BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
More of the stones are used to indicate other things. For instance: A stone in the centre of the cover shows that the colony is short of stores and must be fed; while a stone in the centre of the back part of the cover shows that the bees are crowded for room, and that another frame should be given. A stone in the centre of the front indicates that there are too few bees to do good work; and so on, for these stones can be made to tell a great variety of matters.
Again, I use them on all hives workt for honey, having them tell me when the sections were put on, when more room was given, and when taken off; also when the honey was extracted from certain hives, which hives are workt for extracted honey, and which for comb honey, etc. In fact, they are really indispensable to me in working an apiary either for queens or honey, and are in constant use, even when using the cards which are about to be described.
When I first commenced bee-keeping, I had no idea of rearing queens for sale, nor did I think of it until I was crowded into it; so when my first order for a queen came I took the same from a full colony. This queen seemed to give satisfaction, and soon the neighbors of this customer sent for queens, and so on, till I found that I must have a few nuclei to supply this demand for queens which had apparently sprung up of itself. The queens that were reared in partnership, as spoken of in the first chapters, were taken to different apiaries and introduced by myself to colonies at the suggestion of the one who did the rearing, rather than being sent off to customers through the mails.
When the business grew so that I could no longer keep track of it with the stones and pieces of sections to advantage, I secured a sample of "Root's Queen-Registering Cards." These suited me exactly, and they were sold very cheaply. I procured a quantity of them, and have used them ever since. To show the reader what they are, I give a sample card.
It will be seen at a glance that all we have to do after each manipulation with the different hives is to turn the pins to where they tell us just how and when we left the hive when last lookt at, which, together with the stones to tell us about honey, etc., tell all that we want to know.
I have watch carefully to see if anything better was brought before the public, but so far nothing of the kind has come to my knowledge. These cards are used on the upper stories, the same as on nuclei, using one on each end where two queens are to be fertilized from one hive, and on all hives where a change of queen is made often. No queen-rearing apjary can be complete without something of the kind.
Clipping the queen's wings.
Probably there is no other item about bee-keeping on which there is so much diversity of opinion as there is regarding the clipping of queens' wings. Many of our very best apiarists stand directly opposed to others who are equally as good authority. Some claim that the queen is injured by having her wings clipt, and for this reason many are superseded by the bees; while others are equally confident that it is impossible to injure the queen in the least by clipping her wings, if the clipping is delayed, as it always should be, until after the queen has commenced to lay. However, when I look the ground all over, I believe that the greatest number of the "dollar-and-cent apiarists" of our land are on the side of clipping the queens' wings; and as I stand on that side myself, I trust that I shall be excused if I tell the reader in brief some of my reasons for clipping the wings of my queens.
The second year of my bee-keeping life I lost a splendid swarm of bees, being the second swarm that issued from my then small apiary, for I only had one swarm the first year. I felt this loss very keenly, and then and there I resolved that this would be the last one that would ever "run away." In accordance with this resolve, I clipt all of the queens' wings in the yard, and have kept them so ever since, except those that I thought, of late years, I might sell; and altho I now think that resolve a rash one, yet in all of my 20 years of bee-keeping that one swarm has been the only one lost from this cause.
A person can hardly pick up a paper that treats on bees but that he will find an account of swarms going into the woods; and there is no question but what hundreds of dollars' worth of property "took wings and flew away" in just this manner; while if the queens' wings had been clipt this loss might have been saved.
By having the wings of all queens clipt, the bees are perfectly under the control of the apiral, and he can handle them as he pleases, separating them with pleasure where two or more swarms cluster together, and hive them on the "returning plan" when they come singly. In using this plan, all that we have to do when a swarm issues is to step to the entrance of the hive with a round wire-cloth cage (such as has been described), into which the queen is allowed to run, when the cage is closed up and laid in front of the hive. The old hive is now moved to a new stand, and a hive prepared for a new colony put in its place. In a few minutes the bees miss their queen and come back, running into the hive with fanning wings, when the queen is liberated and goes in with them.
I have followed this plan of hiving bees for years, and I know it to be a good one, as a good yield of honey is generally the result. There is no climbing of trees, cutting off limbs, or lugging a cumbersome basket or swarming-box about. It is so straight-forward, too--remove the old hive to a new stand, put the new hive in its place, and the returning swarm hive themselves without trouble, except the releasing of the queen.
Again, I clip off at least two-thirds of all of the wings of the queen, so that she is always readily found. In making nuclei, changing frames of brood and bees, making swarms, extracting, etc., if you find the queen you can always know that she is just where she belongs, and not in some place where she ought not to be. By having her wings cut short, you can see her golden abdomen as soon as you lift the frame that she is on.
