BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
This method of introducing very valuable queens is said by experts to be absolutely safe. It is accomplished by making a nucleus of two or three frames cf brood, which is sealed and some of it just breaking through the cell caps. Not an adult bee is permitted to remain, and there should be as few uncapped larvae as possible, since such will starve. The queen is placed on these combs and the young bees, as they issue innocent of men's scheming, accept her as their legitimate mother, and a colony is soon built up. A nucleus hive of this sort must be placed in a warm room, unless it is hot weather, as there are no 'bees to warm the brood. Care must also be taken to put a wire screen over the entrance of the hive for a day or two to prevent the queen from escaping if she becomes uneasy midst such a treaty waste of adolescence.
maxims for introducing queens
Be sure the colony is queenless before attempting to introduce a queen.
Be sure the bees have not progressed far in rearing young queens.
Be careful not to anger or disturb the bees by smoke or hot blast or otherwise when placing the queen in the hive.
If honey is scarce, feed the colony before trying to introduce the queen.
Place the cage containing the queen on the frames near the centre of the brood-chamber, wire cloth below her, so that the cage rests on the bars of the frames.
Do not disturb the colony for forty-eight hours after introducing the queen-cage.
Be careful not to allow the queen to escape by flight when liberating her.
Remember, a queen crawls up instead of down.
After queens are two or three years old they should be replaced by young queens.
in its own colony, and that it has neither love nor devotion to any other colony, nor to bees in general; indeed, quite otherwise. Endowed with an instinct almost fiendish, bees seem to understand when another colony is weak or discouraged, and, therefore, offers a legitimate field for plunder. Strong colonies are seldom robbed, as they are able to drive out and kill the thieves; but the weak colony is a constant temptation to ill doing, and should be carefully watched and guarded.
## 1199 **Wireless** **Web**
This occurs usually when there is little honey to be found in the field. Satan provides mischief for the idle six feet and four wings quite as efficiently as for hands. At the end of the honey-harvest there may be a general temptation throughout the apiary to break open vaults of precious stores belonging to others, and escape with the contents. At the close of the honey season strong colonies usually have plenty of sentinels to guard the entrance and look after suspicious strangers. Never at any time should honey-comb be left open around the apiary, for it always leads to robbling. It seems to suggest to the bees that honey gathered is a much more desirable product than that worked for in the fields.
Sometimes when preserving or pickling is going on in the house the bees start to rob the kitchen; and while they may be deterred by screened windows, yet the smell of the sweets may so excite them to desires for forbidden wealth that they seem to become discontented with the grind of daily toil, and so begin robbing their neighbours.
How the robbing is done
The robber, unless she be hardened by success, alights on the threshold of the hive which contains coveted stores with an air that is decidedly apologetic, having the general appearance of a prospecting dog with his tail apprehensively between his legs. She shows her guilty conscience by dodging back if she meets one of the legitimate owners coming out of the hive; she is thus trying the skill and prowess of the sentinels, for if by assuming bravado she can pass the sentinels she is usually safe; then she has nothing to do but to fill with honey and to run the gauntlet of the sentinels again, for perchance some of them may stop her and ask her why she is going out of the hive _filled_ with honey, a proceeding altogether reprehensible in the bee world. If she succeeds in carrying back to her own hive the honey thus stolen, she creates great excitement there and soon she leads back a mob to pillage; and the air is full of bees bent on wickedness. Mr. Root describes graphically the successful robber thus: "A bee that has stolen a load is generally very plump and full, and as it comes out has a hurried and guilty look; besides it is almost always wiping its mouth like a man who has just come out of a beer shop. Most of all it finds it a little difficult to take wing as bees ordinarily do because of its weight." As a consequence a robber bee borne down with its load of sweetness is likely to crawl up the hive a little way so as to have the advantage of a high place to "jump from" as it takes wing. The virtuous worker comes out of the hive slim and depleted of her load and flies off leisurely to the field, while the robber comes out stuffed full and furtively climbs up the side of the hive in order to be able to be off.
