BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
Beginning 1881 with 67 colonies, I took 7,884 pounds of comb honey, and increased to 117 colonies. An average of 117-2/3 pounds of comb honey per colony, and an increase of 164 per cent would be nothing so very remarkable in some localities, but I consider it so in a place where there is no basswood, buckwheat, nor anything else to depend upon for a crop except white clover. Certainly it is not the usual thing here, but remember there were only 67 colonies, and if I were again reduced to 67 colonies I think I might do a shade better now.
In general, I suspect that the number of colonies in a place is not sufficiently taken into account. I remember at one time \(A\). I. Root commenting upon the case of a beginner with a very few colonies making a fine record, and he thought it was because of the great enthusiasm of the bee-keeper as a beginner. I think instead of unusual enthusiasm it was unusual opportunities for the bees. I can easily imagine a place where five colonies might store continuously for five months, and where a hundred colonies on the same ground might not store three weeks. There might be flowers yielding continuously throughout the entire season, but so small in quantity that although they might keep a very few colonies storing right along, they would not yield enough for the daily consumption of more than ten to fifty coloules. Remember that the surplus is the smaller part of the honey gathered by the bees..Adrian Getaz computes that at least 300 pounds of honey is needed for home consumption by an average colony. So far as enthusiasm and interest are concerned, I do not believe my stock is any less of those commodities than it was fifty years ago. \(\lambda\) born bee-keeper never loses his enthusiasm.
_Fig. 10--Colonies Intended for Out-Apiaries._
Total crop rather than per colony.
Some one may possibly ask. "If you can do so much better with \(0^{\circ}\) colonies, why not restrict yourself to that number?" But I can't do any better; at least not in an average season. For it is not the yield per colony I care for, unless it should be to boast over it; what I care for is the total amount of net money I can get from bees. In the year 1897 my average per colony was \(11 imes 4\) pounds, only about three-fifths as much as in 1881, but as I had in 1897 239 colonies, my total crop was 17,150 pounds, or more than twice as much as in 1881.
In the year 1881 my crop of honey was a little more than half a pound per colony, and in the fall I fed 3802 pounds of granulated sugar to keep the bees from starving in winter. But I could not then tell, neither can I now tell whether it was because the season was so bad or because the field was over-stocked, for I had \(363\) colonies in four apiaries. Possibly if I had had only half as many bees, the balance might have been on the other side of the ledger. But I don't know.
Somewhere there surely is a limit beyond which one cannot profitably increase the number of colonies in an apiary, but just where that limit is can perhaps never be learned. If I were obliged to make a guess, I should say about 100 colonies in one apiary is the limit in my locality.
If I were to live my life over again, and knew in advance that I should be a bee-keeper, I never would locate in a place with only one source of surplus. When white clover fails here the bottom drops out. Unfortunately the years in which the bottom drops out have been unpleasantly frequent.
In the fall of 1881 I married Miss Sidney Jane Wilson, who was born on the Wilson farm where one of my out-apiaries was for years located. There was some economy in the arrangement, for she could go out to the out-apiary for a day's work, and visit her old home at the same time.
A good year.
Of the 174 colonies with which the year 1881 closed, two died in wintering, and I sold one in the spring. That left 174 for the season of 1882, and these gave me 16,549 pounds of honey, nearly all in sections. That was 95 pounds per colony, and the increase was only 16 per cent. Quite a falling off from the amount per colony of the previous year. But the additional nine thousand pounds in the total crop reconciled me to the "per colony" part of the business. It would be interesting to learn how much the difference in the yield per colony was due to the season, and how much to the increased number, but that is one of the things past finding out.
## Heddon super.
In the year 1883 I tried the Heddon super (Fig. 4) to the number of two hundred.
The Heddon super is much in form like a T super, but it is divided lengthwise into four compartments. This prevents, of course, the possibility of having separators running the length of the super, so no separators are used. James Heddon and others had reported success in obtaining sections that were straight enough for satisfactory packing in a shipping-case, but with me too many sections were bulged, their neighbors being correspondingly hollowed out. I did not continue the use of this super very long.
