BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
and there is much to be said for such a recommendation, as swarms cannot transmit disease, and if they are obtained early they will often give a handsome surplus in their first year. Indeed, like good stocks, they will often recoup their owner for his outlay. They should be obtained as early in May or June as possible, and preference should be given to those weighing about six pounds. Swarms are usually sold by the pound, and it is much the best way of buying them. The price is usually 3/- per pound in May and 2/6 in June. It will be noted that swarms when received will weigh a little less than the weight charged for, especially if they have been sent from a distance. This is owing to the fact that when bees swarm their honey sacs are full, but when received by the buyer this honey has been partially consumed, and there is a corresponding loss in weight.
Swarms should be lived in a clean five, and with new quilts and frames. There will then be no danger of disease of any kind; and the persistent way in which this method of starting is advocated is well borne out in practice.
"Driven " bees are utilized for conversion into stocks. To the uninitiated I may explain that " driven " bees are the bees taken from cottagers' skeps during August and September; bees which are saved from a cruel death in the sulphury pit, which unhappily still exists and has many votaries, especially in remote country districts. These bees may be purchased at about i/- to i/6 per pound,STOCKING AN APIARY 25 and it takes a six-pound lot, which sometimes means the contents of three skeps, to make a good colony for a frame hive. These bees are placed in a hive containing about six frames of foundation, or preferably of empty combs, and fed up rapidly with good syrup, when usually they will turn out a good colony in the spring. This method of founding colonies is not advocated unless the bees can be had for nothing or for a small consideration. This is only possible when skeps are personally driven, when the rule is that the driver takes the bees for a trifling acknowledgment and the skeppist takes the honey. This done, stocks may be made up cheaply, but when the bees have to be bought, along with comb foundation and sufficient sugar to feed them up for wintering, the total cost comes perilously near that of a prime swarm. Now a May swarm, nine times out of ten, will give a surplus, but "driven " bees cannot possibly give any return before the following season. Thus a season's working is lost ; wintering risks have to be faced with bees which, be they ever so good, are rarely up to the stamina of a swarm for facing its rigours. Driven bees do not transmit disease.
To summarize, it may be said that, putting aside the proviso regarding gratuitous " driven " bees, the choice should lie between stocks and swarms, with stocks for preference if properly bought, but for untutored hands swarms, and nothing but swarms.
## 26 Profitable Bee-Keepering
Apiaries should be situated if possible in a sheltered position. A small glen or valley suits them very well, and the hives should be screened from prevailing winds. A south-east or southerly, aspect suits the bees best, and the hives should be placed on bricks, or cinders may be put down and a firm base made by, these means. Weeds and long grass should be rigorously kept down, and if the hives are on grass land a scythe may be used with good effect in keeping down the grass. Where there is any choice a careful selection should be made as regards locality. Most localities are fair honey, districts, but there are some which are twice as good as others, both as regards the quantity and the quality of the honey crop. Careful attention must therefore be given to this. What is wanted is a good clover or sain-foin district, which means wide breadths of these valuable honey producing plants, along with plenty of fruit blossom for early. brood production. Other good honey districts have such local crops as heather, mustard, or beans. Now all of these are valuable, and the apiarist who is situated in their midst has most of his hardest work done for him.
## Chapter 3 Hives and Appliances
Probably the earliest hive of which we in this country, have any record is the old straw skep, and even now this hive is in extensive use, especially in remote country, districts. As a home for bees it answers its purpose admirably, but as a means to up-to-date honey production it is utterly useless, mainly on account of its fixed combs, which make it impossible for any manipulations to be carried out. Now the proper manipulation of the bees and combs is absolutely necessary if the best results are to be obtained, and such work can only be carried out by keeping the bees in modern hives.
It must be clearly pointed out, however, that many people have modern hives and get no better results than they would have done with skeps, in fact they would have been pounds in pocket had they adhered to that primitive method of hive architecture. That, of course, is their own fault. The simple fact that the bees are in frame hives will not of necessity, make the bees produce more honey, in the case of an ignorant or negligent owner, for with such an owner they, would do* 28 PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING quite as well, or perhaps better, if he had them in a hollow tree.
The frame hive in its modern form is, roughly speaking, divided into two classes, and nearly all other types are merely modifications: First we have the double-walled hive on the celebrated " W.B.C." principle. This hive consists of a floor-board with sunk entrance and detachable splayed legs, brood-box, eke and loose outer cases, covered with a span roof. All the sections are loose, and there is a free air space between the outer and inner walls, which tends towards an even temperature in the brood-nest. This hive may be used for the production of either comb or extracted honey, and if the former a special section rack, known as the " W.B.C." rack, is used. In this rack the sections are worked in wide frames, which keep them clean, and also admit of their interchangeability in the event of a poor honey flow. In such a poor flow the centre sections will be completed while the outer rows are untouched, and by bringing the outer rows to the centre full racks may be obtained. It may be said that both comb and extracted honey, may be worked for at the same time.
