BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
Comb-honey production requires far more skill in order to produce a good crop, and at the same time keep down swarming. The section boxes are so much smaller than the combs the bees naturally build that they do not enter them as readily as they do the large combs used in extracted-honey production. Therefore, considerable skill is sometimes necessary to induce bees to start work in section supers. Also, the extracted-honey beekeeper finds that giving an abundance of room helps greatly in the prevention of swarming, while the comb-honey man is compelled to keep hiscolonies more crowded; for, otherwise, the end of the season will find him with a lot of unfinished sections, that is, sections only partly filled with honey. Extracting-combs of ripe honey two-thirds or more unsealed will, when extracted, result in first-class honey. Sections two-thirds sealed must be sold at a low price.
Furthermore, extracted honey may be produced in many localities and in many seasons when comb honey would be an absolute failure; for, in order that any quantity of comb in sections be built, it is necessary that the nights be warm, as it is during the warm nights that most of the wax is secreted and the comb built.
On the other hand, there is usually more honey left in the hive when the surplus honey is taken away at the end of the season when comb honey is produced than when extracted honey is produced. For this reason it is more often necessary to feed the bees when producing extracted honey unless combs of honey are saved out of the surplus for this purpose.
Often a beginner is able to find a larger bekeeper in his own locality who will be willing to do his extracting for a small sum. Even one cent a pound is a good bargain on both sides. If one prefers the satisfaction of doing his own extracting (and there is a real pleasure in it), he will be able to purchase a two-frame extractor at a moderate price. And this size will be quite large enough for some time for the beginner in bekeepering. And, when he later decides to go into the business a little heavier, it will doubtless be possible to sell the small extractor and purchase a larger one, either new or second-hand.
**Chunk Honey Production.**
It is possible that a few may wish to produce chunk honey. If so, they should secure their surplus honey in what are called shallow extracting-supers. These contain frames shallower than the regular frames. When the frames are filled and the honey is sealed it is cut out in chunks, leaving as much as half an inch of comb next to the four sides of the frames. This fringe of comb serves the bees as a starter to begin work on for the next year's honey crop. The chunks of honey are packed in tin pails or glass jars and covered with liquid honey.
A serious objection to chunk honey put up this way is that the liquid portions will granulate in cold weather, making an unattractive package. We advise, therefore, that the beginner use extracting-combs rather than sections, and produce preferably extracted honey.
For the sake of those, however, who greatly prefer comb honey and find a keen delight in the beauty of the.snow-white section just as it comes from the hive, we intend describing the outfit for comb honey as well as for extracted honey, and, in later chapters, give the management necessary for the production of both.
**OUTMIT FOR EXTRACTED-HONEY PRODUCTION.**
CHAPTER III.
In discussing the outfits for extracted-honey and for eomb-honey production, it should be understood that the same brood-chamber and its equipment (cover, floor and frames) can be adapted to the production of either kind of honey by simply changing the supers.
**The Hive to Use.**
The hive is the house and home of the bee. What kind of hive to use is a question that presents itself foremost to every beginner. There are a great many kinds and sizes of hives. Beekeepers' literature for years has been filled with discussions as to which is the best kind of hive to use under various conditions. There are large hives and small hives, patented hives and hives made out of dry-goods boxes, and hives constructed of barrels or even of hollow logs. Formerly an old box or straw "skep" was used for a hive; and in those days beekeepers, when ready to harvest their honey, would place the box or skep over a pit containing burning sulphur; and when the bees had been suffocated by the brim-stone fumes the hives were turned upside down and the combs of honey duy out. The honey was then strained through a cloth; and if some of the combs may have contained unemerged young bees and pollen (a bee-food material which has a strong taste), this "strained" honey of the olden days was not of the best flavor.
During the last 50 years a great change has taken place in the production of honey, and colonies of bees are no longer deprived of all their necessary food nor are the bees killed in the process of removing the surplus honey. While a colony of bees may produce honey in a hollow tree or box, yet the modern movable-frame hive (the invention of Langstroth) is vastly more convenient in caring for the colony and in removing the surplus honey.
Omitting a whole volume of discussion that might be given concerning hives in general and in particular, we will say that the best hive for the beginner to start with today is the standard-sized, double-walled, movable-frame hive, consisting of a double-walled box, packed between the walls with ehaff or planer shavings, this box with or without packed bottom, and large enough to hold 10 movable frames of "Langstroh" dimension, namely, 91% x 17% inches, which size has come to be standard. The "Hoffman" frame, now almost universally used, is simply the Langstroh frame with a self-spacing device. (The single-walled hive, if the beginner some day becomes an experienced beekeeper, may better serve his purposes than the double-walled hive, but in beginning he will find beekeeping in double-walled hives easier and safer.) By looking at the accompanying illustrations of a hive for producing extracted honey, with its full equipment, it will be noted that the double-walled hive-body with its ten frames constitutes the hive proper or the brood-chamber. In this part of the hive the queen is ordinarily kept and the brood is reared.
