BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
It is desirable to get through with feeding as rapidly as possible,1 as the bees are so excited by it, that they consume more food than they otherwise would. In my hives, the feeder may be put over one of the holes of the honey-board, into which the heat ascends. The bees can then get their food without being chilled in cold weather,and its smell is not so likely to attract robber bees. To make a cheap and convenient feeder (see Plate XI, Fig. 26), take any wooden box holding at least two quarts; about two inches from one end put a thin partition, coming within half an inch of the top; cut a hole in the bottom of the small apartment, so that when the feeder is put over any hole, the bees can pass into it and get access to the division holding the food. The joints of the feeding apartment should be made _honey-tight,_ by running into the corners a mixture (p. 78) of wax and rosin; and if the sides are washed with the same hot mixture, the wood, absorbing no honey, will keep sweet. The lid should have a piece of glass, to show when the feeder needs replenishing, and a hole, for pouring in the food, made and closed like those admitting the bees to the spare honey receptacles. Some clean straw, cut short enough to sink readily, as the bees consume the honey, will prevent them from being drowned.1
Footnote 1: If such a box is covered thickly with cotton or wool, so as to retain the ascending haatt, it may be used all Winter as a honey or water-fooder.
Footnote 2: Cclumella recommends wool, soaked in honey, for feeding bees. When the weather is not too cold, a suncer, bowl, or tunnel of any kind, filled with straw, will make a convenient feeder.
_Water is indispensable to bees when building comb or rousing brood._ They take advantage of any warm Winter day (see Chapter on Wintering Bees) to bring it to their hives; and, in early Spring, may be seen busily drinking around pumps, drains, and other moist places. Later in the season, they slip the dew from the grnas and leaves.
Every careful bee-keeper will see that his bees are well supplied with water.3 If he has not some sunny spot where they can safely obtain it, he will furnish them with shallow wooden troughs, or vessels filled with floats or straw, from which--sheltered from cold winds, and warmed by the genital rays of the sun--they can drink without risk of drowning.
Bees seem to be so fond of salt, that they will alight upon our hands to lick up the saline perspiration. "During the early part of the breeding season," says Dr. Bevan, "till the beginning of May, I keep a constant supply of salt and water near my Aptary, and find it throughed with bees from early morn till late in the evening. About this period, the quantity they consume is considerable, but afterwards they seem indifferent to it. The eagerness they evince for it at one period of the season, and their indifference at another, may account for the opposite opinions entertained respecting it."
The Rev. Mr. Weigel, of Silesia, recommends plain sugar-candy as a substitute for liquid honey. If bees can get access to it, without being chilled, they will cluster on it, and, when supplied with water, will gradually ent it up. Four pounds of candy* will, it is said, sustain a colony having scarcely any winter stores. It is cheaper than liquid food, and less liable to sour in the cells.
Footnote *: To make candy for be-fied: add water to the eager, and clarify the syrup with egsi; put about a teapoconfull of cream of tartar to about 20 lba of sugar, and bolt until the water is evaporated. To know when it is done, dry your finger first into cold water and then into the syrup. If what adhere is brittle when chewed, It is boiled enough. Four it into shallow pans, aligally greased, and, when edd, break if two pieces of a suitable size. After billing, balm, or any other flavor agreeable to bees, may be put into the syrup.
If the common hives are inverted, and sticks of candy, placed gently between the combs where the bees are clustered, they may be easily fed in the coldest weather. In my hives, if the syrup honey-board, or cover, is elevated on strips of wood, about an inch and a half above the frames, and the candy laid on them just above the clustered bees, it will be accessible to them in the coldestweather. It may also be gently put between the combs, in an upright position, among the bees.4
Footnote 4: By sliding a few sticks of candy under their frames, a small colony may be fed in warm weather, without tempting robbers by the smell of liquid honey. If a small quantity of liquid food is needed in Summer, leaf sugar dissolved in water, having little smell, is the best.
Mr. Wagner has furnished me with the following interesting facts, translated by him from the _Bienen-zeitung_ :
"The use of sugar-candy for feeding bees," says the Rev. Mr. Kleine," gives to bee-keeping a security which it did not possess before. Still, we must not base over-sanguine calculations on it, or attempt to winter very weak stocks, which a prudent Apirarian would at once unite with a stronger colony. I have used sugar-candy for feeding, for the last five years, and made many experiments with it, which satisfy me that it cannot be too strongly recommended, especially after unfavorable Summers. Colonies well furnished with comb, and having plenty of pollen, though defleient in honey, may be very profitably fed with candy, and will richly repay the service thus rendered them.
