BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
Until recent years many physicians had very little knowledge of honey as an article of food, especially for patients who perhaps could not partake of cane or beet sugars or much solid food. There are some who cannot eat honey, but only a very few. Such people are presumably affected by the small trace of poison contained in the honey since a small piece will make them very sick. There are also a few people to whom the sting of the bee will cause serious trouble, while a few stings would undoubtedly cause death, but such cases are rare. Those who like honey but cannot eat it clear, are able to eat it freely if taken with a glass of milk, or cream eaten on it. The two appear to be associated: The ancient Isrealites traveled many years to reach the " Promised Land, a land said to be flowing with milk and honey." In other words, it was a great grazing country with flowers and wild bees abundant.
While Maine is not a bee-keeper's paradise, much can be accomplished with bees if the proper care and housing is given them. As honey is a valuable food, as well as a waste product without the aid of the bees, people should be encouraged to save and use it. Honey is not the most valuable product of the bees. As an agent in the distribution of pollen, the fertilizing property of flowers, the value of the bees in increased fruit production and in better fruit, is hard to estimate.
The Maine winters are nearly always severe and the springs fickle. Wild bees, bumblebees, etc., which would be of great value if present in large numbers, often perish during the winter and cannot be depended on. The fruit grower has it largely within his power to so protect the honeybee that he can have them present in his orchards in the desired numbers when he needs them. There seems to be little question that there are years in which the apple crops are nearly a failure, or a light crop, in certain localities, when, had the bees had access to the trees, there would have been a profitable yield. Nearly all the tree fruits and berries need the bees to insure a profitable crop. Some strawberry growers do not think the bees are needed in the strawberry bed, as the winds are supposed to do the work of pollination satisfactorily, but I am satisfied, from my own observation and the evidence of others that even in the strawberry patch it pays to have the bees.
When the expenses of maintaining a few colonies of bees is slight, or nothing at all, and often a crop of honey is secured that pays for all labor and expense, it would seem to be the part of wisdom to see that bees are provided wherever fruit is grown.
An apiary of fifty or one hundred colonies of bees, in ordinary localities, would care for the bloom of orchards within a mile or a mile and a half of the yard, but it is better to have a few colonies located in or near the orchards.
Bees will naturally fly to a distance of one-fourth to one-half mile, almost as readily as they will work the bloom of the tree standing near the hive, therefore in a region where fruit trees are grown on most farms, it would be better if all kept a few colonies to insure cross-fertilization of the bloom.
Elsewhere I have described methods of honey production, and the fruit grower will have to decide for himself which method best suits him.
Anyone who has reached their teens and who are not seriously effected by their stings may learn to care for and handle bees, and produce honey. However, I would not advise anyone who did not have a real interest in the bees themselves to undertake the care of them, except in a limited way. Without a real interest in the bees and their labors, and a love for the work, neglect will follow, which means not only a loss to the owners but endangers the bees of others for miles away bringing loss to those who are helpless to prevent it. If one is not willing to give the bees the necessary care which will protect them from starvation, natural enemies, cold and bee diseases, they owe it to the industry and themselves not to undertake it. It will be much better for them to do something in which they are interested and encourage others already engaged in the pursuit to increase the number of colonies which they keep by buying their honey of them. It is better that there be a half dozen well kept apiaries within a radius of about a mile than three times the number of colonies kept under neglected conditions.
The average Maine farmer who manages a farm and carries on mixed farming is almost certain to neglect some branch of the work at times. If he undertakes to keep and care for bees he cannot expect to get the results that the specialist will, for there will be times when the pressure of other farm work will prevent his giving the bees the care and attention that they require, and for which they will repay in an increased amount of surplus honey. Under these conditions, the bees may not produce more than half the crop of honey they otherwise would, had proper care been given at the right time. However, the returns from the bees may have been enough to pay for all labor and supplies and a fair profit on the investment. If the care given has been sufficient to prevent wholesale robbing, kept the bee moth from increasing and foul brood or other diseases from getting a foothold in the apiary, the bee-keeper has not in any way been a menace to others. The amount of honey secured has been that much of an otherwise waste-product saved and has become a valuable and pleasant food for human consumption. The bees have also performed a great function for which they were undoubtedly created,--the better fertilization of fruit bloom and flowers, thereby increasing the amount of fruit which has become a natural and valuable food for human use.
How to Get Started With Bees
When one's interest and desire to undertake the care of bees and production of honey has been aroused, if only to supply their own table, one is often troubled as to just how to go about it.
There are some things which every beginner should possess as soon as they become the owner of a colony of bees, which are named in the order of their importance.
