BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
"Dear Sir :--Until 1805, the honey-bee flourished in the United States. At the commencement of the present century, a majority of the farmers and mechanics in the State of Connecticut cultivated the bee. Few, if any, unfavorable contingencies interfered with that pursuit ; the simplest form of box-hives was usually employed, though, occasionally, a _hollow gun_, and, in a few instances, the conical straw _skep_ supplied their place.
" In Autumn, the weak colonies, and such of the old as were depreciating in value, were destroyed by fire and brimstone. The honey thus obtained was sufficiently abundant to satisfy the demand ; hence, in those days, caps, drawers, and side-boxes, for robbing bees, were not employed.
" During the Spring of the year 1806, I read an article, in the _Boston Patriot_, describing the miller and worm, and their dependations, and representing them as of recent appearance in the vicinity of that city. A few months subsequently, a neighbor informed me that they were depredating extensively on his colonies ; and within two years of that time, four-fifths of all the Arjaries in that vicinity were abandoned.*Fig. 53. Plate XVII.
* "Since that period, a succession of patent hives, whose originators were ignorant of the habits of the moth, has appeared as its auxiliaries, and the two combined, have nearly "exterminated the bee from that section of the country. The efforts of a few individuals, of more than usual perseverance and ingenuity, were occasionally attended with limited success.
* "In the Summer of 1810, I resided in the county of Trumbull, Ohio. The moth had not reached this part of the country, and bee-culture was extensively pursued, and with a success I have never witnessed elsewhere. The rich German farmers were on a strife to excel each other in the number of their colonies. Two or three hundred they frequently attained.
* "In 1818, I again visited that county, and permanently located there in 1823, and at both periods found that pursuit still prospering. In August, 1828, while visiting a sick family in Mercer Co., Pa., I observed that a large Apiracy was suffering severely from the attacks of the worm. The proprietor informed me that it had made its appearance for the first time the present season. Within another year, it spread over all of Northern Ohio, and in the Winter of 1831-2, I learned, from members of the Legislature, that it had reached every part of our State. Similar results followed its progress here, as in the New England States.
* "Until the introduction of your system of movable frames, no successful means of counteracting its ravages were devised. I am happy to say that, by the aid of your hives, I have not the least difficulty in meeting it.
* "With great respect, yours, &co., "Riv. L. L. Langstrom."
* "Jared P. Kiretlars."Almost anything hollow will often, for a series of years, be successfully tenanted by bees. To see hives, with large, open cracks, whose owners are ignorant and careless, bidding defiance to the moth, may, at first sight, impair confidence in the value of any precautions. While stocks often flourish in such log-eabin hives, others, in costly " Bee-Palaces," are frequently devoured by the worms--their owner, with all the newest devices in the Aparian line, being unable to protect them against their enemies, or to explain why some colonies, like the children of the poor, appear almost to thrive upon neglect, while others, like the offspring of the rich, are feeble, apparently in exact proportion to the care lavished on them * I shall now explain why some stocks flourish in spite of neglect, while others, most eared for, fall a prey to the moth, and shall show how, in suitable hives, and with proper precautions, the moth may be kept from seriously annoying the bees.
Footnote *: It is very common to hear bee-keepers speak of having "g god back," or "had back," with their bees; and, as bees are managed, success or failure often seems to depend almost entirely upon what is called "neck."
A feeble colony being unable to cover its combs, they are often filled with the eggs of the moth, and, frequently, their owner becomes aware of their conditon only when their ruin is completed. But how, can the novice know when a stock, in a common hive, is seriously! infested with these all-devouring worms? The discouraged aspect of the bees plainly indicates that there is trouble of some kind within, and the bottom-board will be covered with pieces of bee-bread mixed with the _excrement_ of the worms, which looks like grEarly in the Spring, before the stocks become populous, the bees should be driven up among their combs by smoke, and the bottom-boards cleansed (p. 221). It too frequently happens that, in the common hives, nothing can be effectually done, even when the bee-keeper is aware of the plague within. With movable frames, however, the combs, and all parts of the hives, may be carefully cleansed, and if a stoek is weak or queenless, the proper remedies may be easily applied. If a feeble stock cannot be strengthened so as to protect its empty combs, they may be taken away until the bees are numerous enough to need them.
