BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
In the construction of the hive body it may either be dovetailed or rabbeted at the corners. Where hives are made at home it is recommended that the wood- Figure 7 worker build one of rabbetted corner type, Hive-Body With Plain unless machinery for dovetailing is avail- Hoffman Frames. able. The rabbeted corner hive has the advantage over the dovetailed in as much as it does not have as many joints exposed to the weather. Both hives should be nailed on each side to prevent warping.
## 0.11 Frame.
Some apiarists prefer a plain hanging frame. These are only satisfactory where the beekeeper has become skilled in spacing. For all general purposes the Hoffman self-spacing frame is the better, especially for the beginner; for they are so spaced that only ten and no more will conveniently fit the hive body. Self-spacing frames prevent irregular, narrow, imperfect combs, and with the use of foundation the combs are always built straight. A large part of the success obtained by the apiarist is largely due to standard equipment, i. e. having all hive bodies, bottom boards, frames of one size and one
honey. Then for every sixteen pounds of honey it requires an additional ten pounds of honey to produce the comb.
The above figures certainly shows economy, saving and an insight to the value of comb foundation in a monetary way. Comb foundation consists of sheets of pure bees wax with the imprints of the base of the embossed cells upon it. The evolution and process of its manufacture is too tedious, complicated and lengthy for explanation in this bulletin. (The reader is referred to some manufacturers catalogs or text book on apiculture.) There are a number of different grades manufactured for different purposes. For use in brood combs, sheets measuring about 6 square feet to the pound is best as the bees find nearly enough wax present to build the entire comb. For surplus honey in sections or shallow frames for chunk honey production, the use of thin sheets of comb foundation of the very best grade of light colored beeswax should always be used in order to prevent the "fish bone" toughness of a heavy artificial midrib.
## ADVANTAGES OF COMB FOUNDATION.
There are three primary advantages derived in the use of full sheet of comb foundation. It has already been mentioned that it requires approximately ten pounds of honey to produce a pound of wax. In comparing the present price of honey with the present price of comb foundation there is a saving of more than twice the amount of the cost of foundation.
Secondly, the bees are given guides upon which to work. All combs will be straight which really makes the handling of bees a pleasure. Where combs are crooked, it is disagreeable to manipulate the frames and often times impossible to make an interior examination. Leakage of honey in handling is prevented which reduces robbing as well as being mussy and unpleasant to the operator.
The third advantage probably more important than all combined is the elimination of excessive drone comb. It has been already stated that the drones consume large quantities of honey both in the developing and adult stages and are non-producers. This necessarily means a two-fold saving both in the amount of honey consumed and labor in caring for the developing drones which will be utilized in the production of workers, and in turn increases production. The apiarist need not be alarmed in not having a sufficient number of drones to fertilize the virgin queens in his apiary as there are always plenty of drones reared in the corners or in cells that that have become accidently enlarged. Only one drone is required in fertilization.
The wax used in manufacturing foundation must be absolutely pure beeswax. Many attempts in aduliteration have been tried but none as yet has proven successful. Bees seem to recognize their product from all other compounds and will refuse to accept foundation where any aduliteration with other mineral or vegetable waxes are used. They destroy and remove such foundation from their hive.
Full sheets of foundation should be fastened securely to the frames. Frames are now manufactured with a groove exactly in the center of the cross frame for attaching the foundation which is held in place by a wedge, or cleat securely tacked. It is also essential that the foundation
be fastened with wires which hold it straight as well as adding strength to the comb. The wires are imbedded in the foundation either by an instrument called "wire imbedder" or by an electrical imbedder which heats the wire and melts its way into the wax. This probably is the better of the two methods. The electric imbedder is cheap and the current is supplied by two ordinary dry cells. It can be supplied by any bee supply company. For sections, there are a number of fasteners placed on the market that insert the foundation by heat. Where comb honey is produced in large quantities an instrument of this nature is indispensable.
Figure 9: Corner-cut Top-bar Method of Fastening Foundation.
Nature has provided some method of perpetuating the race among all living things, so swarming is the natural way of increase for bees. It usually takes place during a honey flow when stores are abundant. Colonies about to swarm sometimes show a clustering at the entrance of the
right direction. It is essential to be certain that the queen enters the hive. The combs can be examined or a careful watch made to see if she enters. After the queen has entered the hive it is quite safe to conclude that the bees will remain. If she has been lost the bees will either return to the point of clustering or to the hive from which it issued. If a frame of brood from another colony is placed in the new hive it will prevent the swarm from leaving or if the queen has been lost it will give them the means of rearing another. If the bees cluster where it is impossible to remove the limb of a tree with the bees or upon a branch too valuable to cut, they can easily be driven into a basket or box by blowing a little smoke upon them in the direction they are desired to be driven.
