BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
The Bee Family.--The life of the hive centers in the queen, which is the mother of the colony and upon whose vigor the prosperity of the hive depends. Should she die, and the bees be unable to replace her, the colony would soon perish. While the workers are also females, the sexual organs are undeveloped and they could not supply the place of the queen mother. In queenless colonies laying workers often appear, but since they have never been mated, their offspring are all drones and the life of the community is not thereby prolonged. A prosperous hive contains many thousands of workers whose purpose in life is the gathering of the food supply, building of the combs, protection of the store, cleaning the hive and other labor necessary to the comfort of the inmates. The drones are males, but do not share in any productive work for the community. They are dependent upon their industrious sisters for their entire support and are tolerated. apparently, because of necessity for the perpetuation of the species. Late in fall when conditions no longer favor the gathering of honey, and when brood rearing has greatly diminished, or in seasons of scarcity, they are driven from the hive to perish.
In common with other insects, bees pass through four stages in completing their development. Strangely enough, different periodsof time are necessary for the growth of the different sexes and even of the queen and worker. First the eggs are laid by the queen mother, who lays hundreds and even thousands daily during the height of the season. Worker eggs are laid in the same kind of cells in which the honey is stored. Drone eggs are laid in similar cells somewhat larger in size, while eggs which are to produce queens are laid in specially built cells shaped like an inverted thimble and which have little depressions giving them something of the appearance of peanuts. At times only worker eggs will be laid for days at a time. When the colony gets very strong, and the hive is getting crowded, eggs will be laid in drone cells also, and queen cells may be built in preparation for swarming.
Three days are required for the eggs to hatch, all the eggs being alike in this respect. For the first three days all the larvae are apparently treated alike, being fed on royal jelly,a milky white substance furnished in abundance by the nurse bees. When the eggs hatch the little larvae are very delicate, white in color, and show few external organs. By close examination the beekeeper can see them floating in the royal jelly so freely supplied. The queen larvae are fed with this rich food throughout the entire larval period and complete the larval development in about a half day less time than is required for the workers. Any worker egg may be made to develop into a queen if the egg or newly hatched larva is transferred to a queen cell where it is fed on the richer food and has the larger cell in which to develop. Beekeepers take advantage of this fact to rear queens from good stock in large numbers. The worker and drone larvae are only fed royal jelly during the first three days of their growth and then are weaned and fed on coarser food. Six days are required for the development of the worker larvae and a few hours longer for the drones. During the earlier stages of their development the little larvae remain curled up in the bottoms of the cells, but when they complete their growth they stretch out lengthwise in the cells and spin very delicate cocoons and the cells are sealed over with wax.
The bee now enters upon the third stage of its life, that of the pupa. During this stage it takes no food and remains in absolute quiet. In something less than eight days the queens will complete the transformation, only sixteen days being required from the time the egg is laid until the mature queen is ready to leave her royal cell. The workers require twelve days for this stage and drones fifteen days. Twenty-one days is the time required for worker bees to develop from the egg and twenty-four days for the drone. It will be seen that it takes eight more days for the male bee to develop than for the perfect female, and three days more than for the worker or modified female.
The normal food of the bee is honey and pollen, both of which are gathered from flowers. Water is essential, especially during brood rearing and the bees seek it eagerly in early spring. In time of scarcity bees will take fruit juices or other sweets, but when there is plenty of nectar in the fields they pay little attention to anything else. At such times even honey may be exposed in the open air for days without attracting the bees.
**Nectar.--**Since the bees are known to be very useful in distributing the pollen among the flowers it seems that nectar is secreted for the purpose of attracting the bees and other insects and thus insuring proper fertilization of the bloom. When first gathered by the bees it is very thin and watery, but a change of composition, called inversion, takes place in the honey sac of the bee, in which it is carried to the hive. After being placed in the cells it is evaporated and thickened and finally sealed. Ifhoney is taken from the hive too soon it is thin and will sour. The process of evaporation and thickening which takes place in the hive is called ripening. Usually honey that is well sealed is sufficiently well ripened for use, but honey from some flowers requires a good deal of time before it will reach the best condition.
Pollen, often called bee-bread, is used in large quantities as food for the young bees. A mixture of pollen and honey furnishes food for the worker larvae after they are three days old.
Both queens and drones when in the hive are fed by the workers. Aside from pollen and nectar the bees also gather another substance, called propolis. This is used as a glue to close up the cracks on the approach of winter, to fasten down the cover, or other similar use. The beekeeper finds it difficult to remove the propolis from his hands after a few hours' work in the apiary on a warm day.
