BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
**As water has a specific gravity of 1,000, and a gallon of water (231 cubic inches) weighs 8:339 lbs., it is easy to calculate the weight of a gallon or a quar of syrup containing any known amount of sugar. Or from the weight of a gallon or quar we can tell how much sugar it contains.**
**Sulphur.--n. A well known substance of a yellow color. It is one of the chemical elements--that is to say, it cannot be manufactured by combining any other known substances. It occurs as a mineral in some volcanic regions, especially Sieily, and is also obtained from iron pyrites, which is a compound of iron and sulphur. It is found in commerce in three forms: 1.**
**Crude sulphur or brinstone, which is simply the sulphur solidified in masses like stones. 2.**
**Roll sulphur, which is the preceding, purified and cast in moulds so as to form rolls or sticks. 3. A fine powder prepared by distilling or subliming the common sulphur and condensing the vapor. It melts at 232\({}^{\circ}\) Fahr., and between this point and 282\({}^{\circ}\) it is quite liquid. When still further heated it becomes thick and viscid, but again becomes liquid just before it vaporizes. Therefore, in melting sulphur for making matches, it should not be made too hot.**
**Sulphur is easily converted into vapor without being burned, and in that case it is not so deadly as when combined with oxygen so as to form sulphurous acid (sulphurous anhydride), or in other words, when it is properly burned. In the latter case it produces a heavy gas of a very penetrating and suffocating nature which effectually destroys all insect life, whether in the form of mature bees, months, or the larvae of either. This gas, however, quickly diffuses in the air, and does not leave any taint on the comb or honey exposed to it. But if we expose honey to the unburned vapor of sulphur, the latter condenses on the comb or honey, and leaves a very disagreeable taste and odor. And as sulphur is not volatile at ordinary temperatures, this taste and odor are very persistent.**
**Sulphur.--**_v._ To kill by exposure to the fumes of burning sulphur. A process now used by intelligent persons only for destroying the moth in its various stages.
**Super.--**A hive set over another so that the bees may work in it.
**Super, Bar.--**A bar super is simply a case or crate in which the honey-comb is hung from bars (q. v.) instead of being built in sections or boxes.
**Super, Divisional.--**English writers apply the term "divisional super," to a set of long sections reaching across the entire width or length of the hive, and held together somewhat after the manner of closed end frames.
**Super-hive.--**_v._ To set one hive above another.
**Super-hiving.--**The opposite of Nadir-hiving (q. v.)
**Superior Hive.--**The uppermost of a storified set.
**Super, Sectional.--**A super or case placed over the frames or honey board, and containing sections (q. v.)
**Support, Metal.--**A strip of metal fastened to the edge of a rubber for the purpose of supporting the frames. Improperly called a metal rabbet. A common form of metal support, bearing or runner (as some English writers call it), is shown in the annexed engraving at B. See _Rabbet_, where another form is shown.
**Swarm.--**A new colony produced by an old stock. _Prime_ swarms consist of the old queen and an indefinite number of workers of all ages, together with some drones. _After_ swarms (called also second, third, etc., swarms) consist of one or more young queens followed by workers, and perhaps drones. See _After_-_sworm_.
The term, colony, is very apt to be confounded with swarm. The difference is this: A _sworm_ is a young colony just detached from the parent stock. The idea which attaches to the word _sworm_ is, that either under the influence of the so-called swarming fever, or by the direct agency of man in dividing them, the old colony has split up into two or more parts, one of which maintains the identity of the old stock, while the other seeks a new home. See _Stock_.
**Swarm, Artificial.--**A new colony formed from one or more old colonies by the direct agency of man.
**Swarming Basket** A box or basket fastened when necessary to the end of a long pole, and used for taking swarms from a tree or bush and living them. The box or basket is held directly beneath the swarm, and the bees brushed into it with a feather, or where the limb is inaccessible and better facilities are not at hand, the limb may be shaken sothat the bees will fall into the box. This may be done in some cases by placing the upper end of a stick against the branch to which the bees cling, and striking the lower end sharply with a mallet. The bees fall off, but very few take wing, and there is no danger of killing the queen.
