BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
Those among the combs may be able to move, though feebly. When this is the condition of things, invert the hive, gather up all the scattered bees, and put them in. Get some honey ; if candidied, heat it till it dissolves; comb honey is not so good without mashing; if no honey is to be had, brown sugar may be taken instead; add a little water, and boil it till about the consistence of honey, and skim it; when cool enough, pour a quantity among the combs, directly on the bees; cover the bottom of the hive with a cloth, securing it firmly, and bring to the fire to warm up. In two or three hours they will be revived, and may be returned to the stand, providing the honey given is all taken up; on no account let any honey run out around the bottom. The necessity of a daily visit to the hives is apparent from the fact, that if left over for one day, in the situation just described, it will be too late to revive them. At night, if you have a box cover, such as I have recommended, you may open the holes in the top of the hive; fill a small baking dish with honey or syrup, and set it on the top; put in some shavings to keep the bees from drowning, or a float may be used if you choose; it should be made of some very light wood, very thin, and full of holes or narrow channels, made with a saw. At the commencement of feeding, a few drops should be scat tered on the top of the hive and trailed to the side of the dish, to teach them the way ; after feeding a few times, they will know the road. When the weather is warm enough for them to take it during the night, it is best to feed at evening,--from four to eight ounces daily, is sufficient. If the family is very small, what honey is left in the morning may attract other bees ; it is then best to take it out, or carry the hive in the house to a dark room, sufficiently warm, and feed them enough to last several days, and then return them to the stand ; keeping a good lookout that they are not plundered, and again in a starving condition, until flowers produce honey sufficient.
## 10.3 Whole families may desert the hive.
When you have the means to keep up a supply of food, and time requisite to make feeding secure, perhaps it would not be advisable to wait till the last extremity before feeding, as a small family will sometimes entirely desert the hive, when destitute, if it occurs before they have much brood. In these cases, they issue precisely as a swarm ; after flying a long time, they either return, or unite with some other stock. If they return, they need attention immediately. You may be certain there is something wrong, let the desertion take place when it may ; in spring it may be destitution, or mouldy combs ; at other times the presence of worms, diseased brood, &c. By whatever cause it is produced, ascertain it, and apply the remedy.
FREDING.
OBJECTS TO GENERAL FEEDING.
I have known it recommended, and practised by some apiarians, to feed bees all at once in the open air, in a large trough; but whoever realizes much profit by this method, will be very fortunate, as every stock in the neighborhood will soon seem it out, and carry off a good share, and nearly every stock at home will be in contention, and great numbers killed; the moment the honey is out, their attention is directed to other stocks. Another objection to this general feeding is, that some stocks are not necessitated at all, while others need it; but the strongest stock is pretty sure to get the most. Now, as I cannot afford to divide with my neighbors in this way of feeding, and I suppose but few will be found who are willing to do it, I will give my method, which, when once arranged, is but little trouble.
Arangement for FEEDING.
If the object in feeding is to induce early swarms, of course the best stocks should be chosen for the purpose ; but some care is necessary not to give too much,and fill the combs with honey, that ought to be filled with brood, and thereby defeat your object ; one pound per day is enough, perhaps too much. The quantity obtained from flowers is a partial guide ; when plenty, feed less ; when scarce, more. Begin as soon as you can make them take it up in spring, and continue in accordance with the weather, till white clover blossoms, or swarms issue. Another object in feeding bees at this period, is to have the store combs all filled with inferior honey, so that when clover appears, (which yields our best honey,) there is no room except in the boxes to store it, which are now put on, and rapidly filled. When this last object is alone wished for, it is not much matter how much is given at a time, providing it is all taken up through the night; it will then take no time in day-light, when they might work on flowers; also, the bees would have no trouble in repelling any attempt of others to get at it.
Inferior honey may be used for this purpose; Southern or West India is good, and costs but little. Even molasses sugar mixed with it will do ; but they do not relish it so well when fed without the honey. I have usually taken about equal quantities of each, adding a pint of water to ten pounds of this mixture, and making it as hot as it will bear without boiling over, and skimming it.
## 18.1.1 is candied honey injurious?
There has an idea been advanced, that candied honey is injurious to bees, even said to be fatal.
recommend this as the honest course. Neither do I think it would be very profitable, feeding to this extent, under any circumstances. I have a few times had some boxes nearly finished and fit for market at the end of the honey season; a little more added would make them answer. I have then fed a few pounds of good honey, but always found that several pounds had to be given the bees to get one in the boxes.
C H A P T E R X.
destruction of worms.
I shall not give a full history of the moth in this chapter, as spring is not the time they are most destructive. It will be further noticed under the head of Enemies of Bees. But as this is a duty belonging to spring, a partial history seems necessary.
