BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
Again, to go to the other extreme, bad beekeepers frequently have to do but little autumn feeding, and that is owing to the utter badness of their methods. These bee-keepers have many of their hives with comparatively, worthless queens in possession, quite incapable of utilizing more than half of the brood-chamber for breeding purposes. Consequently the most of the early honey gathered is stored in the brood-chamber instead of in the supers, for be it noted that bees will never store in the supers while there is space in the brood-nest.
Spring feeding is food supplied for the purpose of inducing the bees to breed faster than they. otherwise would, and is most important and even necessary in the case of apiaries situated in early, fruit-growing districts, where bees must be verystrong at an unusually early date if any, surplus is to be secured. The amount of food given depends to a great extent on the quantity, of stores with which the bees went into winter quarters, for it is neither necessary nor desirable to give fresh food until most of last year's stores are consumed, and if the bees are heavily fed in autumn it often happens that no fresh food is required.
The theory of spring feeding is this. Bees if left alone and with a sufficiency of stores will progress at their normal rate, which means that the hive will be at its best about the middle of June, when swarming will be in full swing. Now for the majority of districts, where the main honey flow is not due until then, true stimulative feeding is not required. All that is necessary is to see that there is always plenty of food in the hive, especially if bad weather intervenes in May and June. The districts that require stimulative feeding, however, have their main honey flow considerably earlier than the above date, so early that if left alone the bees would be much too weak to be effective, so the owners of bees in such districts must stimulate them.
The third kind of feeding is feeding that must be done at times, irrespective of weather or season, if the bees are to be kept alive. Of course in many, cases it is negligence or bad management that calls for this kind of feeding, but in other
## 4 Example
The _bee-keeper_ must make sure that there is always a supply of food in the hive if through adverse climatic conditions the bees are unable to gather a daily supply. It is quite easy for bees to be starved to death with thousands of acres of clover in bloom around them. Therefore when there is no food in the hive, feed, and feed until the bees can bring some in.
Now regarding the method of carrying out feeding we will take autumn feeding first again. When the supers are taken.off in July, if there is no other late source from which a honey flow may be expected, it is a good plan to feed gently about a quart of syrup weekly to each stock, until the beginning of September. This will induce the queen to continue breeding later, and ensure the colony going into winter quarters with a strong force of young bees, which are a most valuable asset in wintering safely. The food should be given them through one hole only of a graduated bottle feeder. The feeder consists of a bottle
### 4.4 Profitable Bee-Keeping
with a metal top perforated with nine small holes. This is inverted on a metal plate contained in a wooden stage. The metal plate is furnished with a slot, and by turning the bottle round feed may be given from any number of holes from one to nine, or it may be withheld entirely. At the beginning of September this slow feeding should be stopped, and food should be given as rapidly as the bees will take it, until the hives contain thirty pounds each of food. This may be estimated by examining the combs, noting that about 44 inch square of sealed comb equals one pound. For this fast feeding what is known as a rapid feeder is often used, a box-like receptacle holding about a half-gallon of syrup, but bottle feeders will do if the bees are allowed to feed from all the holes. The recipe for syrup for autumn feeding is as follows:. of best cane sugar, 5 pints of water,. tablespoonful of vinegar, and a pinch of salt. Boil for a few minutes.
Spring feeding or spring stimulation is practised entirely with the graduated feeder if continual feeding is required. It should be commenced at about six weeks before the expected honey, that being the time that an average stock takes to get into condition. Food should be given very slowly, from one or at most two holes of the feeder, but it must be continuous. During the whole of this six weeks the bees must be handling food without ceasing, but they must not be storing it in any quantity. While honey or syrup is com
## Chapter VI The production of honey
The main thing with nine-tenths of the people who keep bees is the production of honey and the pecuniary benefits to be derived from the sale of that valuable article of food. Now keeping bees and producing honey in large quantities are two widely different things, as many people have before now found out. Many people, in fact anybody, can keep bees, but it is not everyone who can become a bee-keeper. A keeper of bees and a bee-keeper are by no means synonymous terms.
A bee-keeper must be in sympathy with his charges: he must understand their peculiarities and be thoroughly alive to their every need, both immediate and prospective. The mere fact of having bees in the garden is not to be taken as an augury of honey in the cupboard, for in some seasons the production of honey calls for skill on the part of the bee-keeper of no mean order. I could take as an instance the season just past, / when probably not more than one-third of the people who keep bees secured surplus honey worth the name.
