BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
If, in the course of the first examination, one or more colonies are found with unfertile queens, the hives should be marked and left alone till the overhaul of all of the colonies is completed. Amongst a number of stocks of bees there are generally, at this period of the season, some which are weak in bees, though possessing a fertile queen. These queens may with advantage be used to replace unfertile ones in colonies with more bees. To transfer a queen, it is first of all necessary to find and remove the one which is to be replaced. The following day, preferably towards evening, the small stock with the fertile queen is placed alongside. Both lots are gently smoked, and the combs with brood and bees from both put into one hive, so that each comb from one is between two from the other hive. The outside combs of both are put into the other hive body which is placed on top of the first, the bees brushed off the combs, and the latter and the hive body removed. If uniting is done later in the season, the second body and combs may be left on as a super.
When no small stock with a laying queen is available, a colony with an unfertile queen may be kept going by giving it a comb of eggs, or young larvae from a normal colony, once or twice a week, according to the number of bees. At the same time, remove one of the combs of drone larvae and substitute it for the comb removed from the normal colony, which will usually throw out this useless brood. In this way a colony may even be gradually built up; and, when young queens are available from swarmed stocks, the valueless queen can be replaced.
It is often very difficult to get a colony with laying workers to accept a queen, all the bees being old; but, if treated as described, there will soon be a sufficient number of young bees, and the introduction of a queen may then be safely accomplished. Colonies found queenless, and without even laying workers, should be dealt with in the same way, if still sufficiently strong enough to be worth saving.
A mistake, often made by beginners, and even by established beelepers, is the spreading of brood with the idea of hurrying brood rearing. This practice of putting empty combs, or even partly filled ones, between the brood combs, more often results in loss than in gain. It is recommended in some of the text-books written for countries in which the sudden changes of temperature experienced here do not occur. During September and October, colonies have all the brood they can cover on a cold day, and spreading the combs by putting a vacant one in the middle, results in the brood in some of the outside combs perishing from chill. If it appears necessary to give room for brood, the combs should be placed, one at a time, alongside, and not between, the brood.
Under normal conditions, a colony of bees increases rapidly in strength during September and October. As soon as all the combs of the brood chamber are occupied by bees, and before they are actually crowded, the second or upper story should be put on and the bees induced to commence work in it. This is done by taking a coub containing honey from the brood chamber and putting it into the second story and directly over the brood combs, while the frame from the upper story is placed into the brood chamber. When a colony of bees has become crowded before the super is put on, it will quite likely be inclined to swarm, and no amount of manipulation will cure it of that tendency till the swarming season is over. When bees are worked for extracted honey there is much less swarming than when comb-honey is produced.
If a maximum profit from the number of colonies kept is aimed at, the raising of comb-honey in 1 lb. sections should not be attempted in any locality which has not at least a fair honey flow. Many owners of bees find it very difficult to induce bees to work in the section supers. There are various reasons for this disinclination of the bees to enter sections. Bees at any time prefer to work together in large numbersand without any break in the combs in a vertical direction, and are therefore disinclined to work at comb-building in such comparatively small clusters as the 1 lb, sections necessarily create. Further, the sections are, in many instances, supplied with very small starters of foundation, leaving a distance of 3 inches from the brood-conbs to the lowest point of the starter in the section. Bees invariably store their honey just above the brood; and, instead of commeneing comb-building on the small starters in the section so far away from the brood and separated from it by empty space and the woodwork of the section, they frequently store the honey they gather into the cells from which young bees emerge. This restricts brood-rearing and causes the crowding of bees in the brood chamber, which is such a fruitful source of excessive swarming.
This difficulty may be overcome by inducing the bees to enter the section, or by compelling them. Bees may be induced to enter the section super by putting on one or more sections already partly built and containing some honey amongst the empty ones in the super. These partly filled sections are known as bait sections. When none are available, the bees may be compelled by first putting a super of full-sized frames of empty combs; or, failing this, of full sheets of foundation on the brood-chamber. If there is sealed honey along the top bar of the brood conbs, the exppings of the honey may be lightly scratched with a fork, which will induce the bees to remove it and the queen to deposit eggs therein, thus bringing the brood right up to the top bar. When this stage has been reached, the bees may be brushed off the conbs of the upper story and a section super put in its place. As there is now brood in the combs of the hive right up to the top bar of the frames, and as the bees want to place honey above this brood, they will, as a rule, at once commence work in the section, provided that honey is coming in.
