BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
The packing of a frame hive will be found described in the chapter dealing with heather honey. If stocks are sold off, the supply must be kept up by raising new ones each season. This may be done by forming nuclei early in May, giving each of them a queen-cell, and building up these small lots into full colonies.'
The sale of queens is becoming a very important item in apiculture, but it is a branch in which a reputation has to be made, and this often takes several seasons of hard work. The most expensive part of queen-rearing is in the fertilization of the virgin queens, and where many are raised nearly the whole of the stocks in the apiary have to be broken up into nuclei for this purpose. Queens fetch a good price in early spring and sometimes in late autumn, and the breeder must lay. his plans to meet this demand.
Much care and attention is needed in queen
### 6.4 Profitable Bee-Keeping
raising, and none except really superior stock should be sold. A fair price for ordinary fertile queens is 5/- each from March to May, 4/- in June, and 3/6 at other times.
_Recipe for Honey Viegar_. Take one and a half pounds of honey to a gallon of water, a crust of bread, and a tablespoonful of brewer's yeast. Place these in an earthenware barrel, and stand in a warm place. After fermentation has ceased cover the bung with a piece of linen to exclude insects, and allow the liquor to stand until ripe.
_Recipe for Mead_. Take six gallons of water and one gallon of honey. Boil until it is reduced to four gallons. Add half-ounce of ginger, quarter-ounce of cinnamon, half-dram each of cloves and peppercorns in a bag. Boil for a few minutes longer, and then let it stand until fermentation has ceased. Add yeast if necessary to assist fermentation. Barrel, and bottle at the end of twelve months.
**EXAMIING SHALLOW COMBS**
**Showing Honey partially sealed**
**To face page 64**
## Chapter 12 correct manipulation
The great majority of the people who keep bees have much to learn as regards the proper handling of their stock. This is usually due to sheer ignorance, owing to the lack of a little tuition or the want of a reliable text-book or periodical. It is rarely through any unwillingness to learn, as the modern methods are in every way cleaner, quicker, and far more pleasant than the antiquated forms of apiculture met with in many secluded districts. Occasionally one comes across some hoary-headed unbeliever who persists in keeping to the traditions created by some remote ancestor, but the breed is fast dying out, and bids fair soon to become extinct.
The great secret of manipulating bees is to be gentle but firm, and the more the former quality is cultivated the less need will there be of the latter. Bees are very nervous insects, and object exceedingly to anything in the way of roughness. In opening a frame-hive always stand at the back of it if possible, or at the side, but never in front of the entrance. A veil must be worn, but no gloves, and some form of subjugator will be re
### 66 Profitable Bee-Keeping
quired. This usually takes the form of a smoker, or of a cloth sprinkled with a solution of two parts of water to one part of Calvert's No. 5 carbonic acid. First remove the quilts until only the bottom one remains. Gently raise the edge of this and blow a little smoke over the frames, afterwards replacing the quilt. The effect of this smoke is to frighten the bees, causing them to fill their honey-sacs from the open cells. In this condition they are much less liable to sting.
If there are no open cells containing honey, a condition of things which often exists in early spring or late autumn, a little sugar syrup must be poured over each of the seams of bees. It will take the bees a couple of minutes or so to fill their sacs, after which time the quilt may be removed and a little more smoke blown over the combs. Any examination that may be required can now be made. In taking out the frames, first remove the division-board at the side, if there is one, and then take out the first frame.
In handling frames there is one correct method, and one only. Draw the frame a little sideways to clear it from the next comb, and then gently raise it by the lugs. Examine the side nearest to you, and then, lowering one hand until the top bar is perpendicular, swing the frame round like the leaf of a book and bring the hands level again. The effect of this will be that you are now looking at the other side, with the bottom bar uppermost. To bring the frame back to its proper
## 7 Profitable Bee-Keepering
and be it noted that manipulation is not good for bees, and the less they have of it the better.
The strength of a colony may be gauged by the number of the flying bees ; the presence of a queen by the way in which they carry in pollen ; want of food will be known when larvae are cast forth ; robbing will be easily discovered ; the presence of disease indicated, and even a desire to swarm occasionally foretold. The alighting board of a bee hive is an open book to those who can understand its language, and many things of which I have no space to tell will be found printed there.
Study carefully your hive entrances, and watch the movements of the bees. You will thus save yourself the trouble, and the bees the annoyance of many unnecessary disturbances of the colony. It is here that you will often see the first dread signs of Isle of Wight disease, and be able to take immediate steps for effectively dealing with it. The different colours of the pollens will tell you what are the sources of supply, or the lethargic demeanour of the bees betray the fact that the honey flow has ceased, and that there is no work to do. The experienced bee-master rarely pulls his colonies to pieces, but he never ceases his watch over the entrances of the hives.. Never open up a colony if you can possibly discover what you require from outside indications.