We usually detect robbing in our apiary by the fighting which we observe about the entrance; when we see a pair of workers rolling over and over with each other in the grass near the hive we know that one of them is a robber, but as we do not know which one we are obliged to apply the test meted to the knights of old, and believe that the one who survives is in the right. However, we take measures at once to defend this hive. Also if we discover the bees to be particularly cross some day, we look about to see what has aroused their irre, and nine times out of ten find that robbing is the cause of their ill temper.
How to stop robbing
Contract the entrance to the hive being robbed. To do this we place blocks in front of it, leaving only enough space so that one or two bees can pass in at a time. The robbers having to enter in single file attract the attention of the suspicious sentinels and are either driven back or killed at once. It is unsafe to close the entrance entirely, unless it is done with a wire screen, for the bees within will smoother unless the air is admitted through the entrance. It is always well to keep the entrance of the hive which contains a weak colony or a nucleus somewhat contracted as a measure of insurance. If contracting the entrance does not stop robbing, Mr. Root advises strewing long grass about the entrance which he wets thoroughly. The robbers are too wary to try to rob after they have wet their "fenthers" in passing through this grass; for thus handicapped they could hardly escape from their enraged victims; while the robbers already within the hive after having thus to crawl out will hasten home to get their clothes dry. Mr. Doolittle uses a common sheet which he places over the hive that is being robbed, while Mr. Miller places over the victimised hive a bee tent of mosquito netting, which has a hole in the top which permits the robbers to escape.
A bee tent is a most useful adjunct to the apiary; there are many times when it may be used, but it is especially useful in preventing robbing. It is simply a tent made of mosquito netting large enough to be set over the hive and the operator. When opening the hives at midday the tent is used to prevent the robbers from attacking the exposed stores. Mr. Root advises working at nightfall when bees are cross or given to robbing; but most bee-keepers declare that the bees will crawl all over one at night, and are no more to be gotten rid of than a porous plaster, at which Mr. Root promptly responds, "Do not stand near the lamp."
Enterprising men exchange places of the robbers and victims, which produces a confusion that restoresquiet. The robbers come back to the weak colony laden with its own stores and join it and help fight off intruders; while a strong colony of robbers is quite capable of defending itself.
Another 'clever trick practised in Europe is to place some disagreeable, strong-smelling substance on the bottom board of the hive that is being robbed; wormwood, musk, carbolised paper, are used for this. The colour disconcerts the robber unless she is lost to all sense of bee decency; and if she does steal honey from such a hive and returns home her doom is sealed; for although in the bee world the way of the transgressor is not always hard, the way of the citizen that smells differently from her sisters leads to her murder and sudden death.
If a robber colony has almost completed its nefarious work, some people believe that it is best to let it make a clean job, and thus become satisfied there is no more plunder to be had, else the robbers will hunt other hives for depreclation. The bee memory seems to be very good, and if the robbers have not cleaned up all the honey which they remember is there, they hunt for it elsewhere. We could never bring ourselves to a frame of mind to per...it this calmly, though it seems like sensible advice. Robbing makes us so indignant that we refuse to allow the spoils to the victor.
Bees are certainly very clever, and they are able to learn. The old and successful robber soon reasons it out that where the bee-keeper with a smoker belches forth annoying fumes, there are to be found open hives ready for robbing; such bees will follow the operator from hive to hive, taking their title from the helpless colonies. For such robbers as these a way to appease them is a device for letting them rob where they can do little damage. Unsalable comb partly filled is put in hives or supers piled up. These are ventilated by having a wire screen above, the cover lifted, and the entrance contracted so that only one bee can pass in and out at a time. This keeps the robbers busy and happy and out of the way, and the process is called "slow robbing."
Some apiarists remove the robbed colony to a cellar for a day or two until it can recover its communal courage.