Then the clipping of queens' wings does away with that expense to the apiralst--the fountain pump--or one of some other manufacture, which all apiarists think a necessity where their queens have their wings, so that by the use of it swarms may be kept from clustering together, where two or more come out at once, or if a swarm tries to "run away," so that it can be stopt.
Some claim that a queen with clipt wings is more
fallacious; for during the past five years I have kept many of my queens with their wings whole (where I thought there might be a call for such queens, which had been wintered over), and not one of them proved in any way superior to those whose wings were clipt. Again, I have had queens sent to me from those who never clip the wings of their queens, and these have shown no superiority over those in my own yard that had their wings clipt.
The clipping of the queen's wings often seems like a serious job to the timid and inexperienced, but after a little practice it is no more of a job than any other work about the apiary. Some recommend scissors for clipping queens' wings, but I think that a queen is much more liable to be injured in using them, by having a leg or two cut off, than where a knife is used.
My way of clipping the wings is as follows: After having found the queen, catch her by the wings, getting all four of them if possible, by using the thumb and fore-finger of the left hand. Now take a jack-knife, which should have one of its blades very sharp, and place the sharpened blade on the wings of the queen. Carefully lower both hands down within an inch or two of the top of the frames, so that the queen will not be injured in falling, when the knife is lightly drawn, the wings severed, and the queen runs unharmed below. In doing this, place the knife so that it will cut off about two-thirds of the wings; for there is no more harm in cutting off this much than there is in cutting off one-half of one wing, as some recommend. By clipping the queen's wings in this way, she is easily found at all times.
Some claim that this destroys the beauty of the queen; but to me it causes her golden abdomen to show off to a much better advantage; and even if it did not, the ease with which they are always found afterward more than compensates for the lack in looks, to those who reason in this way. Do not be afraid of cutting the fingers, for if you stop drawing the knife as soon as the queen drops, you cannot do so.
The best time for clipping queens' wings is during fruit-bloom, when there are but few bees in the hive compared with what there will be later on; doing the same when the bees are industriously working during the middle of the day, so that few are at home.
## Chapter 3.1.
SHIPPING, SHIPPING-CAGES, BER-CANDY, ETC.
Prior to the advent of the Italian bee into this country, the shipping of queens was comparatively unknown, while the sending of queens in the mails is something scarcely a quarter of a century old. In queen-rearing and queen-shipping there have been mighty strides made during the last 25 years--strides which, had they been told to out fathers, would have seemed little less to them than miracles.
Instead of bees in hives now being carried on a pole between two men (as were those which I first saw brought to my home), we now transport them all over the world by mall and express, alto, as yet, we can hardly say that we send a colony of bees by mall; still the essential part of a colony is thus sent, and I believe that the day is not far distant when enough bees will be sent with a queen by mall to start a colony of bees which will make a "live" of it, if sent early in the season. This will carry our beloved pursuit even to the "uttermost parts of the earth," so that every one can have the privilege of eating honey of their own producing, "under his own vine and fig-tree."
Here, again, we see the working of many minds, for no one man has accomplishment all this; but a little here and a little there has wrought out most of this grand advance during the present generation. The cages first invented for shipping queens would seem bungling affairs to us to-day, yet they had their place in working out this problem--the shipping of queens through the mails.
When queens were first sent by mail it was thought that the apartment made to contain them and their escort must be roomy, so that they should not be crampt, but as time wore on it was found that very little room was needed, and I am convinced that most of the cages now in use are much too large where queens are to be sent by mail with only eight or ten bees to accompany them.
Probably there is no cage in as general use as is the one which is called the "Peet Shipping and Introducing Cage;" yet I firmly believe that the apartment for the bees is much too large in this one. I have used large numbers of these cages, yet I consider them faulty in this respect; nor do I like them as introducing-cages. They are faulty as shipping-cages, in the size of the hole which holdsthe bees, inasmuch as when the mail-bag is thrown off a train at full speed (as is frequently done), or thrown from the train to the ground, or even from off a wagon, the sudden precipitation of the queen from one side of the cage to the other, often causes an injury from which she never recovers.
The hole in any cage, calculated for holding no more than eight or ten attendant bees with the queen, should not be larger than an inch across the farthest way, and if thus made, the wings and legs of the ten bees will be so close together that they will form springs, as it were, to deaden the effect of any sudden concussion. When thirty or forty bees are placed in a Peet cage, then it answers the purpose of a shipping-cage very well, except that it takes twice the postage that a shipping-cage ought to require, and this matter of postage makes quite an item as regards our profits in these days of close competition, and where queens are sent out by the thousand.