When the worker emerges from her cell she does not go at once to the field, but remains within the hive for several days. At first she is as downy as a little chick and probably does nothing for a day or two. Soon, however, she begins her work as a nurse to the larva, which is probably her first duty. She shortly takes hold wherever a task needs attention, whether it be to feed the queen or drones, clean the hive, build combs, guard the entrance to the hive, or fanning to keep up a circulation of air, or any of the many duties necessary to care for such a large family.
After a few days the young workers will take short flights outside the hive, thus becoming familiar with surrounding conditions. At first they fly back and forth in front of the hive, never going more than a few feet from the entrance. With several hundred workers taking their first flights on a warm day, there is an appearance of great activity and the novice may be deceived into thinking that there is much honey coming to the live or that strange bees are robbing them. The distance of the flight is gradually lengthened until the worker becomes so familiar with the hive and its surroundings that it is no longer necessary for her to make note of her situation. She will then fly directly to the field and return to the exact place where the hive stood, even though it has been removed before she left. It thus becomes necessary to use great care in moving the hive to either make the distance so great that everything will be strange and the bees will make note of the change or else move it but a very short distance each day so that they will be able to find it after they return to the former position.
After the worker is two or three weeks old she will begin her trips to the field in search of honey or pollen and will continue the outside work as long as she lives.
In summer when the harvest is on, the worker bee lives but a short time, probably not much more than six weeks. If the harvest is over before she emerges from her cell she may live for six months and help to begin the next season's garnering.
The Swarm.--When the warm days come in spring the population of the hive will increase very rapidly. Apparently there is no settled rule that governs swarming. It is the natural method of increase, and as soon as a colony becomes strong, preparations for a division of the household may be made. In late May or early June, in a favorable season, the hive will be getting crowded. Thousands of workers will be gathering honey and caring for the multitudes of young bees that are daily hatching. By this time drones will be getting numerous and an examination may disclose from one to a dozen or more queen cells. The box hive beekeepers of our grandfathers' day would say that the bees will swarm, when they begin to lay out in large clusters outside the hive. Practical beekeepers of the present day furnish the bees with sufficient room in which to work, and thus guard against such loafing. Under such conditions there was nothing for the bees to do but to swarm, since there was not room for them all in the hive, and, with honey abundant in the fields, the instinct to gather it was too strong to permit them to spend a summer in idleness.
When the beekeeper finds a number of queen cells in the hive at this season of the year he knows that the bees are preparing to swarm and makes plans accordingly. The bees will build queen cells also, when the queen is growing old and beginning to fail. This is done to insure a young queen to replace the feeble mother and is called "supercedure." When the old queen is replaced during the honey flow the bees are very likely to swarm anyway, even though there is an abundance of room in the hive.
The swarm may issue at any time after the queen cells are sealed, though it often delays until the young queens are ready to emerge. Everything will apparently be going on as usual, when, suddenly, the bees begin to pour out of the hive like mud. They fairly tumble over each other in their haste to reach the open air, where they begin circling about with a loud buzzing. The queen may be among the first to leave the hive or she may be near the last. While her going is necessary, and unless she does go the bees soon return to the hive, there is no more attention paid to her going, as far as can be seen, than to that of any other bee. After circling about for a short time the swarm usually clusters on a limb of a tree, or in some other convenient place. The place which proves most convenient for the bees is often most inconvenient for the beekeeper when there are large trees about.
The time was when there was a great beat ing of paus and other noise-making implements when the bees swarmed. The idea was that the noise would cause the bees to cluster. Beekeepers know now that ninety-nine times out of one hundred they will cluster anyway without so much fuss, and the hundredth time they will leave without ceremony in spite of the noise. Clustering is a normal part of the swarming and is as much to be expected as any other natural impulse.
It is an easy matter to live the swarm by placing a hive in position and shaking the bees in front of it. They will usually go in without difficulty. If a small cluster remains on the outside, care should be used to see that the queen is not left behind. for otherwise the bees will not stay long inside the new home.
The first swarm to issue is called the prime swarm and there is no way to foretell its appearance without an examination of the interior of the hive. Since the colony is divided for the purpose of founding a new establishment, the bees will fill their sacs with honey so that they are prepared to begin building combs at once. The swarm may remain clustered for several hours, or even for a day or two, in rare cases. The beekeeper should be prepared to have his swarm at once to prevent them from absconding, or leaving for parts unknown. It is evident that scouts are out in search of a new home. It often happens that bees will be seen about a suitable opening for several days, when suddenly a swarm will appear and take possession. Where swarms remain clustered for long periods, it is apparent that the scouts have not yet found a suitable habitation.