## 7.
In the latter part of the same year I attended the North American convention at Toronto, Canada, and while there D. A. Jones showed me the T super (Fig. 5). I was much impressed with it. The next year I put a number of T supers in use, and the more I tried them the better I liked them. I have tried a number of other kinds since, but nothing that has made me desire to make a change.
## 8. thick top-bars.
When attending that same convention, that very practical Canadian bee-keeper, J. B. Hall, showed me his thick top-bars, and told me that they prevented the building of so much burr-comb between the top-bars and the sections. Although I made no immediate practical use of this knowledge, it had no little to do with my using thick top-bars afterwards. I was at that time using the Heddon slat honey-board (Fig. 6) and the use of it with the frames I then had was a boon. It kept the bottoms of the sections clean, but when it was necessary to open the brood-chamber there was found a solid mass of honey between the honey-board and the top-bars. It was something of a nuisance, too, to have this extra part in the way, and I am very glad that at the present day it can be dispensed with by having top-bars 1% inch wide and 7% inch thick, with a space of \(
ot{\chi}_{4}\) inch between top-bar and section. Not that there is an entire absence of burr-combs, but near enough to it so that one can get along much more comfortably than with the slat honey-board. At any rate there is no longer the killing of bees that there was every day the dauby honey-board was replaced.
But it would take up space unnecessarily to follow farther the course of the years, especially as these later years are familiar to more of my readers than are the former years, so I will proceed to fulfill my chief purposein telling about my work throughout the course of the year, reserving, however, the right to refer to the past whenever I like.
## seasons have changed.
It is only fair to remark, however, that in later years the crops have not always been so good as formerly. At least that is true as to the early crop.
The fall crop, however, seems to be on the increase. Just why, I don't know, unless it be that there are two important pickle factories at Marengo, and the bees have the range of some two hundred acres of cucumbers. Sweet clover may have a little to do with it, and also heartsease.
If the yield of fall honey keeps on the increase, it will hardly do to say there is only one source of honey--white clover. The season of 1902 emphasized the change in seasons. During the proper time for white clover, the bees would have starved if it had not been that they were fed about a thousand pounds of sugar. Clover grew well, but blossoms were scarce. The bloom, however, kept increasing, and during the latter part of August and the first part of September a number of colonies stored fifty pounds and more each. How much of the honey was from clover I cannot tell. As late as the last half of October I saw the bees busy on both red and white clover.
## Taking bees out of the cellar.
The difficulty of wintering bees, at the North, is not entirely without its compensations. I am almost willing to meet some losses, for the sake of the sharp interest with which I look forward to the time of taking the bees out of the cellar in the spring. I live on a place of 37 acres, about a mile from the railroad station, and on my way down town a number of soft-map trees are growing. How cagerly I watch for the first bursting of the buds, and when the red of the blossom actually begins to push forth, with what a thrill of pleasure I say, "The bees can get out on the first good day!"
In former years I did sometimes bring out the bees earlier, because they seemed so uneasy, but I doubt if I gained anything by it. I have known years when a cold, freezing time came on at the time of map-bloom and did not take out the bees for a good many days, but generally I go by the blooning of the soft maples. So I watch the thermometer and the clouds, and usually in a day or two there comes a morning with the sun shining, and the mercury at 45 or 50 degrees, with the prospect of going a good deal higher through the day.
## taking out with a rusii.
This is one of the times when I want outside help, for carrying two or three hundred colonies of bees out of the cellar is not very light work if it be done with a rush; and I want them all out as soon as possible so as to have a good flight before night. If any should be brought out too late to fly, it may turn cold before the next morning, when a lot of bees might fly out to meet their death. To be sure, I could get along without outside help by having one of the women-folks help me, for my hives have cleats on each end, the cleats reaching clear across the hive, so that a rope can be slipped over them, and one can take hold of the rope at each side, making the work not so very hard. Indeed, the two women have sometimes rendered efficient service by taking a hive between them, as shown in Fig. 7. An endless rope is used, making it the work of a very few seconds to throw the rope over each end of the live. The same rope may be used to make the work lighter for a single person (Fig. 8). But the rope is not so quickly adjusted as when two persons use it.
