BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
A. No; I can give no better way. It's one of the cases where prevention is better than cure, and I try to manage so there shall be as few darkened sections as possible. There are two reasons for sections being darkened outside--being too long on the hive, and being too near old, dark combs. If a super of sections be left on the hive until every section is completely sealed, the central sections are very likely to be darkened. So don't wait for the sealing of all the sections, but take off the super when all but a few of the outside ones are sealed. Perhaps the four corner sections will not be finished, perhaps four on each side. Thenthese unfinished sections are massed together and given back to the bees to be finished. At one time, when I used wide frames to hold sections, my practice was to raise a brood-comb from the brood-chamber and put it between two frames of sections in the upper story, so as to induce the bees to begin work promptly. It was very successful in getting the bees to darken the capping of the sections, for they would carry bits of dark old brood-comb across to use on the sections, making them dark before ever the capping was finished. You will probably find that a thin top-bar will help to darken sections, because it allows them to be nearer the brood-combs. On that account a top-bar seven-eighths of an inch thick is desirable. You may also find more trouble with shallow brood-combs than the deeper ones.
The above refers to the color of the cappings. The honey itself may have been dark, perhaps honey-dew. There is no known process to change its color. As to bleaching the surface, some have reported success by simply exposing it to the light. A south exposure, allowing direct rays of the sun to shine upon the sections will work injure rapidly than a north exposure, but care must be taken with a southern exposure, for in a place too confined, and with sections too near the glass, the heat might be so great as to melt the comb.
**Comb Honey, Producing.-Q**. Give the best method of working for comb-honey where the principal, and you might say all the honey-flow, comes between May 1 and 15. (Arkansas.)
A. The only special thing in such a case is to do your best to have all colonies strong early enough for the harvest. You will find that early in the season some colonies will be much stronger than others, and that the weaker colonies will be very slow about building up. Suppose you have some colonies with eight frames of brood, some with seven, some with six, some with four and others weaker still. You can take brood from any colony that has more than five frames, enough to reduce it to five frames of brood. Now, don't bestow that brood indiscriminately to the weaker colonies, but let the weakest wait till the last. Give a frame to each colony that has only four, and when these are all supplied, then help those that have only three, and so on. If all cannot be brought up in time, let it be the weakest ones that are neglected.
**Comb Honey, Removing.-Q**. Do you leave your comb honey all on the hive until the honey season is over, or do you take it off as fast as finished?A. I take off a super as soon as it is all sealed except the corner sections, although often these will be finished, too.
**Comb Honey, Shipping--Q.** Please give instructions how to create and ship comb honey.
A. When you get the shipping-cases that are now furnished by supply dealers you will hardly need instructions for using them, for you can hardly case the sections wrong, they being so placed that one row comes directly against the glass so as to show the face of the honey. It is of first importance that this row next the glass be a fair sample of the whole case for the man who veeners by putting next the glass the best and inferior honey back of it, will in the long run be the loser by it.
Unless there be so large a quantity of honey that it can be fastened solidly in the car, it should be put in the crates sold by some supply dealers, the crates so placed that the ends of the sections shall be towards the front and rear, so as to stand the bumping of-the cars. On the contrary, if the sections are hailed on a wagon, they should pe placed crosswise.
Q. When is the best time to ship comb honey?
A. Generally about as soon as it is ready. In very cold weather combs are in danger of breaking.
**Comb Honey, Watery Cappings.--Q.** What is the cause and remedy of comb honey having a water-soaked appearance? The cappings lie right on the honey. The honey tastes the same as any other, but it does not look as good as where the capping is pure white. I have a colony that produced 100 pounds more this season than any of the others, but a good many of the sections had this watery look.
A. You have answered the question yourself, when you say, "The cappings lie right on the honey." In other words, the bees fill the honey right up to the cappings, leaving no air-space between the capping and the honey. The remedy is to change the queen, or else use the colony for extracted honey. Any section may also acquire the same appearance after it is taken from the hive, no matter how white the bees made it, if it is put in a damp place. Honey is deliquescent, attracting moisture from damp air, and should be kept in a warm, dry place. Where salt will keep dry is likely to be a good place to keep honey.