" Sugar-candy, dissolved in a small quantity of water, may be safely fed to bees late in the Fall, and even in Winter, if absolutely necessary. It is prepared by dissolving two pounds of candy in a quartet of water, and evaporating, by boiling, about two gills of the solution ; then skimming and straining through a hair sieve. Three quarts of this solution, fed in Autumn, will carry a colony safely through the Winter, in an ordinary location and season. The bees will carry it up into the cells of such combs as they prefer, where it speedily thickens and becomes covered with a thin film, which keeps it from souring:
"Grupe-stargar, for correcting sour wines, in now extensively made from potato-stareh, in various places on the Rhine, and has been highly recommended for bee-food. It can be obtained at a much lower price than eane-sugar, and is better adapted to the constitution of the bee, as it constitutes the saccharine matter of honey, and hence, is frequently termed honey-sugar.
"It may be fed either diluted with boiling-water, or in its raw state, moist, as it comes from the factory. In the latter condition, bees consume it slowly, and, as there is not the waste that oceans when candy is fed, I think it is better winter-food.'
"The Rev, Mr, Sholz, of Silesia, recommends the following as a substitute for sugar-candy in feeding bees :
"Take one part of honey and four pounds of bounded lump-sugar; heat the honey, without adding water, and mix it with the sugar, working it together to a stiff doughy mass. When thus thoroughly incorporated, cut it into slices, or form it into cakes or lumps, and wrap them in a piece of coarse linen and place them in the frames. Thin slices, enclosed in linen, may be pushed down between the combs. The plasticity of the mass enables the Aparian to apply the food in any manner he may desire. The bees have less difficulty in appropriating this kind of food than where candy is used, and there is no waste.'
"Mr, Kleine grates" candy, for a winter bee-food, into cells previously dampened with sweetened water."
It is impossible to say how _much_ honey will be needed to carry a colony safely through the Winter. Much will depend (see Chapter on Wintering Bees) on the way in which they are wintered, whether in the open air or in special depositaries, where they are protected against the undue excitement caused by sudden and severe atmospheric changes; much, also, on the length of the Winters, which vary so much in different latitudes, and the forwardness of the ensuing Spring. In some of our Northern States, bees will often gather nothing for more than six months, while, in the extreme South, they are seldom deprived of all natural supplies for as many weeks. In all our Northern and Middle.States, if the stocks are to be wintered out of doors, they should have at least twenty-five pounds* of honey.
All attempts to derive profit from selling cheap honey fed to bees, have invariably proved unsuccessful. The notion that they can change _all aspects_, however poor their quality**,** into _good honey_,**!** on the same principle that cows secrete milk from any acceptable food**,** is a complete delusion.
It is true that they can make white comb from almost every liquid sweet, because wax being a natural secretion of the bee, can be made from all saccharine substances, as fat can be put upon the riba of an ox by any kind of nourishing food. But the quality of the comb has nothing to do with its contents; and the attempt to sell, as a prime article, inferior honey, stored in beautiful comb, is as truly a fraud as to offer for good money, coins which, although pure on the outside, contain a laser metal within.
The quality of honey depends very little, if any, upon the secretions of the bees; and hence, apple-blossom, white clover, buckwheat, and most other varieties of honey, have each its peculiar flavor.!
* In movable-comb, three, the amount of stores may be easily ascertained by actual inspection. The weight of hives is not always a safe criterion, as old combs are heavier than new ones, besides being often over-stored (p. 88) with been-break.
* When the bees are rapidly storing their combs, they disagree the contents of their honey-as soon as they return from the fields. That the honey undergoes no change during the short time it remains in their sacs cannot positively be affirmed, but that it can undergo only a very slight change is evident from the fact that the different kinds of honey or sugar-gray bd to the bees can be almost as readily distinguished, after they have asked them up, as before.
The Golden Age of be-keeping, in which bees are to transmate inferior ureets into such baling apodia as were gathered on flyula or flyuethus, it as far from peroxide reality as the visions of the poet, who saw--
* A golden hive, on a golden bank, Where golden bees, by alchemical peak; Gather gold fastest of honey.*
* \(\ddagger\) "That bees gather honey, but do not _socards_ it, is argued from the fact that beet-keepers find oils filled with honey (the new swarne) on the first or second day." --_Artistola_.
