BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
The rows of hives should run southwest and northeast, so that the hives will face toward the southeast, which arrangement seems to be best, for the bees will get the benefit of the morning sun; then should the sun
strike the hives in the afternoon the hives will shade the entrances, and the sun will shine more directly on the back of the hives than the sdes, and there will be less danger of the comb melting down. Hives should be arranged on their stands so that they will be % or % inch higher at the back than the front, so that water will drain out and not stand puddled on the bottoms, which would soon cause them to rot, and at the same time be very detrimental to the bees. But the hives should stand level.on the stands the other way, or the bees will not build the comb straight in their frames.
MOVING BEESS.
Moving bees is dangerous work, and the safest time to do so is at night, when they can not see to fly and sting; but they can be moved at any time if they are properly prepared.
If bees are to be moved only a short distance, move them about one foot each day until they are located. By moving them this way no field-bees are lost; for after bees once mark their location they will return to it; and if their hive has been moved they are lost and will wander around and perish, or try to get in some other hive, and be killed; but when it has been moved only a few inches they will find it and not be lost. If the hives are moved at night only a few steps the bees are not aware that they have been moved, and next morning they will come out and go to the field just as they have been doing; and, of course, they will return to the old location and be lost. But bees can be moved successfully a short distance during very cold weather when they have been confined in their hives for several days; but a handful of grass or weeds should be placed over the entrance so that the bees would have to crawl out through it and thus cause them to mark their new location, and, of course, if this is done during the busy season it will be a hindrance to them, and many would be lost too; and we must not forget that hive bees are valuable, especially in the busy season.
If it is desired to move bees some distance during winter, all that is necessary to assure safety to bees and stock is to fasten the covers and bottoms on the hives well and see that, there are no openings where the bees can escape, then tack a strip of gauze wire over the entrance so no bees can escape, but at the same time enable them to get air. As soon as the bees discover that they are shut up they will all begin to try to effect an escape; and by this effort they will shut the circulation of the air out of the hive, and soon the temperature will be so high in it that the comb melts and the bees are drowned and smothered to death, and so the bees, honey, and comb will be lost. If bees are to be moved during warm weather, prepare them in the same manner, but cover the entire top of, the hives with gauze wire, so that they can have plenty of fresh air,or they will melt the comb down in a few minutes; and even then they must be shaded while on the wagon, to be sure of their safety.
If old-style box hives are to be moved, set them on burlap sacks, pulling them up on the sides of the hives until they are tight over the bottom of the hives, and nail strips on each side of the hives over the sacks about six inches from the bottoms. These strips will hold the sacks to the hives; then nail the tops on well and see that there are no places about the hives where they can escape, and lay them on their sides on the wagon, and the bees will be safe, for they can get plenty of fresh air through the sacks.
If an accident should happen on the road, or the bees effect an escape, the team should be removed from the wagon as soon as possible.
## 1 The Sting of Bees.
We have now come to the bitter part of bee-keeping, for all dread the siting of bees; and for this reason bee-keeping has not made the progress it should, for many will not keep bees for that reason, and many have killed their bees because they would sting, and a great number have sold them for the same reason.
The sting of the bee is the greatest if not the only objection to its cultivation; but should it be an objection, or a thing in favor of its cultivation? I claim that its weapon of defense is a great thing in favor of its cultivation, and it could hardly be- cultivated without it; for the Creator certainly did not make any mistake when he gave it a sting, and the knowledge to use it as it does.
Honey as food is considered a luxury by the majority of people, and it can not be obtained in all sections and at all times; and colonies of bees could not stand around unmolested if the bees did not have some way to defend their hives; and if there were no honey in the hives, the intruders would unnecessarily molest them and cause the keeper of the bees a loss.
There are many reasons why the sting of the bees should not affect its cultivation; and enduring a little pain now and then is no great objection to their cultivation. It is possible, but not practicable to keep bees and never get stung while molesting or working among them, by the use of veils and gloves, and keeping them well subdued with smoke.
The pain of bee-stings is soon easy to endure, and not so much to be dreaded, for we get used to them, and endure them about as the old ox does the lash.
The sting of the bee has barbs similar to those on fish-hooks; so when it inserts it into the flesh it is unable to remove it, and tears itself from it; and when it is removed the tiny barbs will pull through the flesh or break off and remain there. I have been stung many times, when the sting was inserted in my flesh so deep that I would have to remove it with the sharp point of my knife; then many times they would break off and be so deep in my flesh that I could hardly remove them. The stings that are inserted deep into the tender portions of the flesh are the ones that give the most pain. While the sharp end of the sting is being inserted in the flesh, there is a tiny sac of poison at the other end emptying its contents around the sting and penetrating the flesh. The sooner the sting is removed, the less of this poison gets into the flesh, and the less painful the sting will be; but if it is removed by catching it between the fingers all the poison will be squeezed out of the sac into the wound made by the sting, and, of course, it will be more painful than if it were removed with a knife or scraped off against the corner of the hive so that the poison would not get into the wound made by the sting any more than possible.