A bee-smoker (see Fig. 1) and veil, a pair of gloves which will protect the hands and wrists from stings, which may all be
Figure 1: A good smoker, an indispensable tool in the apiary
obtained from any of the dealers in bee-keeper's supplies; a textbook on bees or the bufetins furnished by the Department of Agriculture at Washington (both if possible), and at least one of the bee journals. The gloves are worn by few experienced bee-keepers, and many do not use a veil but it is good judgment for the novice to wear a veil until accustomed to being around bees. The gloves are not a necessity but will be needed and if kept handy may be worn when it is necessary. A good smoker is shown in accompanying cut. Equipped with these, the beginner could have one or a few colonies of bees which may be obtained in different ways at any time from spring to early winter. The start could better be made in the spring, when the bees are safely through the winter, about the time of fruit bloom. If there is a reliable bee-keeper near you, have him select one or two of his best colonies, in modern hives, (see Fig. 2) and if a reasonable man, pay him his price. If bees cannot be secured near-by, they can be purchased at a distance of even several hundred miles, and shipped by express. Unless purchased of an experienced bee-keeper they should be caut
Figure 2: A modern hive complete. Cut away to show arrangement of brood chamber and super arrangement
The hives for the new swarms should be secured well in advance of the swarming season to avoid delay and loss. The same is true of other supplies needed. Many delay until needed and it is often impossible for the supply dealers to fill the orders for a long time after they are received, and delays in transit are not uncommon. I would strongly advise the average person not to undertake to make their own hives until they know by experience that they can do so. If one is to keep many colonies, it is important that all hive parts should be interchangeable and fit exact. Unless one is handy with tools, this requires extreme care. Hives and hive parts may be bought of the supply manufacturers or large dealers in the flat or knock-down, nailed and painted, without much trouble even by one 'inexperienced. It is advisable to order one hive complete and ready as a pattern.
Figure 6: Division-board
Figure 7: Escape board, used to remove bees from supers
For Maine conditions I advise a beginner to select a ten frame hive taking the standard Langstroth frame (see Fig. 8). These may be fitted with the style super desired, either for section honey, taking different styles of sections, or for full or half depth supers, if it is to be run for extracted honey (see Fig. 9).
Honey in sections and in frames may be secured from the same hives during the same season if desired, provided the season is favorable. This style of hive may be provided with outer cases for outdoor wintering, or wintered in cellar.
If bees are purchased at a distance, get them as soon as possible to the location where they are to remain and let them fly out at will.
Many are deterred from undertaking the care of bees because of the fear of their stings. Very few people are seriously effected by the sting of the honeybee. Many suffer considerable pain and much swelling from the stings, while others suffer considerable pain for the first few minutes but experience no ill effects afterwards, not much more than a sharp pin prick. Where one is seriously effected they should not handle bees, as serious, even fatal results may follow. As a rule one becomes somewhat immune to the poison, and the effects are felt less and less. Much can be done to avoid the stings of the stings.
effects of the sting by instantly removing the sting, by scraping it out with the finger nail, the edge of some sharp instrument such as a knife blade, or rubbing it out on the clothing. Do not attempt to pull it out as the poison sack at the end of. the sting is torn away from the bee's body and the adhering muscles automatically force the contents of the sack into the object stung. In pulling the sting out with the fingers, the contents of the poison sack are injected into the system and the effects are much more marked. One can also do much to avoid stings by being careful not to anger the bees. Always move carefully about the hives. Do not breathe directly on the bees as all animal odors seem objectionable. Avoid handling them when perspiring freely. Do not jar the hives, rip off the cover or yank out the frames. Always avoid opening hives when the weather is very cool. The warmer the day the less the bees resent having the hive opened. For this reason all-manipulations of the colonies should be during the warmest part of the day.
There are few remedies that are of much good. Moist earth or crushed plant leaf seem to relieve the sting when first applied. Liniments as used about the home help but little. If the parts are bathed with hot water, the pain is relieved but the swelling is increased. If ice can be applied immediately after the sting, it will draw the poison out but will pain intensively while it is being applied.
What Constitutes a Colony of Bees?
A normal colony of bees, at the opening of spring or when first put into winter quarters, consists of several thousand bees, varying from five thousand to perhaps five times that number, and a queen or mother bee (see Fig. 10). Later in the season, from May 15 to June 1 in this State, the drones or male bees (see Fig. 11) begin to appear, and during the summer months some colonies may have as many as several thousand. The colony may have their dwelling place in a modern hive or some later modification of this, a straw skep, or a hollow tree in the woods. From the cuts here shown, one should be able to easily distinguish the different members of the colony. The queen is not often seen without opening the hive, and even then it is not easy for the novice to locate her.