The evaporation* of its watery particles is the only well-marked change that honey appears to undergo from its natural state in the nectaries of the blossoms, and does are very unwilling to seal it over until it has been brought to such a consistency that it is in no danger of becoming head in the cells.+
Even if cheap honey could be "_made_ oever?" by the bees so as to be of the best quality, it would cost the producer, taking into account the amount consumed (p. 71) in elaborating wax, almost, if not quite, as much as the market price of white clover honey; and, if he feeds his bees after the natural supplies are over, they will suffer from filling up their brood cells.+
The experienced Aparian will fully appreciate the * If a strong colony is put on a platform scale, it will be found, during the height of the honey harvest, to gain a number of pounds on a pleasant day. Much of this weight, however, will be lost in the night from the evaporation of the newly gathered honey, the water from which often runs in a stream from the bottom-board. The lion, Level Wheaton, of North Falmonth, Mass, is of opinion that was dilation will greatly aid the bees in expexpeating the water from their unesaled honey. The thorough upward ventilation which I now give to my hires may, therefore, contribute to increase the yield of honey.
+ Aristofia notice this fact, which I once thought a discovery of my own. The remarks of this wonderful gears on the generation of bees show that he spragelated the difficulties which, until of late, has so much perplexed modern Aparian. After discussing this topic, he says: "All pertaining to this subject has not yet been sufficiently ascertained; but, if it ever should be, then we must place more confidence in our observations than in our resestings," Theory, however, as far as it conforms to facts observed, is worthy of credit," Have we not here the inductive system as well grauded and as well expressed as over it was by Bacon?
+ The following is my recipe for a beautiful liquid honey, which the best judge has pronounced one of the most luselous articles they ever tested; Put two people of the purest white sugar in as much hot water as will dissolve it; take one pond of strained white clover honey-say honey of good flavor will answer--and add it warm to the syrup, thoroughly eltring them together. As refined in our sugar is a pure and Indorous sweet, one pond of honey will give its flavor to two pounds of sugar, and the compound will be free from that smarting taste which pare honey often has, and will usually agree with those who cannot eat the latter with Impurity. Any desired flavor may be added to it.
Although no profit can be realized from Indeting bees to stocse this mixture in hotas or glasses, the amateur may choose, in bad seasons, or in districts where the honey is poor, to secure in this way choice specimens for his table.
necessity of preventing his bees getting a taste of forbidden sweets, and the inexperienced, if inentious, will soon learn a salutary lesson. Bees were intended to gather their supplies from the neetaries of flowers, and, while following their natural instinets, have little disposition to meddle with property that does not belong to them; but, if their incautious owner tempts them with liquid food, especially at times when they can obtain nothing from the blossoms, they become so infatuated with such easy gatherings as to lose all discretion, and will perish by thousands if the vessels which contain the food are not furnished with floats, on which they can safely stand to help themselves.
As the fly was not intended to banquet on blossoms, but on substances in which it might easily be drowned, it cautiously alights on the edge of any vessel containing liquid food, and warily helps itself; while the poor bee, plunging in headlong, speedily perishes. The sad fate of their unfortunate companions does not in the least deter others who approach the tempting lure, from madly alighting on the bodies of the dying and the dead, to share the same misorable end! No one can understand the extent of their infatuation, until he has seen a confectioner's shop assailed by myriads of hungry bees. I have seen thousands strained out from the syrups in which they had perished; thousands more alighting even upon the boiling sweets; the floors covered and windows darkened with bees, some crawling, others flying, and others still, so completely besmeared as to be able neither to crawl nor fly--not one in ten able to carry home its ill-gotten spoils, and yet the air filled with new hosts of thoughtless comers.
I once furnished a candy-shop, in the vicinity of my Ariary, with guazo-wire windows and doors, after the been had commenced their depredations. On finding themselves excluded, they alighted on the wire by thousands, fairly squealing with rexation as they vainly tried to force a passage through the meshes. Barilled in every effort, they attempted to descend the chimney, reeking with sweet odors, even although most who entered it fell with seoreched wings into the fire, and it became necessary to put wire-guaze over the top of the chimney also.1
Footnote 1: Manufactacents of candles and syrupe will find it to their interest to fit such guards to their premises; for, if only one bo in a hundred seospace with Is said, a considerable loss will be incurred in the course of the season.
As I have seen thousands of bees destroyed in such places, thousands more hopelessly struggling in the deluding swects, and yet increasing thousands, all unmindful of their danger, blindly hovering over and alighting on them, how often have they reminded me of the infatuation of those who abandon themselves to the intoxicating cup. Even although such persons see the miserable victims of this degrading vice falling all around them into premature graves, they still press maddy on, trampling, as it were, over their dead bodies, that they too may sink into the same abyss, and their sun also go down in hopeless gloom.
The avariieous bee that, despising the slow process of extracting nectar from "every opening flower," plunges recklessly into the tempting sweets, has ample time to bewail its folly. Even if it does not forfeit its life, it returns home with a woe-begone look, and aorrowful note, in marked contrast with the bright hpes and merry sounds with which its industrious fellows come back from their happy rovings amid "budding honey-flowers and sweetly-breathing fields."The Apiaary.is entry 279
## Chapter Xv
The apiaary--procuring keeps to stock re--transper-hing bees from common to moyalle-cook injves.