As yet there has been no remedy discovered that will kill the effect of bee-stings; and the best we can do is to avoid as many of them as possible, and, when stung, remove them in the best and quickest way possible. Bees do not always sting as soon as they alight; and if they are given a quick mask, many painful stings may be avoided. If one alights on your hand or arm, dislodge it at once by giving your hand a quick jerk, or sling, and many stings will thus be saved.
By watching the bees closely you can tell when their intentions are to sting you, and they should be thoroughly subdued before they are further molested.
If a bee is slightly pressed it will endeavor to try to release itself by stinging the object pressing it; and while handling bees they should not be pressed or mashed.
It is a well-known fact that bees have stings and the knowledge to use them whenever they see fit; and if we go about their hives or molest them without using the proper precaution, and get stung, we should endure it as the ox endures the sting of the lash, and consider that it was our fault and not so much the ill will the bees may have for us. While bees consider all living objects about their hives as intruders, yet they do not swarm out on them in an unmerciful manner and sting them because they have stings, and can use them. They give their intruders a chance to move on; but if they remain and disturb them, and the defense of their hives and contents is forced upon them, naturally they will sting. I have been stung by bees thousands of times, but I do not lay one sting to their charge, for I have been an unmerciful intruder many times.
## 6 Enemies of Bees.
The enemies of honey-bees are many, and every apiary in the South is infested by them more or less. Fowls and insects of various kinds to some extent depend on the apiaries for their daily food at certain times of the year, and more so than the majority of the bee-keepers may sup pose. The question is often asked, "Why is it that my apiaries are so hard to build up in early spring? The brood-nests are large and well filled, but the old bees seem to disappear in great numbers."
If you will go out in the forest under the trees where the bees are working upon the blossoms you will at once locate the trouble by seeing birds of various kinds flying about over and through the tree-tops, sitting on the boughs, devouring bees in great numbers. If you are not satisfied from what you can see from the ground, climb up into the tops of the trees where the slaughter is taking place, and you will see the birds seizing the bees by the waist, and, with a quick stroke against the limbs, the bees' abdomens are removed and fall to the ground, and their waists are swallowed. This will be done so constantly by the same bird that their depredations upon the bees will be found to be very great. The birds will catch the bees near the end of the bill, so there will be no chance for them to sting them; but the helpless bees will twist around in their bills and try to sting themselves loose; but their abdomens are quickly removed, and then they make a sweet morsel for the hungry birds. I have sat in tree-tops many times and watched the destruction of my bees going on, and wished that I could come to their assistance; but the multitude of their enemies was so great that it was impossible. I have seen these birds flock into my apiaries in spring during a cool spell, so that the bees could not get out in the field, and kill so many of the bees before I was aware of it that the covers on the hives would be nearly covered with their abdomens, and piles of them would be lying on the alighting-boards. I have killed these birds and picked off their feathers and scattered them, birds and all, on the covers, and yet they would catch and eat bees right beside, their dead comrades. This depredation will not happen in the apiary if the birds can get them in the forest. While there are many kinds of birds that are enemies of bees, the redbirds seem to be the worst of all. My observation in that they eat more bees than any other birds, and they are numerous all over the South, and wherever they are seen they may be known as the honey-bee's worst enemy. There is a small long white-breasted bird with long bill and gray beak which appears in the South in early spring, and disappears before winter; and it stays mostly in branches of trees, and raises its young there, in nests made of moss, feeding mostly upon insects. These birds (I know no name for them) are great enemies of bees.
Bee-martins, cat-birds, whitter-birds, cow-pea birds (as they are better known), and many others I know no name for get their share of bees.
The best way to keep rid of the moth is to keep the colonies all strong, and not leave any comb out of the care of the bees, for the moth will take to very small pieces of comb left out, and, of course, if they raise in it the number of moths will be increased that much. If a frame of comb should be carelessly left exposed to the moths, or allowed in any way to get mothy, it is given to a strong colony, when the bees will rid it of moth in a short time; but to do this they have to tear the comb out from around them, and therefore they will leave the comb looking ragged; and if it is very mothy it will be very ragged after the bees clean it up, and unfit to be used as a comb; but it can be rendered into wax. The moth, as it eats its way through the comb, builds webbed passages to protect itself from the bees, and they have to tear the comb down from around the webbed passages before the moth can be removed.