**To** secure honey, in quantity it is necessary that the stocks should be at their strongest just at the time when the main honey flow occurs in their particular locality--just at the time, neither before nor after. This is only to be secured by. having good queens at the heads of the colonies, and by careful attention in the way of management as described in the previous chapter. At the time when the honey flow is about to commence the brood-chamber of all hives should be a solid mass of brood, and if it is not in that condition it must be made so. This may be done by uniting the stocks as described elsewhere. It is a common failing with the majority of bee-keepers to estimate the strength of their apiary by the number of hives containing bees. This is entirely wrong, for often half of the hives' contain bees that are but remnants of colonies. Such hives are of no use at all for honey production, and left to themselves they might secure sufficient honey for their own consumption, but that would be all. If, however, they are united under one roof, making up a colony packed with bees and brood, good results will be secured if the season be favourable. That is the great secret of honey production--hives packed with bees and brood at the right time. Two colonies of bees under one roof will secure far more honey than if they were separate, and therefore as honey is what is required, unite,
and then if necessary divide the colonies again later for increase." Unite three or four lots if necessary to make a strong stock.
The bee-keeper should make up his mind as to what form he wishes his surplus honey to take, for on that will depend the whole of his supering arrangements. If he wishes to produce comb honey he will require section racks and sections, which must be fitted up in readiness. If he should prefer combs for extracting he must equip himself with the requisite number of supers fitted up with shallow frames.
Each live should be furnished with two supers, and these will usually be sufficient for all requirements.
In the case of sections it should be carefully noted that they should always be used with separators. These are thin slips of metal or wood, which are placed between each row of sections. Their object is to prevent the sections being built out of shape and of varying thickness. Without the use of separators it would be impossible to obtain even approximately perfect sections.
The super is placed on the lives at the first indication of the honey. flow, and this may be easily known by taking a glance at the brood-nest. If the cells along the top bars are being extended, which will be known by the snowy whiteness of the new comb, it is known that the bees need further storage room, and it should be given at once. In placing a super in position little skill 50 PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING
is needed, but it should be seen to that the tops of the brood-combs are scraped clear of projecting brace-combs and a sheet of excluder zinc laid over them, the slots of which should run at right angles to the frames. This excluder zinc is simply a sheet of slotted zinc which will admit of the passage of the workers but not of the queen. The object is to prevent the queen using the super for breeding, to the detriment of the shallow frames kept solely for honey producing purposes. This zinc may be omitted in using section racks, but it should always be used under shallow frames. The reason of this is that the queen has a great objection to passing through the narrow entrances of section boxes, but will freely pass up into a shallow frame super. Having the zinc in position, place the super directly down upon it, and cover all up as warmly as possible. When the first super is two-thirds full of honey the second one may be given, placing it under the first. By the time the third super is needed, if one is needed, the top one will be ready to come off.
Always place the last super given next the brood-chamber, that is, underneath all the others, except towards the close of the season. If, however, there are signs that the honey flow is failing, although the bees require more room, the last super may be placed at the top, when the bees will only use it if necessary.
The management when comb honey is worked for differs in no vital, particular from the above,The production of money 51 but it may be pointed out that it is of no use attempting to secure good sections unless the stocks are very strong and the district at least fairly good. It is impossible to produce good section honey in poor districts, and in such districts attempts are only a waste of time. It calls for much management to keep down the number of incomplete sections. The apiarist must be very careful to give no more room than is absolutely required and compel the bees to finish their work as far as possible as they go on.
In removing surplus honey from the hives the super clearer should be used. This is a flat board, the size of the hive top, with a "Porter " bee-escape in the centre. This escape allows the bees to leave the super, but effectually prevents their re-entering it. This is an invaluable appliance, and should always be used when honey is to be removed. Evening is the best time to place it on a hive. A little smoke should be blown into the super, which may be then removed and placed upon the clearer, which should be in readiness by the side of the hive. Then replace the super on the hive, with the escape still underneath it, and cover up with the roof. The bees will all have left the super in twenty-four hours, and it may then be removed.