**SWARM CONTROL.**
Unless increase is not desired, natural swarming should be discouraged so far as possible, so that the energy of the bees shall be utilized in the gathering of nectar. The old practice of measuring success in terms of new swarms in reality shows losses in the crop. Success is now measured in the result that the bekeeper attains in swarm prevention. The commercial apiarist has learned that swarming is the one great handicap in bekeeping. The problem of entire swarm control is a goal which cannot be attained, for swarms will issue in spite of every precaution, but in many instances it may be reduced to a large measure. The practice of the Dadants in their apiary management probably come as near to any means of control. The let-alone or Dadant method is explained in the following six statements.
1. Locate the colony in a place where the bees will suffer as little as possible from the heat. The use of shade boards is recommended in this connection.
2. The elimination or reduction of drone rearing to a minimum. In this case the use of full sheets of foundation, destruction of drone combs and replacing it with worker comb, produces more workers, fewer drones, and less incentive for swarming.
3. Providing ample super room for storage. Bees that are crowded for room prepare at once for swarming.
4. The provision of sufficient room for ventilation. A proper amount of ventilation is essential and can be easily adjusted by raising the hive from the bottom board, and blocking it up about half an inch or inch if the weather is hot and saltry.
5. Requeening each year with a young Italian queen. The old queen is often the cause of swarming because the bees noticing her decrease in fertility make preparation to replace her by starting queen cells and thereby stimulating swarming.
6. In connection with the above recommendations, it is advised to space the frames an additional eighth of an inch than provided in the modern hive to give the bees more room for clustering and better ventilation between the combs. This can be very easily done by removing a frame during the hot days of the season and utilize the space by equaspacing of the remaining nine. There are many other means taken by apilarists to eliminate swarming, such as destroying queen cells every week, using queen traps or entrance guards to prevent the queen from leaving the hive, spreading the brood, raising the brood to the upper story, and many other laborious manipulations or extra contrivances which require much extra time.
## Artificial Increase.
Where the apiarist desires to increase the number of colonies in the apiary it is best to practice some method of artificial increase rather than wait on the pleasure of the bees to swarm. There are a number of different methods of increasing the apiary, such as dividing the brood, and bees, of an individual colony into two equal portions and providing a queen for the queenless half or dividing the parent colony into small colonies or nuclei. These plans are not as satisfactory as "shook" swarming, for colonies so made lack vigor and the entire season is required to build them up to strong colonies.
"Shook" swarming consists merely of shaking the bulk of the bees from the combs of a strong colony into another hive on the old stand. The new hive should be supplied either with full sheets of foundation or drawn combs or a combination of both with the addition of one frame of unsealed brood to prevent the bees from leaving. The hive containing the remaining brood with some bees should then be removed to a new location. If supers have been previously installed they should be placed over the artificial swarm with a queen excluder between it and the brood chamber. This method should not be practiced too early in the season as natural swarming may take place later. Dividing should be done in the middle of the day when the bees are in the field and the yield of nectar is abundant.
Some beekeepers prefer using narrow strips of foundation for the artificial swarm. This provides no cells for the queen to lay eggs for a time, thus reducing brood rearing. However, by the time brood is reared the profit derived from the young bees is usually past. This is a gain rather than a loss, because the bees will largely divert their time gathered nectar and place it in the super as there are no cells. in the brood compartment in which to deposit the honey. The combs will be gradually drawn out and brood rearing increased in accordance. Sufficient amount of honey will be placed in the brood chamber for the winter supply. The chief disadvantage in using narrow strips of starter is the excessive drone comb which is likely to be built.
It is essential to note if queen cells are present in the hive with the remaining brood. If none are present, eggs or young larvae under three days old should be provided in order to rear a queen for this colony. A better plan, however, would be to provide a queen so as to hasten brood rearing.
## Quencless Colonies and Laying Workers.
Many times a colony loses its queen either by old age, accident through careless manipulation and many other causes too numerous to mention. Bees in a colony that is queenless usually manifest the same by being restless, easily provoked, walking around the entrance listless and without eagerness, and few leaving in search of nectar or pollen.
No time should be lost in providing the queenless colony with a comb of eggs and young larvae from which to rear a queen. If an extra queen is at hand it is better to introduce her at once for practically three weeks work will be gained.
After a colony has been queenless for sometime a worker which is an undeveloped'female may be sufficiently sexually developed to lay eggs. The laying worker deposits eggs in a very irregular manner sometimes two or more eggs to a cell. All bees developing from these eggs are drones as the worker is incapable of meeting a drone and becoming fertilized. If laying workers or a drone laying queen are present, the most effective way to dispose of them is to break up the colony and distribute it among strong colonies having fertile queens.