**Combs.--Q.** How can I know the different kinds of combs?
A. The greater part of the combs in a hive you will find to be worker-comb, made up of cells that measure five to the inch.
Drone-comb is made up of cells that measure four to the inch. Generally you will find where the change is made from one kind to the other there will be a few irregular cells, called transition cells, Then there is also the queen-cell, still larger than either of the other kinds, measuring three to the inch. More nearly correct it is to say that a queen-cell is a third of an inch in diameter, for you never find a piece of comb made up entirely of queen-cells. Generally each queen-cell is by itself; and even if you find several queen-cells apparently close in a group, you will not find three such cells in the compass of an inch.
**Combs Breaking.-Q.** My bees are doing nicely now, but I have trouble with combs of honey breaking and dropping down, caused by the heat. I have covers on all the hives, but the sun strikes the hive front. Is there any remedy for this?
A. The probability is that two things were responsible for the trouble. One was that the entrance of the hive was too small, giving the bees too little chance for ventilation. The other was that there was too little chance for circulation of air about the hive; buildings, trees, or bushes preventing a free movement of air. Years ago I had combs melt down in a hive--I think I never had them melt down in any other case--and the sun never shone on the front of the hive, nor any other part of the hive. The hive stood in a very dense shade, a thicket of bushes on one side, and tall corn on the other. The entrance was not very large, but I think the combs would not have melted if the hive had stood out in the sun all day long, provided there had been full chance for the brecze.
**Combs, Preserving.-Q.** (a) Does it injure empty extracting combs to keep them where the temperature goes below freezing?
(b) If not, would it be safe to stack then up in the yard with a sheet of heavy tarred paper between each super?
A. (a) The combs may be slightly cracked with very hard freezing, but that is a small matter compared with the advantage that freezing kills all the beemoth, their larvae, and even their eggs. I should, certainly prefer to have the combs exposed to freezing all winter.
(b) That will be all right.
**Combs, Moldy.-Q.** If empty drawn combs remain in the hives all summer, and the hives are clean, is there danger of the combs becoming moldy? If such hives were not used, would you close up the entrances to keep out moths?
A. No danger of mold unless you keep the combs in a cellar or damp room. I've some question whether you can close the hives tight enough to keep out moths. They squeeze through a very small crack. But if the combs are in a close building the moths are not likely to find them. Yet it is a pretty safe guess that, if colonies died on them, the worms are there already. In that case, whatever combs cannot be put in the care of the bees should be treated with sulphur fumes, or, still better with bisulfite of carbon.
The moldy combs will be cleaned up by the bees when given them.
**Combs, Old.-Q.** Will combs that have had brood reared in them from one to three years spoil the color and flavor of honey if used for extracting-frames?
A. There may be a slight difference, but you probably could not tell the honey from that stored in newly built combs.
Q. When having old combs in frames taken from colonies that died during the winter, to what extent is it good practice to dig the dead bees out of the comb?
A. Brush off all the bees you can, hold the frame flat and shake vigorously, shaking some of the bees out of the cells; leave those that will not shake out for the bees to dig out; they can do it cheaper than you.
Q. I have some brood-combs; they are black. I also have some that the moths have been in, that I lost earlier. Are those combs any good, or had I better throw them away? I thought I could use them for natural or artificial swarms.
A. If not too badly torn by worms they are all right to use again.
Q. How many years of constant use for brood can worker-comb have without diminishing the size of the bees? I have read that the cocoons left behind imperceptibly diminish the size of the cells of the future occupants, and prevent the bees from attaining their full development and size.
A. I have combs that are 30 years old or more, and I cannot see that the bees reared in them are any smaller than those reared in new combs. I remember that one of the patient foreign investigators--a German, I believe, whose name does not now occur to me--took the trouble to measure the contents of cells in combs very old and new, by actually filling them with liquid, and he found that the old cells contained just as much liquid as the new. The idea that the cells become smaller with age has been taught faithfully for many years, and there are still some who
all the combs are very crooked, you may consider it as a box-hive.