If the bee-mooth were so constituted as to require but a small amount of heat for its full development, it would become exceedingly numerous early in the Spring, and might easily enter the hives and deposit its eggs where it pleases: for at this season, not only is there no guard maintained by the bees at night, but large portions of their comb are quite unprotected. How does every fact in the history of the bee, when properly investigated, point with unerring certainty to the wisdom of Him who made it!
Combs having no brood, may be smoked with the fumes of burning sulphur, to kill the eggs or worms of the moth. If kept from the bees, they should be carefully protected, in a dry place, from the'mooth, and examined occasionally, to be smoked again if any worms are found.
Directions have been given on page 140 for preventing common hives from swarming so often that they cannot protect their empty combs. If not prevented from over-swarming, in the movable-comb hives, by methods which have been so fully described, some of the combs of the mother-stock may be given to the after-swarm,Instead of being left where they may be attacked by the moth.
The most fruitful cause of the ravages of the moth still remains to be described. _If a colony becomes hopelessly queenless, it must, unless otherwise destroyed, inevitably fell a prey to the bee-moth._ By watching, in glass hives, the proceedings of colonies purposely made queenless, I have ascertained that they make little or no resistance to her entrance, and allow her to lay her eggs where she pleases. The worms, after hatching, appear to have their own way, and are even more at home than the dispirited bees.*
How worthless, then, to a queenless colony, are all the traps and other devices which, of late years, have been so much relied upon. Any passage which admits a bee is large enough for the moth, and if a single female enters such a hive, she will lay eggs enough to destroy it, however strong. Under a low estimate, she would lay, at least, two hundred eggs in the hive, and the second generation will count by thousands, while those of the third will exceed a million.+
Footnote : margin: **The fact that queenless stocks do not oppose any effectical resistance to the moths or worms-a fact which I once thought to be a discovery of my ownhas for a long time been well known to the Germans. Mr, Wagner informs me "that their best treatises, for many years, speak of this as a settled fleet, so that it has become an axiom that, if a colony is overpowered by robber-bees, its owner is not entitled to compensation, as it was, in all likelihood, questioned, and would certainly have been destroyed by the moth.**
My attention has been recently called to an article in the _Ohls Cultivation_ for 1860, page 185, by Miesiah T. Johnson, in which, after detailing some experiments, he says:-" One thing in certainif been, from any cause, should last their queen, and not have the means in their power of raising another, the millier and the worms soon take possession. I believe no hive is destroyed by worms while an efficient queen remains in it."
This seems to be the earliest published notice of this important fact by any American observer.
+ This power of rapid increase accounts for Judge Fishbeck's and Dr. Kirtland's f make no effectual opposition to the bee-moth, but, by their forlorn condition, they positively invite her attacks. She appears to have an instinctive knowledge of their condition, and no art of man can ever keep her out. She will pass by other colonies to get at a queenless one, as if aware that she will find in it the best conditions for the development of her young ; and thus the strongest colonies, after losing their queens, are frequently devoured by the worms, while small ones, standing by their side, escape unharmed.
It is certain that a queenless hive seldom maintains a guard at the entrance, and does not fill the air with the pleasant voice of happy industry. Even to our dull ears, the difference between the hum of a prosperous hive and the unhappy note of a despairing one is often sufficiently obvious ; may it not be even more so to the acute senses of the provident mother-moth?
Her unerring sagacity resembles the instinct by which birds that prey upon cartion, single out from the herd a diseased animal, hovering over its head with their dismal croakings, or sitting in ill-omened flocks on the surrounding trees, watching it as its life ebbs away, and snapping their blood-thirsty beaks, impatient to tear out its eyes, just glazing in death, and to banquet on its flesh, still warm with the blood of life. Let any fatal accident befall an animal, and how soon will you see them,--
"First a speck and then a Yulture,"
speeding, from all quarters of the heavens, their eager flight to their destined prey, when only a short time before not one could be perceived.