As soon as the bees commence their labors, the worms are generally ready to begin theirs.
Some in the best stocks.
You will probably find some in your best stocks; but don't be frightened; this is not the season when they often destroy your stocks, yet they injure them some.
a portion would be given to the brood, and possibly the old bees might not always refrain from sipping a little of the tempting nectar. Why not, when the compound was ready,--instead of wasting it by this process,--put it directly in market? Or, is it necessary to have it in the combs to help psychologize the consumer into the belief that it is honey of a pure quality!
numerous, until satisfied that it is no safe place among them to make a shroud and remain helpless two or three weeks. Accordingly, when they get their growth they leave, get on the board on the bottom, become chilled and helpless in the morning, but again active by the middle of the day. Now, if they are merely thrown on the earth, a place there will be selected, if no better is found, for transformation ; and a moth perfected ten feet from the hive is just as capable of depositing five hundred eggs in your hive, as if she had never left it.
Several generations are matured in the course of one summer ; consequently, one destroyed at this season, may prevent the existence of thousands before the summer is over.
This is another subject of theoretical reasoning, and imposition, (at least in my opinion.) I wish the reader to judge for himself ; get rid of whims and prejudice, and look at the subject candidly and fair ; and if there is no corroborative testimony comes up to confirm any position that I assume, I shall not complain if my assertions fare no better than some others. Only defer judgment till you _know_ for yourself.
Bees have ever received my especial regard and attention ; and my enthusiasm may blind my judgment. I may be prejudiced, but will not be wilfully wrong. I have found so many theories utterly false, when carried out in practice, that I can depend on no one's hypothesis, however plausible, without facts in practice to support it. No one should be fully credited without a test. To return to our subject.
**It** is supposed by many, when these worms are found on the board, they get there by accident, having dropped from the combs above. They seem not to understand that the worm generally travels on safe principles ; that is, he attaches a thread to whatever he travels over. To be satisfied on this point, I have many times carefully detached his foot-hold, when on the side of the hive or other place, where he would fall a few inches, and always found him with a thread fast at the place he left, to enable him to regain his position if he chose. Is it not probable, then, that whenever he leaves the combs for the bottom-board, he can readily ascend again? No doubt he often does, to be driven down again by the bees. Now, what I wish to get at by all this preamble, is simply this : that all our trouble and worrying to prevent the worms from again ascending to the combs--by wire hooks, wire pins, screws, nails, turned pins, clamb shells, blocks of wood, &c., is perfect nonsense, when half or more of them would not harm the bees any more if they did, and might as well go there as any where else. Besides, these useless " fixins " are very often a positive injury to the bees.
**objections** **TO** **suspended bottom-board.**
Suppose, if you please, that the worm has no thread attached above, and your board is far enough from the bottom of the hive to prevent his reaching it. Of course, he can't get up ; but how are your bees to do any better? The worm can reach as high as they can.
The bee can fly up, you think ; so it will, sometimes ; but will try a dozen times first to get up without, and when it does, it is a very bad position to start from, being a smooth board. In hot weather it does better. Did you ever watch by a hive thus raised, in April or May, towards night, when it was a little cool, and see the industrious little insects arrive with a load as heavy as they could possibly carry, all chilly, and nearly out of breath, scarcely able to reach home, and there witness their vain attempts to get among their fellows above them? If you never witnessed this, I wish you would take some pains for it, and when you find them giving up in despair, when too chilly to fly, and perishing after many fruitless attempts for life, I think, if you possess sympathy, benevolence, or even selfishness, you will be induced to do as I did--discard at once wire hooks and all else from under the hive in the spring, and give the bees, when they do get home with a load, under such circumstances, what they richly deserve, and that is, _protection_.
## 11.3. advantage of the hive close to the board.
An inch hole in the side of the hive, a few inches from the bottom, as a passage for the bees, is needed, as I shall recommend letting the hive close to the board ; it is essential on account of robbing ; also, it is necessary to confine as much as possible the animal heat, in most hives, during the season the bees are engaged in rearing young brood ; and warmth is necessary to hatch the eggs; and develop the larvae ; we all know that when the live is close, less heat will pass off than if raised an inch.
Objection answered. You object to this, and tell me, "the worms will get between the bottom of the hive and the board." Well, I think they will, and what then? Why I expect if you intend to succeed, that you will get them out, and crush their heads ; if you cannot give as much attention as this, better not keep them, or let some one have the care of them that will. I am as willing to find a worm under the edge of the hive, and dispatch it, as to have it creep into some place out of sight, and change to the moth. I once trimmed off the bottom of my hives to a thin edge, so they did not have this place for their coooons, but now prefer to have them square. _All profit_ is seldom obtained with anything. If you plant a field with corn, you do not expect that the whole work for the crop is finished. Neither should you expect when you set up a stock of bees, that a full yield will be realized without something more. If you are remunerated by keeping the weeds from your corn, be assured it is equally profitable to weed out your bees.
