BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
"The insect-upholsterer, as she has been called, betakes herself, so soon as her cell is complete, to the nearest scarlet field-poppy, from which she successively cuts off small oval pieces, seizes them between her legs, and conveys them to the nest. Beginning at the bottom, she lays down three or four leaves, one upon another, and then decorates. the sides of her cell with two. If the piece she has brought is too large to fit the place-intended, she cuts off what is superfluous, and carries away the refuse. If you cut the fresh petal of a poppy with a pair of scissors, you will see how difficult it is to keep the piece so cut from wrinkling and shrivelling; but the bee is able to spread the pieces which she uses as smooth as. glass.
"Having thus tapestried her little apartment with glowing scarlet, she fills it with the pollen of flowers mixed with honey, to the height of about half an inch. In this accumulation of provisions she lays an egg, and over the egg she pulls the edges of her_poppy-curtain. The upper part is then carefully filled in with earth.
"Rennie says, and very rightly, that it will,.
perhaps, be impossible ever to ascertain, beyond a doubt, whether the poppy-bee is induced to select the dazzling petals of the poppy from their colour, or from any other quality they may possess--such, for instance, as warmth or softness. The great French philosopher, Reaumur, thinks that her choice is determined by the largeness and flexibility of the poppy-leaves. Yet I would presume to say, with Mr. Rennie, that it is quite possible her eye may be gratified by the appearance of her nest ; that she may possess a feeling of the beautiful in colour, as most birds do, and may look well-pleased on the rich hangings of the chamber prepared for her offspring.
"'Why,' says Rennie,'should not an insect be supposed to have a glimmering of the value of ornament? Considering how little we know of the way in which the inferior animals think and act, what right have we to say that all they do is for usefulness, and not for pleasure! If a dog howls at the sound of a bugle, is it not because it offends its organs of hearing? "'
" And," interrupted Charlie, "' if spiders come forth from their dens at the sound of a flute, is it not because the sweet music pleases _their_ organs of hearing? ""Just so, Charlie ; and why, then, may not a bee feel gratified with the brilliant hues of her scarlet drapery, because they relieve and refresh her organs of sight? It seems to me that all these inferior creatures work with far more ingenuity and finish than are absolutely necessary for their comfort or protection ; and this circumstance alone would seem sufficient to prove that they have something of taste to exhibit, which produces in them an emotion of enjoyment.
"The tapestry-bee, however, satisfies herself with ornamenting the interior only of the nest which she forms for her progeny. She does not commit the error of some human artists, and lavish her embellishments where they are neither needful nor becoming. She asks for elegance, but she also demands security ; and she does not sacrifice the latter to the former. 'Here is not a mansion rich with columns and friezes without, but cold and unfurnished within, like the desolate palaces of Venice.' It may be more justly compared to an English mansion, whose exterior is generally simple and unpretending, while the interior is replete with every comfort and luxury. At all events, the prudent bee covers her tapestry quite round with the common earth ; and then she * 72 ONE great fact.
leaves her eggs enclosed in their cell of flower-leaves, assured that no plunderer can be attracted by any trace of her wonderful toil.
" But now, Charlie, I have come to the end of my'tether ;' in fact, I have wandered away from the answer to my question,'Who was the First Architect?' I have shown you the bee not only as an architect, but as a mason, a burrower, a carpenter, an upholsterer ; plying her various trades with an instinct and an ingenuity so remarkable and so singular, that we are compelled to admit they sometimes very closely upon reason. And, from first to last, I have endeavoured, my boy, to impress upon you one great fact : that this ingenuity, instinct, intelligence--call it what you will--is the result of no chance, or scientific development, or natural laws, but was originally implanted in the insect's mind by that God whom _all things in earth and heaven declare!"* [1]* [10]** [10]*
## Appendix R. Mann
New York State Colleges
Agriculture and Home Economics
Everrett Franklin PHILLIPS
Beekeeping library_Presented by_
Mrs. C. and Dr. J. R. Anderson
in Memory of
Dr. John Anderson Cornell University Library
SF 523.8193 1921
**Bases for pleasure and profit; a guide to**
3 1924 003 514 027
Bees for Pleasure and Profit.
By G. Gordon Samson.