## Functions of the Bees
The worker bees (see Fig. 12) are females which are not fully developed, and structurally modified in some ways from the queen, the fully developed female.
The queen's eggs which produce the natural worker bees in twenty-one days, may produce a queen in sixteen days. The size of cell in which the baby queen is cradeled and the quantity and quality of food fed her apparently changes the destiny of the common worker, one of thousands to be the mother bee of the colony, at times the mother of every bee in the hive except herself. The functions of the worker bees are varied and many. They build combs from the wax secreted by their own bodies, gather nectar from the flowers of trees and plants, carry it to the hives and deposit it in the combs to ripen it, largely by their own efforts until it becomes honey when they cap it over or seal it as the housewife does her canned fruits until the time of need. They also gather pollen, the fecundating dust of the anthers of flowers, in the pollen baskets with which nature has provided them and store it in the combs for future use as food for the adults and baby bees. They bring home quantities of water, clean house in the spring, keep it clean during the summer or active season, guard the entrance to the home and, if need be, defend it with their lives. They feed and care for the young bees, protect so far as they are able the mother or queen,
Figure 10: Queen Bee Fig. 11.Drone Bee Fig. 12.Worker Bee
search out new sources of honey and a new home when this becomes necessary for the colony to cast a new swarm--nature's way of increasing.
The queen is the mother bee and her sole function is to lay eggs. After hatching, she will take several short flights going a little farther from the hive as she gains strength, the weather having much to do with this, when she takes what is called her bridal flight, and, if successful, meets the drone or male beer and mates while on the wing. By this act she becomes fertile for life, at least continuing to lay eggs for several seasons which produce workers, queens and drones without again mating. Some investigators claim that in some rare instances the queen mates more than once. A young queen rarely attains her best in the first season but does in her second and fails quite rapidly, after this. Some undoubtedly live until the fourth season and may have done good work in the third.
Many progressive bee-keepers practice superceding all queen bees at the close of the second season, putting in their place young mated queens of selected stock, unless it be some queen whose record and ancestry warrants giving them another season of life. The young queen before mating is called a virgin queen, and usually begins laying in two or three days after a successful mating flight. When a queen bee begins to fail, if allowed to live, she may lay eggs which produce only drones and is known as a drone laying queen. The colony will then soon dwindle out and be lost unless requeened at once or united with a colony having a laying fertile queen. In a queenless colony, a worker sometimes develops the ability to lay eggs. Such a colony is worthless until united with one having a queen. If the virgin queen of one race mates with a drone of another, her progeny will be queens and workers half-breed of each race,--sometimes improperly called hybrids. The drones are not apparently effected by the mating and are pure blood of the race of the mother. The drone is the male bee and so far as we know, his sole function in life is to meet and fertilize the young queens. In this respect we see a wonderful provision of nature. Thousands of drones are in the air at the time the virgin queen takes her bridal flight. Her wing powers are such that only the swiftest and strongest can overtake her Thus the wing power of the species is kept up. The mating of the queen is almost beyond the control of man.
Something may be accomplished, however, by encouraging the production of drones in one or more of the best colonies, the workers of which are known to possess the desired qualities, and by restricting to the least number practical in the undesirable colonies. Even then, if other bees are within two or three miles, either domestic or in hollow trees in the woods, a large part of the queens may mate with these. The production of drones should be kept down as much as possible in all other colonies. This is best accomplished by using full sheets of foundation in the brood frames when living new swarms, and by replacing drone comb with worker comb. Drones pass off the stage of action at the close of the honey harvest. So long as nectar is coming in freely they are allowed to live but when it fails to a certain point, they are dragged outside by the workers and not allowed to enter, where once they were welcomed or at least tolerated boarders. They soon perish of starvation and cold. The presence of drones in a colony late in the season is an indication that they are queenless, or have a worthless queen. In such cases, a queen should be given them at once or the colony united with a normal one.
Care shouldd be taken in the selection of the place where the bees are to be kept. They should not be located near a place where people or animals must frequently pass. If it must be done, a tight board fence should be erected between the street, road or path and the bee yar the flight of bees will be well above the heads of the passers-by. Neither should they be located too near the premises of another. This may be done in some cases where care and wisdom are used.
Bees are often kept in town or city even on the flat roofs of buildings. From a shelf built on the side of a tenement block where the bees were cared for through the window, a woman provided her table with honey gathered by her own bees, even though secured under some difficulties. Where one has the will to keep a few bees, a way can usually be found.