The upper story removed from the hive may be used on another hive for a similar purpose, or as an extracting super. If it contained brood at the time of removal, the largest sheets of it may be put into the brood-chamber. Removing from the latter any combs containing little or no brood, the object being to crowd into the lower story of the section hive as much brood as possible so as to leave no room for honey. Keep the colony strong, and compel the bees to build comb and store honey in the sections. Any brood left over may be given to weaker colonies, but only as much as can be taken care of by each.
As October is the principal swarming month, a watchful eye should be kept on the hives from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on fine days, unless the condition of the colonies in regard to the swarming tendency is known, from a record of the ages of the queens and systematic periodical examinations to see whether swarming preparations are in progress.
While it prevents the absconding of prime or first swarms, the clipping of queens often causes trouble through the queens getting lost. The swarm returns to the hive, only to issue again, a week or so later with a virgin queen and a greater number of bees. As a virgin queen is light and has greater powers of flight, such swarms will usually settle high np in in inaccessible places or abseond without clustering. It is, therefore, not advisable to clip queens, unless the hives are near a dwelling from which a view of them can be obtained, or the number of colonies is sufficient to keep a special watch on them during swarming hours. The illustration shows a hive to which the swarm has returned after losing the queen.
## VIII.--Swarming.
Swarming is a natural impulse with bees, and the means of multiplying the species. In Victoria it occurs from September till December, October being the principal swarming month in most localities.
In abnormal seasons, when copious rains succeed a period of drought, swarming may take place a second time in January or February.
To the beginner the issue of swarms is a source of delight, and the most convenient way of increasing the number of his colonies. When, however, stocks have increased to the number intended to be kept, or to what the locality will carry with profit to the owner, then swarming becomes a trouble, involving a considerable amount of unprofitable work. and unless it is counteracted by re-uniting of swarmed stocks may result in the loss of all surplus honey. This is particularly so in districts having a plentiful supply of pollen in spring and a honey flow in early summer only. Taking as an illustration two colonies of equal strength, and assuming that one swarms several times, and that the other does not swarm at all, the worker force of the former is broken up into two, three, or more communities, none of which is in a condition to store surplus honey for a month or longer, because the parent colony is depleted of field bees by the issue of one or more swarms. The young queen, hatched after the swarm left, does not commence to lay for fourteen to twenty-one days, and this interruption in the succession of bee generations seriously affects the storing 0.0 honey later on, while every swarm put down in a separate hive has first to build sufficient comb to fill the frames of the lower story, establish a brood-nest, and accumulate stores before it is in a condition to store surplus honey. This point, at which productiveness commences, is in some localities, such as the country surrounding Melbourne, not reached till the main honey flow is practically over, and for the remainder of the season the bees are only able to gather sufficient to maintain themselves, and sometimes not enough to last them through the winter. In the following season the colonies which survived will again undergo division by swarming, little or no honey will be obtained, and the owner will come to the conclusion that bees are not profitable in his locality. It should be understood that increase of colonies always takes place at the expense of honey production, except in exceptionally good be-country, with a late honey flow ; but in passing it may be mentioned that in Spring bees are as much a saleable commodity as honey, that apiarists in the best honey districts of the State purchase swarms in large numbers, and that in localities better suited to the breeding of bees than the production of honey better profits may be obtained by the sale of bees than of honey.
Taking now the case of a colony which does not swarm at all, although of the same strength as another one which does, it will be seen that as the laying queen remains in the hive there is no interruption in the rearing of bees, and as all the work which is done by swarms during the first three or fours weeks is done by bees which come from the parent colony, it follows that when the total worker-force remains in the parent hive whatever would be needed in the establishment of the new colonies is available as surplus ; in other words, the nectar available in the flora of the locality is, it, one instanos, turned into surplus honey for the benefit of the owner of the bees, and in the other into more bees which cannot do more than exist for the remainder of the season.
