BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
With one swift stroke of the ax the board cover, nailed to the top of the "gum," flew off and almost immediately the bees were greeted with a rich puff of arid smoke which caused them to change their minds about pulling off some reprisal stunts they had all cooked up. Almost before they had become quiet after the removal of the cover, George sailed into the log itself and with blow after blow finally succeeded in splitting the tough old tree lengthwise. I, the novice, stood by wondering why on earth we were not both stung to death.
As a matter of fact the bees behaved themselves with rare self-control considering that' to all appearances the end of the world had arrived for them. I learned, however, that when bees are roughly attacked in this way with their whole communal life threatened, they invariably make an attempt to save what they can out of the wreck. To this end every bee sets to work to fill itself as full of honey as it can possibly get and a "full" bee either can not sting readily or the desire to sting is less active at such times. At any rate that first experience at transferring bees from an old gum hive did not cost either of us a single sting. That first experience too taught me that the strings used to tie the brood combs in place would later be removed by the bees. They quickly cemented the combs to the frame with new wax and then they proceeded to cut the strings into sections and remove them from the hive. A few days after the transferring began we found bits of string in front of the entrance of the new house. Some pieces, of course, became stuck fast to the frames and those we removed at the first opportunity and saved the bees the labor of pulling them out of the hive. A bee seems to dislike anything of a worldly nature and for this reason the strings were gotten rid of as quickly as possible.
Securing wild bees from a bee-tree or bugging boxes of bees in crude frames and transferring them constitute the two most interesting and at the same time cheapest ways of obtaining a start with bees. Neither way is the better way for several reasons. In the first place bees obtained in this way are liable to have brood diseases present in the combs and it is impossible to detect these troubles until after the tree or box has been broken open. It is a case of buying a "pig in a poke," sort of a grab-bag affair in which the buyer never knows what he is going to get until after the deal is closed. In general, however, if a colony of bees is bought in a box hive it is reasonably correct to assume that it is a healthy colony if the bees are abundant and if there are plenty of stores. These two factors can be determined by watching the flight from the hive and by lifting or weighing it. If but few bees are flying during a period when many should be afield and if the box is light in weight we can be almost sure that something is wrong.
Even with the best of colonies the combs may be built in such a crooked fashion that little can be done with them when it comes to fitting them into the new brood frames. And if the combs are perfectly straight and we secure a good fit in the frames we still do not have an ideal arrangement, for these old combs are never fastened as solidly to the frame as they should be. In hot weather or when they are loaded with winter stores they not infrequently break down of their own weight for they lack both a good attachment to the top bar and the brace wires which should always be present in a properly planned brood frame. The best way for the beginner to start with bees is to buy them in modern frame hives from some reliable apiary. In that way the trouble and annoyance of transferring from the old boxes to the new hives will be avoided and after having learned something of the handling of the insects the new owner can later increase his numbers by the purchase of stock in the crude hives.
Even when buying bees in a modern hive, certain precautions should be taken to see that one does not unwittingly get more than he had bargained for. I have indicated that it is fairly easy to tell when the colonies are strong, but it requires an expert to determine whether disease exists and whether the colony has a good queen. Both of these items should be investigated before the purchase is made. Even if the queen herself is not observed her presence can usually be taken for granted if we find freshly laid eggs in the cells of the brood frames. These are easily recognized at the bottom of the cells, usually in sections of the comb adjacent to and around the edges of the clusters of cells containing the larvae in various stages of development. The brood diseases, however, are difficult for the novice to detect, and before buying he should always call in some one capable of recognizing these disorders. In another chapter I shall go into considerable de to the "frame." One or two frames of brood, partly covered with adult bees and accompanied by a laying queen is called a "nucleus." This furnishes the easiest and cheapest method for the beginner to get his start. Having bought a hive and become familiar with its various parts he should purchase his nucleus and install it in the prepared home.
Distance is but little object when it comes to buying bees in this way for they can be shipped hundreds of miles in perfect safety and one can obtain stock from the best apiculturists of the country and feel certain that the stock he receives will be healthy and of the race which he desires. I have seen bees so shipped several hundreds of miles only to arrive in perfect condition and with practically no dead bees in the bottom of the cage. They are shipped in strongly built crates holding one, two or three frames and with a wire screen at the top and bottom to provide ventilation.