**UNITING.**
When a colony becomes queenless in late fall or early spring it is more profitable to unite it with another weak colony with a queen or with a normal colony to save the bees. In uniting colonies each should be smoked vigorously. Another method is to place the weak colony on top of the normal colony with a sheet of newspaper between them. The bees gradually work holes through this and unite without any trouble.
**TRANSFERRING.**
There are many bees in this state lived in box hives or log sums. Keeping bees under such conditions is unprofitable and should be discouraged. The colonies should be transferred as soon as possible into movable frame hives. The best time for this is during the season of fruit bloom. At this season the hives are not over run with bees and are light of honey. Select a day when the bees are at work on the bloom as this lessens the danger of robbing. There are a number of plans that the operator may choose.
One method is to remove the box hive a short distance from its stand and in its stead place a hive with movable frames containing full sheets of foundation. Turn the box hive upsidedown and place a small empty box inverted over it. By pounding or drumming on the box for several minutes the bees will become frightened and desert their combs and cluster in the empty box. The bees may then be dumped in front of the entrance of the new hive placed on the old stand. It is essential to watch in order to see the queen enter the hive. In case she has not left the old combs repeat the operation until she is found and seen to enter the hive. It is necessary that the queen be in the hive to be successful in the operation. The box hive-containing the brood should be placed right side up and in a new location. In 21 days the worker brood will have emerged and very probably a new queen will have been reared. Repeat the operation in drumming and unite the young bees with their former hive mates, first
carried out all the honey, close the hole securely so as to prevent another swarm from taking up quarters there.
**ROBBING AND ITS PREVENTION.**
Frequently when there is a dearth of nectar, bees are inclined to rob other colonies, especially those in a weakened condition. Feeding and returning the extracting supers often attract other bees. It is a good plan to return the supers and feed in the evening to prevent excitement. When the bees show the slightest inclination of robbing, discontinue manipulations, close the hives, and if necessary contract the entrance as much as weather conditions will permit. The placing of weeds and grass in front of the entrance is an aid to prevent robbers from attempting to enter. Always keep honey that is removed from the hives where the bees cannot get to it so as not to incite robbings.
**HOW TO ITALIANZE AN APIARY.**
The merits and superior qualities of the Italian bees has been discussed in a preceding paragraph. Since this race of bees has been highly recommended by all authorities on bee culture the apiarist often desires information concerning the Italianizing of his apiary. To do this a tested Italian queen should be purchased from some reliable queen breeder and introduced into one of the colonies of the apiary. Since the queen is the mother of the colony, the changing of queens is merely d step in changing the entire race of the colony in a few weeks.
To introduce a queen successfully, it is essential to find the queen to be superseded and destroy her. Either remove the new queen from the cage in which she is received and liberate the accompaning workers and replace her in a new cage, or release the workers and allow her to remain in the cage and suspend it between the combs. The mailing cage usually contains a candy stopper which should be exposed to the bees by removing the protecting shield. In the course of several days the bees will liberate her by eating the candy plug. The accompanying workers are very rarely accepted by the bees in the colony and may cause the queen to be rejected. There are a number of other methods of introduction practiced by experienced beekeepers but they are not as safe as the cage method.
After the Italian queen begins active egg laying frames containing her eggs can be given other colonies in which the queen has been renewed. It is best to wait several days after removing the queen in order to destroy all the queen cells before introducing the frame containing the eggs, so as to be positively sure that the queen reared is from the select queen and not from eggs laid by the inferior queen destroyed. The bees usually start a number of queen cells. It is therefore desirable to place some protection around all but one cell so as to save every queen that emerges. The remaining queens can be introduced into additional queenless colonies and therefore requeen a number by the queens reared in the one colony. This saves time and
## Production of Honey.
The obtaining of honey from bees is the primary object of their culture. Bees in gathering nectar and producing honey for their own requirements will store more than they need and this surplus the beeekeeper removes. Honey is produced in three forms depending upon the desires of the beekeeper,--comb, extracted and chunk.
## Comb Honey.
Comb honey is honey stored in the comb by the bees instead of having the bees storing the surplus in large frames. The bees are induced to store it in small wooden sections provided by the beekeeper.
There are different styles and sizes in use. The usual types are 4 x 5 plain section or 4% x 4% "bee way" section. The "bee way" section provides passage for the bees, while the use of a plain section requires a fence or separator on each side to provide bee space. There are many styles of super or bodies for holding the sections, but the type used by the majority of theIn producing comb honey it is essential to manipulate the colony so as to have a large force of bees ready for the field at the beginning of the honey flow. This requires careful spring management and swarm manipulation. When the brood combs begin to whiten at the top it is time to place on a super.