**Swarming Impulse.--**A desire or tendency on the part of bees to swarm. The conditions under which it occurs are not fully understood, but that it is a definite desire or impulse, nearly as much so as the fever of fowls when wishing to set, there can be no doubt, and the most effectual way of stopping it probably, is to gratify it in appearance at least. The honey-extractor is said to keep it down very effectually, but cases have been known in which even this failed. Query: Has it any connection with a greatly developed wax-secreting condition? If so, the most effectual method of subduing it would be to set the bees at work building new comb for a few days, as well as giving them room for new stores of honey.
**Swarm, Late.--**A swarm which comes off after the usual swarming season is past.
**Swarm, Natural.--**A new colony formed by the instinet of the bees without the _direct_ interference of man. Such operations as feeding to promote brood-rearing and to excite the swarming impulse, do not constitute _direct_ interference.
**Syrian Bee.--**A race of bees found in Syria. Frequently confounded with the bees found in the country to the south of Syria. See _Holyland Bee_.
**Take Up, To.--**To destroy bees for the purpose of getting the comb and honey.
**Tested Queen.--**See _Queen, Tested._
**Tier Up, To.--**To place one hive on the top of another so as to give the bees more room. The operation may be repeated several times.
**Top Box.--**A box placed on the top of a hive for surplus honey.
**Transfer.--**To change the comb and bees of a stock from one hive to another. The term transferring has, however, come to have a special significance, and is commonly used to denote the operation of changing bees and comb from box-hives to movable comb hives, or, indeed, to change the comb from one frame to another. And if any one could be found who changed his comb back to the box hive, this operation also would be called transferring. A quantity of comb transferred to a frame is shown in the illustration on the next page. The comb is held in place in this frame by means of wires, clasps and slats.
There is another operation, however, in daily use in extensive apiaries, and that is the transposing of frames and bees from one hive to another. This operation, strictly speaking, should not be called "transferring " but _transposing_ or _re-living_. See _Belive_.
**Transferring Board.-A board with grooves used in transferring. The frame and comb lie flat on the board, and the wires or slats, seen in the previous figure, lie in the grooves so as not**
**Transferring Board.**
to be pressed into the comb. In the figure the grooves are simply spaces between narrow boards or slats which are nailed to two cross pieces.
**Transpose.-When frames and bees are moved bodily from the shell or outer ease of one** **live to that of another, the term "transpose " might be used. In this way we would avoid confusing the simple operation of changing boxes with the more elaborate and difficult one generally known as "transferring."**
**To transpose a** _colony_ **is one thing, however, and to transpose frames of comb is another. The latter may be performed in the same hive by simply re-arranging the frames. As a single word, denoting the** **changing of a colony from one** **live to another, without the operation of transferring, we prefer the term** _re-live_**.**
**Treble**
**Triple**
**Triplicate**
**Tro add a third hive or box to two that were previously occupied by one colony.**
**Triplet.--**A stock that has three hives or stories.
**Twin-stock.--**A word which has been borrowed from the German. It signifies a hive containing two colonies.
**Uncapping.--**To remove the caps from the cells of sealed or capped honey. This is always done before the combs are placed in the extractor.
**Unfertile.--**This term may be applied to either queens or eggs. It means incapable of producing young. See _Slerle_.
**Unicomb Hive.--**A hive having only one comb, and generally with glass sides. An observable hive.
**Unite.--**To make one colony out of two or more.
**Uniting Spirit.--**A mixture of spirit of peppermint, water and honey used for sprinkling bees to give them the same odor, so that they may be united more easily. _Dizerzon_.
**Unqueen.--**To remove a queen and leave the colony queenless. This term saves much circumlocution.
**Unripe Honey.--**Honey from which the water has not been sufficiently evaporated.
**Untested Queen.--**A queen whose progeny has not been examined or tested.
**Variety.--**Any form or condition of structure, under a species, which differs in its characteristics from those typical to the species, as in color, shape, size, and the like, and which is capable either of perpetuating itself for a period, or of being perpetuated by artificial means; also, any of the various forms under a species, meeting the conditions mentioned. Amongst naturalists, a form characterized by an abnormity of structure, or any difference from the type, that is not capable of being perpetuated through two or more generations, is not called a variety. Varieties differ from species in that any two, however unlike, will mutually propagate indefinitely, unless they are in their nature unfertile, as some varieties of rose and other cultivated plants; in being the result of climate, food, or other extrinsic conditions or influences, but generally by a sudden, rather than a gradual, development; and in tending in most cases to lose their distinctive peculiarities when the individuals are left to a state of nature, and especially if restored to the conditions that are natural to typical individuals of the species.--_Webster_.