## Chapter 3 Mid-season work
After his supers are on the bee-keeper must redouble his vigilance, or he will be liable to suffer loss in various directions. Particular care must be exercised in seeing that the bees have plenty of room for storage purposes, and space must always be given in advance of their requirements. The exact amount of space required is a matter which can only be learned by experience, but it may be said that an abundance may be given to strong colonies at the commencement of the season. Towards the end of the honey flow much more care must be used, or a lot of unfinished work and unripe honey will be the result. When the honey flow is on the wane, which is easily seen by a peep into the supers, give extra room very sparingly. Empty supers of combs should not then be given, except to very strong stocks, but full combs of capped honey may be taken from the centre of supers and their places taken by empty combs.
If too much room is given at this time the bees will scatter the honey about, using a small portion of each of many combs, and filling none,* 72 PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING
a form of storing which makes much extra work for their owner. This question of getting all work finished off applies in a much greater degree to sections. Unfinished sections are unsaleable. At the best they can only be extracted, and it is poor economy to extract sections. To ensure their being finished off, the finished sections should be taken from all the racks as soon as the supply of nectar is seen to be failing, and full racks made up of the unfinished ones that are left. These racks must then be placed upon the very strongest stocks and wrapped up warmly. By these means the bees will be induced to complete them.
Swarming is usually the chief trouble to many bee-keepers at this time, and every means possible should be used to avoid this trouble if a large amount of surplus is required. The best method for checking it and dealing with the swarms has been pointed out elsewhere, but there are a few other points well worth mentioning. One of these is that if sections are worked for, the number of swarms will be much above the average. Bees intensely dislike these little boxes, with their tiny cubicles and general lack of space. It is not a natural way in which to compel them to build comb, and consequently the great majority, of such stocks throw off swarms. These swarms must be treated strictly on the lines indicated, as regards hiving them on the old stands and giving them the supers.
## 7 Mid-season Work 73
The common way of dealing with a swarm is to hive it on a new site, and more often than not the supers are left on the old stock. This is not a bit of use, and the adoption of this method will lead to a loss of nearly, the whole of the honey crop.
A few spare queens may be easily reared when a swarm comes off, by the simple plan of breaking up the old stock into three nuclei ; each nucleus consisting of three frames with the adhering bees, and one or two good queen-cells, of which there will usually be an abundance. The division is best made about six days after the stock has swarmed. In making it, allow one nucleus to remain on the stand of the old colony, and make the two others on new locations. The one remaining on the old spot may be left rather weaker than the others when the division takes place, as it will be strengthened somewhat by a number of flying bees which will return to it from the others. In a few days time the queens will have hatched, and on becoming fertilized may be usefully employed for re-queening purposes, or for sale. The nuclei may then be joined up again to make a full colony.
At the end of the honey flow, unless every care is taken, there will be much trouble from robbing bees, and when bees commence to rob in earnest the apiary rapidly becomes demoralized. It very soon becomes the despair of its owner and a terror to the neighbours. Fighting takesplace on a large scale and many bees are killed. The strong stocks rob out the weak ones, and when these are finished off fight fiercly among themselves in their endeavours to rob each other. As a rule one strong stock cannot rob out another which is equally strong, or even moderately strong, if the weaker one has a little assistance from the apiarist.
The great thing is to check robbing at the very commencement, to nip it in the bud before the business has time to get fairly under way. If it becomes a serious case it is very difficult to put it down, and it certainly means the removal of nuclei and weak colonies to another apiary for the time being.
Robbing is nearly always caused by carelessness on the part of the apiarist himself. He throws bits of comb about on the grass, keeps the hives open too long, or leaves supers of honey. thoughtlessly exposed. Honey or syrup is spilled about the apiary and the deed is done. The trouble commences at the close of the honey flow, and if it is fairly started it will often go on intermittently until the frosts put an end to the predatory warfare.
It should never really get a start, and certainly ought never to get out of hand if.due care is exercised. Honey must be removed from the hives in the evening, and examinations of colonies made at that time also whenever possible. The bees will then have ceased flying. No sweets of
## 76 Profitable Bee-keeping
tractor will be a part of the work which has to be done at this period, and this is a fruitful cause of robbing. The supers of wet combs must be placed on the hives at nightfall, and care taken to see that no bees can effect an entrance from the outside. The combs may be allowed to remain on the hives for a week, at the expiration of which they may be removed and stored away.
'It is recommended that this "cleaning-up " of wet combs should be entrusted to one or two colonies, as by this means there is not so much danger of distributing disease germs. The usual method is to give the combs back to the colony from which they were taken, but it must not be forgotten that such combs have usually followed others through the wet cages of an extractor. Where the extracting is done by taking one colony at a time, and cleaning the extractor for each, I would allow each colony to clean its own combs, but not otherwise.
