BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
A few words back I spoke of the bees from the standpoint of interest. They are the most entertaining thing on a farm --after you begin to understand them. A few ''hives'' set out back of the barn in a neglected corner and forgotten about from one year to the next are not interesting, but a well-kept colony of bees will provide an unflagging interest to the oldest as well as to the youngest member of the family. Last summer a friend was visiting the orchard. He was a city-bred man not familiar with anything on a modern farm. One day I asked him if he would help me with some photographs that I wanted to take of a certain colony of bees. He consented rather reluctantly I thought and then I remembered that he had probably no conception of what the
## Why Keep Beess
inside of a beehive looked like and no idea about bees themselves except that they would sting, as he supposed, at the slightest provocation.
I supplied him with a bee-veil and gave him my assurance that he would not be stung. He has considerable respect for my veracity, and against his natural fear of the business end of the insects we went to work. His part of the job consisted in holding up brood frames covered with bees, so that I could bring the camera to bear upon them. I, of course, did all the work of extracting the frames from the hive and returning them to their places after we were through. When the ordeal was over my friend drew a deep breath and said, "Well, if any one had told me that you could handle bees as roughly as we handled them and not be stung to death, I would have said he was a liar by the clock."
As a matter of fact, we had not handled them roughly at all--quite the contrary,though it no doubt seemed rough to the novice to have me pull out a frame of brood and see the bees rolling over one another getting out of the way. During that entire season I was busy making pictures of the bees in every possible position and naturally handled them much more than one would if he were keeping bees only for the honey to be obtained from them. During the whole season I received but one sting--and that was a result of my own carelessness.
The life-history of the bee is so full of interest that books have been written about it, delightful books too, some of which are read by persons who never kept bees and never expect to. Their habits are different from any other animals we know, and the activities of the queen read like a fairy tale out of the legend-laden days when man talked with the wee folk who danced on the lawns in the moonlight. Imagine the queen, a living creature capable of producing at will
eggs which will hatch into either worker bees, drones or queens. How does she do it? How does the bee know its own hive when it returns from a flight many miles in extent? Why do bees sting more readily on certain days than on others? Do the drones sting and if not, why not? Why does a hive "swarm"? And how does it swarm? Where does the swarm go? Some of these questions have never been satisfactorily answered by any one. Others we can answer by using our eyes and ears when our own bees are in action, and working out problems for ourselves is one of the real joys of life.
To help you answer some of these questions for yourself, and to suggest others to you, will be one of the objects of this book.
Before I leave this chapter, however, I want to say just a word about where bees may be kept. I mean where they may be kept with a reasonable chance of producing a surplus of honey for their owner.
There are probably few places in this country where bees, if kept in not too large numbers, will fail to be profitable. Some sections may easily be "overstocked" but such places are already well supplied with beekeepers. In certain parts of northern Indiana I remember that beekeepers sometimes quarreled over the "right" to certain locations. Individual apiaries had as many as six hundred colonies and the pastures were no doubt crowded; but in the average farming districts of the country a few colonies of bees may easily be maintained at each farm home with no fear of much more than touching the surface of the nectar supply which is available but unused. Even in cities bees have been and are being kept with entire success. I remember that one year when I lived in the city my secretary kept a colony of bees in the "back yard" of her home in a densely populated part of the residence district. That colony produced something more than one hundred pounds of honey that season. It should be remembered, too, that the character of the wild plants in the neighborhood has everything to do with the quality of the honey which is produced. Through the "'corn belt" we find great quantities of white clover in the pastures. This produces the finest honey known, but unfortunately the introduction of "'sweet clover" has resulted in a decided lowering of the quality of the product throughout this great territory. The two clovers bloom at about the same time and a mixture results which is never as good as the "straight white clover." From the North, around the Great Lakes, is gathered wild raspberry honey, thought by many to equal that from the white clover. From the West comes alfalfa honey in quantities. Mesquite contributes its share, while the eucalyptus trees of California are the source of tremendous amounts of a dark honey resembling cough medicine in taste but said to be relished by many who learn to like it. Hosts of other plants furnish nectar from which the bees produce their detectable product. Some of these plants, such as the tuple-trees, furnish the material for strong dark honey that is hardly fit for human consumption. Where such plants exist in large numbers it may be found that the resulting "crop" is hardly worth the candle, but one can find out these things only by experience in one's own neighborhood. I am frank in saying that my own bees seldom produce any quantity of first-class honey, but they occasionally surprise me with a present of a nice white comb containing what is apparently pure white clover product. When they fail in that I have the reward of knowing that they have done their part in looking after certain rather fundamental details of the fruit business and then, as I said once before, they are so eternally interesting.
in late years, where a swarm of bees, escaping from a local beekeeper, built in a low tree and maintained itself for several seasons.