_Opinions of the Press on the First Edition._
"This is a capital work on the subject of bees. The whole of the details of management are clearly given, without undue elaboration, and there are many indications that the chapters are the outcome of actual experience."--_Mark Lane Express_.
"A practical treatise on manipulation and management.... Portable in form and cheap of cost, it should form part of every bee-keeper's equipment."--_Nature_.
"The book is the result of exhaustive experiments which the author has carried out. Written in plain, simple language, the aim of the writer has been to explain as tersely and as briefly as possible the mysteries of the beehive, the various manipulations connected with the apiary, and other matters of importance to bee-keepers. The book is one that should commend itself."--_I-ish Farming World_.
"A simple and reliable work, which we have great pleasure in recommeding as the most pithy and valuable book we have seen."--_Horticultural Times_.
"The book will be found valuable as a guide to the manipulation of bees, the production of honey, and the general management of the apiary. The author has been careful in his calculations, and his conclusions will be sure to win the consent of readers."--_Bristol Observer_.
"This is certainly one of the best handbooks on the subject we have seen."--_Barbury Guardian_.
"A useful and thoroughly practical _vade mecum_ to the arts of the apiary.... The book is illustrated throughout, and every possible matter relative to the hive and its interesting inhabitants is discussed."--_Norwich Argus_.
"The intending bee-keeper will find exactly the kind of information required to enable him to make a successful start with his hives.... Mr. Samson is a thoroughly competent teacher."--_Moving Post_.
"We believe that if the author's suggestions are intelligently followed, the results obtained will be as satisfactory as those yielded by other methods. There is a good chapter on the diseases of bees, and the remedies that should be applied."--_Westwhister Review_.
"An able and interesting exposition of the whole art and mystery of bee-keeping, calculated to teach the beginner the wisest methods of securing the best developments. The author speaks from the fulness of a wide practical knowledge of his subject."--_Colonies and India_.
CROSBY LOCKWOOD & SON, 7, STATIONERS' HALL COURT, E.C.
## Appendix B For Pleasure and Profit
B.1.1 GUIDE TO THE MANIPULATION OF BEES, THE PRODUCTION OF HONEY, AND THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE APIARY
G. Gordon Samson
**AUTHOR OF "causek and CONNEQUENCES," "'bever man his owns BUILDER," etc., etc.
_FIFTH EDITION, 1GAIN REVISED AND ENLARGED_**
CROSBY LOCKWOOD AND 8ON
7, stationers' hall court, ludgate hill
**[All rights reserved]**
## Preface to the first edition.
In the following pages it has been my endeavor to treat the subject of Bee-keeping in detail as fully as the size of the work permits. Where there are several ways of performing the same operation or arriving at the same end, I have thought it best not to confuse the beginner with a multiplicity of methods, and have therefore detailed only that one which my experience has proved the best.
With regard to the practical side of the subject, these pages embody the results of exhaustive experiments which I have carried out on several points ; and in those cases in which my own experience does not lead me to speak with confidence and certainty, I have been careful to compare the highest authorities, and to obtain the information on which I base my conclusions from the most reliable sources and the best-known authors.
I have striven to avoid over-burdening the work with unnecessary verbosity, my aim having been to explain, as tersely and with as much brevity as possible, the mysteries of the beehive, the various manipulations con nected with the apiary, and other matters important to be known and understood by the Bee-keeper.
I have also briefly touched upon the relation of api-culture to horticulture and agriculture, in the hope that, should this little work fall into the hands of those who are engaged in the latter pursuits, more especially into the hands of fruit-growers, the remarks which it contains on this subject may be of some substantial and practical utility. In very fine seasons, when the springs are bright, fine, and mild, fruit will doubtless set very well without the intervention of bees--the wind, assisted by the sunshine, being a sufficient agent for the distribution of the pollen; but in cold, wet seasons the aid of bees is unquestionably essential to the fertilisation of the bloom by carrying the pollen, not anywhere at hap-hazard as the wind does, but from blossom to blossom, and nowhere else. In wet and cold weather the pollen is more inclined to adhere to the blossoms than in fine, warm weather; and thus it is that the wind fails in unfavourable seasons to secure that which can then be obtained only by the help of bees--viz., the proper fertilisation of the fruit blossom, with the result of a proportionately abundant crop of fruit.