A sheltered location is desirable where the hives shall be protected from the wind, especially from the north wind. If no natural shelter is present, a board fence can be made to serve the purpose. Evergreen trees make a fine shelter and, when once established, need little attention. If trees are large and near the bees, it is sometimes troublesome to secure the swarms which cluster on them. If the location is so much sheltered that the sun warms it to a point where bees are enticed outside in weather that is not suitable for a safe flight, the bees will drop and perish especially in the fickle weather of our Maine springs, and much harm is done. The yard should not be located too near a body of water since heavy laden bees will drop into the water and be lost as they return to the hive. If twenty-five rods away from the water, losses will be much less than if located within that many feet.
Sources of Honey and Range of Flight
If only a few colonies of bees are to be kept, there need be no worry about pasturage as in nearly any location in Maine a few colonies will find enough nectar-secreting flowers within their range of flight.
With limited numbers, it may be possible to plant or have planted those crops which will furnish nectar and still provide a crop such as alsike clover or buckwheat, usually a paying proposition alone.
Bees fly naturally, under normal conditions, a distance of, from one to one and one-half miles in quest of nectar, even with acres of flowers near the bee yard. There is reliable evidence to show that bees have gathered and stored nectar in the supers at a distance of over five miles. This is very rare. However, a distance of three miles is quite a common range of flight when the conditions are favorable. The sources from which bees obtain nectar in this State are of interest to all beekeepers. In most localities, especially where many colonies are kept, the need of early blooming nectar-secreting flowers is of great importance. Most of the forest trees furnish either pollen or nectar and sometimes both. Some years, the weather is so unreasonable that the forest bloom is largely lost. Pussy-willow is one of the most dependable sources. It rarely fails to furnish both pollen and nectar at a time when most needed to start brood rearing in earnest, and in favorable years, strong colonies often store some willow honey in the supers. Poplar is the first to bloom as a rule and the pussywillow a close second. There is often quite a space from this to fruit bloom especially the years in which the forest bloom is either very light or a failure.
Cherry, plum, apple and pear, in years when the weather is favorable, give the bees the much needed stores of pollen and honey to keep up brood rearing and, with the aid of different spring blooming wild flowers, carry the bees to clover bloom.
Among the plants, the dandelion is of great value. While a fickle plant, and depending greatly on weather conditions as to the amount of nectar secured, it never fails to bloom and furnish pollen so much needed at this season of the year, and at least some nectar. In favorable years, strong colonies will often fill every available space in the brood frames and a super besides. In some states the dandelion is counted of little use as a honey yielding plant, but for Maine it is valuable. Strawberries furnish pollen but probably very little nectar. Wild raspberry is one of the plants to give a surplus in the northern part of the State. White clover begins blooming about the same time, while alsike also blooms before the raspberry has gone by. Alsike clover is the main source of the surplus flow in Aroostook county where almost every farmer sows two or more pounds of alsike seed per acre in seeding down. Two to five pounds per acre in favorable soils, and it thrives in most soils,will give excellent pasturage and the flavor of the honey is superior.
Fireweed is the last wild flower of real value to bloom with the exception of goldenrod. In Aroostook, when the county was being cleared of the virgin forest growth, fireweed sprang up everywhere and was one of the main sources of supplies and much appreciated by early pioneer bee-keepers. The honey is very clear, almost transparent, and of mild flavor, but granulates quite quickly if not carefully kept.
Goldenrod, of which there are several varieties, is not a dependable plant in the northern part of the State. It blooms too late in the season when the nights are too cold for nectar to secrete freely. About one year in four, the flow will be fairly good and contributes largely towards the winter stores and the keeping up of the late brood. This is highly desirable in a locality where the winter confinement often continues for five or six months without a flight. In the southern part of the State, goldenrod is often valued highly. In localities where buckwheat is grown in any quantity, it is of much value in late summer both as a source for winter store and surplus. In Aroostook, the rough buckwheat, sometimes called India wheat, is almost wholly grown and is of no real value to the bees though producing an excellent flour.
The Japanese varieties do not produce nearly as satisfactory yields of grain without the aid of the bees, while the rough buckwheat does not need their assistance.
Following is an incomplete list of trees, shrubs and plants which are valuable to honey bees, as sources of pollen, honey, or both, listed in nearly the order of blooming. A detailed list may be found on page 54 under the subject " The Honey Flora of Maine," by John H. Lovell, one of the best known botanists in Maine.
## Swarming
Swarming is the result of a prosperous condition at the proper season of year. With the warm days of spring, the queen begins laying and, as natural pollen and nectar increases, the queen increases the number of eggs from a few hundred to as many as three thousand in twenty-four hours. While only the better queens attain the higher number, probably many queens reach nearly two thousand.