BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
Q. I wish to feed some colonies I have bought which are light in stores. In using the Doolittle feeder where, in the hive shall I put it--as an outside frame, or in the center of the hive?
A. Don't think of dividing the brood-nest, but put it next to the first frame that contains brood at one side.
**Feeding Back.--Q**. Do you endorse the suggestion of Alexander as to running part of one's colonies for extracted honey and feeding back into the comb-honey hives to provide continuous supplies there for night work, and at times when weather prevents field work?
A. I never made a success of feeding back to have the honey filled in sections.
**Feeding and Feeds.--Q**. I had one colony and lost it by feeding them only sugar water. Other bees robbed them and they starved. What is the best feed, and how and when shall I feed them?
A. The best thing is to give them combs of sealed honey, but it isn't likely you have them. The next best is a syrup of granulated sugar, probably just what you did feed them, only there was probably something wrong about the way you fed that started robbing. Of course, I cannot tell what it was that was wrong; possibly you may have spilled some of the feed, or done something else that was a bit careless. Be careful not to leave any cracks open that will let bees in from the outside. If there is danger of robbing, it is well to give feed in the evening after bees have stopped flying, and to give no more at a time than they will clean up by morning. For fall feeding nothing is better than a Miller feeder. If you feed early, equal parts of sugar and water will be all right; but if you do not feed until after the middle of October, then you can have 5 parts of sugar (either by weight or measure), 2 parts water.
Evidently you have no bee-book of instructions, and it will be big money in your pocket if you get a good one, say such a one as Dadant's Langstroth.
Q. When is the best time to feed the bees?
A. The best thing is never to feed them, but let them gather their own stores. But if the season is a failure, as it is some years in most places, then you must feed. The best time for that is just as soon as you know they will need feeding for winter; say in August or September. October does very well, however, and even if you haven't fed until December, better feed then than to let the bees starve.
Q. Two years ago I bought two colonies of bees, and the first year they increased to five colonies. I lost one colony the spring of 1905, and last fall I had six put away in good condition with plenty of honey for winter. I just now lost one colony. I examined the hive and found the honey somewhat watery, running a little out of the hive. What is the cause of this? Can I feed the honey if other bees clean out the comb?
A. If you had examined closely you might have found that it was mostly water that was running out of the hive. Water may be found running out of a hive containing a colony in good condition, the vapor from the bees settling on the cold walls of the hive as water, and running out of the entrance. It may also settle on the unsealed honey in the combs, making the honey thin, sometimes so thin as to run out. There is nothing unnsnal in all this, and you need not fear to feed this honey to the bees when the weather gets warm.
This thin honey will not do for winter feed.
Q. When you wish the bees to replenish the brood-chamber, how do you feed, and where do you place the food?
A. If feed is needed in the brood-chamber, you may count on the bees putting it there in preference to any other place, no matter how you feed nor where you place the food. I use Miller feeders, placing the food on top. The crock-and-plate plan is also good.
Q. Can I safely save scorched candy until next summer and feed it without danger to the bees--let them store it?
A. Save your scorched iced till next spring, not for the bees to store, but for them to use up in rearing brood.
Q. If in your judgment it would pay to feed bees right along through the season all the sugar at 5 cents per pound that they will use to have them make honey to sell at 15 cents per pound, will they neglect the fields to feed on the syrup?
A. It would be very unadvisable, unless you want to get Uncle Samuel after you. To feed sugar so as to sell the resulting product as honey would be rank aduliteration, for the product wquld not be legal honey. Indeed, one should strive to avoid as much as possible feeding sugar syrup for the use of bees, lest some of it should get into the surplus. Besides, it would not pay, as so much of it is used in comb-building.
**Feeding Frames of Honey.-Q.** I have a lot of frames full of honey nicely capped and in a cool room where the temperature goes down to zero. I presume this honey is granulated. I intend to take those frames in the spring and divide them among my colonies as feed. Is this frozen honey good? Can the bees thaw that out, or will they carry the sugar out instead of using it for brood-rearing?