The bee-moth is a very small or insignificant enemy of the honey-bee in well-cared-for apiaries. The honey-bee has another great enemy which it seems to recognize at once but man does not. This enemy is in the shape of a human which calls himself a bee-keeper, but who is a bitter enemy of the blessed little honey-bee. Many and many a dishpan and bread-tray full of honey have been removed from their hives, and eaten by people who were not worthy of it. Many strong colonies have starved to death because an unworthy hand removed all the honey they had stored to subsist on. Sulphur in the hands of brutish keepers has killed thousands of colonies. In many other ways man has proved himself a very active enemy of the little bees which were sent among us for us to cultivate and make our land more fruitful, and to save honey, Heaven's sent food, for us.
## 11 Diseases of Bees.
Very, fortunately the bee family is not diseased to any great extent; but it is subject to disease if proper precautions are not used to prevent it. In most_sections of the South, cane-growing is a great industry among the farmers, and each settlement has from one to six syrup-mills in it, and along late in the fall they are all put in operation; and if the weather is warm the bees will take to them in great numbers and carry to their hives some amount of the inferior sweet which they can gather up around such places. This is stored in the comb, and not sealed; and by spring it will be fermented; and, being uncapped, and nearer around the brood-nest, the bees will consume it first; and the weather being changcable, and the bees confined to their hives a few days, it will give them the dysentery, and they will die off in great numbers right at a time of the season when they are mostly needed. Their abdomens will become swollen to their full capacity, and it will affect them as if they had paralysis, and they will shake as if they had palsy until they are dead. I have had strong colonies die from this disease, and many to weaken down to mere nuclei from the effect of it. When bees take to these came-mills, the best thing to do is to resort to slow outside feeding during the middle of the warm days; then if they get a little of the inferior sweet it will be mixed with the feed, and there will be no bad effect from it. Besides, they are destroyed in great numbers around these came-mills, and are a nuisance to the syrup-makers, and may cause trouble, when feeding will draw them away.
There is a contagious disease known as foul brood which affects and kills the young bees while they are developing; but this disease is not prevalent in the South. I have never seen a hive affected with it and have heard of but a few apariaries that had been affected with it. Then the apiarist claimed that it was introduced to them by picking up, at random, bargains in cheap honey which was fed to the bees. It has also been reported that foul brood has been introduced into some apiaries with queens or nuclei brought abroad. If proper precautions are used this contagious disease can be kept from bees. While there is a loss more or less of young bees in all stages of development, in many apiaries in the South, yet it is not always owing to disease, but to the source of feed, for there are certain plants that yield a little nectar or pollen which seems to poison the young bees, and they die rapidly for a short time, but soon it is all over, and no more symptoms appear until about the same time next season. This loss of bees is usually small, and not of enough consequence for treatment.
## 11 FEEDING BEES.
Feeding bees is the safety-valve to bee-keeping. Nothing can be more essential in bee-keeping than feeding when necessary. Why is it that thousands of colonies of bees die each season, and hundreds of apiaries pass out of existence each year, and so many hives are light at robbing-time? Because the bees have not been fed.
If bees are not to be fed when necessary they need no good hives, and surely no cultivation. Perhaps the honey-bee gives to the world the greatest lesson in economy; and the reason they run short of stores, and perish, is not because they are extravagant, but because something has be-fallen them that was beyond their control, for they will lay aside a supply of food, if possible, to tide them over in the future.
It is explained elsewhere that, if bees are neglected, they may dwindle down and not be in condition to store up a supply of honey for future use; and bees are depending on certain plants that bloom at certain times of the year for their supply of food, and this plant is also depending on weather conditions to secrete honey. Suppose the weather conditions are not favorable, and little or no honey is the result; then the bees may starve. Bees should not be fed unless they. need it; and even then it should be done in season, for, if fed too much, they will fill the brood-nest with it and crowd the queen out. The portion of comb around the brood-nest, where the bees usually keep their ready supply of stores, should never be allowed to become empty; for if it does, some loss will be the result. Even when the bees go into the honey-flow they should have this amount of stores, so that the new honey may go into the supers. Let me emphasize this point, dear reader, keep this rim of stores around the brood-nests. Don't think that, when bees are fed, they will waste the feed, for they will at the proper time turn it into bees that will gather honey, or utilize it to the best possible advantage. A great lesson in economy is given to us by the honey-bees.
I know nothing better to feed bees in than feeders sent out by the bee-supply manufacturers. They are simple, cheap, and durable, and no progressive apiary should be without them.
