college.
I had a horror of being in debt, and so was on the alert for any work, no matter what its nature, so it was honest, by which I could earn something to help carry me through.
## works way through college.
I had learned just enough of ornamental penmanship to be able to write German text, and so got $41,00for filling the names in 88 diplomas at the two commencements. I taught a singing school ; I worked in Prof. Jackson's garden at seven-and-a-half cents an hour ; raised a crop of potatoes ; clerked at a town election ; pedalled maps ; rang one of the college bells ; and, as it was optional with the students whether they taught or studied during the third term senior, I got $100,00 for teaching during that term in an academy at Delhi, N. Y. Neither were my studies slighted during my course, which was shown by my taking the highest honor attainable, Phi Beta Kappa, which, however, was equally taken by a number of my class.
I secured my diplona, allowing me to write A. B. after my name, and left college with fifty dollars more in my pocket than when I arrived there. It was not, however, so much what I earned as what I didn't spend that helped me through. I kept a strict cash account, and if I paid three cents postage on a letter or one cent for a steel pen or two blocks of matches, it was carefully entered, and probably a good many cents were saved because I knew if I spent them I must put it down in black ink.
## cheap board-bills.
The item that gave me the greatest chance for economy was my board-bill. I boarded myself all the time I was in college. My board cost me thirty-five cents a week or less most of the time. The use of wheat helped to keep down the bill. A bushel of whole wheat thoroughly boiled will do a lot of filling vp. The last ten weeks, with less horror of debt before me, I became extraagant, and my board cost me sixty-six and a half cents a week.
In the long run, however, I paid dear enough for my board, for its quality, together with a lack of exercise, so affected my health that I never fully recovered from it. Strange to say, I was so ignorant that I did not know exercise was essential to health. That was before the day of athletics in college.
After teaching a term in Geneseo (N. Y.) Academy, I took up the study of medicine in Johnstown, Pa., attended lectures in Michigan University, at Ann Arbor, Mich., and received the degree of M. D. I practiced medicine a short time in Larlville, Ill., and went to Marengo, Ill., for the same purpose, in July, 1856.
It did not take more than a year for me to find out that I had not a sufficient stock of health myself to take care of that of others, especially as I was morbidly anxious lest some lack of judgment on my part should prove a serious matter with some one under my care. So with much regret I gave up my chosen profession.
## 1. Teaches and travels.
In 1857 I abandoned a life of single blessedness, marrying Mrs. Helen M. White. I spent some years in teaching vocal and instrumental music, and was for several years principal of the Marengo public school. Before devoting my entire time to bee-keeping, I was for one year principal of the Woodstock school, most of the time driving there thirteen miles each morning, and returning to Marengo at night.
I traveled two years for the music house of Root & Cady, making a specialty of introducing the teaching of singing in public schools. In 1872 I went to Cincinnati, where I spent six months helping to get up the first of the May musical festivals under the direction of Theodore Thomas. At the close of the festival I began work for the Mason & Hamlin Organ Co. at their Chicago house.
## 2. First bees.
To go back. July 5, 1861--I was in Chicago at the time--a swarm of bees passing over Marengo took in their line of march the house where my wife was. Shewas a woman of remarkable energy and executive ability, generally accomplishing whatever she undertook, and she undertook to stop that swarm. Whether the water and dirt she threw among them had any effect on the bees I do not know, but I know she got the bees, living them in a full-sized sugar-barrel.
In her eagerness to have the bees properly housed--or barreled--she could not wait the slow motion of the bees, but taking them up by double handfuls she threw them where she wanted them to go. In so doing she received five or six stings on her hands, which swelled up and were so painful as to make it a sick-a-bed affair. This was a matter much to be regretted, for ever after a sting was much the same as a case of erysipelas, preventing her from having anything whatever to do with handling bees except in a case of extremity.
Previous to that time I had not been interested to any great extent in bees. When a small boy I had captured a humble-bees' nest and put it in a little box, but I do not recall that there was a remarkable drop in the price of honey on account of there being thrown upon the market a large amount of honey produced by those-bumble-bees.
## Bee-palace