BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
Whatever else may be true about spring feeding, I am pretty fully settled in the belief that it is of first importance that the bees should have an abundant supply of stores, whether such supply be furnished from day to day by the bee-keeper, or stored up by the bees themselves six months or a year previously. Moreover, I believe they build up more rapidly it they have not only enough to use from day to day, but a reserve or visible supply for future use. If a colony comes out of the cellar strong, and with combs full of stores, I have some doubts if I can hasten its building up by any tinkering I can do. So my feeding in spring is to make sure they have abundant stores, rather than for the stimulation of frequent giving.
After so many years of experience in that line, I am nevertheless still surprised sometimes to find how rapidly the stores have diminished under the constantly increasing demands made by brood-rearing. So there is little danger of getting too much honey in the hive. It is not enough to have sufficient to last till the white clover harvest begins. To be sure, that might be all right so far as the building up of the colony is concerned. But no honey will be put in the supers so long as there are empty cells in the brood-chamber, and it is better to have enough honey left in the brood-chamber so that the first white honey shall go straight into the supers.
## surplus combs of honey.
Nothing is better than to have plenty of full combs of sealed honey saved over from the previous year, with which to supply any colony that may need them. If I were as good a bee-keeper as I ought to be, there would always be enough of these so that nothing else would be needed to take their place. But I am not as good a bee-keeper as I ought to be, and while some years I may have all the extra combs of honey that can be used, at other times they may run short, even to not having enough to supply the pinching wants of colonies just taken from the cellar. There may, however, be some combs at least partly filled that have been taken from colonies that died in winter, or from the uniting of colonies in spring, and these may supplement the number of combs saved up from the previous year.
### feeding sections of honey.
When the combs of honey are all gone, the next best thing is to give sections in wide frames. This seems like an extravagant thing to do; but if the sections contain dark or objectionable honey, and if they can be cleaned out and used for baits, there is no very great extravagance about it. I have given sections by sliding them under the bottom-bars, a thing very easily done with bottom-boards two inches deep, but such sections are ruined for use as baits, and all you can do with the empty comb in them is to melt it into wax.
If neither combs of sealed honey nor suitable sections are to be had, then feeding with Miller feeders is in order. But colonies that need feeding in spring are not always very strong, and a weak colony makes rather poor work on a feeder at that time. Instead of distributing feeders to all colonies that need feeding, they are limited to a small number of the very strongest, whether these need feeding or not. Then filled combs are taken from these strong colonies and given to the needy colonies whether at home or in the out-apiaries, for the feeders are generally used only at home.
It may be that these strong colonies are already well supplied with honey. Whatever honey they have is taken from them, unless it be in combs containing brood, and empty combs given in place. The feeder is put directly on the brood-chamber. After the bees get a fair start on the feeder an upper story with empty combs may be given, but just at first they will make a better start without this second story. When the feeder is put on 5 or 10 pounds of sugar is poured in, and an equal quantity of water poured on the sugar. It is much better to have the water hot. It would be well to fill the feeder full, but in that case a good portion of it would be left to get cold, and faster work will be done if no more is given each day than will be taken that day. Very often when I go around to the feeders next morning I find most of them with sugar still in the feeder, but the liquid all taken. That doesn't matter ; more water can be added. Indeed 12 or 15 pounds of sugar may be put in the feeder, and then each day only so much water as the bees will use out that day. For they are not likely to do much at night unless the weather be quite warm.
## Wholesale feeding
There come times, however, when the feeding must be rushed, and there can be no puttering with getting one colony to store for another. One of those times came in the year 1902. The second week in June, at the time when in a good season there ought to be lively work piling on supers, I found nearly every colony on the point of starvation. If there was any difference, the strongest colonies were the worst. The combs were filled with brood, requiring large daily consumption, stores in the
hive were exhausted, and not enough for daily supplies coming in. It would hardly be proper economy to have combs filled with honey saved up for such emergencies, seeing that they are not expected to come often, so the whole force of feeders, some fifty, were put into action.
Part were put in the home apiary and part taken to the out-apiaries. When going to an out-apiary a bag of sugar was taken along. Water was put in the wash-boiler on the cook-stove and a good fire built under it. A good-sized tin pair was filled half full or more with the heated water, then sugar was poured'in till the pair was nearly full, and it was stirred with a stick till fairly well dissolved, which did not take very long. The syrup was then poured into the feeder on one of the hives, a pair half full of water was taken in and poured into the boiler, and then another colony was fed, and this was continued till all the feeders were supplied. The next day or so the feeders were shifted to another set of hives, till all were fed.