A. The honey is entirely wholesome, but very likely the bees will waste a good deal of it by carrying out the undissolved granules. You can do something to prevent that if you will go to the trouble of spraying the combs with warm water by means of an atomizer, first uncapping any cells of honey that may be sealed. When the combs are cleaned off dry by the bees they may be sprayed again. Don't begin this until the bees are flying freely.
**Feeding Bees in Box-Hives.-Q.** Would it do to take some of the box-hive colonies that are in danger of starving into a warm room this winter and transfer them to good frame hives, using only the good combs, and contract to the size bees will occupy, placing candy between the frames or on top? Or would it cause the bees to be over-excited, filling themselves, and when again confined in the cellar without a cleansing flight, to become filthy and sick?A. Don't transfer in winter. Those box-hives most likely have no bottoms; if they have bottoms pry them off. Turn the hives upside down, put candy between or on top of the combs, and leave them upside down as long as in the cellar. When I had box-hives I wintered them upside down in the cellar.
**Feeding in Cellar.--Q**. What time can bees be fed that are wintered in the cellar?
A. Any time rather than have them die; but the feeding should all be done before putting in cellar.
Q. Is there any possible way of feeding bees in a cellar? I think some of my colonies are too short of stores for winter.
My cellar is rather warm this year on account of a new furnace. I have a separate apartment for the bees with plenty of fresh air, but it is still too warm at this date; the temperature keeps up to 55 and 65 degrees. The bees are very quiet yet.
I thought of giving each colony syrup separately in a sort of little tray so arranged that the bees could not drown. Would the bees come to get this syrup, or could it be given in some other way? How and when could it be done so that half of the bees would not rush out of the hives? My hives are put in two rows, one on top of the other, and all of the covers are off.
A. With a big lot of fresh air for the bees you will likely find that they will winter well at 55 or 60 degrees, although they will consume more stores than at a lower temperature. Still, as you say, the increasing cold will bring down the temperature. Better not let it get below 45 degrees.
If I understand correctly, your hives are raised in front by 1-inch blocks, and that makes a space of at least an inch and a half. That allows you to put a shallow dish of feed under the frames, and if your colonies are reasonably strong they ought rcadily to come down to the feed at 55 or 60 degrees. If it is much colder than that and the colonies are rather weak, they will not be likely to come to feed. Instead of the proposed wire screen over the syrup you may do better to cover the syrup with cork chips. You will get these from your grocer. He gets them as packing for grapes in cold weather, and generally throws them away.
If feeding below does not prove a success, you can feed above. Edwin Bevins reports excellent success with lump sugar. Wet the lumps by sprinkling water upon them, but do not make them wet enough to dissolve the sugar. Then lay the lumps directly on the top-bars over the cluster of bees.
**Feeding for Stimulation.--Q**. I want information in regard to feeding bees in the spring, so as to stimulate brood-rearing. How shall I proceed, especially when to commence, and what precaution to use?
A. Without a good deal of experience, you may do more harm than good. Don't begin till bees fly freely; feed about half a pound diluted honey or a syrup of sugar and water, half and half.--the honey is better. Feed in the evening, for fear of robbing. Every other evening will do. It will do no good to feed when the bees can get even a moderate amount among the flowers. Bees are apt to fly out and be chilled and lost by too early stimulative feeding.
Q. I have three colonies of bees that I am afraid are short of stores, but if they should live until spring, and it gets warm enough so they can fly occasionally, would it be all right to feed them sugar syrup in feeders on top of the frames, a small amount each day, until the flowers bloom? Would it be likely to start robbing?
A. Instead of feeding a little every day, better give them a good feast, giving it to them as warm as possible, so as to get them.to take enough to tide them over a considerable space of time. If you give them a little every day when they can fly only occasionally it keeps them stirred up and makes them fly out at times when they may be chilled and never get back to the hive. If the feed is given so that no robber can get to it except through the entrance of the hive, there ought not to be much danger of robbing, especially if the feed be given well on in the day.