When these shipping cases arrive at their destination they should be carefully opened and the frames inserted in the permanent hive in place of empty frames which are removed to make room. In nearly all cases, bees so obtained will be very short of stores. They will require careful watching to make sure that they do not starve to death and they should be protected against robbers from other hives. To do this, the entrance to their
that they will eat and this can readily be furnished to them from a small tin pan placed inside an empty super and covered with the regular hive cover. Regular devices are furnished by dealers in bekeeping supplies for the purpose of feeding bees, but I have had so much better results from the use of the open pan that I do not care to bother with the patent feeders.
My plan is to remove the interior fittings from the super and place the empty body on the hive in the regular way--just as though it was to be used for honey production, except, of course, that it contains no sections. Inside this super and directly on top of the frames I place a small tin pan holding about a quart. Fairly thick sugar sirup is poured into this pan and a handful of twigs, grass or chips is thrown on the surface of the sweet. This debris enables the bees to get at a larger surface of the food and if they should happen to fall in, as they often do, it will enable them to crawl out more easily. If this precaution is not taken you are apt to find your tin pan only a trap for your bees. One should be careful about feeding honey to bees unless he knows that it comes from a healthy apiary. Honey produced by diseased bees can infect a healthy colony to which it is fed. For that reason sugar is preferred to honey for artificial feeding. However, it is not advisable to feed the new colony too much lest it get the idea that it will always have an abundance of food ready at hand and will fail to set to work and build up its numbers. Bees are like humans in many regards. They do not stand prosperity any better than we do and when things are coming their way with a rush they are inclined to loaf on the job a bit and I imagine would take to silk shirts and sport model motors just as readily as people would--if they had a chance.
Therefore it is a good idea to give them just what food they need for their house keeping and to encourage them to expand their field of activities, but not enough to make them feel that the world owes them a living whether they work for it or not.
With proper care and feeding a nucleus with a good queen should build itself up to a full-sized colony of eight or ten frames before fall and should have enough surplus honey stored away to carry it safely over the winter. Often, however, such a start will increase in strength slowly and usually will require some additional feeding to provide enough stores for safe wintering.
On rare occasions during "good years" a nucleus obtained early in spring may not only store enough for its own use but enough to give the owner a small surplus. This, however, is not the rule and the beginner will do well to be content with a slow start but a sure one rather than to hope for great things and be disappointed.
## Chapter 5 Hive management
In an earlier chapter I made the statement that there are eight hundred thousand beekeepers in the United States. The term "bekeeper" is a correct descriptive name for the majority of men who engage in this industry because that is what they literally do--they "keep" bees, but they do comparatively little in the way of managing or controlling them. In fact the business of honey production is to-day in but little better condition than was the fruit industry twenty-five years ago. If a crop is harvested it is more than likely due to the abundance of Providence than to foresight on the part of the owner of the bees.
There are, of course, exceptions to thisstatement for in many parts of the country expert apiculturists manage their bees with consummate skill and their crops are less dependent upon the seasonal chances than are those of their lesser brothers to whom the bee is but an incident in other work. When I say that the majority of beekeepers do not manage their bees but allow them to manage themselves, I speak of the vast army of "little" beekeepers who have from one to a dozen colonies.
All of these lesser lights could vastly increase their honey production by very little extra care and attention. The ultimate end of beekeeping is the production of honey and if this end is to be gained, the owner of the bees must so manage his insect workers that they are in a position to accomplish the greatest amount of labor in the least time.
While bees gather some nectar from flowers during the entire summer it is only at certain periods that they secure
more than enough for the daily needs of the hive. These periods are called "honey flows" and their occurrence varies with the season and with the situation of the apiary--both as to its situation in a given neighborhood and its sectional position with regard to the rest of the country.
In the Central States we have our greatest yield of honey from white elover. In parts of Michigan wild raspberry produces the bulk of the crop. In New York, buekwheat furnishes honey late in summer. In a few places basswood yields almost at the same time as white clover. In the West, sage, mesquite and other plants produce their crop. All of these have their period of maximum production and these periods (honey flows) sometimes may last for only a few weeks or even for a few days.