## feeding in june.
You will notice this is considerably different from the early spring feeding. The colonies were stronger in June, the weather warmer, and the bees made rapid work carrying down the feed. It was better to dissolve the sugar before putting it in the feeders (perhaps it is better at any time), for then there was no danger of having dry sugar left in the feeder. _R_Perhaps there was no real gain in using hot water when the colonies were strong and the weather warm. I tried cold water in some cases, and it worked all right, only it took more stirring.
Most of my feeders are of the original pattern (Fig. 40). At Fig. 41 is seen one of them dissected. The lower part is an ordinary section-super. On this rests the feeder proper, with the little board at one end removed, also the little board at one side, so as to show the inside wall under which the syrup may flow, and the outside wall, which lacks enough of coming to the top so that the bees can come up over it and go down into the feed.
The improved Miller feeder of the catalogs, instead of being all in one has two parts, and the bees go up through the middle. I though it was an important improvement to allow the bees to go up the middle instead of up the two sides, because the heat ought to be greater at the middle. After a thorough trial of the two, side by side, I am obliged to admit that the improvement is one in theory only, and that the bees go up the sides whenever they will go up the middle, and it seems a little better to have the feed all in one dish.
_Fig. 34--Part of Home Adiaby (from Northwest)._
If it were not for the expense of keeping two sets of feeders, I should like to keep a set of Doolittle division-board feeders, for there may come times when it is cool and bees will not take feed readily from a Miller feeder, yet would take it from a division-board feeder, because closer to the brood-nest. But most times I should prefer the Miller, so that has the preference.
## Fock-and-plate feeder.
I have used the crock-and-plate feeder (Fig. 43), and it answers a very good purpose. It has the advantage that any one can make a feeder at a minute's notice with materials always ready to hand. Take a gallon crock,fill it half full of granulated sugar; then fill nearly full with water, all the better if stirred till dissolved; cover over the crock a thickness of flannel or other woolen cloth, or else four or five thicknesses of cheese-cloth; over this lay a dinner-plate upside down; then with one hand under the crock and the other over the plate, quickly turn the whole thing upside down. Of course a smaller quantity of feed may be used if desired.
The feeder is then set over the frames of a colony, an empty hive-body placed over, and all covered up so no bee can get to it except through the regular hive-entrance.
## 7.2. Inferring-crock.
This crock-and-plate feeder is a good one for those who like out-door feeding, if only a small quantity is to be fed. It also makes a good watering-place for bees, if one does not mind the trouble. Better than this is a six-gallon crock standing upright with a few sticks of firewood in it for a watering-crock (Fig. 44). A little salt thrown into the water helps to keep it sweet, and prevents it from being a breeding-place for mosquitoes.
But I hit upon something that is so effective, so cheap, and so little trouble, that I can hardly imagine anything better. Go to your grocer and ask him to save you some cork-chips, such as he gets in keys of grapes, and probably throws away. Take a pair or other vessel (I use a half-barrel), put in as much water as you like, and on this put on so much of the cork-chips that the water will barely come up enough for the bees to reach. A bee can not drown in this. When the water gets low, a fresh supply can be poured in, and it does no great harm to pour it directly on the bees. They climb easily to the top of the cork after their bath. The cork remains effective throughout a whole season.
It is important to start the watering-place early in the season, before the bees make a start at some pump or other place where they will be troublesome.
## lack of system
I would like to say that I am very methodical about overhauling and seeing to the building up of colonies, from the time they are placed on the summer stands, till the honey harvest begins, but it would hardly be in accordance with facts. Conditions of bees or weather may make a difference in course of action. Possibly some other duties aside from the direct care of the bees may make a difference. So when I attempt to tell things just as they are, my want of system confronts me, and makes the task somewhat difficult.
At this point I fancy I can hear some of my good friends saving, "Why don't you keep a smaller number of colonies, so that you can have system enough to be able to tell a straight story, and derive more pleasure and profit?" I know it would be more pleasure; as to the profit, I doubt. If I had so few that I could at all times do every thing by a perfect system, I am afraid I should have part of the time a good deal of idle time on my hands. Neither is it fair for me to charge my lack of system entirely to the number of colonies. Some of it comes from ignorance in not knowing how to do any better, some of it from changing plays constantly, and perhaps some of it from lack of energy in doing every thing just at the right time.
## division-boards
In former years I made some attempt to keep the bees warmer by the use of a division-board, closing down to the number of combs actually needed at the time by the bees. I was disappointed to find no clear proof that any great good came from it. Since then, the experiments of Gaston Bonnier have shown that combs serve as good a purpose as a division-board, so the trouble of moving a division-board from time to time to accommodate the size of the colony is avoided.
very weak colonies in spring.
I have had, one time and another, a good many very weak colonies in the spring, and I am puzzled to know what to do with them. It seems of no use to unite them, for I have united five into one, and the united colony seemed to do no better than one left separate. About all I try to do, is to keep the queen alive till I find some queenless colony with which to unite them.