Varieties differ from races and breeds in the suddenness of their appearance. The development of a race or breed is gradual--often the result of agencies which have acted for hundreds of years.
A variety also differs from a race in that the latter tends more and more to establish its distinctive features, and loses its tendency to "'ery back " (q. v.), consequently, a variety is generally confined within narrower limits than a race. And it differs from a" breed" not only in the points just mentioned, but also in the fact that the latter is always to a certain extent artificial. In short, a variety partakes largely of the nature of a "' sport," as it is called by horticlntrists.
The term _variety_, however, is used almost wholly by scientific men--naturalists in every department. Practical stock-breaders, whether of Durham cattle or of bees, use the words _race_ and _bred_.--See _Species_, _Strain_.
**Vell, Bee.**--A veil used by bee-keepers to protect them from the stings of the insects. There are different methods of arranging the veil, one of the best being that shown in the engraving, copied from Quinby's work on Bee Keeping.
**Ventilate.**--To change the air in any place. In the hive ventilation is effected in two ways: _Naturally_, when the bees by the action of their wings produce currents of air which penetrate to every part of the hive; _Artificially_, when the bee-keeper establishes a current of air by means of suitably arranged openings. Artificial ventilation in winter has been extolled on the one hand as the greatest aid in safely wintering colonies, while on the other it has been condemued as contrary to the habits of the bee, and the probable cause of more losses than any other device.
**Virgin Comb.**--Comb which has been used only once for honey and never for brood.
**Virgin Honey.**--Honey taken from virgin comb (q. v.) By some this term is applied only to the honey gathered and stored by a swarm of the same season that the honey is taken. Some authors define virgin honey as that which drains from the combswithout pressure or heat, and this seems to be the definition accepted by most of our standard authorities.
**Virgin Queen.--See Queen, Virgin.**
**Virgin Wax.--**Wax from virgin eomb (q. v.) Virgin wax is frequently prescribed in the older recipes for various industrial purposes, but with our modern methods and systems of purifying wax, any bright yellow wax is as good as what is known as virgin wax.
**Warranted Queen.--**See Queen, Warranted.**
**Wax.--**When '' wax,'' simply, is spoken of, beeswax is always understood. In this place vegetable wax and mineral wax have no interest for us except as adulterants, which are to be avoided. Wax is secreted by the bees, is formed into scales in the wax-pockets (q. v.), and is thence taken into the month, where it is kneaded with saliva until sufficiently plastic to be used in building the cells. There are two kinds of wax in market--common beeswax and Andaquies wax, which is produced by a small bee found on the plains of Orinoco, above the Magdalena River. Like the Apis dorsata, these bees attach their combs to the limbs of trees. This wax has a rather higher melting point than common beeswax, and hence if it could be proeured in quantity and should prove sufficiently plastic, it might prove exceedingly useful in the manufacture of foundation. Lewy gives its specific gravity as '917, and its melting point as 170\({}^{\circ}\) Fahr.
Common beeswax has a specific gravity of '960 to '965, and a melting point of 145\({}^{\circ}\) to 150\({}^{\circ}\) Fahr. The process of bleaching raises the specific gravity to '990, and the melting point to 155\({}^{\circ}\) Fahr. At 85\({}^{\circ}\) wax becomes plastic, so as to be easily moulded or kneaded, and at this temperature pieces which are pressed into contact unite into one mass. Proctor says, that at this temperature ''its behavior while worked between the finger and thumb is characteristic.'' A piece the size of a pea being worked in the hand till tough with the warmth, then placed upon the thumb and forecibly stroked down with the forefinger, enrls up, following the finger, and is marked by it with longitudinal streaks.
Wax is freed from honey and adhering impurities by being melted in water, to which vinegar, alum, or a little nitric acid has been added. For the best methods of purifying and bleaching wax, see article _Wax_ in the forthcoming ''Treasury of Practical Information.''