Q. How do you get straight combs built? Last year I used full sheets of foundation. The frames were wired with four horizontal wires. Almost every one "buckled" between the wires, and they are a bad lot of combs.
A. I wonder if you didn't depend entirely on the wires. The foundation should be fastened securely to the top-bar, either by means of the kerf and wedge, or, what some think better in a very dry climate, waxing the foundation to the top-bar; that is, running melted wax along the edge of the foundation on the top-bar. But you will probably have less sagging of foundation if you use foundation splints that are described fully in this book, as well as in the book, "Fifty Years Among the Bees."
**Combs, Weight of.-Q.** How much will ten frames of empty combs weigh, new and old, size 17%x9%, top-bar one inch? How much wax will ten combs produce, if rendered?
A. They vary very much with age. A weighing just made shows ten old ones weighing 13% pounds. I have no new ones to weigh, but they would be much lighter. Ten average combs will yield from 1% to 2% pounds of wax.
**Concrete (See Cement.)**
**Corn Flower.-Q.** Do bees gather nectar from corn flowers?
A. Yes, if by corn-flower you mean the flower Centaurea Cyanus. If you mean the tassels of Indian corn, I think they get only pollen.
**Cotton.-Q.** There is a large amount of cotton near Phoenix. Does cotton in Arizona yield much honey?
A. Cotton is a good honey plant in the southern states, and likely, also, with you.
**Cottonwood.-Q.** Is cottonwood lumber good for beehives? Is basswood?
A. Both are bad for lumber for hives.
Q. Do bees gather much honey from the blossom of the cottonwood tree?
A. I think not; if your cottonwood is like the cottonwood of Illinois.
**Covers.-Q.** What kind of a cover do you use?
A. A flat cover with a dead air-space covered with zinc or tin. The upper and the lower parts are each of three-eighths inch stuff, with the grain running in opposite directions, separated by strips or cleats three-eighths inch thick.
stead of that pinch the cloth together sidewise at each corner, making a seam that will be vertical in the finished cushion, making the cushion box-shaped. Fill the cushion and sew up the hole. Cork dust may be used as stuffing instead of chaff.
**Cypress.--G**. What do you think of cypress hives? Are they as good as white pine?
A. Probably they are as good; some say they are more durable.
**Cyprians.--Q**. Are the Cyprians better honey gatherers than the Italians? Of what color are they?
A. They are not generally considered better. Cyprian bees look very much like Italians, but the yellow bands are a trifle wider and deeper in color, more like copper.
Q. Are Cyprian queens more prolific than other races?
A. I don't think they have that reputation.
Q. Have you had any personal experience with Cyprians? If so, describe the lusting qualities, comb-capping, comparative size of bee, color (full), longevity, and disposition of the pure bee.
A. I never had but one colony of Cypians, and that was several years ago, and I can only tell about them as I remember them. In industry, comb-capping and size, they did not especially differ from Italians, if at all. I do not recall whether they differed in color, and I know nothing about their longevity. They have the reputation of being very cross, but did not distinguish themselves in that way. The most notable thing about them was that they would start the largest number of queen-cells of all the bees I ever knew.
**Daisies.--Q**. Do wild daisies produce nectar?
A. No, not to speak of.
**Dampness (See Moisture.)**
**Dandelions.--Q**. Do bees gather honey from dandelion blossoms?
A. Yes, they gather a large amount from dandelions. It comes rather early for surplus, but it is of immense value for brood rearing. Dandelions also have a great deal of pollen, which helps in early brood-rearing.
**Danzenbaker Hive.--Q**. Is the Danzenbaker hive as good as any for comb honey?
A. Some are enthusiastic over it; some condemn it severely. After a limited experience with it, I still prefer the regular 8
**Description of Swarms.-Q**. A neighbor of mine says that when he kept bees and was ready to hive a swarm, he would first wash the hive thoroughly with salt water, and then hive the bees; and said he never had a swarm leave when he lived it in that way. What do you think of it?