One year I took the queens of five or six very weak colonies, put them in small cages, and laid the cages on top of the frames, under the quilt, over a strong colony. When I next overhauled this colony, its queen was gone, probably killed by the bees on account of the presence of other queens, but the queens in the cages were in good condition, and became afterward the mothers of fine colonies. I had put two of the queens in one cage, as I was short of cages, and did not attach much value to the queens, and these two did as well as the others. Of course this was an exception to the general rule.
In my locality I do not think the colonies can ever become strong and populous too early in the season. Theoretically, at least, then, I see that every colony as soon as it comes out of the cellar, has plenty of stores to last it for some time. I know this is a very indefinite amount. Perhaps I might make it more definite by saying, for an ordinary colony, the equivalent of two full combs of stores. If they have not so much I supply them. I formerly thought it desirable to have any feed given them as far as possible from the brood-nest, so that they might have the feeling they were accumulating from abroad. Further observation makes me place less confidence in this.
strong versus weak colonies.
I think that with increasing years I have an increasing aversion to weak colonies. At the time of the honey harvest. 40,000 bees in two colonies will not begin to store as much as the same bees would do if they were all in one colony. Of course you have thought of that, but possibly you have not noticed so clearly that something like the same rule holds good about building up in spring. Take a colony that comes out of the cellar with only enough bees to cover two combs.
It will remain at a stand-still for a long time. Indeed, it may not stand still, but may become weaker, so that it will not have as much brood June 1 as May 1, with a possibility of pegging out altogether before the harvest opens. On the other hand a colony with bees enough to cover well three frames is likely to hold its own, beginning to increase slowly as soon as weather permits; and if it has bees enough to cover four frames it will walk right along increasing its brood-nest.
## giving proof to stronger.
Shall I take frames of brood from strong colonies to give to the weaklings? Not I. For the damage to the
Figure 35: Part of Home Akiary (from Southwest).
strong colonies will more than overbalance the benefit to the weaklings. If any taking from one colony to give another is done in the spring, it will be to take from the weak to give to those not so weak. If one colony has four frames of brood and another two, taking from the stronger frame for the weaker would leave both so weak they would not build up very rapidly, whereas taking one from the two-frame colony and giving it to the four-frame colony would make the latter build up so much faster that it could pay back with interest the borrowed frame.
Not till a colony has six or eight frames of brood is it desirable to draw from it brood for weaker colonies, and there's no hurry about it then. When a colony has its hive so crowded with brood that the queen seems to need more room, then a frame of brood can be taken from it to help others. The first to be helped are not the weakest, but the strongest of those with less than four frames of brood. When the three-framers are all brought up to four frames, it is time enough to help the weaker ones. Toward the last the little fellows can be helped up quite rapidly. Perhaps a colony with two or three brood (if you will allow me to use brood for short when I mean frames of brood) has had brood taken from it, leaving it with only one brood. It has stood so for several weeks, and now it can have three or four brood given to it, setting it well on its feet.
When brood is thus taken, generally the adhering bees are taken with the brood, of course making sure that no queen is taken. Where a single brood is given with adhering bees to a colony. I have never known any harm to come to the queen of the reinforced colony. In rare cases I have had the queen killed when several frames of brood have been given at a time to a very weak colony. A precautionary rule is that when more than one brood is given at a time, each one is taken from a different colony.
trouble from having the queen stay exclusively in one or other of the stories. She passes up and down freely, keeping filled with brood in both stories as many combs as the bees will care for.
subsequent overhauling.
Any overhauling subsequent to the first, is an easy matter. As a broodless frame was left at the farther side at the first ovehauling, and the brood-nest commenced with the next frame, I can count that the bees will continue this arrangement, only in some cases there will be brood found in the outside frame. So in any examination after the first, I commence at the near side and when I come to the first frame of brood, I need go no further, for I know that the brood-nest will occupy all the rest of the combs except the outside one. If they have not plenty of feed, of course it can be given, although it may not often be necessary to give stores the second time, for in this locality they can get good supplies from fruit-bloom. I suppose they can forage upon 10,000 fruit-trees without going a mile.
If, however, the first frame of brood I come to, contains only sealed brood, I must look further to see whether they have eggs or very young brood, for it is possible they may have become queenless. If eggs are plentiful, but no unsealed brood, I know that they have a young queen which has commenced laying, and I must find her and clip her wings.
If there is nothing but sealed brood, and no eggs, I am not sure whether they have a queen or not, and it is not safe to give them one till I do know, so I give them, from another colony, a comb containing eggs and young brood. I make a record of giving them this young brood thus: "May 30, no eg gybr," (no eggs; gave young brood,) and in perhaps a week I look to see in what condition they are. If I find queen-cells started I am pretty sure they have no queen.