As regards the advantages of working for either comb or extracted honey, it must be confessed that most bee-keepers go in for the latter. It has many advantages which section honey does not possess. In the first place it is not every district that will produce sections, and then again when produced they must be consumed at once, or they deteriorate. With the changed economical conditions and the great rise in food values, it is certainly most advisable to work for extracted honey. There is no doubt that as a food honey will be once again a prominent factor, but it is very unlikely that the price will again fall so low as in the past. Section honey is indisputably a luxury, and it is as an essential article of food that we would have honey looked upon. In this case it is not in accordance with the spirit of the times to produce comb honey of a perishable nature when we can produce a far higher quantity of extracted honey, which keeps indefinitely, and is obtained much more cheaply by the producer. Food values will without doubt remain high for many years, and beekeepers should do their best to augment as far as may be the nation's food supply. It should be widely known that honey taken from diseased colonies is quite wholesome, and may be used for household purposes in the ordinary way. Germs of bee diseases are absolutely harmless to human beings ; it is only necessary to keep the honey secure'from the visits of marauding bees.
## Chapter 7 Natural swarms
Towards the end of the month of May swarms may be expected from strong colonies. As a rule there will not be many swarms during this month, by far the greater number coming off in June or during the first week of July. Still it is best to be prepared in time, and by this date spare hives should be in readiness for use if necessary.
There are various reasons which explain the swarming of bees, first and foremost being that it is their natural mode of increase. In a great measure this accounts for the fact that the numerous devices intended to eliminate swarming have never proved entirely successful. There are, however, other conditions which conduce to the bees seeking another home, conditions which may be swept away by the apiarist if he has no use for increase.
Chief of these is want of room in the hive for the teeming population, the exposure of the hive to intense heat, and the failure to give adequate ventilation. A colony is also more liable to throw off a swarm if it be headed by an aged queen. These incitements to swarming may be obviated
## 54 Profitable Bee-Keeping
by giving ample room for the requirements of the colony, the deposing of old queens, and provision for a sufficiency of ventilation and shade during hot weather.
If a hive swarms, however good the management a certain amount of honey is lost, so that the greatest amount of surplus can only be secured by the checking of this propensity so far as is possible. Much may be done to this end on the lines laid down, but steps must be taken in time. If no attention is given until the bees have decided to swarm, which is known by the fact of their building queen-cells, attempts at prevention, if not quite useless, are very nearly so.
It is most difficult to check swarming when queen-cells have been once started. The swarm usually issues at the capping of the first queen-cell, and is accompanied by the old queen. The bees will only issue if the weather be fine and warm, and the time usually selected is between 1o a.m. and 3 p.m. Should there come a period of adverse weather the bees may not leave the hive, but, tearing down the queen-cells, either await a more favourable opportunity or abandon the idea for the season.
When a swarm leaves the hive the bees fly forth in a thick stream, and after circling round for a few minutes in the air alight in a dense cluster, generally on a neighbouring tree or bush. As soon as they have become quiet they should be hived at once. If they are left alone, after a
56 PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING
it should be a 25 per cent solution of Calvert's No. 5.
The transference of the swarm to the frame have should be left until evening. The frame have must be prepared with the full number of frames filled with whole sheets of foundation, and a division board. Cover the frames with quilts, consisting of a sheet of strong calico at the bottom with a three-inch circular hole for the feeder, and three good felt wrappers above. Block up the front of the hive about an inch from the floor-board, and make a sloping platform up to the entrance. This platform may consist of a flat hive roof covered with a tablecloth, and on it the bees should be thrown, as close to the entrance as possible. Jerk them gently from the skep, and when all have entered the hive-front may be lowered. Owing to the heated state of the bees it is best to remove all the quilts except the bottom one for twenty-four hours, after which time they may be replaced. Give food, however, in the form of syrup, and continue to do so until all the combs have been built out and honey is available.
When replacing the quilts on the second day contract the hive with the division board to the number of frames occupied by the bees. Add additional frames to the cluster when required, until all have been drawn out. Then if honey is abundant a super may be put on over a sheet of excluder zinc.
## 6 NATURAL SWARMS 57
One of the best methods of utilizing a swarm is to hive it on the parent stand, moving the old stock to one side with the entrance at right angles to that of the swarm. The next day turn the entrance of the parent colony, a little more towards its old position, and continue doing so each day, until at the end of a week the two entrances are side by side. Now remove the old stock to a new position, which will add a considerable number of flying bees to the strength of the swarm, and also discourage the throwing off of after-swarms on the part of the old stock.