Insufficiency of inclined bottom-board. Now do not be deceived in this matter, and through indolence be induced to get those hives with descending bottom-boards, to throw out the worms as they fall, and hope by that means to get rid of the trouble; (I have already, in another chapter, expressed doubtsof this). But we will _now_ suppose such descending bottom-boards capable of throwing every worm that touches it " heels over head" to the ground ; what have we gained? His neck is not broken, nor any other _bone_ of his body! As if nothing extraordinary had happened, he quietly gathers himself up, and looks about for snug quarters; he cares not a fig for the hive now; he gormandized on the combs until satisfied, before he left them, and is glad to get away from the bees any how. A place large enough for a cocoon is easily found, and when he again becomes desirous of visiting the hives, it is not to satisfy his own wants, but to accommodate his progeny; he is then furnished with wings ample to carry him to any height that you choose to put your bees.
A hive that is proof against the moth, is yet to be constructed. We frequently hear of them, but when they come to be tested, somehow these worms get where the bees are. When your hives become so full of bees, that they cover the board in a cool morning, the worms will be seldom found there, except under the edge of the hive.
Trap to catch worms.
You may now raise the front side half an inch, on blocks, for the warm weather, unless the colony becomes reduced; but you may still catch the worms by laying under the bees a narrow shingle, a stick of elder split in two lengthwise, where they may spin their cocooons. These should be removed every few days, and the worms destroyed, and the trap put back. Do not neglect it till they change to the moth, and you have nothing but to remove the empty cocoon.
box for wren.
If you would take the trouble to put up a cage or two for the wren to nest in, he would be a valuable assistant in this department of your labor. He would be on the lookout when you were away, and many worms, while looking up a hiding-place in some corner, would be relieved from all further trouble by being deposited in his crop. The cage for him need not be more than four inches square; it may be fastened near as possible to the bees; to a post, tree, or side of some building a few feet high. I have seen the skull of some animal (horse or ox) used, and is very convenient for them, the cavity for the brains being used for the nest. A person once told me the wren would not build in one that he had put up. On examination, the stake to support it was found driven into the only entrance. I mention this to show how little some people understand what they do. It is sometimes well enough to know why a thing is to be done, as to know it _must_ be done. I could tell you to do a great many things, but then you would like to know _why_, then _how_ to do it. Now if this prolixity is unnecessary for you, another may need it. You must remember I am endeavoring to teach some few to keep bees, who are not over supplied with ingenuity.
is full of honey ; it may be full of bees, and not of honey. And yet the only rule that I can give to be generally applied, is, when the bees begin to be crowded out, but a day or two before would be just the right time, that is, when they are obtaining honey--(for it should be remembered that they do not always get honey when beginning to cluster out). This guide will do in place of a better one, which close observation and experience only can give. By observing a glass hive attentively, in those cells that touch the glass on the edge of the combs, whenever honey is being deposited here abundantly, it is quite evident that the flowers are yielding it just then, and other stocks are obtaining it also. Now is the time, if any cluster out, to put on the boxes. When boxes are made as I have recommended, that is, the size containing 360 solid inches, it is advisable to put on only one at first; when this is full either of bees or honey, and yet bees are crowded outside, the other can be added. This is before swarming; too much room might retard the swarming a few days, but if crowded outside, it indicates want of room, and the boxes can make but little difference. It is better to have one box well filled than two half full, which might be the case if the bees were not numerous. The object of putting on boxes before swarming, is to employ a portion of the bees, that otherwise would remain idly c.ustering outside two or three weeks, as they often do, while preparing the young queens for swarming. But when all the bees can be profitably
that perhaps a thousand or two young workers are added every week, and these have to learn by the same means--it would seem, if we studied our own interest, we would give them all the facility possible for entering the boxes. What way so easy for them as to have a passage, when they get to the top, between each comb? That bees do not know all roads about the hive, can be partially proved by opening the door of a glass hive. Most of the bees about leaving, instead of going to the bottom for their exit, where they have departed many times, seem to know nothing of the way, but vainly try to get out through the glass, whenever light is admitted.
I am so well convinced of this, that I take some pains to accommodate them with a passage between each comb ; they will then at least lose no time by mistakes between the wrong combs, crowding and elbowing their way back through a dense mass of bees which impede every step, until again at the top perhaps between the same combs, perhaps right, perhaps farther off than at first; when I suppose they try it again ; as boxes are filled sometimes under just such circumstances.