On the whole, it is better to have a strong man who can pick up each hive without any ceremony, carry it directly to its place and set it on its stand. In this work the end-cleats of the hive serve an important purpose, for the carrier can let the full weight of the hive come on his forearms by having an arm under each cleat, each hand lightly clasping the hive on the opposite side (Fig. 9).
When it is warm enough to carry out bees, it will be understood that the cellar is likely to become a good deal warmer than \(45\) degrees, the temperature near which it is desirable to keep the cellar throughout the winter. So if carrying out is undertaken without any previous preparation, when the cellar-door is opened the bees will pour out of the hives and out of the cellar-door, sailing about in confusion, causing some loss and making the work of carrying out exceedingly unpleasant. This must be avoided ; so the previous evening, as soon as it becomes dusk, cellar door and window are thrown wide open.
Having the cellar open the previous night makes it much pleasant to carry out the bees, which do not gen erally come out of their lives till some time after being set on their stands. If at any time a colony seems inclined to come out of the hive, a little smoke is given at the entrance. At other times it would be bad to have smoke in the cellar, but as the bees are immediately to have a chance to fly, it does no harm to have the cellar filled with smoke. The live entrances are left open, and as the lives have been taken into the cellar with covers and bottom-boards just as on the summer stands, the work can be done rapidly.
Before each live leaves the cellar, I make sure there are live bees in it, by placing my ear at the entrance. If I hear nothing I blow into the entrance. That generally brings an immediate response, but sometimes I will blow several times before getting a sleepy reply from a strong colony. That pleases me. If any are dead they are piled to one side in the cellar.
## placing of colonies.
Colonies intended for the home apiary are set upon their stands. Those for the out-apiaries are set upon the ground not far from the cellar, being placed in pairs, two hives almost touching, then a space of a foot or more between that pair and the next pair, so as to occupy as little room as possible. (Fig. 10). Sometimes some attempt is made to have colonies occupy the same stands they occupied the previous year, but oftener no attention is paid to this. Close attention, however, is paid to selecting the colonies that are to be in the home apiary.
The hives with queens having the best records were all marked the previous fall by having a stick tacked on the front. These are all put in the home apiary. Not that queens will be reared from all of them. The one or two very best colonies may furnish all the young queens, the rest will furnish choice drones. By doing this from year to year I ought to have better stock than if I allowed the poorest drones to remain in the home apiary.
Taking bees all out at once.
Some object to taking all the bees out at the same time, for fear of so much excitement that bees will swarm out and return to the wrong hives. I have never had much trouble in that way. Neither have I had any evil results from putting colonies on stands different from the ones they occupied the previous fall.
_Fig. 13--Entrance-Blocks._
I am not sure that I can tell for certain just why there should be this difference in different apiaries, but I think I can see some reason for it. As already mentioned, the cellar is left wide open all night the night before the bees are carried out, and it is possible that just in that little thing lies the secret of the difference. When the weather begins to warm up in the spring before it is time to carry out the bees, it often happensthat there comes a warm day when the outside temperature runs up to 50 degrees or more, and possibly this may continue more than a day. Such times are hard on the ventilation of the cellar.
## temperature and ventilation
Please remember that the ventilation of the cellar depends on the difference of the weight of the air in the cellar and the weight of the outside air. Also remember that the difference in weight depends on the difference in temperature. Warm air is lighter than cold air. So when the air outside the cellar is colder and heavier than that inside, it forces itself in and crowds up the warm air, precisely in the same way--although not with the same degree of force--precisely in the same way that water would pour into the cellar if a body of water surrounded the cellar. If the water were lighter than the air, no water would flow into the cellar. So long as the outside air is colder than the inside, ventilation continues.