Our second type of hive is the well-known single-walled hive, and probably there are more of this kind in use than any other. Its name is rather a misnomer, as, strictly speaking, it is single-walled on two sides only ; the other sides have inner walls placed for carrying the frame HIVES 'AND APPLIANCES 29 ends, and on these two sides there is a dead air space. The supers for extracting purposes are precisely similar to the body-box in construction, but shallower, and there is a lift for the quilts, the roof being either sloping or span. The floor-board has a sunk entrance at times, while at others the entrance is taken out of the bottom edge of the body-box. When sections are worked on this type of hive extra lifts are needed to 'accommodate the section racks. These are generally of the form known as the "T." super, and contain twenty-one sections each. Both single- and double-walled hives as now made are variable as regards outside measurements and in minor details, but in one respect they are standardized, and that is in respect to the size of the frames. The number of frames in a hive is ten usually, and it may be nine or eleven, but they will be of the outside measurements of the British standard frame. This frame is i4 inches by \(.8
rac{1}{2}\) inches outside measurement, with a i7-inch top bar. This bar should be \(
rac{1}{4}\) thick by \(
rac{1}{4}\) wide, the side bars \(
rac{1}{4}\) inch thick, and the bottom bar \(
rac{1}{8}\). These thicknesses are deviated from by various makers, but the outer, measurements are inviolable. For supering purposes what is known as a shallow frame is used. This is identically the same as the standard frame except as regards depth; it is \(5
rac{1}{2}\) inches deep only. With regard to working qualities both these types of hives are admirable, and there is practi30 PROFITABLE BEE-KeeperING
cally no difference in the results to be obtained. Scientifically the "W.B.C." is the better hive, and it is rather more pleasant to work with on account of its lightness and the detachability of all its sections. Against this, however, it must be pointed out that it is a difficult hive to secure for travelling, and a more expensive hive either to purchase or to make than the other variety. Where a few hives only are being kept for a hobby this hive should be purchased, but for a bee farmer the so-called single-walled type is recommended.
When commencing bee-keeping there are a certain number of indispensable appliances which must be obtained. This list, however, need neither be lengthy nor costly, but the articles obtained should be of the best possible quality, and of the simplest construction compatible with efficiency. Appliances should never be bought second-hand, except perhaps in the case of extractors and ripeners, which may, be picked up in that way. All other goods should be bought new, and from a good firm.
A veil and smoker are two of the most necessary items, and it should be seen that the veil is large enough. Many veils are narrow and of poor material, an abomination to the wearer, and an inadequate protection against the attacks which it is their duty to ward off. The veil should always be black in colour, or it is not easy to see through, but white net may with advantage
**HIVES 'AND APPLIANCES 31 be used for the part which covers the neck, as being cooler during the heat of the summer.**
**The smoker should preferably be of the "'Bingham " pattern, and of a good size and quality. The best articles are made of sheet steel, and these are to be preferred, for a poor smoker may be worn out in a season's working.**
**Gloves should not be worn. Their use makes the bees mere irritable than they, would otherwise be. This is mainly on account of the clumsy. way in which their owner handles the frames; clumsy he perforce must be with gloves on, for no skilful bee-work can be done except with the naked hands.**
**Other articles which will be needed are feeders (one for each colony), excluder zinc (one sheet for each hive), an extractor if extracted honey is to be worked for, sections and section racks if comb honey is desired. In the case of extracted honey. a supply of supers and shallow frames will be needed, as well as spare standard frames for the brood-boxes.**
**One or two queen-cages are also necessary, in fact indispensable at times. As will be seen, a certain number of the articles in this list may be eliminated if the bee-keeper decides to work for honey in one form or other only, and it may be said at once that it will be found in nine cases out of ten that extracted honey will be the best form in which to turn out the produce. The explanation of this will be given later.**
**With regard to this list it should be noted that**32 PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING ''' the feeders had better be of the "Universal " or graduated type, while the extractor should be of a size suitable to the number of colonies it is proposed to keep. A small extractor, costing perhaps i5/-, would be quite large enough for an apiary of half a dozen hives, but for a large apiary a large machine such as the "Cowan " should be acquired. This fine extractor takes four combs at once, and honey can be thrown out by the cwt. In buying queen-cages the pipe-cover variety, will be found to be the most generally useful. They cost 6d. each, and if two are obtained it will be ample for a small apiary. In buying frames, whether standard or shallow, the kind is largely a matter of individual choice. They are all alike in size, but differ somewhat in construction, which is not a vital point at all. If the buyer has not any particular preference, he may be recommended to get the ordinary dovetailed frame with a saw-cut in the top bar, which, in the writer's case, fulfils all requirements very satisfactorily. The other items mentioned will be described and commented upon in the chapters devoted to their use, as in that way, the reader will be better in a position to understand their workings.
