BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
We knew that we would need these very soon, for the basswood harvest was imminent; we ordered them ready for use, as we wished to see all the "new wrinkles" in supers, and exactly how the parts are arranged. We used the supers as models later in putting together and fitting other supers. This proved a wise precaution, as it saved us much time in reading directions and studying out independently the arrangement of parts. Weordered \(4
rac{1}{4}\) x \(4
rac{1}{4}\) x \(1
rac{1}{2}\) sections, as this is the size most generally used, and we chose the no-beeway, or "plain " style, because we think it presents a better appearance when filled with honey. We will return to this question in Chapter VIII.
## three extra hives
We wished to have these on hand for any swarms which might possibly issue.
one standard corneil smoker
I do not know just why we chose this of the many excellent smokers, but perchance the name called to mind happy experiences with sandry Cornell smokers of quite a different feather, and we were thus favourably disposed toward this one. It has not disappointed us in the least, for it is both handy and practical. It may seem an unfriendly act to smoke one's own bee-people, but a little smoke wisely applied is as efficacious in preserving pleasant relations with the bees, as was the smoke from the pipe of peace in preserving similar relations between our forefathers and the savages. (Plate I.)
one bee-veil
The senior partner of our apiary rarely uses a veil, but when he does use one he needs it very much, and it is an article necessary to have at hand. To the beginner it gives a calmness of nerve and a surplus of courage which are highly desirable when dealing with such high-strung creatures as bees. Alsothere always occur times during the year when the bee-tempers are on edge for some reason or other; and at such times, if one be intrenched behind a bee-veil, it facilitates work and encourages a serene spirit.
one pair of pee-gloves
While we do not use these ordinarily, yet when we have some special work to do which involves changing many bees from one location to another, we find these gloves most convenient to keep the disturbed little citizens from crawling up our sleeves, thus saving both them and ourselves from a most embarrassing situation.
## 250 sections
Only a small supply of sections was ordered, as but few would be needed the first year in addition to those in the two complete supers. (Plate II.)
one round brood-foundation
This was for use in the frames in the extra hives.
two pounds thin super-foundation
This was for use in the sections.
one daisy foundation-fastener
In the early days of our bee-keeping we fastened the foundation into the sections and frames with a common kitchen-knife which we heated over a lamp and then applied to the edge of the wax foundation held against the section, thus melting it and pressing it fast to the wood. Afterward we used a Parker. fastener, and found it a great improvement over the primitive method. But this Daisy foundation-fastener as described in the catalogue appealed to the modern spirit in us. When we tried to use the machine, we were bitterly disappointed at the end of five minutes, but that was because the iron was not hot enough to properly melt the wax. After a little we learned to hold the foundation on the plate just long enough to melt it to a proper consistency so that it adhered to the section as soon as it was dropped upon it. Then it was that filling sections was placed on the list of sports. The rapidity with which we filled four dozen sections almost took our breath away.
one van deusen wax-tube fastener This was ordered under the impression that it would be needed for fastening the foundation in the brood-frames, but when the hives came we found that a much better method of fastening the foundations had been devised. This is described in Chapter VIII. (Plate III.)
tinned wire This is used for strengthening the foundation in the brood-frames, as described later.
one porter bee-escape The Porter bee-escape is a simple and most useful device. It is set in a thin board just the size of the top of the hive; in the middle is a bit of tin which forms a round pit on the upper side. The bees descend into this pit, and, trying to get out, push apart two strips of tin set at angles to each other, fastened at the ends, which act like a valve, letting the bee out but not permitting her to push back. This is put between the super and the hive in order to free the super of bees before removing the honey. This escape is also used on the doors and windows of workshops or extracting-rooms or other places where bees get in and it is desirable to get them out. (Plates III., XVIII.)
The manum swarm-catcher
We bought this because we liked the idea of it, but as yet we have never had occasion to use it; however, we never look at its long handle without being filled with a mad desire to try it on a provoking swarm of bees clustered in the top of a cherry tree.
one dixie bee-brush
This is an exceedingly useful instrument for brushing bees from frames and from sections. (Plate III.)
one doolittle feeder
Bee-keepers of extended experience consider this the best and most satisfactory kind of feeder in use for small apiaries. (Plate XII.)
queen and drone trap
This is not a necessity; we bought it in order to try experiments in preventing swarming by its use, and also to have on hand in case an excess of drones should be developed in any of our colonies. (Plate XIV.)