We are speaking now of an apiary in which there is no known disease. It is only to such apiaries that the above remarks apply. Where any mild cases of foul-brood exist--a few infected cells, say, here and there--the honey from such stocks must be treated quite as a thing apart. In such cases extract the honey from the healthy colonies, and finish with the others, finally dis-infecting the extractor.
## Chapter 31 The apiarist and his foes
The time has undoubtedly arrived when no intelligent bee-keeper can honestly resist the introduction of an Act of Parliament dealing with bee diseases. The advent of Isle of Wight disease (_Microporidisis_), with its terrific ravages, makes such an Act a vital condition of successful api-culture. Formerly the apiarist considered his troubles to be infinite when his apiary contracted foil-brood, but this old brood malady pales beside the fierce and deadly pestilence which is now devastating our apiaries.
Briefly, the chief foes of the apiarist are Isle of Wight disease, and foul-brood, and he should be thoroughly conversant with the symptoms, aspects and treatment of these maladies. He has other troubles, dysentery, bee paralysis, and May pest, while at times toads, tits, and a few other birds will prey upon his bees, and wasps will steal his honey. Mention is made of dysentery in an earlier chapter, while the depredations of the toads and other small fry are usually infinitesimal, and may be easily checked. In the case of bee paralysis, and May.pest, there are grave suspicions forassuming that these are but mild forms of Isle of Wight disease.
Isle of Wight disease is caused by the presence of a small parasite in the chyle-stomach, and intestines of the bee. This parasite (_Nosema apis_) after passing through various stages, forms spores, and it is by means of spores that the disease is spread. It is a complaint which is very difficult to diagnose at times, as the symptoms vary considerably. In mild cases it may take the form of'spring dwindling,' or that of a bad case of dysentery, but, in its more serious phases it is no longer open to misconstruction. Several things may happen even then, however. Frequently the bees are found dead in a heap on the floor-board of the hive, when the spring examination is made, and at other times the bees vanish entirely, and are never seen again. The very commonest form is the spectacle of great numbers of bees crawling about on the ground, and ascending blades of grass and other objects, unable to fly, and exhibiting distortion in several forms. The abdomen may be distended, and appear to hang downward, wings are often projected from the thorax at unnatural angles, and one or more pairs of legs may be paralysed. Occasionally, the combs are soiled with excreta, but not always, although any fouling of the hive interior gives good ground for suspicion. The worker bees are the first usually to be attacked, and the queen is, as a rule, the last to fall.
## The Apirist and His Foes 79
It will thus be seen that there are many aspects, but the progress of the disease is very rapid as a rule, and any bee-keeper who is losing many bees, in conjunction with any of the symptoms mentioned, will be correct in assuming that the trouble is Isle of Wight disease.
As regards treatment, it is to be regretted that no certain cure has been found for infested stocks, and most of them perish. Something may be achieved in mild cases by feeding the bees with food medicated with Bacterol, and by spraying the bees with a solution of the same preparation. Serious cases should be dealt with in the most drastic manner. The stocks should be destroyed, and the bees, combs, and all interior hive fittings burnt, although any honey or wax may be used for household purposes if desired. The hives should be scorched out with a painter's lamp, washed out with a five per cent. solution of carbonic acid, and the outsides re-painted. The ground under and about the hives should be turned over, and sprinkled with lime, or carbonic solution, and a good supply of fresh water should be assured. Sagnant water is a fertile source of infection.
In combating the disease, absolute cleanliness is essential, and all means should be adopted to maintain the utmost vitality in the bees.
Foul-brood (_Bacillus Alvei_) differs from Isle of Wight disease in that it is a larval disease, but it is little less formidable on that account, and takes
## 8 Profitable Bee-Keeping
a heavy toll of bee life. The bacillus, after certain changes, forms spores, analogous to the seeds of plants. These are easily disseminated, and of great vitality, retaining their power of activity after a period of years, and they are immune to any chemical agent which would not injure the bees. When attacked the larvae turns to a pale yellow, and later to a dark brown substance of glue-like consistency, and with a very objectionable odour. In the early stages the larvae which is unsealed is noticeably flabby and distorted, while the sealed larvae in bad cases shows sunken and dark-coloured capping, often perforated by the bees with irregular holes, as if an attempt had been made at removal.
Black brood is a very similar disease, and in bad cases both of this and foul-brood, the same measures should be adopted as for Isle of Wight disease. Milder cases may be treated by the starvation method. This consists of shaking the bees from their combs, and confining them in a box, or skep, for forty-eight hours without food. Give them plenty of air, and at the expiration of the time hive them in a clean hive on sheets of foundation, and slow-feed with syrup medicated with napthol beta. If possible re-queen the colony.