**Feeding in Fall.--Q.** When is the proper time to start feeding for winter?
A. August, if they can gather nothing later. In general, just as soon as possible after it is known that feeding will be necessary. Generally it ought not to be necessary.
Q. When shall I give the bees their large feed for winter?
How many pounds of sugar should I give a colony that has very little stores at the present time? (Indiana.)
A. The sooner the better. September is none too early, but in your locality there will be warm days much later.
Twenty-five ponnds of sugar is none too much for a colony that has no stores. From that you must deduct for any stores they have on hand. Remember, however, that's the weight of the sugar, not sugar syrup, and the water in the syrup will, of course, be additional weight.
Q. The honey flow seems to be over here, and I have three weak colonies with very little comb, but nice, good queens. How would you feed them so other bees would not get to the feed?
A. Use a Miller feeder in the evening after flight is over, and there will be no trouble. Other feeders can be used. If you happen to have none, you can use a crock-and-plate feeder. Take a gallon crock, or some other size, put sugar in it, and an equal measure or weight of water; lay over it a piece of heavy woolen cloth or four or five thicknesses of cheese-cloth, and on this lay a-plate upside down. With one hand under the bottom and the other on top, quickly turn the whole thing upside down, and your feeder is ready. Take the cover off your hive, set over it an empty hive-body, set your feeder in it, and cover up, being sure that all is bee-tight.
Q. How will this new plan of feeding work? Place tin containers about the size of a half-bound baking powder can cover, containing bee candy, above the brood-frames, inside a 1-inch wooden frame to fit on the top of the hive under the cover. These tin containers set side by side just above the brood-frames, would be in the warmest part of the hive, and their candy contents would be easily accessible to the bees through the holes between these circular tin containers. This plan of feeding is easily adjustable, as a sufficient number of feed-containers can be used for either large or small swarms with no danger of feed running out to kill the bees. Tin can manufacturers can supply these at small cost.
A. This plan would work all right, I should think. In weather a bit cold the bees would not reach the candy quite so readily as if laid directly on the top-bars. Some apiarists pour candy in paper plates for feeding.
**Feeding in the Open.-Q.** I have some waste honey and I am feeding the bees the honey outdoors on some wide boards. Is that as good as feeding in feeders?
A. Fully as good or better, if your neighbor's bees do not get too much of it, and if you are absolutely sure the honey contains no germs of foulbrood.
Q. We are in the midst of a protracted drouth, hardly a flower to be seen. I have filled my bee-feeders with.syrup made from granulated sugar and placed the feed in the yard where all the bees can help themselves. Is this method of feeding all right, or should the food be placed in the hive?
A. Feeding out in the open is a little more like having the bees gather from the fields; only if other bees are near you they will also partake of the plunder. The stronger colonies will get the lion's share, but you can make that all right by taking filled frames from the strong and giving to the weak.
**Feeding in Winter.-Q.** What shall I feed this winter? Can syrup be fed, or should I feed sugar candy?
A. I would rather feed syrup in winter than to let bees starve, but it is probably about twice as safe to feed candy as to feed syrup.
Q. I have a colony of fine Italian bees which have not stores enough to last them a month. I had to take it away last summer and have not as yet got it home. How can I feed it at this late day? It is in a chaff hive with extra super filled with cushions.
A. The best way is to give combs of sealed honey. Carefully take out the empty frames and put the combs of sealed honey close up to the bees, for if there is a space between the bees and the honey, and it should be quite cold for a time, the bees might starve without ever touching the honey. What's that you say? "Haven't any combs of sealed honey?" V'ell, that's about what I expected. But make up your mind that you'll always have them hereafter.
Well, if you haven't combs of sealed honey, maybe you have some honey in sections. You can fit some sections in a wide frame, or even a common brood-frame, by cutting away enough of the sections to make them fit in the frame. Rather an expensive way to feed; still, I've fed a good many sections in my time.