The adulterations of wax are various powders--starch, clay, etc.; resin; tallow and snet; and lastly, paraffin. Powders may be separated by disolving the wax in turpentine, when the powders will be left. Resin may be detected by its peculiar treebinthinate (turpentine) taste, and by its solubility in _cold_ alcohol, in which wax is insoluble. When resin is present the fracture of the wax is shining instead of granular. Greasy matter is easily detected by the unetuous feel and disagreeable taste, Waxwith which paraffin has been mixed melts at a temperature too low to allow it to be used for foundation. The wax may be separated by a strong solution of alkali, which has no effect whatever on paraffin.
**Wax Extractor.--A piece of apparatus for separating wax from other impurities, such as bee-bread, dead bees, etc.**
**Wax Moth.--See _Moth._**
**Wax Pockets.--Small cavities found on the under side of the bee, in which the secreted wax is collected and kept.till required for use. In the honey bee these pockets are found under the abdomen, and there are eight of them--four on each side. The stingless bees of South America collect the wax on the back.**
**Welding Exursion**
**Wedding Flight**
**Wax Pockets.--Frames which are so wide that sections may be placed in them and hung in the hive. The term is to be preferred to** _broad_ **frame, as the latter is apt to be mistaken (especially when written) for** _broad_ **frame. The figure shows a wide frame with sections hung in a hive.**
**Wild Bees.--These differ in no respect from the bees originally kept in hives, except in the fact**
**Wild frames and sections.**
**Wild have taken up their**
**Abode in some natural cavity in tree, rock, or even the ground. This will be seen at once when we remember that most of the colonies found in the woods have absconded from some apiary. Even pure Italians have been found in the condition of wild bees.**
**Wild Breaks.--Fenes or rows of trees so arranged as to break the force of the prevailing winds.**
**Wine, Honey.--Mead.**
**Wintering.--During nearly five months of the year (from November 1st to April 1st) bees in northern latitudes are confined to their hives, often for months at a time. During this period, if neglected, they are exposed to cold, to the use of unsuitable food, and even to actual starvation. The beekeeper, by proper care, protects them from cold, provides them with a sufficiency of good food, and in other respects sees that they are guarded from those evil influences against which they themselves are at this season powerless. This is called** _veintering._ **The
**Winter Passages.--**Passages made through the combs so that the bees can pass to the different combs without having to go under or around them. As the combs, where not covered by bees, are very cold--often frozen--in winter, any bee that attempts to crawl over them is lost, while if she could go _through_ the combs, without leaving the cluster, she might be able to reach a supply of food and so sustain life. To enable her to do this, it is the practice of some of our best apiarists to cut holes in the combs about two or three inches below the top of the frames, and as the bees are apt to fill these holes up, many insert a tin thimble in them to keep them open. We object to tin, or any metallic substance amongst the bees in winter, and greatly prefer a wooden tube made by rolling a thick shaving round a roller, and tying it with very fine wire. The wood being a poor conductor of heat is greatly better than tin. Such thimbles should be inserted in the foundation--thus saving the bees the labor of building comb which is to be afterwards cut out. At least four frames in every hive should have these thimbles. If they should come into extensive use they could be easily and cheaply turned out of some firm wood. The internal diameter need not be more than half an inch, and they should be quite thin. We have tried paper and pasteboard, but the bees gnaw them. We greatly prefer two or three of these small holes to one large one. They should be at least three or four inches apart. Where tin tubes are used they should be heated and dipped in melted wax, so that the metal surface may be completely covered.
Hill's device (q. v.) is intended to answer the same purpose, but we do not think it quite as efficient. Perhaps _both_ would be best.
**Wired Foundation.--**See _Foundation._
**Wired Frames.--**See _Frames._
**Wolf's Bladder.--**Puff ball.
**Worker Bees.--**These are the undeveloped females that gather the honey and pollen, secrete wax, raise the brood, defend the hive, and perform all the other active duties of bee-life, with the exception of laying eggs.
**Worker Eggs.--**Properly this term should signify eggs laid by workers. More frequently it is used (improperly, we think) to signify eggs that will _produce_ workers. See _Egy._
**Worker, Fertile** \(ackslash\) A worker whose ovaries have been so far
**Worker, Laying** \(ackslash\) developed that she lays eggs. As these workers are never impregnated, their progeny are always drones. The term "fertile " worker has been objected to, but it is strictly proper.