I would invite any persons who may be incredulous on this point to visit, in a confessedly bad fruit year--say during August or the early part of September--the localities in which some of our large apiaries are situated. Let them carefully view the country lying in a radius of, say, two miles from the apiary itself; and they will find that in almost every case the fruit trees are laden with heavy crops, while they will observe as they get farther from the vicinity of the apiary (supposing that not very many bees are kept in the country around) that the fruit crops steadily deteriorate. The proof, to me at any rate, has been indisputable, and I hope that it may be so to many others ; for I am convinced that, so soon as beelepers and fruit-farmers begin to recognise the importance of the one industry in relation to the other, more prosperous times will be in store for each, and we shall not only hear of better fruit-harvests, but of larger returns of honey also.
Thus, by making bee-keeping and fruit-growing really profitable industries, may we hope to successfully vie with foreign competition, and produce in larger quantities in our own country two commodities --fruit and honey--which at present we largely import from abroad.
G. GORDON SAMSON.
Oldfield,
Bournemouth, 1892.
Note--The Author has to acknowledge his indebtedness to Mr. T. W. Cowan, F.L.S., Author of _The British Bee-Keepers' Guide Book_, for allowing the use in this volume of five of the illustrations--namely, Figs. 27, 29, 31b, 32, and 37b, also 23a.
## Preface to the Third Edition.
The demand for this little work having necessitated the publication of a third edition, the present issue has been thoroughly revised and brought up to date, and a new chapter on Bee-keeping in our Colonies and in hot climates has been added, ily which I trust that the usefulness of the book may be enhanced.
(i. GOIDON SAMSON.
Church Squars,
('Aerow, 1904.
## Preface to the Fifth Edition.
The first edition of this little book was published in 1892, and the demand for it continuing still undiminished, the present edition has been again revised and brought absolutely up to date, while the section on Bee-keeping in the Colonies and in hot climates, as well as the chapter on the Diseases of Bees, has been enlarged.
G. GOIDON SAMSON.
## Chapter I Natural History of the Honey Bee.
The Internal Economy of the Beehive--The Workers--The Drones --The Queen--Fertile Workers * * * * pp. 1--8
SWARMS AND SWARMING.
When Breeding Begins--Swarming--Appearance of a Hive before Swarming--Second Swarms and Casts * pp. 9--11
THE VARIOUS RACES OF BEES.
The English Bee--The Italian or Ligurian Bee--The Carniolan Bee--The Syrian Bee--The Cyprian Bee--The South African Bee--Crossbred Bees, Italian Hybrids, Carniolan Hybrids--The Syria-Carniolan Bee, a Model Bee--The " Golden Italian" Bee * * pp. 12 --15
HVES.
The Straw Skep--The Bar-frame Hive--Bar Frames--Metal Ends --The Floor Board--The Body Ilive--The Entrance, and Entrance Contractors -- The Foreign --Dummy or Division Boards--The Root--Position of Frames--The Size of the Hive--Doubling Boxes--Removable Walls--QaCONTENTS.
Chapter V.
How to make a start in bee-keeping
What to Buy--How to Hive a Swarm--Comb-Foundation--Why
Foundation is Used--How to fix Foundation in Frames
--Wiring Foundation into Frames
. pp. 24--29
Chapter VI.
MANIPULATING BEES.
What to do when Stung--Bee Veils--Gloves--Gorging the Bees--
Smoking--How to Manipulate--Manipulating a Full Hive--
Quieting Bees with Carbolic Acid.
. pp. 30--34
Chapter VII.
THE PRODUCTION OF COM! Honey.
Sections--Section Crates--Frames of Sections--Dividers--When to
Super--Raising the Super--Taking off the Super--Packing
Sections--Strong Stocks Indispensable--How to Unite--How
to find the Queen--Swarming
. pp. 35--44
Chapter VIII
THE PRODUCTION OF EXTRACTED HONEY.
How to Produce Combs--Doubling--Extracting--The Extractor
--Storing Conbs in Winter--Ripening and Bottling--Shallow
Frames--Henther Honey
. pp. 45--50
Chapter IX.
THE PROFITABLE PRODUCTION OF BEES.