A "'hive" as it is known to-day is simply a house or home for a colony of bees. It may be either a simple box or a more complicated structure adapted to the proper handling and management of the beekeeper.
One of the first forms that the beehive took was that of the straw "skip," a conical affair formed of coiled layers of straw rope and arranged with an opening near the base for the bees to pass through. Such skeps served to house the colonies in almost perfect condition so far as the physical welfare of the bees was concerned, but they made no provision for the owner to remove the surplus of honey, and of course their construction was such that it was impossible to manipulate the combs or to exercise any control over the activity of the inhabitants.
When honey was wanted by the owner he resorted to the simple expedient of burning a bit of sulphur under the hive and afterward shaking out the dead bees. As it was always the heaviest colonies that were selected for this "treatment" the system naturally reversed the law of the survival of the fittest and only the weak and poorly working colonies were carried over the winter from year to year.
The next step in the evolution of the hive was the introduction of the log "gum." This was simply a section of a hollow log, set on end with a wide board nailed over the top to keep out the rain. A hole was bored near the base for an entrance and sometimes provision was made to place a second section on top to collect the surplus product of the active insects. This was a distinct step forward in bekeeeping methods and many beekeepers continued to use the old "gums" until quite recently. They, like the straw skep, provided ideal winter quarters for the bees and it was seldom that a colony so housed died from cold or from lack of stores.
These primitive hives served their purposes for the early settlers, but it was not until the advent of the nail leg and the soap-box that bekeeping really began to look up. These two couriers of civilization served as homes for innumerable colonies of bees and it is no uncommon thing to find them still on the job and getting away with it in remarkably good fashion. Some "progressive" soap-box beekeepers even go so far as to provide what amounts to movable frames in their boxes and on these frames the combs are built. Additional boxes placed on top of the hive serve to hold any surplus the bees may gather and the "soap-boxer" is convinced that his system is about as perfect as it well can be.
All these makeshifts, however, are crude, clumsy and in the long run expensive. While in any of them the bees may
the young are reared and in which honey is stored are built vertically in parallel series sufficient to fill the space they occupy. As a rule these combs are in the form of various sized plates which are rather carefully and accurately spaced, one from another. Under certain circumstances, however, and especially around the sides of the space occupied, the bees build short lengths of "'brace comb" and this may run at right angles to the main cluster. Not infrequently too, they may build "cross combs," or the whole affair may be constructed "on the bias" and the surface of each individual comb may present a tortuous aspect. In a wild state the bees will use as much or as little of the comb as they may need, adding to it in seasons of plenty and retreating to a smaller area in winter and during slack seasons. In other words, there is no confining element in the wild hives; it is an elastic unit.
This wild condition naturally includesfeatures that the bekeeper can take advantage of in designing his hives for it must be admitted that "wild" bees frequently live over the winter in better condition than they do in certain forms of manufactured "houses." The bekeeper, too, can avoid certain obvious defects in the natural hive and it is with a view of combining the good points of the natural hive and eliminating its objections that the beekeepers have striven.
After the invention of the movable frame hive many different individuals attempted to work out a satisfactory method of applying the idea to practical work. The result was a tremendous variety of "patent" hives each in its turn heralded as the last word on the subject. I think I have never known any business that has been more fad-ridden than has that of keeping bees, and while it now shows signs of getting down to brass tacks and behaving itself like a gentleman it is by no means over the mania for experimenting.
It loses its head with astonishing speed and regularity on the least provocation. Consult any bee journal for confirmation of this statement and you are almost certain to find a group of correspondents contributing flocks of letters trying to confirm or deny the latest fad. I enjoy those little arguments because the beekeepers themselves remind me so much of the activity of the hive, perhaps from long association. But I will say that for the most part their arguments are conducted in a gentle manner and they carry no sting--at least they never seem to use it.
Regardless of where or how a modern hive is built it must conform to two fundamental requirements. It must provide a safe home for the colony and it must be so constructed that the beekeeper can, with the least labor, examine each frame of brood as often as he may find necessary. These requirements have largely been fulfilled in several makes of hives that are now on the market and for the most part all makes are standardized as to the size of the frames that are used. Even here, however, there is just now considerable argument going on as to the correct size of the frame, _e. g._, some workers advocating one a trifle larger than that which has been accepted as standard for many years. To adopt any new-sized frame at this time would mean that hundreds of thousands of serviceable frames now in use all over the country would become mere junk to be replaced with new material--to the great advantage of the bee supply manufacturer.