The common hives not only furnish no reliable remedy for the loss of the queen, but, in many cases, their owner cannot be sure that his bees are queenless until their destruction is certain; while not unfrequently, after an experience of years, he does not believe that there is such a thing as a queen-bee! In the Chapter on the Loss of the Queen, full directions have been given for protecting colonies in movable-comb hives, from a calanarity which, more than all others--the want of food* excepted--exposes them to destruction.
When a colony becomes hopelessly queenless, its destruction is certain. Even should the bees retain their wonted zeal in gathering stores and defending themselves against the moth, they must as certainly perish (p. 58) as a carcass must decay, even if it is not assailed by filthy flies and ravenous worms. Occasionally, after the death of the bees, large stores of honey are found in their hives. Such instances, however, though once not uncommon, are now rare; for a motherless hive is almost always assaulted by stronger stocks, which, seeming to have an instinctive knowledge of its orphanage, hasten to take possession of its spoils; or, if it escape the Scylla of thee pitiless plumoters, it is dashed upon a more merciless Charybdis, when the misrecant moths find out its destitution. Every year, multitudes of hives are bereft of their queens, most of which are either robbed by other bees or sacked by the moth, or both robbed and sacked, while their owner imputes all the mischief to something else than the real cause.
To one acquainted with the habits of the moth, the bee-keeper who is constantly lamenting its ravages, seems almost as much deluded as a farmer would be who, after diligently searching for his missing cow, and finding her nearly devoured by carion worms, should denounce these worthy scavengers as the primary cause of her untimely end.
with such close supervision, by governing the entrances of all the hives by a long lever-like hen-roost, so that they may be regularly closed by the crowing and cackling tribe when they go to bed at night, and opened again when they fly from their perch to greet the merry morn. Alas! that so much skill should be all in vain! Some chickens are sleepy, and wish to retire before the bees have completed their work, while others, from ill-health or laziness, have no taste for early rising, and sit moping on their roost, long after the cheerful sun has purpled the glowing east. Even if this device could entirely exclude the moth, it could not save a colony which has lost its queen. The truth is, that most of the contrivances on which we are instructed to rely, are equivalent to the lock put upon the stable door after the horse has been stolen; or, to attempts to banish the chill of death by warm covering, or artificial heat.
Let me not be understood as asserting that there are no means of protecting the common hives from the ravages of the bee-moth. If bee-keepers will be careful to place their hives where the young queens are not in danger of being lost (p. 214), they will loose comparatively free of their colonies:_ The knowledge of this fact will enable the Apiarian to contend successfully against the moth, let him use what hive he will. He will, undoubtedly, lose many colonies which have become queenless, from other causes than the close proximity of their hives, and which might be easily saved in movable comb-hives; but his losses will not be of such a wholesale character as utterly to dishearten him in his attempts to keep bees.
The prudent bee-keeper, remembering that " prevention is better than cure," will take unwaeried pains to destroy, - as _early_ in the season as he can, the larvae of the moth. The destruction of a single female worm may thus be
and thus force her to pass over a space which, by continually narrowing, is more and more easily defended by the bees. These traps are slightly elevated, so that the heat and smell of the hive pass under them through small openings, into which the moth can enter, but which do not admit her to the hive. These openings, which resemble the eervices between the common hives and their bottomboards, she will enter, rather than attempt to force her way through the guards; and, finding here the nibblings of comb and bee-bread, in which her young can flourish, she deposits her eggs where they may be reached and destroyed. All this is on the supposition that the hive has a healthy queen, and that the bees have no more comb than they can warm and defend; for if there is no guard, or only a feeble resistance, she will penetrate to the heart of the citadel to deposit her seeds of mischief.