### Necessary Equipment for the Hive.
Above the uppermost super is a cleated board, called an inner cover; and, over all, a telescoping metal cover.
When the beekeeper desires to remove full supers of honey a board (called a b e e - e s e a p e board) is slipped between the supers and the brood-chamber below. In the center of the board is a trap called a Porter bee-escape. T he b e e e s a p e e can then pass down from the supers into the chamber below, but can not get back again. By using this bee-escape, in twelve to twenty-four hours the full supers of honey can be removed with scarcely a bee in them, and actually without the knowledge of the bees in the brood-chamber below. This escape-board, without the Porter bee-escape and with the hole closed, is generally used as an inner cover.
In addition to this equipment for the summer season, one will need a chaff tray for each hive to give extra warmth during the winter. Such a tray, filled with chaff or dry leaves, fits directly under the telescoping cover. (See "Wintering," page 103.)
The double-walled hive is recommended to the beginner because in temperate regions it is both warmer in winter and cooler in summer, and requires less trouble in preparing for winter. But single-walled hives are in very general use in both the warm South and the cold North. These are identical and interchangeable with the full-depth supers. (In fact, the single-walled hive-body may be used either as a brood-chamber or a super.) They differ from the double-walled hives in that the hive-body has a single wall. T he s e single-walled hives will ordinarily enable the bees to withstand the winter chill of the South if given a little top packing (some Southerners prefer side pack ing also); and in the cold North, by packing on all sides, the single-walled hive can be made safe for wintering. The advantage of the single-walled hive is its comparative cheapness and lightness, but it should not be depended upon for wintering without some additional protection in the North.
One or several complete extra hives, with supers, should be provided to take care of swarms and thus increase the size of the apiary, if increase is desired. It should be noted that hives and supers can be bought either already nailed and painted (NP), or in the flat "knocked down (KD)" and unpainted. Unless the beginner is handy with tools he had better go to the little additional expense of buying his first hive nailed and painted all ready for use.
A plain division-board should be purchased with each hive, for it may become necessary at any time to contract the bees' living-space in the interior of the hive. The division-board is of the same shape as the frame, but may be so made that it will shut out the bees from the unoccupied part of a hive when some of the frames have been removed on account of the smallness of a colony.
Within the hive, filling the frames, are the wax combs filled with brood and food stores of the bees. Man has succeeded in controlling the manner in which the cells of the combs are erected, their size, and their arrangement. By placing in frames thin sheets of bees- wax which are embossed with the figure of the bases of the worker-cells, the bees can be made to build comb from which workers alone can be reared. These embossed sheets are known as comb foundation, which in modern apiculture is an indispensable article. It is used either in narrow strips (rarely) called "foundation-starters," or (usually) in the sheets. The full sheets are preferable, because they induce the bees to build nearly perferet e o m bs - worker-cells, saving them and consumption of honey in comb-making. Comb built from starters only is liable to contain a large number of drone-cells. Practically all the combs today are built on comb foundation. This foundation contains more wax in the initial cells than does natural comb in its initial eells; but this surplus wax is used by the bees in drawing out the comb.
The covers of the hive consist of a thin, flat inner cover and a large metal-covered telescoping outer cover. The inner cover, as before told, is often only a bee-escape board, with a small piece of wood tacked over the opening for the bee-escape.
As a final word about hives, let us emphatically advise the beginner to have only one style and one size of hive, with all parts of as many hives as he may have interchangeable. All frames of brood or honey, all supers, covers, floors or sections should fit each and every one of his hives. With such interchangeable equipment he will save himself much time and untold annoyance.
Assuming, then, that the beginner expects to produce extracted honey, he will have as his hive equipment one double-walled ten-frame hive with its floor and stand, queen-exluder, bee-escape board, division-board, chaff tray, inside and outside covers, two or three supers, and wired frames containing sheets of comb foundation sufficient in number to fill the brood chamber and the two or three supers.
Comb built by the bees without foundation. It is irregular and contains many drone-cells.
## Other First Equipment.
Among the rest of the equipment necessary, the bee-smoker, perhaps, should be mentioned first as being most indispensable. Bees can be controlled and safely handled only by the application of smoke, and it is the smoker that affords this aid and protection in bekeeping. It consists of a metal cylinder in which greasy waste, rags, rotten wood, or planer shavings are burned. A bellows connected with this cylinder forces air up through the fuel and blows the smoke out at a nozzle in front, just.
A good bee-smoker is one of the most essential parts of the equipment for handling bees. There are a number of different sizes of smokers. The smallest, suitable for a beginner's first endeavors, has a barrel 314 inches in diameter. Don't get a smaller one.