The typical modern hive consists of a bottom board, hive body (containing the frames), super (in which the surplus is stored), and a cover of some sort to act as a tight roof for the whole. The bottom board acts as the foundation for the hive and as it is always near the ground, if not actually in contact with it, nothing but cypress lumber should be used in its con
inch. The larger opening is provided during hot weather and during a period when the bees are gathering large quantities of nectar from the flowers. At such times the activity within the hive is so great that the bees would pile up at the entrance in their hurry to get in and out unless plenty of room is allowed. The smaller opening is used in winter and in summer if the supply of nectar runs low. It is also used in the case of weak colonies which might be subject to the attack of robber bees from other colonies. Usually, too, a removable cleat is provided by the use of which the bee entrance can be still further contracted during any emergency. The hive body is the real works of the whole apiary. It is here that the bee makes its home and it is absolutely necessary that the beekeeper be able to ascertain at all times just what his insect workers are doing.
The walls of the hive body may vary considerably. They may be of a single thickness of inch boards or they may be double-walled with the space between either left empty or packed with some insulating material. Beekeopers do not agree as to what is the best form of hive body. It has provided food for argument for many years and is by no means settled.
The double-walled hive has been claimed to be the ideal hive because it afforded such perfect protection in winter, but in actual practice it has been found that bees winter no better in such hives than they do in single-walled structures. In fact it is very doubtful whether the construction of the hive has a great deal to do with the success with which bees survive a winter. I have known colonies to live through winters that saw repeated days when the thermometer went to twenty-five below zero, with no greater protection than the walls of a soap-box. Bees in modern hives alongside of the soap-boxes died with great abandon and regularity. This of course is no argument in favor of soap
boxes. It is offered only as an illustration of one of the problems in beekeeping that as yet remains unsolved.
So it is not definitely established that the double-walled hive provides any better home for the bees than does the hive built of a single thickness of lumber.
The walls in any case should be solid and should be joined at the corners with a dove-tail joint to prevent any gaping at these points in case the wood should dry out or warp..
The end walls at the top are cut out so as to provide a place on which the projecting tops of the frames will rest. The frames are the important part of the hive and are now built of a standard size, measuring seventeen and five-eighth inches long by nine and one-eighth inches wide-outside measurements. They are spaced in the hive in such a way that they measure exactly one and three-eights inches from center to center and this has been recognized as the correct spacing from combs.** Bees which build their combs in boxes with nothing to guide them as to the distance between them almost always approximate this distance.
The top bar of the frame should be heavy enough to support the weight of the resulting comb and it should extend beyond the end a sufficient distance to provide ample space to engage the end wall of the hive, which as I have said is cut out so as to allow the top bar to rest below the top surface of the hive wall. All standard frames are now constructed so as to allow room for the bees to work around the ends, top and bottom of the frame, and in this way passage from one frame to another is not interfered with in the least and the activity of the hive can proeeed with the least interruption.
In order to get the bees started straight in the building of their combs it is customary to provide a "starter" on which they can begin building. This starter consists of what we call "comb foundaThe HIVE
tion" and is simply a sheet of pure bees-wax rolled very thin and stamped or embossed with a pattern corresponding to the shape of the finished cells.
This foundation is supplied either in the form of a narrow strip attached the length of the top bar, or, better still, in the form of a solid sheet covering the whole space of the frame. It is held in place by inserting it in a groove cut for the purpose in the underside of the top bar and is further braced with fine timed wire extending from end to end of the frame. This wire is slightly embedded in the wax foundation and as the bees build up their comb it becomes a permanent brace which does much to secure the combs tightly in place. Frames which are not wired may often be broken in handling--and that is almost always an unpleasant experience, especially if the bees at that particular time happen to be slightly out of humor about something.
These frames contained in the hive body constitute what are called the "broad chambers" and they are reserved exclusively for the personal use of the bees in spring and summer for rearing brood, and later for storing food for winter. They are never drawn upon by the beeskeeper as a source of honey although similar frames contained in another live body and placed on top of the brood chamber may be filled entirely with honey as a surplus stock. This honey of course could not be eaten as "'comb honey," but would have to be removed from the comb. This arrangement is the source of the extracted honey which is so common on the markets to-day.