To assist them as much as possible, when new hives are used for swarms, I wait till the hive is nearly filled before making the holes to ascertain the direction of the combs. We all know it is uncertain which way the combs will be built, when the swarm is put in, unless guide-combs are used.* When holes are made before the bees are put in, guide-combs as directed for boxes should be put in ; (of course they should cross at right angles the row of holes).
directions for boring holes in full stocks.
_To make holes in the top after the combs are made._-Mark out the top as directed for making hives and boxes. A centre bit or an auger bit with a lip or barb is best, as that cuts down a little faster than the chip is taken out, leaving it smooth; when nearly through, a pointed knife can cut the remainder of the chip loose, and it can be taken out; if it is between the combs, it is well ; if directly over the centre of one, it is a little better; with the knife take out a piece as large as a walnut; even if honey is in it, no harm will be done. The bees will then have a passage through from either side of the comb.
After you have opened one hole, very likely the bees will want to see what is going on over head, and walk out to reconnoiture. To prevent their interference, use some tobacco-snoke, and send them down out of your way, till your hole is finished. Now lay over this a small stone or block of wood, and make the others in the same way. When all are done, blow in some smoke as you uncover them, and put on your box. This process is not half so formidable as it appears; I have in this way bored hundreds. You will remember my hives are not as high as many others keep them, they are in about as convenient a position as I can get them. This method saves me the trouble of sticking the guide-combs in my hives; also, the ne cessity of covering or stopping the holes. Dr. Bevan and some others have made a cross-bar hive, instead of nailing on a top in the usual way ; a half-inch board of the right length is cut into strips, some over an inch wide, and half an inch apart, across the top. It is plain that in such a hive a bee can pass into the box whenever it arrives at the top, without difficulty. I will here repeat the objection to allowing too much room, to pass into the boxes, that you may see the disadvantages of the extremes of too little and too much room. In these cross-bar hives, the animal heat rises into the box from the main hive, making it as warm as below ; the queen goes up with the bees, and finding it warm and convenient for breeding, deposits her eggs; and young brood as well as honey is found there. When we think it full, it is then indispensable to return it, if taken off, till they hatch, (otherwise they spoil it by moulding), which makes the combs dark, tough, &c. Another objection to such open tops is, that open bottom boxes must be used, which are not half as neat for market.
To be taken off when filled.
This advantage attends glass boxes: while being filled, the progress can be watched till finished, when they should be taken off to preserve the purity of the combs. Every day the bees are allowed to run over them, renders them darker. Consequently, when our bees are a long time filling a box, it is not as purely white as when filled expeditiously
Two weeks is the shortest time I ever had any filled and finished. This, of course, depends on the yield of honey, and size of the swarm ; three or four weeks are usually taken for the purpose. I have before said that the first yield of honey nearly fails in this section, usually about the 20th of July ; there are some variations, later or earlier, according to the season. In other places it may be much later.
When to take off boxes part full.
It can be ascertained by occasionally raising the cover to your glass boxes. When no more is being added, all boxes that are worth the trouble should be taken off; if left longer the comb gets darker, and such cells of honey as are not sealed over, (and sometimes the majority are such,) the bees generally remove down into the hive.
Tobacco smoke preferred to slides.
When boxes are to be taken off, if a slide of tin, zinc, &c., is used to close the holes, some of the bees are apt to be crushed, others will find themselves minus a head, leg, or abdomen, and all of them be irritable for several days. A little tobacco smoke is preferable, as it keeps all quiet. Just raise the box to be taken off sufficient to puff under it some smoke, and the bees will leave the vicinity of the holes in an instant; the box can then be removed, and another put on if necessary, without exciting their anger in the least.
opening to let the bees out ; in the course of the day they will sometimes all leave ; but this method I have found unsafe, as they sometimes find the way back. When a large number of boxes are to be managed, a more expeditious mode is, to have a large box with close joints, or an empty hogshead, or a few barrels with one head out, set in some convenient place ; put the boxes in, one above another, but not in a manner to stop the holes ; over the top throw a sheet of one thickness, a thin one is best, as it will let through more light. The bees will leave the boxes, creep to the top, and get on the sheet ; take this off and turn it over a few times ; in this way all may be got rid of without the possibility of carrying off much honey. All that know the way will return to the hive, but a few young ones are lost.
Not Disposed to string.
They seldom offer to sing during this part of the operation, even when the box is taken off without tobacco smoke, and carried away from the hive; after a little time, the bees finding themselves away from home, lose all'animosity.
As honey becomes scarce, less brood is reared; a great many cells that they occupied are soon empty ; also, several cells that contained honey have been drained, and used to mature the portion of brood just started at the time of the failure. We can now understand, or think we do, why our best stocks that are very heavy, that but a few days before were crowded for room and storing in boxes, are now eager for