These blocks have also grooves which communicate with the _interior_ of the hives, and which appear to the prowling worm, in search of a comfortable nest, the very place--so warm and secure--in which to spin its web, and " bide its time." When the hand of the bee-master lights upon it, it finds that it has been caught in its own craftiness.
All such contrivances, instead of helping the _careless_ bee-keeper, will but give him greater facilities for injuring his bees. Worms will spin undisturbed under the blocks, and moths lay their eggs; his traps only affording them more effectual aid. If such incorrigibly careless persons will persist in the folly of keeping bees, they should use only smooth blocks, which, by regulating the entrance to the hives, will assist the bees in defending themselves against all enemies which seek admission to their castle.6
If the worms, by any means, get the ascendaney in movable-comb hives, the frames should be removed, (p. 243), and the worms destroyed. If proper care has been exercised, such an operation will be seldom needed.* S shallow vessels of sweetened water, placed on the hives after sunset, will often entrap many of the moths. They are so fond of sweets, that I have caught them sticking fast to pieces of moist sugar candy. Whey and sour milk are said to destroy them.\(\dagger\)
I shall close what I have to say upon the bee-moth, with an extract from that accomplished secholar, and well-known enthusiast in "bee-culture, Henry K. Oliver, of Massachusetts: "The ravages of all the other enemies\(\dagger\) of the bee are but a baby bite to the destruction caused by the bee-moth. They are a paltry-looking, insignificant little grav-haired pestilent race of wax-and-honey-eating and be-destroying rascals, that have buffled all contrivanes that ingenuity has devised to conquer or destroy them.
" Your committee would be very glad to be able to suggest any effectual means by which to assist the honey-bee and its friends against the inroads of this foe, whose desolating ravages are more despondingly referred to than those of any other enemy.
" He who shall be successful in devising the means of ridding the bee-world of this destructive and merciess pest, will richly deserve to be crowned "King Bee," in use this, it will be kept warm by the heat riding to the top of the hives, and will be guarded even in cool nights. 8eh an entrance may, in many cases, be found a great protection against the moth.
* Old combs are much the most liable to suffer from the moth. In movable-comb hives, no combs need remain so long in the hives as to have that value seriously impaired.
+ Devices for _warning_ the moth date back to the times of Colombia, who recommends placing near the hives, at night, a branon vessel, with a light burning in it, to destroy the moths resorting to it.
\(\dagger\) Report on Bces, to the Eisex County Agricultural Society, 1954.
perpetuity ; to be entitled to a never-fading wreath of budding honey flowers, from sweetly breathing fields, all murmuring with bees ; to be privileged to use, during his natural life, 'night tapers from their waxen thighs,' (best wax candles, two to the pound!); to have an annual offering, from every bee-master, of ten pounds each of very best virgin honey ; and to a body guard, for protection against all foes, of thrice ten thousand workers, all armed and equipped as Nature's law directs. Who shall have these high honors?"
It seems almost incredible that such puny animals as mice should venture to invade a hive of bees ; and yet they often slip in when cold compels the bees to retreat from the entrance. Having once gained admission, they build a warm nest in their comfortable abode, eat up the honey and such bees as are too much ehilled to offer resistance, and fill the premises with such a stench, that the bees, on-the arrival of warm weather, often abandon their polluted home. On the approach of cold weather, the entrances of the hives should be so contracted that a mouse cannot get in.*
Footnote *: If, as the weather grows cold, the bees are allowed to use only the upper entrance (p. 650), it will be almost impostable for rules to effect a judgment.
That various kinds of birds are fond of bees, every Apiarian knows to his cost. The King-bird (_Tynamics musicapo_), which devours them by scores, is said--when he can have a choice--to eat only the drones; but as he catches bees on the blossoms--which are never frequented by these fat and lazy gentlemen--the industrious workers must often fall a prey to his fatal snap. There is good reason to suspect that this gourmand can distinguish between an empty bee in search of food, and one which, returning laden to its fragment home, is in excellent condition to glide--already sweetened--down his voracious maw.