Natural Methods of Increase--Stimulative Feeding--Spreading the
Broad--Trunnt Swarms--Building up the Stocks--Trofit and
Loss--Begin with One Stock--Artificial Methods of Increase
--Give the Bees Plenty of Room--Queen-raising--Forming
Nuclei--Fixing the Queen Cells--Bred Queens from the Best
Stock in the Apiary--Building up the Nuclei--Profit and
Loss--Economy
. pp. 5--66
## Chapter X.
SPRING, \(leph\)UMER, AUTUMN, \(\lambda\)ND WINTER MANAGEMENT.
Spring Management--Candy--Robbing--Hive Roofs Blowing off--Planting for Bees--Summer Management--Introducing Queens--Shading Hives--Autuuna Management--Condensed Bees--Driving--Robbing--Packing up Bees for Winter--Winter Management.... pp. 67--76
THE WELLs' SYSTEM OF KEEPING TWO QUEENS IN ONE HIVE, THE Diseases OF BEEN.
How to Keep Two Queens in One Hive--Mr. Wells' Discovery--Autumn the Best Time to Start--The Wells' Hive--The Wells' Dummy Board and How to Make It--Section Racks for Wells' Hive--Metal to be Avoided as a Material for Wells' Dummies--What to do when the Bees Swarm--The System only Suitable for Experienced Bee-keepers.. pp. 77--79
## Chapter XII.
THE DISEASES OF BEES.
Dysentery--Foul Brood--Symptoms of Foul Brood--Remedies--Salicylic Acid--Pheenol--Formic Acid--Naphthol Beta--Treatment of Foul Brood in its More Advanced Stages--The ''Starvation'' or ''Fasting'' Method of Treating Foul Brood--Destruction of Badly Diseased Stocks-- Necessity for Disinfection--Isle of Wight Bee Disease--Its Symptoms--Cures and Prevention--Prevention Better than Cure--Naphthaline. pp. 80--93
FINAL HINTS.
Keep all Stocks Strong--Use Cane Sugar--Manipulating--Extracting Wax.. pp. 94--97
The question is the mother bee, and lays all the eggs from which the inhalatants of the hive are produced; the workers are imperfect and unfertile females; while the drones are the male bees.
The queen, as will be seen from fig. 1, is much larger than either the workers or drones. She does no work, lur sole duty being to lay eggs; and in the summer she will lay as many as three thousand of them a day.
She lives four or five years.
The drones are produced at swarming time, their sole use being to mate with the young queens, as they do no work at all. They, however, consume a great deal of honey, and for this reason the bee-keeper should limit the number of drones in his apaary by allowing the bees to build but little drone-comb. In flying the drones make a very loud buzzing, and the novice will at once learn to distinguish them from the workers when on the wing by the great amount of noise which they make. They are considerably larger and stouter in appearance than the workers.
The workers, or "neutrals" as they are sometimes called, attend to all the business of the hive, as it is they who rear the brood (fig. 2), feed the queen and drones, gather the honey and pollen, build the combs, and defend the hive from robber bees and other hostile insects.
On their hind legs are what are known as " pollen baskets."
Figure 1: Queen.
These consist of long hairs, in which the bees carry the pollen which they collect from the flowers. A bee never gathers pollen frcm more than one kind of flower in a single journey, and it is owing to this wonderful provision of nature that we do not have the pollen of one species of flower wasted by being carried to another species which it could not fertilize.
Honey comb, as most people know, is composed of small hexagonal or six-sided cells. In these the honey is stored and the brood reared. The queen deposits one egg in the bottom of each empty cell. She lays two kinds of eggs : one kind, which she lays in the small-sized cells, produces the worker bees ; and the other kind, which she deposits in the larger cells, produces the drone bees. The queens, as we shall presently see, are also produced from worker eggs placed in acorn-shaped cells, and supplied with different food--the same eggs precisely as, under different conditions, would produce worker bees.
If we examine the combs in a hive, we shall find that they are chiefly composed of the small cells, five of which measure an inch across : these worker combs are about \(
rac{7}{8}\) inch in thickness. In the drone comb--_i.e._, that composed of the larger cells--only four cells go to the inch. This drone comb is found principally at the sides of the hives, and is usually built when honey is coming in in large quantities, as it requires less bees wax for its construction. It measures about \(1
rac{1}{8}\) inch in thickness. A swarm of bees when left to itself usually clusters in the highest part of the hive, and there builds about four or five worker combs. When these are nearing completion, which will probably be in ten days or a fortnight, the bees commence to build other combs at the sides of them, and these are generally composed of drone cells. Honey is stored in both worker and drone combs.