A bee-veil is another essential for the beginner. The experienced beekeeper sometimes works without a veil; but there are times when every beekeeper requires one to prevent stinging about the face and neek. The wearing of a veil gives a sense of security that can not otherwise be had.
The beginner should have a pair of loose-fitting bee-gloves. Ordinarily, the veteran heekeeper does not use gloves at all; yet there are times when even he may find them advantageous as a protection from angry stinging bees.
For opening hives and prying apart frames a hive-tool is to be strongly recommended to the beginner as doing better work than
Bee-gloves give the beginner a feeling of protection against sings.
k knife. This tool is very handy in separating the frames and the parts of the hive when examining them, because the bees make use of.propolis, or bee glue, in cementing the frames together.
A bee-brush is very handy in some hive operations. It is used for bribishing the bees from the combs. (But a buneh of long grass or weeds will serve this purpose.)
An unequping-knife is necessary for one who intends to extract his own honey. This knifeis to slice off the thin layer of wax called "eappings," which seals the cells of the comb. This unearping of the combs is necessary before extracting can be done. The blade and the handle of this knife are both specially shaped for this purpose.
Finally, if one has to extract his own honey, a honey-extractor is necessary. This is the machine in which the combs are placed to extract the honey from them. The waxappings having been sliced off, the honey is whirled from the cells by centrifugal force. The accompanying cut shows what an extractor is like.
In making this list of really necessary items in first equipment we have assumed that the beginner will buy bis frames with full sheets of foundation already fastened in them by the manufacturer. When having become a more extensive beekeeper, he comes to buy foundation separately, he will need a wire imbedder with which to fix the foundation firmly to the wire in the frames.
To sum up, the list of the beginner's full outfit for producing extracted honey is as follows: A double-walled 10-frame hive with its floor and stand, queen-exeluder, bee-escape board, division-board, chaff tray, two or three supers, wired frames containing sheets of foundation sufficient to fill the hive and supers, inner and outer covers; and smoker, bee-veil, gloves, hive-tool, bee-brush, uneapping-knife and honey-extractor.
**OUTFIT FOR COMB-Honey PRODUCTION.**
The beginner who decides to produce comb honey will need all of the equipment previously described except unapping-knife and extractor, the supers, however, being different. The uneapping-knife and extractor are used only in removing honey from the combs; in the ease of comb honey, the honey is not removed from the comb of the small sections, but is used or sold in such sections just as the bees have stored it. Some beekeepers do not use the queen-exeluder in the production of comb honey because they claim the queen is not inclined to leave the brood-chamber and go above into the small comb-honey sections where eggs and brood are not wanted. While this is true, the queen does sometimes go above and start brood in the sections when bait combs are used, if any of these contain drone comb because only foundation-starters were used. But queen-exeluders are seldom needed in the production of comb honey.
For comb-honey production, instead of the large extracted-honey supers, three or four small comb-honey supers will be needed. These supers may be the same size (or about the same size) as shallow extracting-supers. These hold seven or eight section-holders, each of these section-holders in turn holding four sections. The sections are small, four-sided, light frames, usually made of a single piece of basswood cut in such a manner that it can be folded and the dovetailed ends fastened together. Suspended from the top of each of these sections is a sheet of foundation which reaches nearly to the sides and bottom of the section. Between the rows of sections are thin wooden separators which prevent the bees from building the combs beyond the edges of the sections, so that the sections will all be built out uniformly. Between the side of the super and the last section-holder is inserted a follower, which is a thin board of the same length and height as the section-holders. Super springs are placed between the follower and
**GETTING THE BEES**.
There is no phase of bekeeping that the beginner regards with more apprehension than the difficulties and problems in securing his first bees.
**What Kind to Get.**
In choosing a strain of bees, select the Italians, always recognizable by at least three yellow bands on the forward segments of the abdomen. There may be five such bands on the strain known as "goldens." The other strains (not quite so handsome) are called "leather-colored." Race and heredity are all in favor of the Italians. They are the easiest of all bees to work with, being prolific, gentle, very active, very industrious, handsomest of all bees, most resistant to disease and enemies, and have the longest tongues for gathering honey. We shall not consider the German or black bees (the original stock brought to America), Carniolans, Cyprians, Caucasians, etc. However, the beginner is likely to have some experience with hybrid bees, which are usually a cross between the black and the Italian bees. A hybrid colony may, during the summer, be changed in less than three months to pure Italian by giving the half-breed colony a purely mated Italian queen. (See Requeeing," page 96.)
**The Easiest and Safest Way to Buy Bees**.
In getting his first bees the beginner will find it most satisfactory and easiest to buy a good full colony in a standard movable-frame hive. Although this way of getting the first bees is the most expensive method, yet there is good authority for saying that it will prove cheapest in the end. They will cost less in the middle and late summer. A local bekeeper will perhaps sell a beginner such a colony; or the full colonies (or packages of bees) can be secured from dealers in bees and queens or from beekeepers' supply houses. They will cost most if bought from a distant dealer.