What has been said so far does not apply to the best honey districts of this State where the honey flow is heavy, and more or less continuous for the greater part of Spring, Summer, and Autumn ; but even when the limit to increase is one of labour and material rather than of sources of nectar it is found more profitable to have the same total force of bees in a lesser number of colonies. More surplus can be obtained from one colony containing 30,000 bees than from two containing 15,000 each, because the number necessary to attend to domestic work such as the rearing of brood, carrying water, &c., is practically the same in the smaller as in the larger colony, the latter has therefore a much larger number of bees available for the gathering of nectar and is less influenced by changes of temperature.
The prevention or control of swarming is one of the most difficult problems of bee culture. Systematic efforts to eliminate the swarming impulse by breeding all queens from the mothers of non-swarming stocks have so far only resulted in reducing the percentage of swarming, owing to the inability of queen breeders to control the mating of the sexes as is done in the case of animals and birds. Bekeepers are therefore compelled to confine their efforts to cope with the swarming problem to the removal of contributing causes and to counteracting the effects which swarming has on honey production. Apart from the natural impulse, which is much stronger in some races, some strains, and even some individual colonies of bees than in others, climate, season, and flora have great influence upon the swarming propensity. These are factors beyond the control of the beekeeper ; there are, however, others which may be controlled, more or less, and excessive swarming prevented thereby. The principal inducements for bees to swarm are--
1. A crowded condition of the bees.
2. The presence of large numbers of drones.
3. An old or failing queen.
1. Hives may become crowded with bees early in September if witnessed in single stories ; as soon as the bees occupy all the combs, an upper story, with drawn empty combs, should be put on to allow the bees to spread out as their numbers increase and the weather becomes warmer. The beginner is at a great disadvantage in not having another set of combs, and the only thing he can do is to remove one or two combs from the brood chamber to the super (upper story) and put two frames with full sheets of foundation alongside the outside brood combs in the lower hive body. The bees will soon draw the foundation into comb, and the combs removed to the super will induce them to commence work there. Frames with starters only should not be used before swarming time, as drone comb is invariably built in them at this period. It must be pointed out that the addition of a set of frames with starters, or a section super, does not spread the bees out, because there is no connexion between the brood combs and the starters in the super. In a wild bees' nest, or when a set of drawn combs are given, the comb is continuous, and therefore, in the latter case, accepted by the bees as part of their home as soon as required and the crowded condition relieved.
2. The presence of large numbers of drones is best avoided by the use in the brood chamber of combs built from full sheets of foundation, or combs which have been built by swarms during the first three weeks. The cutting out of drone comb or the shaving off of the heads of drone brood is of very little use, because drone comb is again built by the bees in the same space, and the queen again lays drone eggs into the cells from which the bees have removed the decapitated drones.
3. Old or failing queens may be discovered during the first or second examination of hives in Spring (Fig. 1) by noting the irregular way eggs are laid, as they are found scattered.about instead of in compact.circles. Colonies having three-year-old queens will be found most inclined to swarm ; those with two-year-old queens less so, and the previous season's queens still less, while later on, when young queens of the same season's rearing are laying, their colonies will not swarm the same season. Defective and old queens should be replaced as soon as ripe queen cells are available. In weak colonies the queen may be destroyed and a queen cell given at the same time, the interruption of brood rearing can be made good by giving a comb of brood a few days after the young queen hatched. If the colony contains sufficient bees it may be divided into two on the same stand, the old queen being kept laying in one til) the young queen is laying in the other, when the former may be removed and the two stocks united by alternating the brood combs after smoking both. Uniting is best done at or after sunset.
Even when everything possible has been done to discourage swarming, there will be a number of swarms, but they will be larger (Fig. 2) than
Figure 1: Spring Examination of Hives.