If you haven't the sections, either, you can do quite well with candy. Take best granulated sugar and stir it into a very little hot water in a dish on the stove; but whatever you do, don't let it burn, for burnt syrup is death to bees in winter. Better not set it down in the stove-hole so the fire can touch the dish, but set the dish on top of the stove. Keep trying it, and when you find a little stirred in a saucer will grain, take it off quickly and pour into dishes making cakes three-quarters of an inch to one and a quarter inches thick. Put over the frames a cake of this candy that will pretty well cover the frames; or, if cakes are small, you can use more than one. Cover this with some kind of cloth covering, and shut up snug. Toward spring you may need to repeat the dose, but if you make the cakes thick enough and large enough no more will be needed for a good while. Your extra super on top will give you a chance to put on the candy and pack it up warm.
**Fences.-Q.** Do you use slats or fences between sections?A. I have used both, but now use plain wood separators one-sixteenth of an inch thick.
**Flour for Pollen.--Q.** Why is rye-flour put into the hives in March?
Where can I put rye-flour in the beehives?
A. Rye-flour and other meals are given to the bees as a substitute for pollen.
If you want to put it in the hive, you can sprinkle it into the cells of a comb. But it is not generally put in the hive, but outside. Put it in a shallow dish or box outside in the sun, and if the bees are in need of it they will take it from there. But if they can get plenty of natural pollen they are not likely to touch the substitute. Use old combs for bait.
**Foulbrood Versus Chilled Brood.--Q.** How can a person tell the difference between roulbrood and chilled brood? I can find nothing regarding chilled brood in the text-books.
**A.** Chilled brood doesn't string out like foulbrood.
(Foulbrood is irregular, not all the brood dying at one time. Chilled brood is all dead.--C. P. D.)
**Foulbrood.--Q.** I am requeening my entire apiary with Carn niolan queens, as I have come to the conclusion that the most prolific bees are the most resistant to foulbrood. How about it?
A. There is a very general belief that the introduction of pure Italian blood is an important step toward the eradication of European foulbrood and some think the same of Carniolans. It may be that there is something about Italians or some other blood through which it comes to pass that if two colonies side by side are of equal energy, one of them being of pure Italian blood and the other mostly black, the one of pure Italian blood will be the more nearly immune to foulbrood. But I doubt it. I think that Italians will fight foulbrood better than blacks, not because they are Italians, but because they are more energetic than the others. So the most energetic bees, no matter what the kind, will be the ones that will do the most toward keeping down foulbrood. I do not remember seeing prolificness claimed as a thing to help against foulbrood. Yet prolificness helps toward it in one respect, in that it helps to keep strong colonies, and it is very important with European foulbrood that colonies be strong.
Q. Is foulbrood ever found where there is no manipulation of bees?
A. Yes, indeed. Manipulation cannot produce the disease, and the right kind of manipulation does not necessarily favor its increase; but the wrong kind does; as when a comb is taken from a diseased colony and given to a healthy one. I don't mean that giving a frame of brood from one colony to another is wrong manipulation in all cases, but it is wrong where the brood is taken from a diseased colony.
Q. Is it safe to use section-boxes over again with drawn-comb and without comb, that have been on colonies that had foulbrood?
A. I should not be afraid to use them in case of European foulbrood, but with American foulbrood there might be danger.
Q. How can I tell foulbrood?
A. The chief symptom in American foulbrood is the ropy character of the dead larva; stick a toothpick, into it, and when you draw it out it will string an inch or two. If European foulbrood, look for larvae that instead of being nearly white are quite yellowish. If you write to Dr. E. F. Phillips, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., he will send you, gratis, valuable printed matter about foulbrood, and also a box so that you may send sample of diseased brood for expert diagnosis.
Q. You have written several plans for curing foulbrood. Now, if half of your colonies were diseased next spring, what treatment would you choose?
A. If they had American foulbrood, I would use the McEvoy plan. If it was European, I would wait till perhaps the beginning of clover harvest, and first see that each colony to be treated was made strong by uniting or by giving frames of brood well advanced. Then I would remove the queen and give to the colony a ripe queen-cell or a virgin queen of best stock.