The parent queen will leave the live with the new swarm, which also attracts most of the field bees. The first queen to emerge from the cell after the swarm has left will usually seek for other queen cells and at once kill her rivals, unless she is prevented from doing so by the bees. It often happens, however, that the bees have the swarming fever to such an extent that they are not satisfied with casting a prime swarm but will at once prepare for an after-swarm. In this case the queen is not permitted to injure the others still in the cells, but after a day or two a second swarm with this new queen will emerge. It often happens that several virgin queens will emerge and go with an after-swarm. Sometimes several after-swarms issue at brief intervals until the parent colony is reduced to a point where it is almost worthless.
Excessive swarming results disastrously to the dreams of a honey crop on the part of the beekeeper. Where natural swarming is permitted, steps should be taken to see that not more than one swarm is permitted to issue. The usual method is to place the new swarm on the old stand and to move the old hive some distance away. In this way the returning field bees' will go with the new swarm and the old stock will be so badly reduced that excess queen cells will be destroyed, and the bees will thereafter attend to business. It is well, also, to open the hive and remove all queen cells but one, or if a virgin queen has already issued and is present in the hive to remove all remaining queen cells.
The Mating Flight.--When the young queen has been out of her cell from four to eight days she takes her mating flight. In the meantime she takes short flights outside the hive, apparently for the purpose of marking the location. When time for mating arrives she circles high in the air, pursued by drones that chance to be flying near at hand. The mating always takes place in the air, the act being fatal to the drone. One mating is sufficient for life, under normal conditions, and the queen returns to the hive to remain until such time as she shall leave with a swarm. If perchance the queen fails to become fertilized at the proper time, she disappears or becomes a drone layer. It has been proved beyond question that an ununated queen can produce male offspring. In fact, this is rather a common occurrence in the apiary. An unmated queen is worthless, however, since all her offspring will be drones, and unless she is replaced the colony will soon die. With a drone-laying queen, conditions in the hive are very similar to when there are fertile workers, as already mentioned. Since the drone is hatched from an unfertilized egg, he has no father. This is the case with several other insects, as is well known to naturalists.
Activities of the New Colony.--As soon as the swarm is settled in the new quarters the bees will form a compact cluster for the purpose of secreting wax and building combs. The wax scales are exuded from between the segments of the abdomen. A high temperature seems to be necessary to enable the bees to pro duce the wax and several pounds of honey arc digested for each pound of wax secreted. Within a few hours the wax scales will be plentiful and the bees will begin building the new combs. Since the queen will need worker cells for inmediate use the first cells built will be all of the worker size. If the queen is prolific the bees may build the hive nearly full of worker cells, but ordinarily it will not be long until the bees have more comb built than she can occupy, so the bees begin to build drone cells, which are larger and apparently easier to construct. It often happens that a new swarm which is allowed to build the combs without interference will construct from one fourth to three-fourths of the combs of drone cells. Too much drone comb insures that the following season large numbers of drones will be reared and that the colony can never be very profitable. The drones not only require more food, because of their larger size, but they add nothing to the product of the live and consume large quantities of stores after they have reached maturity. This condition is easily prevented by filling the frames with full sheets of foundation. Foundation is pure beeswax rolled very thin and impressed with the exact size and shape of worker combs. The bees are quick to avail themselves of this big start toward building their combs and a live full of worker combs is the result.
If the swarm finds a home in a hollow tree or other natural cavity or is lived in a box, the combs will be curved and built in an irregular fashion, that facilitates the passing from one part of the brood nest to another. The operations of the beekeeper necessitate straight combs that can be examined without difficulty. so frames are placed in the lives and foundation placed in them as above mentioned. to insure straight and even combs, as well as cells of the desired size.
The combs serve the bees for several purposes. First the cells serve to provide snug receptacles for the young. 'They also serve as places to store the reserve food supply of honey and pollen and resting places for the bees.
The combs when first built are white, gradually growing darker with use until some old combs are almost black. However, there is a difference in color of the wax depending upon the source of the honey which the bees were gathering at the time. In some warm climates the wax is quite dark, and even in our northern states where white wax is the rule, some is yellow even at first.
keep but a few bees. The advice will be sound, however, for the man or woman who wishes to develop as rapidly as possible into a commercial business. " Productive Bekeeping," by the author of this book, is designed especially for commercial beekeepers, and considers many problems not possible in a book of this size.
**Importance of a Goon Smoker.--**The first implement that the novice should buy is a good smoker (Fig. 1). If he has black or mixed bees, it will be next to impossible to do so.