Supers should always be put in place just before the heavy honey flow begins. To prevent the queen from entering the super and laying eggs, a queen excluder should be placed between it and the brood chamber.
In order to stimulate the bees to begin work in the super as soon as possible to prevent the loss of honey, it is a good plan to put in a few partly drawn sections, left over from the previous year, to serve as "bait."
If no drawn sections are at hand a shallow extracting frame on each side of the sections will answer the same purpose. Another good plan, where colonies with sufficient strength refuse to start work above, is to change supers with a colony that has started working in their sections.
Supers should always be protected from the direct rays of the sun.
Full sheets of thin foundation in the section produces the finest comb honey. Some beekeepers prefer a narrow strip of starter at the bottom and nearly a full sheet from the top.
Where comb honey is produced, the bees are more inclined to swarm on account of the required crowded condition necessary to produce nice capped sections. When a colony swarms, on which is a super partly filled with honey, the bees abandon this work due to a depletion of the field force.
## 7 When the Bees Swarm.
Scme apiarists have adopted the plan of keeping one wing of the queen clipped so as to prevent her flying. Then if the swarm leaves the hive the queen can easily be caught and caged. Remove the hive from which the swarm has just issued from its stand and place the newly prepared hive in its stead. The bees soon discover the absence of the queen and return to the old stand and enter the new hive. As the bees are entering, liberate the queen so she enters with the bees. Take the super from the old hive and place it on the new hive. The bees remaining in the old hive can be shaken from the frames in front of the new hive and the frames of brood distributed among the weaker colonies in the apiary. Or replace the frames with capped brood and give the youngest brood to the weak colony. This plan strengthens the weak colonies and eliminates the inclination of swarming without curtailing the production to any appreciable extent.
## 8 When to Remove the Sections.
When the first super becomes half full or more and there is an indication of a continued honey flow, raise it and place an empty one on the hive under it. This tiering can be continued along as is necessary but it is advisable to remove the filled sections as soon as they are nicely capped, in order that they may not be soiled by the bees traveling over them. It is essential to give the bees only enough sections to store the crop, so as not to have a lot of unfinished sections left at the end of the flow. Honey of different colors should not be mixed as it gives the finished sections a bad appearance.
To remove the bees from the super, it may be put over an escape board so that the bees pass down through it and are not able to return. If, the escape board is put under the super in the evening and the bees are frightened with the use of a little smoke, the super will be empty of bees in the morning with the possible exception of a dozen or so bees.
After the sections are removed the wood should be scraped free from propolis and packed in shipping cases for market or stored in a small warm dry room. This is essential as honey absorbs moisture readily. In such a place it will gain in quality, while in a damp cellar, basement or refrigerator it gathers moisture and quickly sours.
## 6 Extracted Honey.
Extracted honey is honey removed from the combs by centrifugal force. Before the invention of the honey extractor in 1865, honey was removed from the comb either by crushing it and drawing off the honey or by melting the combs and allowing it to cool and removing the wax on top.. Strained honey as it is sometimes called, produced by these methods, is a rather inferior article in comparison to modern extracted honey.
In producing extracted honey no special super is required. A hive body filled with frames, exactly like in the brood chamber is placed over the brood rearing compartment for the storage of surplus. Some beekeepers prefer a shallow super similar to the comb honey supers, but equipped with shallow frames instead of sections. When filled with honey these are easier manipulated than the larger super. The use of the standard size frame cannot be denied as being valuable to an apiary as it has the advantage over the shallow frame in interchanging with the brood chamber so that frames of honey from the super can be placed below when the bees require feed. The advantage in using shallow frames other than ease of manipulation is the fact that bees will occupy them more readily. However a good Shallow Framed Ex- plan would be to use both types in producing tracing Super. extracted honey. The surplus bodies should be put in place before the honey flow begins in order to prevent crowding of the brood chamber which is an act in swarm control.
It is essential to use foundation in the frames, wired same as those used in the brood chamber, in order to secure straight combs. After the first year, the frames will be filled with comb since the honey is removed without any damage to it. Drawn combs can be used year after year. The author has seen combs that have been in use year in and year out for thirty years. The return of drawn comb is the direct advantage of producing extracted honey in preference to comb honey. The bees will enter the super sooner and are not required to use large quantities of honey to produce wax. For that reason alone the bees produce a third to two thirds more honey in a season.
The only real important requirement in producing extracted honey is having the honey throughly ripened before removing from the hive. The sealing of all the cells is not important as the caps are removed before extracting.