When a colony is queenless, or for some reason has no brood, it often allows the robbers to come and go at will, as if it had found life worthless anyhow, and that there was no use in struggling. It seems possessed of the sort of pessimism which leads to stoic recklessness. This can usually be stopped by giving the plundered colony a queen and brood; as soon as the bees find they have something worth while to live for and fight for they are nightially heartened and offer a brave defence.
What becomes of the robbed colony
Some of the bees are adaptable, and when they lose courage in defending their own stores they turn about and help carry these stores to the hive of robbing in the apiary 171 the robbers, which they join, thus swearing allegiance to a new flag. Others, more loyal, will cling to the old empty comb, cluster there, hopeless and despairing until they die of starvation.
maxims to prevent robbing
Be sure that the bees are robbing, before applying remedies.
Keep watch of the hives in early spring and late fall when there is no honey coming in.
Leavc no honey or loose comb open around the apiary under any circumstances.
If bees are determined to rob when the hives are opened by the operator, it is best to work under a bee tent or after nightfall.
Roblbing demoralises the whole apiary. If the bees are cross, look out for robbers.
Be very careful in uncapping not to let the bees get a taste of the style food, as that makes them very cross and wild to rob.
Keep Italians.
Do not let the colony become quenceless, as a quenceless colony is legitimate prey for many depredators.
The enemies and Diseases of bees
This miserable little pest is classic in its devastations as it is mentioned by the old writers, Aristotle paying to it bitter tribute. It belongs to a family of secretive moths which fold their dull wings closely about the body, and thus look more like bits of sticks than like insects. They are called the snout moths (_Pyralidar_) because the palpi extend out in front of the head in a highly ornamental and striking manner.
The bee-moth is a most insidious creature, hiding in cracks, and, when it flies, darting about with almost inconceivable swiftness. It is only by such means that it eudes the watchful bees. Professor Kellogg observes that the moth simply works against time when it rushes into a live by laying its eggs rapidly, dodging about with the utmost rapidity to leave as many progeny as possible before the bees can get hold of her and tear her asunder, a fate which surely awaits her. So it seems that even a parasite may be brave and go to certain death in fulfilling its destiny. Mr. Cook says that the moth will lay eggs while her head and thorax are being dissected, whichshows that even after death she is efficient for mis-chef in the hive.
The eggs are small and white and are put into crevices. From such an egg there hatches a caterpillar which spins about itself a silken tube, wherein it lives and in some mysterious way is protected from the bees. It may be that these tubes are of such texture that the bees cannot sting through them; or they may simply be sufficiently thick to protect their innate from hee observation. The caterpillar lives upon the wax and young bees, and also upon the bee bread; it is a voracious eater, and tunnels through the comb, destroying everything in its path. Those who have had experience with it say that by holding an infested comb to the car, the noise made by the industrious jaws of the caterpillar can be distinctly heard. Its presence can be detected by the fifth and the debris on the bottom board of the hive and also by the silken tubes on the comb. When the caterpillars destroy the bee larvae, the bees take out the remains and dump them in front of the hive, thus gaining among the ignorant, a reputation for infanti-cile which they little deserve.
In favourable locations the growth of these moths from egg to adult may require six weeks; the caterpillar when about an inch in length changes to a pupa, in a very thick, protecting cocoon of tough silk. The silk made by these caterpillars is of a most excellent quality; there is in the Cornell University Museum a filmy but strong silken handkerechief made by bee-moths passing and repassing over a flat board; it was made quite involuntarily as the caterpillars spin wherever they go. The bee-moch is especially destructive to stored comb if it is piled close together.
I remedy
To prevent the injuries of this pest the colonies should be kept strong. The bee-moch follows the rule of other parasites and attacks only the weak and the irresolute, and never injures a comb that is covered with bees. A queenless colony, rejected and discouraged, is usually victimised by it. The Italian bees have learned to cope with the bee-moch and exterminate it whenever attacked by it. Some bee-keepers, when a comb becomes infested, introduce it into the centre of an Italian colony, being sure that the little wretches will find there the fate they deserve. But to us this seems rather an imposition upon a self-respecting colony of bees.