If the beekeeper does not have his bees ready for the harvest when it comes, it will remain in the field and soon enter the same class as water that has passed be * low the mill. Consequently the individual beekeeper must know something about the honey producing plants of his neighborhood and must adjust his system of management to suit his own conditions. I am saying this partly for my own protection because no system of hive management could be applied to all parts of the country with success. I can only outline a system that works in the white clover belt and I will try to adapt it to other conditions where it seems possible to do so. Regardless of the location of the apiary or of the sort of honey that is to be produced, the first thing the beginner should learn is that a season's management of an apiary begins in the summer of the previous year. The bees which live over winter are all hatched from eggs laid in August and September and unless a colony has a good queen and plenty of surplus stores it will not rear enough young bees to winter as a strong colony. Given the
host of young ones to feed in early February and thus add a still greater drain upon their resources. It is not necessary to remove the covers from a colony to determine if they are short of stores. After a very little practice the beekeeper can tell by lifting the hive whether or not it contains any surplus honey. If it is found to be short of stores then provision must be made to feed the bees with sugar sirup prepared by boiling cane sugar and water in the proportion of two parts by weight of sugar with one of water. This sirup can be placed in a shallow pan into which a handful of leaves, grass or sticks has been thrown. The "'trash" will afford a chance for the bees to crawl out without drowning in case their enthusiasm gets the better of their equilibrium. These pans are to be placed directly over the brood frames in a super from which the interior parts have been removed. The lid or cover should be returned to its place with care because it is
the individuals of the separate hives, it may be well to interpose a thin sheet of paper between the two. A small hole can be made in this and the bees will gradually mingle without going to law over the line fence.
At this second examination, too, the wings of the queen should be clipped--if this little operation has not previously been attended to. Clipping the wings of the queen may sound like a fearsome job to the novice. I know of one novice who was quite terrified when he first attempted it, but he quickly learned that it was not so dangerous or so difficult as it sounded. In fact the only danger is to the poor queen herself for she will not sting even if handled quite roughly. The beginer is quite likely to crush her in his clumsy fingers when he tries to pick her from a brood frame and to prevent any such misfortune I suggest that he practise picking up drones and clipping the wings _on one side_
##### HIVE Management
_only._ After he has learned to handle drones he may further his education by learning to pick up workers by the wings only without being stung. When he can do this stunt he may safely proceed to catch the queen and clip her wings with little fear that he will cause her serious injury.
The object in removing the wings from one side of the queen is exactly the same that we have in mind when we clip the wings of some active old hen that persists in flying over the chicken yard fence. A "clipped" queen will not be able to lead out a swarm but will instead hop around in front of the hive until she is tired and then go back and behave herself--for a little while.
Clipping the wings of the queen does not prevent swarming, but it enables us to have far better control of such swarms as do issue from the hives.
Another thing to watch for at this spring inspection of the hives is disease. Thereare several bee diseases that must be watched for but these too will be considered in a separate chapter. After this first warm weather examination the colonies must be inspected at frequent intervals so that the owner may be sure that everything is progressing as it should. The object of hive management is to have the colonies at their maximum population at the time of the honey flow and the owner must adjust the hive activity in such a way that this result is brought about.
In localities where the chief honey crop is harvested early in summer everything must be done to discourage swarming, while in sections where the main crop comes in the fall, as it does in most sections, the colonies may be allowed to increase by swarming as the owner will then have time to build up both the parent colony and the swarm to full strength before the crop appears.
There has been much written on swarm control and many hives have been designed and some of them patented, which were supposed to prevent the bees from accomplishing their desires in this respect. We must remember, however, that it is by swarming that bees increase their numbers and establish new bee communities. It is the instinet for the preservation of the race and when we confront natural laws of this sort we must make allowances. Sometimes we may become impatient with the bees for their apparent insane desire to swarm, but at such times we do not want to forget that they are backed in their desires by thousands of generations of other bees that never knew any better than to go ahead and preserve their kind as their Creator designed them to do.
The modern bekeeper takes these things into consideration and while he does all he can to prevent swarming at the same time he makes the best of it when a swarm issues in spite of his precautions. As a rule bees will not swarm unless they are crowded for room. They will seldom swarm unless they have made provision for a new queen to supplant the old one which always leads out the swarm. These two facts give us a foundation on which can be built some sort of system of swarm prevention.
We can nearly always give them more room either by removing frames of brood which we place in weaker colonies or by supplying them with an additional hive body placed directly on top of the original one. Recently, too, there has been an inclination to adopt a hive containing ten frames instead of the one which was long standard and contained only eight frames. Some beekeepers have maintained for years that the ten frame hive tended to reduce swarming simply because it afforded the bees more room in which to work.
By weekly examination we can detect queen cells which are being built and remove them. If this is done during the
spent in the air would return to the hive and go ahead with their work. This joyriding continued day after day for a week or more and I never did understand just what it was all about. At the time I know I was a very much worried beekeeper.