## Chapter 3 The Location and the arrangement of the apiary
Where to put the hives is the first question, and this must be determined by two or three conditions necessary for the health and comfort of the bees. Hives should be placed where the sunshine may reach them in the morning up to eight or nine o'clock, and in the afternoon from three to four o'clock. An old orchard such as is kept because of picturesque beauty rather than for its crop of apples is an ideal place. The clean-culture orchards of the modern horticultrists are undoubtedly more efficient as producers of apples and money; but we are always grateful that there are still remaining many fine old orchards, on sod ground where the trees, more or less Barled and twisted, are a joy to the artistic eye. Little wonder that such a place is the ideal spot for the apiary; if the hives are grouped four or 'five together beneath one tree, the requirements of shade will be met.
If there is no old orchard, what then? A young orchard will do, unless clean culture is practised; in the latter case horses and cultivator will not be permitted on the domain of the bee-people. If noorchard offers, then a trellis of vines extending east and west, eight feet high, may shade a few hives, and may be a thing of beauty in the garden as well. Grape vines, hops, Virginia creeper, or any other rapidly growing vines will do. To the one who loves his garden, there will be many ways suggested whereby the hives may be placed to compass both comfort for the bees and joy to the beholder. We started an apiary at the north of the lilac trees, and made it a part of the lawn.
If no such happy position for natural shade is to be found for the hives, then one must have recourse to artificial shade or double-walled hives. A very good method of shading, much in vogue among the farmers of our country, consists of a few 'boards placed awning-fashion above the row of hives. This is not an attractive solution to the problem, although perhaps it might be made so if this method were ever resorted to by anyone with a sense of beauty; but usually it is limited to a simple cover consisting of two or three boards nailed together, slanting a little toward the back of the hives to shed rain, supported by four'posts, which'hold' it a foot or more above the row of hives.
In California instead of boards a matched roof is made for this sort of protection, and is ample enough to allow an aisle for the apiarist between the rows of hives set back to back.
Many people use a single shade board, which consists of slats fastened together by cleats made large enough to project a foot beyond the hive on either side. This is placed directly on top of the hive, and has to be weighted down with stones, and is therefore awkward to handle when working with the bees. If the climate is hot, or in any case, a double-walled cover to the hive is most excellent, since it affords a chance for free circulation of air between the two boards which form it. However, these double covers do not obviate the need of shade, and natural shade is the most desirable sort.
In case the region is exposed to high winds, there should be a windbreak around the apiary. Mr. Root, who is one of the greatest of American beelepers, uses for this a row of hardy evergreens which grow together into a solid hedge. In case a windbreak, either natural or made, is impracticable, a board fence about eight or ten feet high, built on two sides of the apiary, usually the north and west sides, will be found to serve the purpose. This fence may be made the trellis for vines.
In the rear of the village garden is an excellent place for bees. A high board fence as a boundary, and perhaps a barn at the side will act as a windbreak, while the fruit trees yield a grateful shade. We know several such modest apiaries which are most attractive in appearance. There are those who live in cities or towns who are filled with the bee-keeper's ambitions; and even they need not despair. There are on record accounts of several small apiaries kept on the housetops of the owners, who believe that roofs are for more than mere protection. Where bees kept thus get their honey is a bee secret, but undoubtedly every flower in the region yields them tribute. If bees be kept in town, they must be placed on a roof or else a high fence must intervene between the hives and the highway, so that the plane of bee flight shall be set above the heads of horses and drivers; for these brave little honeymakers have never been taught to turn to the right, and so they often dispute the way with teams and usually come off victorious; and this might make the bee-keeper unpopular in his community.
Another necessity in the apiary is that the grass in front of the entrance to the hives be kept mown; otherwise many a heavily laden bee will experience loss or injury among interfering grass blades. It is not practicable, even if one were heroic enough to try it, to run a lawn mower nearer than four or five inches from the hives, so many bee-keepers place salt or coal ashes on the grass within this area. Mr. Root goes so far as to advise the use of sheep as automatic lawn mowers in the apiary, as nothing else can cut grass so short as does the sheep. People say "as silly as a sheep," but that is a silly saying, for many people may learn something of value about the management of bees from the sheep, which, when attacked by them, thrusts its head philosophically into a bush where the bees cannot reach the tender parts, and trusts to its wool to protect it elsewhere. As a matter of experience, sheep kept in apiaries are rarely stung at all.
In our own apiary, where it was not practical to now close to the hives, we followed two methods:When we had many bees we placed a rough board over the ground in the immediate front of the hive; when we had only a few swarms, it was one of our joys to get on our knees on cold days, when only a few adventurous workers were going into the field, and with shears cut the grass close to the ground; and this period spent on our knees was not penance, but joy. However, it might well get to be penance in a large apiracy.