## Chapter 3 The preparation of frames and sections
Before new frames and sections can be used in the hives it is necessary that they should undergo a certain preparation, which consists in filling, or partially filling them with sheets of comb foundation. Comb foundation is pure beeswax rolled out into sheets of varying thickness and embossed with the imprint of worker cells, or more rarely with the form of drone cells. This is done by passing the sheets through heavy rollers, which embosses and at the same time imparts an added toughness to them which is very useful in assisting the combs to withstand the high temperature of the hive without breaking down. The invention of this material has probably done more to revolutionize bee-keeping than any one thing, with the possible exception of the honey extractor. By its aid combs may be obtained perfectly flat, built entirely of worker cells, and with a very great saving to the energy of the bees, which saving is that of the bee-keeper also.
Before this material was brought out it was impossible to obtain, consistently, combs of even fairquality. They were crooked, and generally contained a large percentage of drone comb, which made them practically useless as a means of honey production.* With the use of these wax sheets the bees find half of their work already done for them : the septum or mid-rib of their cells is in position, and all that remains to be done is to draw out the walls. Needless to say, comb building progresses at a rapid rate.
Comb foundation should be used with the greatest liberality, as liberality--not extravagance --in this direction is most profitable. The more work the bees can be saved in comb building the greater the gain, for note that bees consume from thirteen to twenty pounds of honey in secreting the wax for one pound of comb. Many, bee-keepers who are supposed to know their trade even now make a regular practice of placing starters in all their frames and sections. Starters are narrow strips of wax, about half-inch deep, placed along the top-bars, and their use, as their name indicates, is to give the bees a start. It does that and nothing more, and the resulting combs in the majority of cases give strict indications as to their origin. Full sheets of foundation should always be used, and not starters, or even half sheets. The sheets are made in several thicknesses for different purposes. There is medium and thick brood foundation' for the brood or standard frames, medium and thin brood for the shallow or surplus frames, and thin super for Frames and Sections 35 the sections. The sheets are sold in sizes to fit the various frames and sections.
Before frames can be filled with foundation it is very necessary that they should be wired to give the best results. They may be used without wiring, but in that case there is a great danger of the combs falling out of the frames during manipulation, and of their being thrown out by the force of the extractor.
Wiring consists of passing two or three strands of No. 2o tinned wire across the frames, which wires are embedded in the wax sheets, holding them in position, and ultimately becoming enveloped in the combs. Three wires are sufficient for the standard frame, and two for the shallow, placed at equal distances apart, and running across the frames from one side bar to the other. The simplest'way of wiring frames is to bore fine holes in the side bars--three or two as the case may be --and secure one end of the wire to a fine tack placed just beside the first hole and on the outside. Then thread the wire to and fro across the frame, tighten up and finish off on another tack placed outside the last hole. It should be noted that in the case of dovetailed frames the joints must be nailed, as the dovetails alone are insufficient to carry, the 'weight of a heavy comb filled with honey.
.The foundation should now be placed in position in the top bar, and this may be a little' difficult' where saw-cuts are the means used for * 36 PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING
* holding the sheet. The best way is to open the cut by means of two small wedges placed at either end outside, then insert the sheet, which on removal of the wedges will be securely held. Note that the sheet should hang in the frame quite squarely, but just clear of the side bars, and a quarter inch short of the bottom bar. If it touches the side bars it will buckle, while if it reaches to the bottom there will be no room for "stretch," which exists to a small extent in even the best foundation. The wires may now be embedded, and for this purpose a board must be obtained of a size to fit the inside of a frame, and in thickness a shade under half the thickness of the frame to be fitted up. In the case of a frame having a top bar seven-eighths wide, a board about three-eighths thick will be right, and strips should be nailed across the back so that it may go no further than this depth into the frame. This board is now covered with a sheet of damp brown paper to prevent the wax adhering to it, and the 'frame with its sheet of foundation is fitted on to the board, with the wires uppermost. The best tool for the actual work is the "Woiblet" spur embedder, which consists of a towdied and grooved wheel, which is heated by a spirit-lamp and run along the wires, which are effectually secured. This little tool only costs a shilling, and is well worth the money. Care should be taken in using it to see that it is not too hot and that too much pressure is not used. Neglect of these precautious will result in the wax sheet being cut completely through. Only just sufficient heat and pressure should be used to effect the object, which 'is the sinking of the wires well into the wax. This work may be done with an awl with a V groove filed in the point and heated in the fire, but the above-named tool is vastly, superior and should be obtained.