Let us carefully watch a swarm of bees, and we shall learn
Figure 3: Newiy Built Comb,
a great deal concerning the economy of the beehive. In fine weather, in about twenty-four hours from the time they are hived, a swarm of bees will have constructed three or four combs measuring some three inchcs along the top and tapering towards the base (fig. 3).
The cells nearest the hive's roof will be fil'c l by the bees with honey and pollen--though the bulk of the pollen is placed in the lower parts of the combs when they are completed.
It is also in the centre of the combs that the queen lays her eggs, the bees storing the honey above and at the sides of the brood (fig. 4).
One egg only is placed in the bottom of each cell, though it occasionally happens that a young and prolific queen, if confined to a small hive, will deposit two or three in a cell. This, however, rarely happens ; and when it does, the bees eat the superfluous eggs, only allowing one in each cell. The eggs, though so minute, are composed of shell, " white" or albumen, and yolk.
**Development of the Bee.**
From the egg, kept warm by the bees which cluster on the combs, a small white grub or " larva " hatches out in three days. The bees feed it sparingly for five days on a food composed of half-digested honey and pollen, and during this time it grows with such rapidity that by the fifth day it nearly fills the cell : the bees then cap over the cell with a porous covering made of beeswax and pollen. Capped or " sealed " brood is easily distinguished from sealed honey, as the carpings of the former are more convex than those of the latter, and, being partly composed of pollen, they are also of a darker colour. When the larva is capped over, it spins its cocoon, and three days later--_i.e._, when it is eight days old--it assumes the " pupa " or " nymph " state. Ten days later, or twenty-one days from the time that the queen deposited the egg, the
Figure 4: Comb stored with honey and brood. A. Honey ; a, brood.
pupa emerges from its cell a perfect worker. It gnaws through the capping of its cell, never receiving the slightest assistance from the other bees in the hive. So infinitesimally thin is the cocoon left behind in the cell, that it takes many dozens of them to make any appreciable difference in the size of the cell ; and therefore we may allow the same combs to be used for brood for a dozen years, without fear that the bces produced in such combs will be smaller than those reared in new ones.
The work of the young bees is to feed the brood, while t'e old bees are thus enabled to use all their energies in gathering honey. This is a very important point to remember, and we should always give a swarm of bees one or two combs of brood, in all stages of development, from the parent hive or some other, as but for this no young bees would be hatched out till twenty-one days after the swarm was hived, thus obliging some of the old bees to be always at home, while they might otherwise be gathering honey.
The young bees do not go out to gather honey till they are some ten days old or more. A young bee is easily distinguished from an old one by the merest tyro, as it is much lighter in colour and of a soft and downy appearance.
When a worker bee is hatched in the height of the honey harvest, it rarely lives more than six or seven weeks; it literally dies of overwork. Those hatched later--towards the close of the honey-flow--mostly survive the winter, and live till the beginning of the summer. In queenless hive; the bees often live for twelve months, as they do but little work.
### Drones
Drones pass through the same changes as workers, but they do not hatch out till twenty-four or twenty-five days after the laying of the egg. As I have previously mentioned, the drones are reared in larger cells than the workers ; but if the bee-keeper prevents the bees from building any drone comb, the queen will deposit drone eggs in worker cells, and the drones reared in such cells will be much smaller than those reared in full-sized cells. Should a queen mate with one of these small-sized drones, the progeny must necessarily be very small and inferior ; and therefore the bee-keeper should make it a rule to have a piece of drone comb at least six inches square in _every_ one of his hives. The cappings on drone brood are extremely convex, and very easy to distinguish from those of worker brood.
Towards the close of the summer, when honey is becoming less plentiful, the workers turn the drones out of the hive, refuse to feed them, and leave them to perish of cold or starvation--the drones being unable to defend themselves, as they possess no sting. A stock of bees which has collected a very large amount of honey will, however, often retain its drones till quite late in the autumn, and I have had large numbers of drones in my hives as late as October.
The drones come out only on fine, warm days, and then generally between the hours of eleven and three.
**The Queen.**
The queen bee, as already mentioned, is reared from a worker-egg, placed in a large acorn-shaped cell (fig. 36), and liberally supplied with a very rich food known as " royal jelly."