No shipping-cage which meets the requirements as I have set forth can be a successful introducing cage; for to meet with the greatest success in introducing, the cage should cover at least one-sixth of one side of a comb, so that hatching brood and some honey can be enclosed. In the hatching of this brood, to form an escort of bees for the queen, and in her laying eggs in the cells enclosed by the cage, comes an assurance of safety not found in any other item regarding cage-introduction of queens. When these young bees which hatch out with the queen become so attach to her that they accept her as their mother, it is not long before the bees outside of the cage fall into line. They now begin to feed her such food as is given for egg-production which means safety to any queen. That the Peet cage will not allow of such hatching of bees is wherein it is faulty as an introducing-cage. As the introducing-cage which I prefer has been described in the chapter on introducing laying queens, I will not"speak further of it here.
The shipping-cage which I prefer, is made as follows: Get out a block of wood, two-and-one-fourth inches long by one-and-one-eighth inches square. Near one end bore a seven-elgths hole, having the same one inch deep, and boring it across the grain of the wood. In the center of the opposite end bore a one-half inch hole, boring it length-wise of the grain of the wood, until it comes in contact with the seven-elgths hole which was bored before (Fig. 5, page 35). This last hole is for the candy for the bees to live on during their journey, while the former is for the bees themselves. Next, get a piece of wire-cloth one inch square, and a piece of wood 2%x1%x1%x1% inch for a cover to go over the top of the cage after the bees are in and the wire-cloth is nailed on.
The next thing to be done is to prepare the candy for the bees. This is made by taking a quantity of powdered sugar and putting it in any dish; altho I prefer what is known as "Agate Iron-Ware," because in the kneading process, about to be described, the candy does not take on any foreign substance like lead or tin, as it does where a tinned dish is used. If you do not have the Agate dish, an earthen one is equally as good, providing you are careful enough not to break it, thus causing trouble in the family.
Having the sugar in the dish, set the same on the stove or over a lamp, and put some nice, thick honey to heat also (such honey as will not granulate easily being preferred, for spring and fall use), letting both heat slowly till of about the warmth that you can conveniently hold your hand in, when they are to be taken off the fire and some of the honey poured into a little hollow made in the sugar. To get the sugar evenly warmed through, it may be necessary to stir it occasionally.
Having poured in the honey, take a little stick and stir sugar into it by putting the sugar on top of the honey and rolling the whole around. When enough sugar is mixt with the honey so that it will not stick to the hands, when they are rubbed with a little of the sugar, proceed to knead it the same as your wife or mother kneads bread, keeping this up as long as much sugar will be incorporated with the loaf, or until the loaf will not spread out or change its shape if placed on a board.
You need not have any fears that you will get the candy too stiff, for, as a rule, more queens are lost by the candy absorbing dampness, or being left too soft so as to daub the bees, than by all other losses put together. This is the reason for heating the honey and sugar so as to get them of about the consistency they would be in a hot mail-bag during some of the warm weather that we have been ship-plng queens. This candy is called the "Good" candy, altho that as first made by Mr. I. R. Good, and given to the world, was made without heating, and contained granulated sugar and honey as its ingredients.
Having the candy ready, wet the forefinger of the left hand by touching it to the tongue, when it is to be placed over the one-half inch hole, where the hole terminates on the inside of the cage; when the hole is filled to within one-elgth of an inch with the candy, pressing it in with a plunger.
The wetting of the finger is done so that the candy will not stick to it as it otherwise would do, thus pulling a part of the candy out of the hole, leaving it rough and uneven.
The candy being in place, take a plug-cutter made to cut a one-half inch plug, and cut one out of the one-elgthi piece which is to go on the cage for a cover; cutting it out of one end so that the hole where the plug comes out wiN come over the center of the hole to be occupied by the bees, thus making the ventilating hole in the cover. Now take the plug thus cut and drive it into the hole over the outer end of the candy, when the cage is ready for the bees, all but the wire-cloth.
Put this in place and drive a tack in one corner of it, leaving the tack a little out from the wood, so that the wire-cloth will turn on it, when it is to be turned so as to form an entrance for the queen and attendant bees, which are now to be put in. Place the left hand thumb or fore-finger over this entrance, and with the right hand pick the queen up by both wings and put her into the cage.
If you are not accustomed to this kind of work it will seem very awkward to you. At least it seemed so to me when I first began, so much so that several queens got away instead of going into the cage. To succeed best, go slowly, and see that the queen and bees get their feet hold of the wood, rather than on the wire-cloth, when it will be natural for them to run in instead of backing out.
Having the queen in, close the entrance at once with the thumb, when a bee is to be caught by the wings in the same way and put in with her. Do not raise your thumb off the hole in putting the bees in, but rather give it a rocking motion. As the bee's head nears the hole, rock the thumb back a little, only opening it just enough for the bee to go in, and if the queen attempts to come out, make this bee's head stop the hole at just that instant. Now catch another bee, putting this one in in the same way, and so on until you have enough, when the wire-cloth is to be brought back in place and nailed.