Having found the place for the apiary, the next thought is of hive stands. Many bee-keepers use a hive that has a combination bottom board and hive stand; this has an inclined plane up which the loaded bees may climb if they strike the ground. This is a device which also saves the lives of many bees in cool weather, when they would scarcely be able, through numbness, to reach the entrance of the hive otherwise. However, there are other bee stands which hold two or three hives, which are very comfortable in height for the work of the bee-keeper. But it is always well to remember that the opening of a hive should be low down, as it is easier for the weary wings to let the honey-weighted bee down than to lift her up to the doorway. We use a simple platform, with blocks under the corners, so that there may be circulation of air beneath, and extending about a foot out in front of the hive, thus serving as an alighting board.
The arrangement of the hives in the apiary is a subject which will pay for thought. When beginning, this is easy enough, as they may be arrangedalmost any way, so long as shade and short grass are assured. After the apiary grows they may be arranged in several convenient ways; one is to have the lines of hives facing each other, thus making an alley for the bees; while there is a safe passageway for the man in the rear of the two rows.
When there are only a few hives, it is best to have the entrances face the south. In fact, the entrance should never face northward in a climate as cold as that of New York State. There is one thing to bear in mind in arranging an apiary; make the groups under the trees individual, so that the bees will have no tendency to become confused as to the location of their own homes. If two face west, then let two others face east, or perhaps a group of three face to the south, etc.
When it becomes necessary, for any reason, to change the location of a colony, a board should be set against the hive, in front of its entrance. The bees, meeting this obstruction as they emerge from the hive, will fly about the hive for some time, and thus mark the new location, to which they will return. If this precaution is not taken, many bees will fly from the hive, directly into the field, without noticing the change, and will then return to the old location and thus be lost.
A honey-house near the apiary is a great convenience. If this is not practicable, the next best arrangement is a honey-room in house, cellar, or shed. Such a room is a necessity even in a small apiary. This room should be well ventilated and screens should cover the windows, and a swinging automatic screen protect the door; bee-escapes should be placed in door and windows.
The room should contain workbench and tools; a table, chairs of varying height, an oil-stove, and boxes or cupboards in which all of the apiary supplies, implements, and machinery may be stored and kept ready for use.
Figure 5: \(r\). Queen Beet, enlarged. _a._ Droor. _j._ Worker. _d._ Queen Cella. _g._ Miller's Case for Introducing Queens.
## Chapter 4 The inhabitants of the hive
One of the remarkable peculiarities of bees, which is also shared by other social insects, as ants, wasps and termites, is that there are three distinct kinds of individuals in the community. For, in addition to the males and females, which are the reproducing members of the colony, there is a third class which performs the labours of the community. The females, of which there is usually only one in a colony, are known as queens; the males as drones; and the labourers as workers. (Plate V.)
The bee-queen is the acme of a long line of communistic development. It is little wonder that those men of ancient times who observed her, and the attitude of the other bees toward her, regarded her as regal and called her queen. But she is a much more important element in the perfect commune than a mere sovereign, since she is the actual mother of her subjects.
Too much care cannot be shown in the selection of the queen, or mother of the bee-colony. Her blood is their blood; her faults are their faults; her weaknesses are their weaknesses. Any apitarist is likely to have had two colonies side by side, perhaps each equalling the other in amount of brood and number of bees, and one may have produced five dollars' worth of honey in a season, while the other did not produce half of that; and the queens alone caused this discrepancy. One produced energetic, capable offspring, while the progeny of the other were un-enterprising. The offspring of one were perhaps sweet-tempered and obliging, and those of the other, cross and cranky. Thus it is all-important to give the colony a good mother. A queen, to be perfect, should be well-bred, handsome and strong, and capable of laying from two to three thousand eggs per day during the height of the season, and especially should she have offspring possessing a kindly disposition.
The laying queen is a very graceful insect; her body is long and pointed, and extends far behind the tips of her closed wings. _Svelte_ is a graphic word applied to her figure by the _Spectator_; just a glance at her reveals her splenid physical development and proves her a queenlier bee than those that gather around her. It is a sight that makes men feel how very limited is their knowledge of any other world than their own to see the queen bee, surrounded by her ring of attendants, each with head toward her, as if she were the centre of a many-rayed star.
The development of the queen from the egg has ever been a most interesting and, at the same time, a most puzzling subject for investigation on the part of the scientists; even now after a century of study her growth is as miraculous as ever; and the problems in physiology that lie as yet unsolved in her development will keep many an investigator busy in the future.
When a colony is queenless, and has young brood or unhatched eggs, it makes haste to develop new queens; not one alone, but several, since it cannot afford to put its "cegs all in one basket." At the height of the honey season, every day that a colony is queenless means two or three thousand less bees than should be present to make it successful in securing the harvest. (Plate V.)