Figure 1: A good smoker.
anything with them without the use of smoke. To appreciate the value of smoke in bee control it must be remembered that the beehive contains a highly organized community. While apparently there is no overlord who directs the work, each individual bee fills a place in performing the duties of the hive. As mentioned in the previous chapter, some are nurses, some are foragers, some are guards, etc. Probably every bee that lives out her normal life cycle performs all of these duties at some period of her existence. The only division of labor seems to be one of age. The young bees feed the young, secrete wax, etc., while the older ones go to the fields for nectar, pollen, etc. Aside from this general division of labor between young and older workers, the bees seem to take hold wherever inclination leads, or where the need is most pressing. Since the prime object of the labor of the community is the accumulation of a store of honey, guardsare very important to the safety of the hive. On the approach of strange bees or strange men, these guards are likely to use their stings vigorously to prevent the looting of their treasure.
By the use of smoke, the beekeeper can quickly disorganize the whole community and tear the hive to pieces without resistance. If the bees are blacks, much more smoke will be necessary than with gentle Italians or Caucasians. By placing the nozzle of the smoker against the front of the hive and blowing a few puffs of smoke into the entrance, and then removing the cover and blowing more over the tops of the frames, even cross bees are likely to be quickly quieted and to lose all thought of defence. Care should be used not to use any more smoke than is necessary, a very common fault with beginners. If the bees are gentle it will not be necessary to use smoke at the entrance, but only a little across the top of the frames when the cover is removed. During the honey flow it is often possible to manipulate the lives of gentle strains without using any smoke.
When the smoke is blown into the hive the bees rush about confusedly for a moment, and then seek the open cells of honey. Their honey-sacs are filled as though they were about to swarm. When a worker bee is carrying a load of honey she seldom shows any desire to sting. This is why swarming bees are usually gentle. When the swarm is about to depart each bee will take a load, which will furnish a supply of available food for several days after the new home is reached.
Protection from Stings.--While experienced beekeepers often work among the bees without protection, especially during a honey flow, it is very unwise for the novice to do so. The experienced beekeeper is so familiar with the habits of the bees that he is not likely to disturb them under conditions that will arouse serious resentmen. On the other hand, the novice may be greatly surprised by a furore of excitement in the hive and numerous stings, even though he approaches the hive exactly as he may have done on other occasions without seeming to attract much notice from the bees. The imnates of the hive are very responsive to changes in weather or other conditions, and their tenuper varies accordingly. During a bright day when there is a good honey flow they may be very gentle, while on a chill or cloudy day when there is no honey coming from the fields, they may be very cross and easily aroused.
A veil that will prevent the bees from reaching the head is easily made at home, or one can be bought from any dealer in bee supplies. While mosquito bar sewed to the rim of a straw hat will serve the purpose, it obstructs the vision and is not nearly as good as one made of wire screen, sewed to the rim of a felt hat. An apron sewed to the bottom with a draw string in it, prevents the bees from crawling under.
Some kind of gloves should also be worn to protect the hands. Any protection that will prevent the bees from reaching the exposed parts of the body, while permitting freedom of motion and unobstructed sight will answer the purpose very well.
The value of a hive tool cannot be measured by its cost. While many persons get along with a small chisel or screw driver, the cost of a hive tool is so slight and it can be put to so many uses that one cannot afford to be without it, even though he has but two or three colonies of bees (Fig. 2). The hive tool is used to loosen the cover, pry up the frames, scrape off the burr combs and bits of wax and propolis
Figure 2: The value of the hive tool is far above its cost.
attached to unnecessary and inconvenient places, and for many similar purposes. If one has a small box or can in which to drop all stray bits of wax he will keep his frames in enough better condition to make his work much easier and pleasanter, while at the same time saving enough wax that would otherwise go to waste to pay for the tool many times over.
Bee-Escapes Should Also be Included in Even a Small Outfit.--It is so easy to remove surplus honey from the hive by the use of bee-escapes that they are a practical necessity. These are of different kinds, but the principle is the same. The bees are able to go down but cannot return. By placing a honey-board containing an escape under a super the bees are all down in the hive below within a few hours, and the super can be lifted off and the honey removed without any annoyance of fighting bees (Fig. 3). If the super is taken off without using an escape it will be full of bees which must be driven out. This takes time, is unpleasant and also results in more or less damage to the honey, as the bees will gnaw the cappings when smoke is used to drive them out.
Escapes are inexpensive, and if one has but a few colonies of bees, but one or two will be necessary as the honey can be removed from one hive at a time. They can be bought singly at about fifty cents each, board and all. In quantities they can be had for still less.
**Useless Equipment.--**The author, in common with most other beekeepers, has invested