A. Washing out a hive with salt and water is an excellent thing, if the hive is dirty. It might do as well without the salt. If the hive is clean, it may do as well without any washing. The principal precaution against having a swarm desert the hive is to see that the hive is well shaded and ventilated. You can wash a hive in an ocean of salt water, and if you set it in the hot sun with a small entrance, a swarm may desert it.
Q. I had 32 colonies of bees, and I have lost five of them. They will swarm and come out of their own hive and settle on the outside of some of the other hives, and leave their own hives empty, with lots of honey in them. When they settle on the other hives it causes a fight. What makes the bees do this?
A. Bees sometimes seem to have a mania for deserting their hives in spring and trying to force their way into other hives, and it isn't easy to say just why. Some think because they are weak and discouraged. Some think because they have started a lot of brood, and then the old bees have died off so rapidly that enough are not left to cover the brood. In any case the advice given is to have only strong colonies in the fall. This is sound advice on general principles, even if there should be some absconding the following spring in spite of strong colonies.
**Diseases and Enemies of Bees (See Foulbrood, Dysentery, Bee Paralysis, Moths, Isle of Wight.)**
**Distance Bees Fly.-Q**. How far will Italian bees go for nectar in a fairly good clover location, with 100 colonies in the apiary and about 100 acres of alike within two miles of the apiary?
A. Italian bees, or any other bees, work perhaps to good advantage a distance of one- and one-half to two miles--perhaps farther. In the cases your mention they would probably go that distance. The lay of the land governs to some extent the distance or their flight.
Q. My apiary is 1% miles from the Red River bottom--a bottom about eight miles wide, containing a very dense forest. It is about five miles to the river where there is a very extensive agricultural business carried on. I can see my bees going to the bottoms. How far do you think they will go in the bottoms?
A. Bees have been known to go as much as seven miles, but probably not with profit more than two or three.
Q. How far will a drone fly from a hive? How far will a virgin queen fly from a hive?
A. I don't know, and I'm afraid you'll never know. I think it has been said that a drone may meet a virgin whose home is four or five miles from his home, although as a rule such long flights are not made. Some think that a mile is as far apart as the two homes usually are. But if you knew exactly how far apart the two homes are, you are still in the dark as to how much of the distance is made by the drone and how much by the virgin.
**Dividing (See Increase.)**
**Division-Boards.--Q**. Of what use are division-boards, and how often should they be used?
A. A division-board, properly so-called, is a thin board more or less tight-fitting that divides a hive into two separate compartments, as when a hive is to be used for two or more nuclei, or when a colony is too small to occupy the whole of the hive. In this sense there are very few division-boards, but a dummy is really the thing that is meant. A dummy is loose-fitting, not longer nor deeper than the frame of the hive. It may be less than that. Dummies are in use in my hives all the time, winter and summer. The frames do not entirely fill the hive, and the dummy fills up the vacant space at one side. It is much easier to get out the dummy than to get out the first frame where there is no dummy, and after the dummy is out it is easy to get out the frames. If less than the full number of frames is in the hive, one or more dummies are placed next to the exposed frame.
**Doolittle System of Honey Production.--Q**. What is the Doo-little system of comb-honey production?
A. A book called "A Year's Work in an Out Apiary" gives in full the system that Mr. Dooilittle follows, which is a combination of good things more or less in general use, given by the author in an interesting way. Of course, it would be out of the question to give details here, but only one special feature may be mentioned, and that is that early in the season he puts over the hive a second story containing combs with more or less honey, an excluder between the two stories, and then when the time comes that there is danger of swarming, or just before the honey-flow, he takes away the brood of the lower story, giving the colony the combs of the upper story.
**Drone-Broad.--Q**. Is it common to find considerable drone broom in worker-cells in colonies where all combs were drawn from worker foundation, the drone-brood being started in spring at the beginning of brood-rearing, and a considerable quantity of it being intermixed with the worker-brood?