they would have been had the colonies swarmed earlier. Examining the hives once a week and destroying any queen cells that are found will, to some extent, prevent swarming or, at any rate, delay it. However, unless the bees are shaken off the brood combs every time, a small queen cell on the face of the comb, or one well covered with newly-built comb, is very likely to be overlooked and, if conditions continue favorable, colonies which have been thwarted will often swarm without having built cells. Taking into account the trouble involved by a careful weekly examination and the risk of failing to prevent swarming, it will be found best to allow the swarm to come off and, if no increase but a yield of honey is desired, to re-unite the swarm and the parent colony. This is done in the following manner:--When the swarm has issued and clustered somewhere, hive it in a new box on a set of wired frames with starters on the spot occupied by the hive from which it came; remove the latter a little to one side, with the entrance facing at right angles to its former position. All flying bees remaining in the parent stock, on returning from the fields, will join the swarm, because they will return to the spot they are used to. The swarmed colony will thus be so depleted of flying bees that usually the first virgin queen which hatches from one of the cells will be allowed by the bees to destroy the remaining queen cells. To make sure, however, that no after-swarms come off, it is best to examine the stocks within a day or two and destroy all the queen cells except one, selecting for the purpose one of the largest and most forward in development. In from fourteen to twenty-one days the young queen will be laying and, under normal conditions, the combs in the hive containing the swarm will have been built down to the bottom bar of the frames. In the meantime the parent hive has been gradually turned round till it stands close alongside to the swarm, with the entrance facing the same way, and the two stocks may be united into one hive, the old queen (that with the swarm) being removed, the young queen taking her place on the new combs, with the old combs over a queen-excluder in the super to be extracted when full, or replaced by frames with full sheets of foundation, if unsuitable for further use.
As previously stated, uniting should be done towards evening, first blowing smoke between the combs of both colonies, and then alternating
Figure 2: **A Large Swarm, 10 lbs., or about 45,000 Bees.**
the frames of the two colonies, thus thoroughly mixing the bees. They will have settled down by next morning, and will work peaceably together ; the combs intended for the brood nest and the queen are then put in the lower chamber, the other combs in the super above a queen-excluder.
The old queen may be removed the day before uniting, which should not be attempted till the young queen has been laying for some days, as much stinging and balling of the queen may take place if uniting is done before or too soon after the young queen commenced laying.
The united stock is in the best condition for storing surplus honey, the brood combs have been renewed, and the queen being of the same season's raising, there will be no further swarming.
## IX.--Honey.
Honey is the nectar of flowers which has undergone chemical changes during and after the gathering by the bees.
It is composed principally of two sugars, dextrose and levulose, and water. Several other sugars are also usually present, as well as formic acid, tannic acid, albumen, and the essential perfumes of the blossoms from which the nectar was gathered. It is the presence of these essential oils which produces such a great variation in the aroma and flavour of different loneys. All honey is liable, sooner or later, to candy, or granulate; it becomes first cloudy and gradually partially or wholly. solid.
Of the two principal sugars composing honey, dextrose is a crystallizing and levulose a relatively non-crystallizing sugar, and the preponderance of the one or the other governs the rapidity and degree of crystallization; while the variation of the greater quantity of one or the other is due to the flora from which the nectar was gathered by the bees. There are, however, some other minor factors which hasten or retard granulation. These are temperature, amount of water, pollen grains, and air bubbles. Honey does not as a rule granulate till the approach of cool weather, and that gathered during cool weather granulates sooner and firmer than honey produced in midsummer. Any honey, however, will granulate sooner under frequent changes of temperature than when kept at a uniform degree, high or low.
The amount of water present in honey varies according to the source of the nectar, the humidity of the atmosphere at time of gathering, and the length of time it remained in the hives. In Victorian honey it ranges from 12 to 20 per cent., the average density being 15 to 17 per cent. When exposed to the atmosphere, the percentage of water will adjust itself to the humidity of the air; thus honey from the dry districts of the State, unless kept hermetically sealed, absorbs water from the air in the city sale-rooms and becomes quite thin on the surface during moist weather. As water is necessary to crystallization, the thinner honeys naturally granulate more readily than the dense honeys from dry districts. Some of the latter remain liquid for one or two years. Particularly is this the ease with yellow box and red box honey, which, if it could be obtained entirely free from admixtures of other kinds, would probably remain liquid indefinitely.
Pollen grains, which are always present in honey, have no doubt some influence in the granulation by acting as nuclei of crystallization. At any rate, it is certain that the honey from plants producing abundance of pollen for bees, such as the redgum, grey box, and stringybark encalypts, and white clover, cape weed, and native dandelion, granulates very quickly; while that from yellow and red box, producing little or no pollen for bees, remains liquid for a long time. When the modern method of removing the honey from the combs by centrifugal action was first adopted, it was soon found that the air bubbles incorporated in the honey by this process caused it to granulate sooner than when the old method of crushing the combs and straining was practised. How to remove this incorporated air, and to delay granulation generally, will be dealt with in a succeeding chapter.