In dealing with these two disorders, it must never be forgotten that botli are highly infectious, and the spores may be readily carried from colony to colony by means of contaminated appliances.
## Appendix A Ancient and Modern Hives
Here will be seen an old straw Scep in company with a modern **W.B.C. "**Hive** To face page 8**
## Chapter XII Increasing and uniting
Tr frequently happens that it is desirable to divide colonies, either for increasing the stock or with a view to the prevention of swarming. The method usually adopted is the one known as artificial swarming, and it is capable of many variations. Artificial swarming is especially useful in cases where it is suspected that colonies may swarm, for then this may be done for them, and any, possible loss of the natural swarm or trouble in securing it obviated. There are certain rules to be observed in this process of division. They are few in number, but they must be rigidly, adhered to, or failure will attend the efforts of the apiarist. First, only strong colonies must be divided; secondly, the swarm must be made in the middle of a warm day, when the bees are flying freely; thirdly, it must not be done before drones are plentiful for the fertilization of the young queens.
To divide one. colony. into two, take the frame on which the queen is found and place it in a new. hive, filling up the hive with frames of empty, comb or sheets of comb foundation. A frame
## 8 Profitable Bee-keeping
must also be placed in the first hive to replace the one taken out. Now remove the full colony to a new location, and on the vacant site place the hive containing the queen. The bees which are out gathering, along with others which will return from the removed hive, will make up the swarm, which should be well fed until established. The old stock will raise a new queen, but if a fertile queen can be given, or even a ripe queen-cell, valuable time will be saved.
Where one stock is made into two no honey is secured that season as a rule, and the next variation is recommended as giving moderate increase with a possibility of surplus honey as well.
This form of division consists in making three colonies out of two. Select two strong colonies, and from one of them take five good frames of brood. Place them in an empty hive and fill up both hives with empty combs or sheets of foundation. No bees must be taken with the brood, and the hive containing it must be placed on the stand of the other selected colony, moving the latter to a new position. Thus the bees are secured from one stock and the brood from the other. In this case it will be observed that it is the new colony which has to be given a queen, or if necessary allowed to raise one. If it be desirable the frames of brood may be taken from any number of colonies up to five, when their loss will not be felt.
We will now reverse this procedure, and turn to
## Chapter 4 Profile Bee-Keeping
With the plan given, any number of nuclei may be joined together, and if there is no choice in the queens it is not necessary to remove them. The bees will settle that to their own satisfaction without any trouble on your part. It is only advisable to cage the queen when all the others have been removed, to avoid any risk of her being damaged.
When disease exists in a locality it is wise to refrain from interchanging brood and bees from established stocks. No more colonies should be interfered with than is absolutely necessary. In making **up a nuclei,** for instance, if three are required, break a colony up entirely, but do not make one from each of three colonies. This forming of nuclei colonies early in the season is a very good method of increase, but care must be taken or they will suffer checks, and fail to build up sufficiently strong for wintering. They should be gently fed when there is no natural supply, and carefully protected from robbers.
Instead of increasing native stocks it will be advisable to add to the number of Dutch colonies for the present. These Dutch bees, while not immune from the attacks of Isle of Wight disease, have very strong constitutions, and are great disease resisters. Unfortunately, just now the demand for these bees exceeds the supply, but with a cessation of war conditions this would probably adjust itself.
## Chapter XIII
QUEEANS AND QUEEN-CELLS
The importance of young queens in an apiary cannot be over-estimated. They are a necessity if the utmost profit is to be obtained from the pursuit, and yet no phase of bee-keeping has less attention paid to it in the majority of cases. Why, the queen is so important is obvious, but what is not generally known is that queens, like most other things, deteriorate as they get older, until they reach a stage when they are no longer profitable. A queen is at her best in the second season, and she will probably do well in her third, but after then it is not advisable to retain her. Thus, then, theoretically we ought to renew our queens at the end of every second season or thereabouts, but personally I am no advocate of such an arbitrary system. While a queen continues to do well I should retain her to the third season, but I should have a younger queen ready to depose her if she failed before that time.
When a queen is past her prime the bees will depose her themselves, first building a series of cells called supersedure cells, and raising a young queen. The bees, however, may drive this workon to a time long past that defined by the apiarist as his limit, and therefore it is not wise to leave it to them.
When bees are found to be building supersedure cells, by, all means let the good work go on and utilize the cells, as they produce the best of queens. Good cells may also be obtained when a colony swarms, but at other times when the apiarist wishes to rear queens he must compel his bees to raise a batch. This is done by making a colony queenless, and at the same time depriving it of all unsealed brood and eggs. Twenty-four hours afterwards give them a frame of eggs from the hive containing the best queen in the apiary, first cutting the comb away at the bottom up to the first row of eggs. This will give room for the queen-cells to hang. Feed the queenless colony gently, and in about ten days' time the nuclei may be formed.