There is no feeder better to build up nuclei with than the Doolittle divisiqu-board feeder. It rests in the hive like a frame, and can be used in place of a division-board, and placed close to the outside frame, the feed is handy to the bees, and the heat of them will keep it warm, which is a great help to the bees in removing and utilizing it. This style of feeder is also good and handy to feed full colonies in, as it can be set in the hive next to the outside, and it will not be necessary to remove the cover more than two inches to fill the feeder, and will disturb the bees but little.
If heavy feeding is to be done, there is no feeder more convenient for the bees and the apiarist than the Miller feeder, which is set on top of the brood-frames in a super. It holds 15 or 20 pounds of feed.
If no feeders are bought to feed the bees in, tin pans about two inches high, to or 11 wide, make very good feeders; but they must be filled with straw or hay, or the bees will get into the syrup and drown. These pans of straw are set on the brood-frames in empty supers, and filled with feed; but in refilling the pans the bees should be smoked out of them, as many which are down in the straw after feed will be drowned when more feed is added.
In feeding nuclei, the pans should be smaller, and rest right over the cluster of bees on the brood-frames in empty supers; but these empty supers contain too much space for the small cluster of bees to keep at the proper temperature, so a few sticks should be laid across the pans, and sacks folded up and placed over them and the brood-frames so as to give them as condensed a space to keep warm as possible. The sticks across the pans will hold the sacks up so that the bees can easily get to the feed. If full colonies were to be fed in this way during cool weather it would be necessary to use sacks or some kind of cloth to condense the space in the supers. It must be remembered that bees have to keep the temperature up in their hives during cold or cool weather in order to exist; therefore the more we help them do this, the better it is for them, and the less food they have to consume to do it.
There are two objects in feeding bees. One is to avert their starvation, and the other is to stimulate them and cause them to spread their brood more rapidly than they otherwise would. But this is not necessary in the South, for the early honey-plants will do this except, perhaps, in a few sections where they have no early pollen or honey-plants.
Some bee-keepers practice outdoor or wholesale feeding by placing the feed out where all the bees have access to it. This is a good plan where all bees need feeding, or where it is desired to feed them to stimulate them; otherwise it might not be good practice, for some colonies will get too much feed, and crowd the brood-nest with it, and if colonies have plenty of stores they should not be fed. So by feeding them in the hives we can feed the colonies which need it, and stop as soon as they have been fed enough. If wholesale feeding is done, it should be during the middle of the day and not when the weather is cool, or the bees may be chilled and many of them lost. Such feeding is likely to excite robbing, while feeding them in their hives late in the evening will not excite robbing, and there can be no better or safer way to feed bees; and, besides, you have the consolation of knowing that your own bees get all the feed, and that you are not feeding your neighbors' bees as you would be sure to do in outdoor feeding.
Before feeding weak colonies the entrances should be contracted so that only one or two bees can pass at a time; then feed late in the afternoon, and there will be no danger of robbing. Also the covers on the hives of colonies fed should fit down well all around, for such an opening is the best place around hives for robbers to collect and rob out the weaker colonies.
Bees should never be fed anything but honey or syrup made of equal parts of granulated sugar and water. Stir the sugar until it is well dissolved, and it will be a thick clear syrup, ready to be poured into the feeders. There can be no better feed for bees than this syrup; and, in fact, it is preferred to honey,
Never feed bees common cane syrup; for, as long as there is any in the comb, it will give you trouble. I have tried it to my sorrow. I have also tried a syrup made of light-brown sugar, and the sugar made of the common cane; but results were not satisfactory, for, when the bees fed on it were confined to their hives for a few days by a cold snap they were threatened with dysentery. So the best feed is none too good.
## 6 Out Bee Pasture.
The idea that bees gather honey nearly the entire year prevails among the public or those less experienced in bee culture. They 'know that bees gather honey from blossoms; and at times of the year when the forest is full of bloom it is natural for them to think that the hives are being filled with new honey. These natural ideas are false ones; for- at times of the year, and especially in early spring, when the forest is illuminated with blossoms of various kinds and colors, bees may starve to death during this seemingly good honey time. The blossoms are dry (destitute of honey), and the plants that are in bloom are not honey-plants.
Bees may gather a small amount of honey at various times; but only a few days in the year do they gather it in large quantities, as only a few blossoms of the blooming forest secrete honey, and theie few particular trees, bushes, and weeds that come in bloom at various times of the year which our bees may gather some honey or pollen from are what we call our pollen and honey-plants, and these compose our bee-pasture.
While bees may gather only pollen, and may be a little nectar (raw or unevaporated honey) from some of these plants, they are a great help. It stimulates them, and causes them to spread their brood and be great in number of bees when our great honey-plants come in bloom.