After you get a little used to this work you can put bees into a cage almost as fast as you could peas or beans. If you catch a bee by both wings it is impossible for it to sting you, so that you need have no fears unless you happen to push it against the thumb you have on the cage, in which case you will be quite liable to be stung.
In catching bees to send off with a queen, select those which are from six to ten days old, as nearly as you can get
## 100 Doolithic on queen learning.
At it; for very young bees, or those that have never left the hive to void their feces, are unfit to send with a queen that is going a long distance, on account of their soiling the queen and cage with the accumulation with which they are filled while passing through the larval and pupal state; while very old bees have not vitality enough to endure a long journey. By a careful watching on your part, as to tae development of bees during the first sixteen days of their existence, you will soon know how old a bee is by its appearance.
If the frame the bees are on is jarred a little so as to cause them to fill themselves with honey, they will stand the journey better, and are more easily pickt off the combs, when they have their heads in the cells with their wings standing out.
The bees being in, and the wire-cloth nailed down, next nall on the cover, having the ventilation hole over the wire-cloth; after which you will put on the directions, when it is ready for the mails.
If the bees are put up twelve hours before they are mailed, and left with the face side of the cage downward, but raised a little off the table, the queen will rid herself of eggs, and thus better endure the sudden jars which she will be liable to get.
If the cage has been made according to the foregoing directions, and light, soft wood has been used, the postage required will be but one cent, as it should not weigh more than one ounce after the bees and candy are in. If you send out a thousand queens during the season, the saving in this alone will be $10 over what it would be if your cage required a two-cent postage-stamp; and a saving of $20. if it required a three-cent stamp, as our cages did not long ago. This saving of postage is an item worth looking after, when such saving does not conflict with the safety of the queens.
In all handling of queens, great care should be used not to injure their legs or abdomens. That all do not use this care is evident from the number of queens that I have received minus one or two legs, and often with dents in their abdomens. In putting up bees, don't get excited, and handle them as a "baggage smasher" would a trunk; but keep as cool as possible, and if you find that you are nervous and shaky, put off the caging of them until some other time. I realize that with some I am urging a very difficult matter, for I once knew a man (who came to get some queens that he had ordered) to get more nervous and excited in putting them up than he would have been in fight
**DOOLITTLE ON QUEN-REARING.** 101
**ing with a bear. If you are not used to putting up queens, do not undertake the job when some one is looking on, but go at it alone, when you are in a quiet frame of mind.**
**CHAPTER XXI.**
**QUENS INJRED IN SHIPPING.**
**Probably there are very few who have received queens from a distance, through the mails and otherwise, that are not aware that some of these queens did not come up to those which they already had, as to prolificness; for such is so common that many of our best breeders have been censured and blamed for sending out poor queens, when they were not to blame at all. Scores of these complaints came to me before I ever reared a queen for sale, and the same has been so general that even Mr. Alley occupies considerable space in his book on queen-rearing regarding this matter.**
**Now, as a breeder of queens, I suppose that I shouId let this pass if I would consult my own interests; but I feel that both duty and truth require that I should not pass over the matter without mentioning it. Probably no man in the United States has more flattering testimonials, according to the number of queens ship, than I have; yet this does not prove that none of the queens that I have sent out have never been injured by shipment. By shipment I include all of the necessary evils attending the removal of a queen from her hive and home, and sending her to another hive and home where she is obliged to suddenly stop a profuse egg-laying, and continue in this condition for from three days to three weeks.**
**Years ago my attention was called to this matter by some writer of the past, who attributed the trouble to the rough usage to which the queens were subjected in the mails; and gave as a remedy that all queens should be sent by express. In this I thought that I saw an explanation of the unsatisfactory results which I experienced with queens which I had purchast; so for some time after that I ordered all of the queens that I bought sent by express.**
# Doolithic on queen-Reading. 108
after they were received by the purchasing party; while I knew that they were among the best, if not the best queens, that I ever owned.
Mr. Alley, in speaking of this matter in his book, attributes the cause to sending off a queen immediately upon her removal from a full colony, while she was filled with eggs; in which state, he claims, she was not capable of enduring the rough usage which she would be subjected to during shipment, and advises that all queens be kept in a nursery for a few days before sending them out. Others have advised leaving the queens caged for a day or two before sending them off; and still others, keeping them in a nucleus for a week or so before mailing them. All of these things show that nearly, if not quite all, of our queen-breeders acknowledge what a few say is not true, as some claim that a queen cannot be injured by ordinary shipment.