In fixing foundation in sections the method to be adopted depends on the kind of section which is being used. Sections are made to take foundation in various ways. There are split-top sections, split-top and side grooves, split all round, and solid sections with neither split nor groove. The two sections most used, however, are the split-top and the solid section, and these shall be taken first. Section boxes are made in one piece, with V grooves at the joints and dovetails to lock the whole together. When they are bought they require folding, and before doing this a little warm water must be poured along the V. grooves to impart elasticity, for they are liable to break if very dry. In folding split-top sections only one half of the lid should be placed in position before inserting the sheet of foundation, which is then secured by, closing the other portion of the lid. Foundation for sections should be cut very accurately. It must not touch the sides, and, as in frames, it should hang a quarter inch clear from the bottom. Being so exceedingly, thin it will buckle at a touch, and buckled sheets of founda
**PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING**
tion mean bulged and unsaleable sections when completed. In using solid sections there is more need than ever for accuracy in cutting the wax sheets, for they are secured to the section on three sides by molten wax. They. should be cut with a die of a size to fit exactly the inside of the section, less a quarter inch at the bottom. In fixing the sheets a block must be made exactly, the same as the one described for the frames, and one-sixteenth less than half the width of the section, and as the section will probably be two inches in width, the block will be fifteen-sixteenths. A little bees wax must then be melted in a cup placed in a pan of boiling water, and the section placed upon the block with the foundation in position. Now take a little wax in a spoon, pour it along one edge of the wax sheet, and by tilting the section the molten wax will flow completely round and firmly fix the sheet. This may seem difficult, like many other things, but as a matter of fact it is very easy, and little practice is needed to become proficient, while the bits of appliances required will last a lifetime.
With the other types of sections the ways and means of fixing the foundation will be fairly obvious when their construction is seen, and a knowledge gained of the previous methods. The main thing is cutting the foundation accurately and seeing that it is not nipped at any point, and that means that the section-boxes must be folded up squarely. After the boxes are folded they
**FRAMES AND SECTIONS 39**
should be put back into the racks which should be ready for their reception, and wedged up to keep all square, This is most necessary, as otherwise a lot of labour and foundation will probably be wasted. Empty section-boxes cannot be kept true unless they are properly squared up in the racks. After the bees have filled them with honey the case is different, as all the joints are then immovably fixed.
Finally, I would impress upon the novice the need for the utmost care and accuracy in this task of preparing frames and sections for the use of the bees. If this work is not well and efficiently performed, the work which follows afterwards will be equally bad. Combs will be twisted, or fall from their frames, while sections will be out of truth when filled, and eventually it will not be possible to glaze them. The blocks and dies must be accurately made and carefully used. If thin super foundation is "nipped" in the slightest degree, it will "buckle," or bulge in the centre, and a bad section is the result.
**A frame is now being sold with a half-inch top-bar, and it has much to commend it. The ordinary bar, especially if it be split, is much too prone to sag under the weight of a heavy comb. This increases the space over the top-bars, with an additional amount of brace-comb, and other minor evils.**
## Chapter 6.1. The "Feeding" principles
In modern bee-keeping it is absolutely necessary that a certain amount of sugar feeding be done if the greatest possible amount of profit is to be derived from the bees. The duration of this feeding and the amount of food supplied depend to a great extent on the method of bee-keeping practised by the owner of the bees, and also to a considerable degree on the district in which the apiary is situated.
Broadly speaking, feeding is practised for three purposes, which shall now be described.
First we have autumn feeding, the purpose of which is to supply the bees with a sufficiency of food to enable them to winter safely. Now in some districts little if any autumn feeding is necessary, on account of there being flows of nectar from certain late summer and autumn flowering crops peculiar to the districts. These crops enable the bees to gather a sufficiency of food for their needs, and as the supers will have been removed from the hives at the end of July it is stored where it is required--in the brood-nest. With
## 1 Feeding Principles
1.1 Good bee-keeping, during the honey, season proper little if any honey, can be stored in the brood-nest owing to the management. The apiarist sees to it that the brood-combs are a solid mass of brood, and takes care there is a queen present who will keep them so. What honey is gathered therefore goes into the supers, which are taken off at the end of the regular honey flow, usually about the end of July. After that time what the bees gather they are allowed to keep. If there is a late flow to enable them to fill their depleted exchequer, well and good; if there is not, then they must be fed.