Suppose, now, that the air in the cellar stands at 45 or 50 degrees, and that the outside air becomes warmed up to the same temperature. There will be an equilibrium in weight, and there will be no ventilation. The air in the cellar is all the time becoming vitiated by the breathing of the bees, and no matter what the ventilation of the _hires_, it can do little good so long as there is no pure air in the _cellar_. The bees become frantic in their desire for fresh air, and if carried out while in this condition they will rush out of the hive, the excitement becoming so great that soon after being put on their stands whole colonies will swarm. If the cellar has been open all night, they will find little change of air on being carried out, and so will not fly out of the lives for the sake of getting air, but only to take their cleansing flight.
Of course, there is an understanding with the women-folks about the time the bees are taken out, lest they spot the clothes on the line on a wash-day, but the bees have the right of way, and if there is a clash, the wash-day must be postponed.
## 4. Fifty years among the bees
size of entrance.
While the bees were in the cellar, they had an entrance 13% x 3 inches, and during the cool days of spring, after they are taken out of the cellar, it is no longer desirable to have so large an entrance. So as soon as the bees are on their stands, the entrance is closed down to a very small one by means of an entrance-block. Before describing this I must tell you about the live and bottom-board.
The live is the ordinary 8-frame dovetailed, only I insist upon having on each end a plain cleat 13% x 1% x %. There are more reasons than one for having this cleat, rather than the usual hand-holes. It is more convenient to take hold of when one wants to lift a hive. Latterly the manufacturers use a very short cleat, which is a great improvement on the hand-hole, but it does not allow one to carry the hive with the weight resting on the whole forearm, as shown in Fig. 9. This way of carrying a hive is one gotten up by Philo Woodruff, the hired man who helped me for several years, evidently to make the work easier for him. One day he was carrying a hive that had no cleats, only hand-holes, perhaps the only one of that kind he had ever carried. He seemed disgusted with it, and as he set the hive down he grumbled, "I wish the man that made them hand-holes had to carry them."
Another advantage of the cleats is the strength it gives to the rabbeted ends of the hive. Without the cleat the rabbet leaves the hive-end at the top only \( au_{6}^{7}\) of an inch thick for more than 3% of an inch of its depth, and the splitting off of this part is unpleasantly frequent. With the added cleat the thickness is three times as much, and it never splits off.
These cleats, not being regularly made by manufacturers, can only be had by having them made to order, sohives are generally made without them, but quite a number of experienced bee-keepers are quietly using them because of their distinct advantage, notwithstanding the inconvenience of having them made to order.
The bottom-board is a plain box, two inches deep, open at one end. It is made of six pieces of \(\gamma_{8}\) stuff: two pieces \(2\gamma_{2}\) x 2, one piece \(19\gamma_{8}\) x 2, and three pieces \(13\gamma_{8}\)x\(7\gamma_{2}\). When so desired, the bottom-board is fastened to the hive by means of four staples \(1\gamma_{2}\) in, wide, with points \(3\gamma\) inch long (Fig. 11).
With such a bottom-board there is a space two inches deep under the bottom-bars, a very nice thing in winter, and at any time when there is no danger of bees building down, but quite too deep for harvest-time. Formerly I made the bottom-board reversible, reversing it in summer so as to use the shallow side, but latterly I leave the deep side up summer and winter.
Of course, with a 2-inch space under the bottom-bars the bees would build down, sometimes even as early as dandelion bloom. Before that time I show under the bottom-bars a bottom-rack. As material for a rack there are 2 pieces 18x1x34, and 21 pieces 10%x3%x74. The little pieces are nailed upon the 34 inch sides of the two larger pieces, ladder-fashion, with 12 inch space between each two strips. The strips are allowed to project over at each side about an inch.