I notice it in one of my two colonies, and it seems to be largely in the upper part of the comb. Is it on account of the foundation sagging, thus making the cells a trifle larger? The queen in this hive was of last season's rearing, would you think because of this drone-brood that she was inferior?
A. It is not common.
If the cells in the upper part of the comb are larger because of stretching of foundation it may have some effect in preventing the queen from laying in these cells, and if she does lay in them the eggs may be drone-eggs. If drone-brood is found only in these enlarged cells, it ought hardly to condem the queen. If, however, drone-brood is mixed in with the worker-brood of regular size, the probability is that the queen is beginning to fail, no matter what her age and very likely it will not be long till she becomes a done-layer.
? Is it safe to uncap drone-brood and then put it back in the hive for the bees to clean the cells?
A. Entirely safe; but you can save the bees the labor of cleaning out the cells, and also save the considerable amount of food fed to the larvae if you cut out each patch of drone-comb and put in its place a patch of worker-comb.
**Drone-Comb.-\(Q\)**. In reading the American Bee Journal, I see
Figure 13: The bees patch up holes in combs with drone-cells unless worker-comb or foundation is inserted by the hexkeeper.
drone-comb spoken of a great deal. Please explain how I may be able to know drone-comb.
A. Lay a rule on the surface of the comb. If the cells measure five to the inch they are worker-cells. If they measure four to the inch, they are drone-cells.
Q. How many drone-cells do you think it is necessary to have in each hive? Some of my hives had so much drone-comb that I melted some of it up and put in foundation.
A. I doubt that it is really necessary to have any drone-comb except in those hives which contain such good stock that you want to rear drones from them. Some, however, believe in having perhaps two inches square in each hive.
Q. If bees are given full sheets of foundation will there be any drone-cells?
A. None to speak of; but the bees are likely to find some little vacancy that they can fill with drone-cells. Practically speaking, however, there will be no drone-comb if the frames are entirely filled with worker-foundation.
Q. When is the best time to cut out drone-comb to prevent more being built?
A. It doesn't matter when, if you fill the hole with worker
Figure 16: Even with full sheets of foundation, many times more than enough drone-broad will be built in odd places by the bees.
comb or comb-foundation, only it will be easier to do it in spring, when the comb is empty.
Q. Do you think bees will rear workers if shaken in a hive with a queen, in a full set of all drone-combs?
A. I tried that once, and the bees wouldn't stay; swarmed out. In other cases, where there was an excess of drone-comb, they reared an excess of drones; but in some cases they narrowed the months of the drone-cells and reared workers.
**Drone-Eggs.--Q.** How can I get the queen that I want, to lay drone-eggs? If I give drone-comb they rear workers just the same.
A. A little before harvest time, strengthen the colony by giving it additional sealed brood from other colonies, and if there is drone-comb in the brood-nest she'll lay in it.
**Drone-Layers.--Q.** Does an old queen ever get so she will lay only drone-eggs?
A. In many cases the contents of the spermatheca become exhausted, which will be shown by part of the brood hatching out of worker-cells as drones, finally there being only drones.
**Drone-Trap.--Q.** I have a drone-trap or swarm-guard. I don't have any success with it. How should I use it, and why should I catch the drones?
A. A drone-trap attached to theentrance catches the drones as they attempt to leave the hive, when you can maltreatment them in any way you wish. The intention generally is thus to suppress the drones of the poorer colonies, leaving the chances in favor of having your virgin queens fertilized by drones from your best colonies. In the same way you may catch the queen of an issuing swarm, should one issue when you are not present, thus preventing the swarm from going off with the queen, and allowing you to remove the brood and leave the swarm with the queen. But this does not settle matters, for the bees may go on swarming so long as the queen is with them, and when a young queen emerges from her cell the bees will swarm again, and if the young queen is prevented from going out with a swarm she will also be prevented from going out to be fertilized, and then, if she lays at all, she will be a drone-layer.
Drone-traps should be used only in extraordinary circumstances, and are rarely used by practical beekeepers.