When the full colony has been received by the beginner, all he has to do is to remove from the hive any screens that may have been used in moving the bees and place the hive on its permanent location, open the entrance, and let the bees go to work. It is assumed that the colony has a good laying queen, and that in the brood-frames (the frames in the brood-chamber) are some stores of honey and some brood in all stages of development, as well as worker bees covering practically all the comb surface of the ten frames. (If honey stores are lacking, and the bees chance to be received when the weather is cold and wet, or when the bees can find no nectar in their flights, artificial feeding must be resorted to. See "Method of Feeding," page 100.) The bees should have sufficient food to last them until they begin gathering nectar.
**How and What to Look for When Buying.**
**If possible, the beginner should buy full colonies from near home, because he is likely to know of the honesty and experience of the beekeeper from whom he buys and can be sure his hees are free from disease. If the beginner e a**
**have an experienced beekeeper go with him to select the colonies he is to purchase, and to assure him that they are strong, free from disease, and have a good queen, it will prove a great advantage.**
**But if he must of necessity buy his one or two colonies for himself, let him look to these points:**
**Examine them on a warm day when the bees are flying freely (we assume it is one of the first warm spells of full springtime--if possible, during the fruit bloom); walk past the hives and watch the flight of the bees. Note if the bees coming to any one live are bringing in pollen (eolored pellets) on their legs, for this is a strong indication of a thrifty colony. If pollen is not being brought into a hive by its bees, they lack energy and are likely to be without a queen and without brood (on which the future strength and honey-gathering power of the hive depend). Open the hive (or have the owner open it) by carefully lifting the cover from the top. (See page 49 on "How to Avoid Being Stung.") See that the combs are straight in the frames (not bulged sidewise anywhere). See that bees cover pretty_
**even**
**then**
**may be afield in mid d a y of a warm day, and so the number may be hard to estimate). See**
**that there is a large percentage of worker-cells in the combs, which are the smallest cells of the comb--slightly smaller than the drone-cells (see page 45 on "Cells and Their Arrangement"); and see that these cells have brood started in many of them, and that the queen is laying asingle egg in each cell and is seldom skipping a cell. See that there is enough sealed honey in the hive to feed the bees till the opening of the main honey flow--enough to fill two full frames in all. If the beginner will be sure of these conditions and will get the guarantee of the owner that the bees are free from all disease, he will be pretty certain to get good colonies. As to the hive itself, unless of modern make and in good condition, it is worthless except as a conveyance for carrying the bees to good hives ready at his home.
### Moving the Bees Home.
After buying the bees, and when ready to take them home, go early in the afternoon to the apiary while the bees are flying. Nail wire cloth to the top of a rim two inches deep, the same size as the top of the hives (instead of this rim, an empty super may be used, if desired) ; then, removing the hive cover, nail or staple this rim or super to the top of the hive-body so tight that no bees can escape.
If the hive has a loos e floor, fasten this securely to h he hive by means of a large staple at each corner. T o w a r d night, as soon as the bees have done flying for the day and have returned to the hive, see e u r e ly screen the entrance, thus elosing it, and if the weather be hot, screen the entire bottom the same as the top. The bees will make an uproar and crowd the screen if they get too hot. They should then be sprinkled from the top with cold water. If it be chilly weather, the top screen may be partly covered. Load the bees on a spring wagon or one having straw in the bottom of the wagon-box on which to place the hives, as jarring should be avoided as much as possible. An automobile will serve much better. The hives should be so loaded that the length of the frames will be in the direction of the jolt. Drive home after dark. Place the hives on their permanent location, at once open the entrance, and put on the cover. The screen on the top of the hive should be removed the next day.
Upon first leaving the hive at its new location, the bees fly around and around close to the entrance for a time, gradually increasing their flight distance, till they have marked the location so certainly that they can return directly to it from any direction or distance. The actions of mature bees in marking a new location are the same as those of young bees in their marking their location upon first leaving tl e parent hive.
If the distance from the place where the bees are purehased to where they are to be permanently located is less than two miles, there is danger that many of the bees, after being moved, will return to their former location. To avoid this they should be first moved to a place at least two miles distant from both their first location and permanent location, and left there for two or three weeks. At the end of this time they may be moved to their permanent location, with no danger of any bees returning to their former home. Again, if it is desired to move bees only a very short distance, from a next-door neighbor's or even within the owner's apiary, it is easiest to move them very short distances successively, say a foot every two or three days at first. If it is apparent that the increased distance does not confuse the bees, increase the moving distance to perhaps a yard till they have reached the desired location.