Ax intimate acquaintance with the honey resources of the country is highly important to those disfrous of engaging largely in bee-culture. While, in some localities, bees will accumulate large stores, in others, only a mile or two distant, they may yield but a small profit.*
Wherever the Apiary is established, great pains should be taken to protect-the bees against high winds.+ Their hives should be placed where they will not be annoyed by foot passengers or cattle, and should never be very near places where swcaty horses must stand or pass. If managed on the swarming plan, it is very desirable that they should be in full sight of the rooms most.occupied, or at least where the sound of their swarming will be easily heard.
Footnote : By tackling a piece of insulin to the alighting-board and the projecting parts of the stand (Plate V, Flg. 1%), the bees, as they slack up, will slight on the clutch to escape being brulsed or blown awayand thus will sadly gain their hives. In windy situations, thousands of bees (p, 184) may be thus saved.
In the Northern and Middle States, the hives should have a south-eastern exposure, to give the bees the benefit of the sun when it will be most conducive to their welfare. By using my movable stands (Plate V., Fig. 16), the hives may be made to face in any desired direction. The plot occupied by the Apiary should be in grass, moved frequently, and kept free from weeds.
often placed where many bees perish by falling into the dirt, or among the tall weeds and grass, where spiders and toads find their choicest lurking-places.
Covered Apiaries, unless built at great expense, afford little or no protection against extreme heat or cold, and much increase the risk of losing the queens.
In the Summer, no place is so congenial to bees as the shade of trees, if it is not too dense, or their branches so low as to interfere with their flight. As the weather becomes cool, they can easily be moved to any more desirable Winter location. If colonies are moved in the line of their flight, and _a short distance at a time_, no loss of bees will be incurred; but, if moved only a few yards, _off at once_, many will often be lost. By a _gradual process_, the hives in an Apiary may, in the Fall, be brought into a narrow compass, so that they can be easily sheltered from the bleak Winter winds. In the Spring, they may be gradually returned to their old positions.1
Footnote 1: By removing the strongest stocks in an Apiary the first day, and others not no strong the next, and containing the process until all were removed, I have safely changed the location of my Apiary, when compelled to move my best in the working session. On the removal of the last hive, but few bees returned to the old spot. The change, as thus conducted, strengthened the weaker stocks.
PROURING HEAS to stock an apiracy.
The beginner will ordinarily find it best to stock his Apiar1 with swarms of the current year, thus avoiding, until he can prepare himself to meet them, the perplexities which often accompany either natural or artificial swarming. If new swarms are purchased, unless they are large and early, they may only prove a bill of expense. If old stocks are purchased, such only should be selected as are healthy and populous. If removed after the working season has begun, they should be brought from a distance of at least two miles (p. 156).
If the bees are not all at home when the hive is to be removed, blow a little smoke into its entrance, to cause those within to fill themselves with honey, and to prevent them from leaving for the fields. Repeat this process from time to time, and in about half an hour all will have returned. If any are clustered on the outside, they may be driven within by smoke.
The common hives may be prepared for removal by inverting them and takeing a coarse towel over them, or strips of lath may be laid over wire-cloth, and brads driven through them into the edges of the hive.
Confine the hive, so that it cannot be jolted, to a bed of straw in a wagon with springs, and be sure, before starting, that it is _inpoosable_ for a bee to get out. The inverted position of the hive will give the bees what air they need, and guard their combs from being loosened. It will be next to impossible, in warm weather, to move a hive which contains much new comb.
New swarms may be brought home in any old box which has ample ventilation. A tea-chest, with wire-cloth on the top, sides, and bottom-board, will be found very convenient. The bees may be shut up in this box as soon as they are hired. _New swarms require even more air than old stocks_, being full of honey, and closely clustered together. They should be set in a cool place, and, if the weather is very saltry, should not be removed until night. Many swarms are suffocated by the neglect of these precautions. The bees may be easily shaken out from this temporary hive (p. 139).
When movable-comb hives are sent away to receive a swarm, two strips of wood4 with small pieces nailed to them to go between the frames and keep them apart, should be laid over the frames. The cover, or honey-board, should then be _screened_ fast, and, if the strips are of proper thickness, one-eighth of an inch air-space will be left all around the hive, which, with the other ventilators, will give air enough. If an old stock, in hot weather, is to be moved any distance in such a hive, it will be advisable to listen wire-cloth in front of the portioo, so that the bees can leave their combs (p. 91) and cluster there. Hives with movable frames should be arranged in such a position that the frames run from _front to rear_, and not from _side to side_, in the carriage. My glass hives ought never to be sent off for swarms.