The use of plain, simple, well-made lives is a protection from the bee-moch, as such hives do not afford hiding-places for moths and eggs.
Before comb is stored it should be put in a closed box out of doors, and a saucer of carbon bisulphide placed on top of the comb and left for a day. The deadly gas of this poison is heavier than the air and so fails instead of rising. Care should be taken not to breathe the fumes more than is necessary and hence the work should be done in the open air. Another reason for this is that the gas is inflammable, and hence no fire should be allowed near it. Thereis another reason why the work should be done in the open and that is because of the sickening stench of the gas. Comb thus treated should be stored in a perfectly tight receptacle, or else be set an inch or so apart on shelves. The bee-moth caterpillar does not seem to like to work in combs that are not set as closely together, as they are in the hives.
If combs infested with the bee-moth are subjected to a temperature of 10\({}^{\circ}\) F. the moth is usually exterminated. However, the pest normally passes the winter in the pupa state, and seems to be able to survive in hives left out of doors, wherever the bees can survive. It should be remembered that the bee-moth works only during the summer from May until October, and remains quiescent during the winter. As a matter of fact the modern up-to-date bee-keeper has almost no trouble with the bee-moth. It is a special enemy of the heedless and careless man who neglects his hives, and thus may well deserve to have his bees exterminated.
If a colony is attacked by the bee-moth, the hive should be thoroughly cleaned; new good comb should be introduced and only enough so that the bees can cover it. The infested comb should be fumigated with carbon bisulphide, and after the moths are killed it may be given to a strong colony to clean out and use.
THE Indian-meal moth (_P_Modia _interpuncte_Lia)
The Indian-meal moth sometimes forsakes its bins of grain and meal and devastates the honey comb. It does not measure more than one-eighth of an inch across its wings, and its caterpillar is almost too small to be noticed, unless it occurs in great numbers. It sometimes attacks the honeycomb in the North, and in the South it is often a great nuisance. The only remedy for this very small pest is to change the bees to smaller hives, and expose the infested comb to the fumes of carbon bi-sulphide.
## 11.2. The shiftless bee-keeper is the one who complains of the wax-worm.
Keep Italian bees.
Do not leave more comb in the hive than the bees are able to cover.
Use well-made hives with no crevices.
If you see a web upon the comb, hunt out the caterpillar and kill it at once.
If bee-modhs get into the honey store-room, close the room and fumigate it with brimstone or carbon bisulphide.
## 11.3. You broad
This is an infectious bacterial disease, and its presence in the apiary may be attended by serious results. When it first appeared in America, large apiaries were completely destroyed. In 1874, Professor Cohn discovered the organism which causes the disease, and which bears the name of _Bacillus alvei_. This microbe attacks the immature larvae and they die in the cells. It always attacks, to a lesser extent, the adult bee; but these leave the hive to die and are not such a dangerous source of infection as are the decaying larvae. Infected honey is the medium by which the disease is ordinarily spread from hive to hive. Undoubtedly robbing is to a great extent responsible for its prevalence.
How to detect forl brood
The brood appears in irregular patches and it does not all hatch; the caps to the brood cells may be sunken and broken at the centre, the holes being irregular, instead of the neat circular perforations which may be found above the healthy larvae. The sure test of the presence of the disease is found in the dead body of the larva, which is dark and discoloured; and if a toothpick or pin be thrust into it and then drawn back, the body contents will adhere to it in a stringy mass, to the extent of a half or even an entire inch, as if it were mucous or glue; later. the bodies of the larvae dry and appear as black scales in the cell bottoms. Another evidence of the presence of the disease is a peculiarly disagreeable odour which permeates the hive, which Mr. Root likens to that of a glue pot.