I value this bottom-rack highly. It prevents building down, and at the same time gives the bees nearly the full benefit of the deep space, preventing over-heating in hot weather, thus serving as no small factor in the prevention of swarming. It also saves the labor of lifting the hive off the bottom-board to reverse the bottom-board and then lifting the hive back again, spring and fall. Fig. 12 shows a bottom-rack.
## Entrance-block
Now for that entrance-block, Formerly I made it heavy (Fig. 13), but now it is thin, % inch or so thick, 13 inches long and 3 inches wide. It is lightly nailed upon the hive by one or two small nails, and at one lower corner a notch 1 inch square or less is cut out. I think that small entrance helps to prevent "drifting" when the bees take their first flight.
When the bees are being carried out, if any are noted as suspiciously light, they are marked, and the next day frames of honey are given them. If, unfortunately, these are not to be had, sections of honey are put in the live in wide frames, or shoved under.
## Inuling bees.
As soon as the bees have had a good flight, those not in the home apiary are ready to be hauled away. I like to get them away as soon as possible, so as to have advantage of the spring pasturage at the out-apiaries, but sometimes the condition of the roads causes delay. I first hauled four colonies at a time on a one-horse wagon, which you may imagine was very slow work. That was years ago, and the number has been gradually increased until now 40 or 50 colonies are taken at a load.
## Wagon for hauling.
After several changes, I used for a good while a common farm-wagon with heavy springs put under the box. Nine colonies were put in the box; then a rack (Fig. 15) (made in two parts for convenience in handling) was put on the box, and 22 colonies were set on the rack, making 31 colonies in a load. After that I used a flat hay-rack or a drayman's platform, taking \(40\) or \(50\) colonies at a load.
All the hives have fixed-distance frames, so no preparation is needed in the way of fastening frames in place before hauling. The only thing to do is to fasten the cover and close the entrance. The cover is fastened to the hive by two staples (the same as those used to fasten the bottom-board to the hive) one staple at the middle on each side. Hives that were brought from the out-apiaries the previous fall have the covers already fastened, for they have never been opened since coming home, unless they were so light as to need feeding. If things were always done just right, there never would be any opened because suspiciously light; but things ar not always done just right.
## entrance-closers.
The entrance is of course closed with wire-cloth, and after trying a good many entrance-closers I have settled down upon the simplest of all. It is a piece of wire-cloth just large enough to close the 12% entrance and project an inch or so up on the front of the hive. To make the edges at the bottom and at the two ends more firm, and to prevent them from raveling, the wire-cloth is cut about 13%\({}_{2}\)x4, and about 3% of an inch folded over at the bottom and at each end. These edges are folded over the blade of a saw. When finished, the closer is 12% inches long or a trifle less, so it will easily fit in the bottom-board.
The closer is put in place, a piece of lath 13% inches long is pushed up against it, and fastened by a nail in the middle of the lath. Then to make it more secure, a nail at each end is placed perpendicularly against the lath and driven a short distance into the outer rim of the bottom-board. The three nails used to fasten the lath are finishing or wire casing nails 2% inches long or longer. Being so long and not driven in very deep. one can generally pull them out with the fingers.
Figure 15.Rack for Hauling Bees.
At Fig. 16, in the middle of the cut, will be seen an entrance-closer, above it being the lath to fasten the closer in place.
Before the lives are put on the wagon I make sure there is no possible leak in any of them. This is hardly necessary where everything is in good condition, but some of my covers and bottom-boards are pretty old, and I must plug up any hole that would possibly allow a bee to escape.
When the hives are placed on their stands in the out-apiary, the entrance-closers are removed, a little smoke being used if the bees appear belligerent. Then the entrances are closed with the entrance-blocks.
I speak of taking bees to out-apiaries as if I were still keeping up out-apiaries. As a matter of fact, I have had no bees away from the home apiary since 1909. That year I kept bees in the Wilson apiary for the last time, having given up the Hastings apiary some years before, and the Belden apiary still earlier. But it is more convenient, sometimes, to speak of past things as if present, so the reader will please pardon any discrepancy that may appear in this book at any time on that account.
## numbering hives.