What shall be done in that case depends. If the colony is weak, it is at once broken up, brood and bees being given wherever they may be needed, and I leave a sign of relief to think I am rid of the weakling. If it is strong--an accident may have happened to the queen of a strong colony at the last overhauling--it may be broken up and the brood and bees distributed where they will do the most good, but more likely a weaker colony with a good queen will be united with it. Just possibly, the queen-cells started may be allowed to go on to completion.
## 6.3. Proof as a stimulant.
If it happened that they had a virgin queen when the young brood was given them, the presence of this brood is supposed to stimulate the queen to lay the sooner, and I may find eggs on this later inspection. It may be, however, that I shall find neither eggs nor queen-cell, in which case I consider it probable that they have a queen which has not yet commenced to lay, and they are left for examination later.
## 6.4. Laving workers.
Although laying workers are not so likely to be found early in the year, it is still possible. In some cases the scattered condition of the brood awakens immediate suspicion. This scattered condition is shown in Fig. 59, but the picture does not clearly show how the sealed brood projects above the surface like so many little marbles, being thus projected because drone-brood is in worker-cells.
Often the presence of laying workers can be detected before there is any sealed brood, by the fact that drone-cells are chosen in preference to worker-cells, that is, drone-cells will be filled with eggs or brood--perhaps two or more eggs in a cell--while plenty of unused worker cells seem handy. Eggs in queen-cells are also likely to be found, and if you find a queen-cell with more than one egg in it you may be pretty sure laying workers have set up business. Sometimes a dozen of eggs may be found in one queen-cell. An egg in a queen-cell with no other brood or eggs present is a pretty sure sign of laying workers.
## treatment of laying-worker colonies.
When a colony of laying workers is found early in the season, about the only thing to do is to break it up, and it matters little what is done with the bees. They are old, and of little value. Indeed, there are never any very young bees with laying workers, when the bees are Italians or blacks, and it may be the best thing in all cases to break them up, distributing the bees and combs to other colonies.
Yet if a strong colony is found at any time with laying workers, and if, for any reason, it may seem desirable to continue the colony, a queen-cell, or a virgin queen just hatched may be given, for it is not easy to get them to accept a laying queen.
## drone-laying queens.
Drone-brood in worker-cells may be present with no laying workers--the work of a drone-laying or failing queen. The brood in that case, however, will not be so scattering as in Fig. 59. Such a colony is more amenable to treatment, and can be well utilized by uniting with a weak colony having a laying queen.
## breaking up faulty colonies.
When fruit blossoms are about ready to burst forth, and bees are carrying pollen whenever it is warm enough, I do not expect to lose any more colonies except those that are queenless or have faulty queens. But I do expect to have the satisfaction of breaking up every colony that does not have a good queen, for when I find a colony that is queenless or one whose queen is more or less a drone-layer, it is no longer any satisfaction to me to nurse it and coax it along for the sake of saying I haven't lost that colony. The real satisfaction is in having it out of the way. Time was when it seemed a nice thing in case of finding a strong colony without a queen to give it young
broad and let it rear a queen; but much observation has shown that a queen reared thus early is only an aggravation nine times out of ten. So when a colony is found that is not queen-right, it is remorselessly broken up, and distributed amongst other colonies, or united with a weak colony having a good queen. The breaking up of such colonies does not make the number less in the long run, for by fall the number can be made greater than if no breaking up had taken place.
We can see that the number of colors in the book that will be of future importance, there is really not such a
Figure 37: Painted Tin Hive-Covers.
great deal of writing done, as will be readily understood when it is remembered that only one page is allotted to three colonies, allowing only 32 square inches for each. It is seldom that a colony requires more than its allotted space in the season, hardly half the space being used on the average. There is a great deal of monotony about the entries, and there are a few words which are so frequently used that abbreviations aid much in saving room and time for making the entries. Some abbreviations that are constantly used are as follows : b for bees, br for brood, c or qc for queen-cell, g for gave, k for killed or destroyed (kc means I destroyed the queen-cells), q for queen, s for saw, but sc means sealed queen-cell, t for took, v for virgin queen, for super.
To make sure of having a pencil always handy to make entries, it is tied to the book, as also is a pair of scissors for clipping queens unless the latter is replaced by a pair of pocket scissors. A strong string is put in the middle of the book, passed around the back and tied, and to this is tied a long string that holds the pencil, and another for the scissors. To prevent the scissors hanging open with its two slugs points, a common rubber band is so fastened on the handles as to hold them together. While the band holds the scissors together when not in use, its elasticity allows their free use when needed.
## Killing grass.