_Remedies.--_These have been worked out by many bee-keepers, notably by Mr. William McEvoy, inspector of bees in Ontario, Canada. His remedy is as follows: When there is a good honey flow so the bees will not suffer, all the comb is taken from the infected colony and frames with foundation
napthol will retard the disease, but most bee-keepers believe that it is not a sure remedy.
black bbroad
This appeared in New York so frequently that it was called the New York bee-disease. It was differentiated from foil brood by Dr. Win. R. Howard, of Texas, who found the bacillus and described it. The chief way of telling it from foil brood is that the contents of the body of the dead larva is jelly-like, instead of gluey. However, Dr. Veranus Moore and Dr. G. Franklin White, of the New York Veterinary College at Cornell University, worked upon this disease for some time and, in 1903, reported that the bacillus of this disease is _alvei_ and identical with that discovered and disscribed by Cohn as the cause of foil brood.
## picked brood
This disease of the brood differs from the others in that the body-contents of the dead larva are watery and that no peculiar stench in the hive emanates from them. Neither is it so contagious as foul brood, though it may seriously cripple an apiary, if not checked. The remedy for foul brood is applied with success to colonies suffering from this disease.
This disease is part of the difficulty of wintering. It is induced by the bees' habit of retaining waste matter in the body until they can fly out of the hive,for thus they preserve the cleanliness of their home. The first symptom of the disease is the soiling of the hive entrance with brownish excrement; the bees are also likely to die in great numbers, their bodies being much swollen.
The cause of the disease is attributed to cold and dampness, and poor food. If, in the fall, the bees store honey made from the juices of rotting fruit or cider refuse, or from honey-dew excreted by plant lice, they are very likely to perish by feeding upon it during the winter. But even with good honey bees wintered in cold, damp hives are liable to contract the disease.
## 10.11 prevention
Give the bees plenty of good food for winter. If the honey they have gathered in August is extracted, feed them syrup from the best of sugar. In winter keep the hives in proper temperature, with sufficient good air and ventilation. After the disease once appears, there is no remedy, except warm weather, which will promptly bring relief.
This arrangement of parts holds with the appendages of the body of an insect as well as with the body itself; the legs, mouth-parts and antennae are all tubular organs, having a firm outer skeleton supporting the inner parts.
Movement of the body and its appendages is provided for by narrow, flexible, zone-like areas in the skeleton which encircle the body and the appendages, at frequent intervals. This segmented condition of the body is easily seen in the hind part or abdomen, which appears to consist of a series of rings.
The microscopic structure of the body-wall is comparatively simple. There is an inner cellular part which consists of a single layer of cells: this is the hypodermis (Plate XXV, 2, \(h\)); and the outer or hard part: this is the cuticle (Plate XXV, 2, e).
The hypodermis is the active living part; it produces the cuticle, which receives additions from it constantly during the life of the insect. On this account, when a section of the cuticle is examined with a microscope it presents a layered appearance.
_Mounting of the cuticle._--From time to time during the growth of the insect the outer layers of the cuticle are shed; this is known as moulting. After a moult, the inner layers of the cuticle, which have now become the outer layers, but which are still soft, stretch to accommodate the increased size of the body, and then soon become hard. This moulting, or shedding of the skin, takes place about six times during the development of the bee. Several moulds occur during the larval life: one when the larva changes to a pupa, and the last one when the pupa changes to the adult or winged form, just before leaving the cell in which it has been developed.
_The head.--_The segments of which the body of an insect is composed are grouped into three regions: the head, the thorax, and the abdomen.
The head is the first of the three regions. It is formed of several segments grown together so as to from a compact box. It bears the eyes, the antennae, and the mouth-parts.
The eyes are of two kinds, which are distinguished as the compound eyes and the simple eyes.
The compound eyes are two in number, one on each side of the head; they are the organs commonly recognised as the eyes. They are called compound eyes because each consists of a great number of little eyes closely pressed together. If a compound eye be examined with a microscope, it will be seen to present the appearance of a honey-comb, being composed of a great number of six-sided elements; each of these is a separate eye.