The super of the hive is that portion provided for the storing of the surplus honey and may consist either of a hive with standard frames for the production of extracted honey or it may be much shallower and equipped with sections in which the bees can build new comb each time to fill with honey. In the case of extracted honey and honey, the honey is a very simple example of a "baby".
honey the same frames are used over and over again and the bees are saved the labor of building new comb each time. Consequently any colony might be expected to return a much larger yield of extracted than of comb honey.
In recent years the tendency has been more and more to the production of the extracted form and as a result comb honey has been scarce and expensive. The high price has resulted in the return of many beekeepers to the production of comb.
The comb honey super is made to fit neatly on top of the hive body, or brood chamber as it is called now. Its interior fittings will vary considerably owing to a rather extensive variety of sizes in which the sections are made. Each section consists of a strip of perfectly white wood, (usually basswood) folded into a rectangular form and joined together by a dovetailed joint. An average super will contain about two dozen of these individual honey boxes.
The HIVE
A good cover should first of all be water-tight. In the second place it should not blow off easily. Formerly covers were made of two pieces of cypress lumber joined in the middle so as to be fairly tight and with a slight pitch to cause rain to run off. These wooden covers were a success provided one always remembered to lay a few bricks or a cast-iron fly-wheel or something of that sort on them to hold them in place. They had a very distressing way of blowing off in the wind--especially at night and in cold weather. For this reason most beekeepers have adopted the telescope cover which is built to slip over the walls of the hive. It is covered with tin or galvanized sheet-iron and answers every purpose of a durable practical roof.
An ''inner cover'' is almost always used with these telescope roofs. It consists of a thin light wooden cover to lay over the top of the hive before the regular cover is put on. Its use provides a dead air space for insulation against both heat and cold at the top of the hive and it also prevents the bees from sticking down the main cover as they are very much inclined to do.
Perhaps I should at this time say just a few words as to the proper placing of the hives in an apiary. In every case they should be set up off the ground a few inches. Two six-by-six timbers provide an almost ideal rest for a beehive, but any other support which will keep the hive itself from direct contact with the soil will answer the purpose. Also, the back of the hive should be a trifle higher than the front so as to allow any moisture that might collect on the floor to run out at the entrance.
The hives should be placed in such a way that they have some shade during the hottest part of the day. Some beekeepers prefer a location in the edge of a grove for this reason. Others plant grapevines in front of the hive or use some
that is presented to view must seem to be a sort of lost motion. There appears to be quite a bit of aimless wandering around. In a hive that is disturbed by being opened for inspection, this is doubtless true, but even in a closed hive the bees are constantly on the move, constantly doing something for the welfare of the colony and before we can understand some of the strange things that we see, we must know as much as possible about the normal life of the bee. We must know what its functions are and how it performs them before we can expect to keep bees intelligently.
I have mentioned before that there are many races of bees. The commonest of these is the German or black bee, early imported into this country and long since established in a wild form over most of our states. Where bees are kept in crude, old-fashioned hives they are nearly always of this race either in a pure state or in the form of "hybrids," crosses with the Italian bee. These, of course, are not true hybrids but the term has. been so long current among beekeepers that its use is impossible to avoid.
The black bees are often excellent workers, but their disposition to sting on the least provocation makes them unpleasant to handle. This tendency more than any other they transmit to their hybrid cousins and frequently we will find a colony of hybrid bees so cross that it can be handled only with difficulty even by the most expert manipulator.
The more recently introduced Italian bees, on the other hand, are exceedingly gentle and can be handled under certain conditions with very little fear of trouble. They too are excellent workers and offer a combination of an industries spirit with a mild disposition. For this reason they are fast becoming the standard stock in all well regulated apiaries. Unfortunately, however, there seems to be a tendency among some beekeepers to breed their stock for color and disposition
rather than for utility. This is a problem that many live stock breeders have encountered in recent years. Hens in particular have been "bred for feathers" rather than for eggs and as a result many "show" specimens are poor egg producers. Poutry men now realize this fact and beekeepers must soon recognize it. A few seasons ago I bought a beautiful Italian queen from a breeder noted for the excellence of his stock. Her eggs produced the gentlest bees that I ever handled, but unfortunately they were as indolent as a Florida "eracker" on a warm spring day. They were beautiful yellow fellows with just the nicest dispositions in the world but they lacked the pep to get out and hustle for a living. They finally starved to death one spring, with a pan of sugar sirup sitting right on top of their frames.
This case, of course, is an exception, but it does show that it is possible to overdo the business of breeding bees for color and gentleness.