In developing a queen the bees usually proceed as follows: They select the important egg, which differs in no wise from any other worker egg, and destroying the partitions between its cell and two adjoining cells, give it more room. In order to make the royal apartment of good size a projection is built out over this large cell. This is made of thick wax and ornamented on the outside with hexagonal fretwork, as if it were to be the basis of comb with small cells. It seems as if the hexagonal pattern were in the bee brain and must be expressed, whether it be of any use or not. As soon as the little white larva hatches from the egg, it is fed on the regular larval food. Royal jelly is a food developed in the head glands of the workers; and when it is the fate of a bee larva to develop into a worker, it is fed with this food for three days, and then it is weaned by having other food substituted; but the queen larva is fed with it during her entire development, and there by her reproductive organs are stimulated and fully developed, which is not the case with the workers. Think how much farther advanced are the bees than we, since, by giving the proper food, they are able to develop and fit each class of citizens to do the work required of it in the social organisation!
The queen larva is fed for five days on this most nonrushing food, and then her cell is sealed. Within this cell the royal princess is for the first time self-dependent, and weaves about herself a silicon cocoon and changes into a pupa. When she issues from this state she waits a little until she "finds herself," and then starts to cut an opening in the cell. She is a good mathematician, and with her jaws, cuts a circle very accurately, usually leaving it hinged like the lid to a pot. Professor Kellogg tells us that sometimes when she cuts this door, the workers do not wish her to come out. They accomplish their purpose by carrying wax and pasting it over the opening as fast as she cuts it, at the same time quite devotedly feeding her through a small crevice. But if they wish her to come out, they rush to assist her, and perhaps for two or three days before she issues, make the wax thin where she is to cut. It usually requires sixteen days to develop a queen from the egg to the adult.
When a queen issues from her cell, she is light-coloured and, as her body is not yet distended with eggs, it is scarcely larger than that of one of the workers. Sometimes she chooses to stay in her cell for a day or two after it is opened. When she
Figure 7: Legs and antennas of the honey-be (original drawn by A. G. Hamman), \(\mathcal{A}\), outer surface of hind leg showing the nine segments and shown; \(\mathcal{B}\), the pollen basket of tibia \(\mathcal{B}\), inner surface of part of hind leg ; red, wave diameters; \(\mathcal{E}\), pollen-ceemb; \(\mathcal{C}\), inner surface of part of hind leg of queen ; \(\mathcal{B}\), inner surface of part of hind leg of drone ; \(\mathcal{A}\), part of middle leg ; red worker ; \(\mathcal{A}\), right ; \(\mathcal{F}\), part of force leg showing the antenna cleaner at \(\mathcal{E}\), part of antenna showing sense-hairs and sense-this.
comes out, she runs about over the comb, taking exercise on her own royal legs, and perhaps taking a little honey out of the cells on her own account; especially does she hunt for other queen cells, for she has no wish to share her duties or honours with another. If she finds such a cell, she usually makes a hole in its side, and in some way, she stings to death the hapless princess within. Some observers claim that she merely takes the initiative, tearing down the wall of the cell, and the bees finish by tearing it down as they would any broken comb, and destroy the innate in the process. If, in her promoteable, she discovers another full-grown queen, a contest ensues; it is a duel to the death and the weapons are stings, which are kept sacred for this special occasion. It is interesting that the queen reserves her weapon for her peers, and never attempts to sting workers, and may be handled fearlessly by the bee-keeper. As the plate armour of the bee is so arranged that the sting may enter in only at certain spots, this duel resolves itself into a fencing match, until one thrusts her weapon into some vulnerable portion of the other. One morning we found fifteen dead quecns outside of one of our hives; a grim tribute to the prowess of the queen within, and quite as much a tribute to our carelessness in letting so many quecns be developed uselessly.
The belligerent attitude of the queens toward each other seems to have been so strong an emotion that a voice has been developed to express it, and is eloquent with rage and fear. This note must be heard to be understood; as nearly as I am able to spell it, it is "'tse-ep, tse-e-e-ep, tse-e-ep, tsep, tsp, tsp, ts," in a sort of diminuendo. She makes the noise when she discovers another queen cell; if there is within this cell a full-fledged queen, she pipes back, but it sounds quite differently and the note is more like "'quock, quock." 'This piping of queens is especially evident before an after-swarm is to issue. The queen will also pipe when the bees gather about her and try to ball her, which is often the fate of a new queen introduced into a colony not ready to receive her. In this case the note is one of righteous anger at the indignity to her royal person. She makes this piping with some vocal instrument, not well understood. Her wings vibrate tremendously while she is piping, but she can pipe quite as vociferously after her wings have been entirely cut off.