Q. Is there anything that could be fed to the bees to prevent foulbrood?
A. In this country drugs are generally considered of no account in foulbrood. In England it is a common thing to add naphthol beta to the bees' food, with the idea that it helps to prevent foulbrood.
**Foulbrood, American.-Q.** What are the "chief causes of American foulbrood? I have never heard of a case in this section.
A. The chief and the only cause is the presence of a microbe, bacillas larvae, and the disease is generally conveyed to a healthy colony by means of honey from a diseased colony. A drop of infected honey no larger than a pin-head is enough to start the destruction of an entire apiary.
A. Yes, it may disappear, to all appearance, although the seeds of disease are there all the while.
Q. Can foolbrood be cured without destroying all the bees? If so, how? A. No need to destroy the bees; the disease is only in the brood. The McEvoy plan is generally used in curing. In the honey season, when the bees are gathering freely, remove the combs in the evening and shake the bees into their own hive; give them frames with comb-foundation starters and let them build comb for four days. The bees will make the starters into comb during the four days and store the diseased honey in them which they took with them from the old comb. Then in the evening of the fourth day take out the new combs and give them comb foundation to work out, and the cure will be complete.
Q. How early in spring can bees be treated if they have foolbrood? A. Usually no treatment is undertaken until bees are busy gathering.
Q. How many days shall I wait after treating a colony by shaking before I can give honey or brood, if they really need it to keep from starving or dwindling on account of no young bees? A. Perhaps five days. There ought really to be no need of feeding, for the attempt at cure should be undertaken only at a time when honey is coming in.
Q. How long is a colony immune to the disease after starting all over with fresh foundation? A. Just as long as you are immune to the itch after being cured of that troublesome malady. In other words, if the cure of foolbrood is complete today, and tomorrow the cured bees have access to some foolbroody honey, you may count on their being diseased again.
Q. If a colony that has a few cells of American foolbrood swarms and that swarm is put into a hive containing frames with full sheets of foundation will it be in danger of having American foolbrood later on? Or is it necessary to use something like the McEvoy treatment? A. Yes, it is in danger; but that 'later on" must not be carried too far. If the disease does not appear in the first batch of brood, you need not expect it "later on." But if there are, as you say, only a few diseased cells in the parent colony, the probability is that the swarm will be healthy.
Q. Ought I to use brood-frames which contain perfect combs,
**i. e., those showing no signs of foulbrood, if purchased in a lot of hives, part of which I suspected were infected?**
**A. There is danger. Don't use them unless you keep a close watch.**
**Q. Are combs that have contained American foulbrood, and later filled with honey by a diseased colony, then extracted, safe to use again on healthy colonies over queen-excluders?**
**A. No. Never use again combs which have been in a colony which had American foulbrood.**
**Q. Are extracting-sivers that have been used on hives infected with American foulbrood, after being extracted, safe to use on healthy colonies?**
**A. Some say, yes, some say no. I suspect that the truth is that sometimes the disease is thereby conveyed, and sometimes not. It will be the safe thing to avoid using them.**
**Q. What is the best method to treat brood-combs so as to be doubly sure that there will be no chances of foulbrood getting into the apiary from those bought brood-combs? I have a chance to buy old combs.**
**A. I don't know of any way. At one time it was claimed that formaldehyde would disinfect them, but I think that is given up. Your only safe way is to buy them where you know there has been no disease.**
**Q. Please tell us when we shake on foundation for foulbrood whether the frames should be new, or can we cut the old comb out clean and use the frames again? I don't want to buy frames for 50 hives if it is unnecessary.**
**A. Generally it is considered best to burn up the old frames, but when one has so large a number as you have I think it pays to clean them up and use again. At any rate, that is what I did with quite a number. After cutting out the combs, I put the frames into a big iron kettle holding half a barrel of water into which was put two pounds of concentrated lye. The water, of course, was heated, and the frames were kept in the kettle until all wax and glue was melted off. Then the frames were rinsed in cold water to get off the lye.**