When a normal swarm issues from a hive accompanied by an unelipped queen, it will settle on any convenient object in the neighborhood before going to its new quarters--wherever they may be. The cluster of bees may form on a low shrub a few feet from the hive or it may decide to go to the top of one of the tallest trees in the neighborhood. It is to prevent any such performance that we clip the queen's wings so that she can not fly. The result of this precaution is to have the swarm come to a cluster about the queen close to the hive or in some cases to return to the hive. In either event the beekeeper must do something to satisfy the instinct of the bees. Usually this means providing them with more room.
Opening a hive, No. 5. After they are once disturbed most colonies can be handled with but little smoke but that is no reason why the smoker should be dispensed with.
## Chapter 99entrance and the performance is over. For a few minutes many bees will of course take wing and fly over the hive and the novice may at this time be in great fear of being stung but there is really little danger even though it is well to have the smoker conveniently handy.
Sometimes the bees resent their new quarters and insist upon swarming out-absconding, the beekeepers call it. This can be prevented by providing the new hive with one or two frames of brood from the old hive body. The instinct to care for the young asserts itself in such a case and the bees "stick."
Commercial honey is produced and marketed in two forms known as "extracted" and "comb" honey. When an apiary is managed with a view of producing extracted honey swarming can be more easily controlled because an abundance of room can be given at all times.
The "'supers" for producing extracted honey are usually regular hive bodies
## Hive Management
the swarm issues?" This hive should be turned at right angles to the new hive so that any field bees that are out in search of supplies will enter the new hive and not the old one. After two or three days the parent hive is turned part way back so that its entrance is closer to that of the new one. In a day or two the parent is moved still more so that it stands alongside the hive occupied by the "swarm." A few days later the parent colony is opened and most of the bees are shaken in front of the "swarm." Then the parent hive is moved entirely away and allowed to build up its strength either for a fall flow or for the next season. So the bees really do accomplish what they set out to do, namely, establish a new colony, but they do it in such a way that their owner reaps a profit from their work.
## Chapter 6consider the welfare of the patient but only that of the colony. Consequently a sick bee does not get any tender care from the doctor--its name is Dennis right from the start and the only fate it can hope for is to perish as quickly and quietly as possible. I suspect that if the society for the prevention of cruelty to animals and the anti-vivisection agitators knew how many sick bees were put to death every year they would raise a howl to be heard in Mars.
The two most serious bee diseases are known as American and European Fould brood, respectively. The names really do not indicate anything regarding the origin of the diseases for both of them are known on both sides of the Atlantic. Long usage has established the nomenclature, however, and by these names they will probably always be known.
Both are diseases of the larvae, as might be supposed from the names, and both are of bacterial origin. American foulbroodis caused by an organism known as bicallus larvae, while the other form is caused by bacillus pluton. Both of these organisms are exceedingly resistant to ordinary methods of disinfection. The first named is much more resistant than the second as it may be boiled in honey for thirty minutes and still live and will resist a five per cent. solution of carbonic acid for months. Material containing either bacillus may be dried and kept for at least a year and still be capable of causing the disease.
Both diseases are spread from one colony to another by means of infected honey. The trouble is not air borne, but must be carried from one hive to another or from some point of infection other than a hive to a healthy colony. Such points of infection may be jars that contain a residue of unused honey obtained from diseased colonies; diseased combs taken from colonies affected with the trouble or hives in which the bees have died or have become so decimated by disease that robbers
can no longer be kept out. The tendency of the bee is to be thrifty and it usually carries this disposition so far that it does not hesitate to rob a colony that is too weak in numbers to defend itself. Consequently when a colony is attacked by either of these brood diseases there is a very great chance that healthy bees in the neighborhood may contraet the disorder on account of their tendency to appropriate what does not belong to them.
Probably the first evidence that the bekeeper will have to indicate disease in his colonies will be the dead brood. If American foulbrood is present a peculiar foul, sour smell will be noticed, but this is not evident in the case of European foulbrood except in certain very advanced cases.
The disease attacks the brood just before and during the period when the young bees are being sealed up to undergo their transformation to adult bees. The European form attacks somewhat earlier and
## 11 Bee Diseases 111
infected and infecting material from the colony. Many "'systems" of treatment have been devised to secure this result but to mention all of them would only confuse the beginner and perhaps lead him to a lack of confidence in the use of any particular method.
The diseased colony should be "treated" during a period when the bees are gathering plenty of stores from the field. Probably the middle of the day is the best time to do the work as at this hour the field bees will be out gathering fresh supplies and the population of the hive will be accordingly less than during the late afternoon or early morning hours.