**Worm.**--A common but very improper name for larva (q, v.) of bees or moths. Worms never change to flies, bees, or butterflies. They are not insects.
**Worms.**--The larvae of the bee-moth are frequently, but improperly, so called. Indeed, when " worms" are spoken of by the ordinary beekeeper, the larvae of the bee-moth are almost always meant.
**APPENDIX.**
**Apiology.--**A discourse about bees. The literature of bebeeping.
**Apist.--**A bee-keeper (_inelegant_).
**Apistical.--**Relating to bees or bee-keeping.
**Artificial Comb.--**It is no wonder that the idea that artificial comb is a regular article of manufacture should take a deep hold of the popular mind, when so many journals and books speak of it as an accomplished fact. In the "Mutual Admiration Society's" Cyclopedia* we are gravely told that _Dr. John Long_ has invented a machine "that turns out combs with cells, rivalling, if not excelling, the natural product"!!! This will bring a smile to the faces of readers of back volumes of the _American Bee Journal_.
Footnote *: Johnson'sSo called because each of the several hundred editors and contributors had his "histography" published in it. This, of course, left no room for any account of such men as Langstroh, Drierzon, Wagner, and many others whose work really deserves recognition. Even Laws, who has probably doer more than any other living man for the Science of Agriculture, and whose name is familiar to every student of the subject, is not so much as mentioned.
In noticing the substitutes for comb we ought not to omit mention of the fact that it was by transferring the larvae to glass tubes, made in the form of cells, that Huber was enabled to watch the process of cocoon-spinning. See "_Noucelles Observations sur les Abelles._" Par _Francois Huber_. Geneve 1814. Vol. I., p. 221.
**Frames.--**The following comparison of the comb-surface exposed by completely filled frames of the various sizes in use is interesting. I have assumed that the top bar is \(
rac{3}{8}\) of an inch thick; the end and bottom bars \(
rac{1}{4}\) inch each. In frames as made by some makers these dimensions vary slightly, but by actual measurement I find that the sizes I have given are not fur out of the way. The Standard Frame of the British Bee-Keepers' Association is 14 inches long by \(8
rac{1}{2}\) inches deep, the top bar being \(
rac{3}{8}\) of an inch thick, and the end bars (or side bars, as our cousins call them, not very properly) \(
rac{1}{4}\) of an inch. This gives exactly three-quarters of a square foot, and is the smallest frame in use for any except nucleus hives. Of course, in order to get the entire surface of comb exposed (as in estimating amount ofproof), the quantities given in the table must be doubled, so as to include both sides.
egin{tabular}{l c c} Frame. & Area in & Area in \ Quinby--open and & 191 & 1\(\cdot\)326 \ "closed end & 193 & 1\(\cdot\)340 \ Langstroth--Simplicity. & 145\(\cdot\)56 & 1\(\cdot\)010 \ "Standard. & 143\(\cdot\)43 & -995 \ Adair. & 135\(\cdot\)47 & -940 \ American. & 130\(\cdot\)75 & -908 \ Gallup. & 114\(\cdot\)92 & -793 \ British Standard. & 108 & -750 \ \end{tabular}
**Frame, Broad-shonldered.--**A frame with the top bar image vide at each end for the purpose of keeping the frames a proper distance apart.
**Frame, Cold.--**A frame which runs lengthwise of the hive-- that is, having the end bars against the entrance.
**Frame, Warm.--**A frame which runs across the hive--that is, having the bottom bar parallel with the entrance. Why it was called a " warm " frame we do not know, except perhaps that it was thought that the outer frames, with their sheets of comb, would act as a protection from cold draughts of air. See _Frame, Cold, Sepra_.
**Furgicide.--**A destroyer of fungi. A term applied to certain chemicals which have powerful antispetic qualities, due, it is supposed, to the fact that they are very destructive to minute fungi. Prominent among these chemicals are borax, salicylic acid, sulphur, sulphurous acid, etc.
**Lugs.--**(Seotch and Provincial English for _ews_). The arms of frames are sometimes inelegantly so called.
**Midrih.--**A term sometimes improperly used for septum (_q.v._)
**Runner.--**A thin-edged bearer or support for the arms of the frames The term is not a good one.
**Subtend.--**This term has been used (not very properly) to denote the placing of one hive under another.