If--as in the olden time of fables--birds could be moved by human language, it would be worth while to post up, in the vicinity of our Apinaries, the old Greek poet's address to the swallow :
"Atic mallen, honey fed,
Chirping warbler, bears't away
Thou the busy buzzing bee,
To thy callow brood a prey?
Warbler, thou a warbler selze?
Winged, one with lovely wings?
Great myself, by Summer brought,
Yellow guests whom Summer bridges?
Wilt not quickly let it drop?
"Its not fair ; indeed, "its wrong,
That the ceaseless warbler should
Die by mouth of ceaseless song."
No Aparian ought ever to encourage the destruction of birds, because of their fondness for his bees. Unless we can check the eastom of destroying, on any pretence, our insectivorous birds, we shall soon, not only be deprived of their serial melody among the leafy branches, but shall lament, more and more, the increase of insects, from whose ravages nothing but these birds can protect us. Let those who can enjoy no music made by these winged choristers of the skies, except that of their agonizing accreams as they fall before their well-aimed weapons, and flutter out their innocent lives before their heartless gaze, drive away, as far as they please from their cruel premises, all the little birds that they cannot destroy, and they will, eventually, reap the fruits of their folly, when the caterpillars weave their destroying webs over their leafless trees, and insects of all kinds riot in glee on their blasted harvests."
"The farmers of Europe having learned, by repeated observation, that, without the aid of miscellaneous birds, their week would be sacrificed to the more destructive The load is a well-known devourer of bees. Sitting, towards evening, under a hive, he will sweep into his mouth, with his swiftly-darting tongue, many a late returning bee, as it falls, heavily laden, to the ground; but as he is also a diligent consumer of various injurious insects, he can plead equal immunity with the insective-rous birds.
It may seem amazing that birds and toads can swallow bees without being stung to death. They seldom, however, meddle with any, except those returning fully laden to their hives, or such as, being away from home, are indisposed to resent an injury. As they are usually swallowed without being crushed, they do not instinctively thrust out their stings, and before they can recover from their surprise, they are safely entombed.
Bears are excessively fond of honey; and in countries where they abound, great precautions are needed to prevent them from destroying the hives.
In that quaint but admirably common-sense work, entitled, "_The Feminine Monarchie, written out of Experience, by Charles Butler; printed in the year_1609," we have an amusing adventure, related by a Masculive ambassador to Rome:
"A neighbor of mine, said he, in searching in the woods for honey, slipped down into a great hollow tree, and there sunk into a lake of honey up to the breast; where--when he had stuck fast two days, calling and crying out in vain for help, because nobody in the meanwhile came nigh that solitary place--at length, when he was out of all hope of life, he was strangely delivered by the means of a great bear, which, coming thither about the same business that he did, and smelling the honey, stirred with his striving, elambered up to the top of the tree, and then began to lower himself down, backwards, into it. The man bethinking himself, and knowing that the worst was but death, which in that place he was sure of, belipt the bear fast with both his hands about the loins, and, withal, made an outery as loud as he could. The bear being thus suddenly affrighted, what with the handling and what with the noise, made up again with all speed possible. The man held, and the bear pulled, until, with main force, he had drawn him out of the mire; and then, being let go, away he trots, more afeard than hurt, leaving the smeared swain in a joyful fear."
Ants, in some places, are so destructive, that it becomes necessary to put the hives on stands, whose legs are set in water.* My limits forbid me to speak of wasps, hornets, millepedes (or wood-lice), spiders, and other enemies of bees. If the Apiariana keeps his stocks strong, they will usually be their own best protectors, and, unless they are guarded by thousands ready to die in their defence, they are ever liable to fall a prey to some of their many enemies, who are all agreed on this one point, at least--that stolen honey is much sweeter than the slow accumulations of patient industry.
Footnote *: Small ants often make their nests about hives, to have the benefit of their warnth, and neither modest the bees nor are molated by them.
DISCASES OF BEES.