Casts are second swarms thrown off by old stocks, generally on the ninth day after the first or prime swarm. They are headed by an unfertile or virgin queen. Usually it is best to return these swarms, after cutting out all the remaining quencells. Other after-swarms may be thrown off if not, prevented, in addition to the casts. These small swarms should always be avoided by the removal of the cells, as they greatly weaken the parent stock.
Casts and after-swarms will issue in any, kind of weather, and frequently travel far afield.
When swarms are required for sale due attention should be paid to their packing, especially in the matter of ventilation. They travel best either in the original living skep, or in a specially constructed swarm-box.
If they are despatched in the skep the mouth should be tied over with a single thickness of
Marketable Products
There are, in modern bee-keeping, various ways in which the stock may be turned to profitable account. To utilize to the full these numerous opportunities of making money should be the aim of every progressive bee-keeper. It is only, however, in isolated instances that it can be said that the most is being made of the apiary.
For selling purposes we have in an apiary saleable stock and products. Taking the products first, these may be subdivided into two classes. In the one class we have articles produced more or less in every apiary, and which consist of comb and extracted honey and wax. In the second class we have articles of food, etc., manufactured by the bee-keeper to supply requirements in his trade, such,articles containing a certain amount of either honey or wax.
Among these articles special mention may be made of mead, honey vinegar, furniture cream, lip salve, honey soap, and a large variety of cakes and confectionery.
As regards the stock which may be sold, this consists of swarms, stocks, nuclei, and queen-bees. With reference to the manufactured articles there6o PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING is really nothing to prevent any bee-keeper making and creating a market for their sale, providing that he finds that it pays him best to do so. He must, however, make one branch of the pursuit particularly his own, the other branches being looked upon as merely subsidiaries. As to which particular branch he favours, this is largely a matter of individual preference, tempered by the quality of the district and the class of trade which is to be catered for.
In some good districts, where fine light honey and good sections can be produced in quantity, it would probably pay the best to take that line. In another district, that produces an abundance of inferior honey, the apiarist should go in for the selling of stocks, swarms, and queens. An early honey district, too, is very good where swarms are looked upon as a chief source of income. In these districts the swarms come off very early, and make a price which is considerably in advance of those of a later date. In making his plans the bee-keeper must never forget that he cannot produce and sell both bees and honey in quantity unless he has an exceptionally large apiary. It must be one or the other in most cases.
If swarms are allowed to come off, if the best colonies are sold, or if queen rearing is largely, indulged in, very little honey will be secured--probably none unless heavy sugar feeding is adopted to replace any that is taken away.
MARKETABLE PRODUCTS 61
Where honey is produced it will usually be found advisable to go in for the extracted article on account of its superior keeping qualities, although where there is a good demand for sections there will be little difference from the point of view of profit.
Good extracted honey in bulk will readily sell at sevenpence per pound, while first-rate sections will make about ninetepence each in dozen lots. Against this must be put the fact that bees will produce about thirty per cent more of extracted than of comb honey, so that the prices are fairly even.
Section honey must be sold quickly or it granulates in the comb, and becomes unsaleable on this account. This form of honey should not be extensively produced until it is known that there is a ready sale for it. There is such a large demand for good honey that little more need be said at this point. The bee-keeper will find that his greatest difficulty as a rule is to cope with his orders.
Beeswax is a very valuable article, and is produced to some extent in all apiaries. For this also there is practically an unlimited demand by dentists, chemists, and similar professions. The very high melting-point of this wax makes its use imperative in some of the mechanical processes of various trades, and every scrap of comb should be religiously, preserved for melting down and converting into cash. There is not a very large demand for the entire stock, but it is not a very large demand for the entire stock.
* [52] PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING
* [6] quantity of British wax thrown upon the market, owing to the fact that much of it is converted into foundation by the bee-keeper for his own use. 'Wax in bulk sells for about 1/8 per pound, or 2/- if it be melted into one-ounce cakes for retailing over the counter.
The utilization of honey and wax in the manufacture of articles for domestic use or for food is becoming an increasingly large industry, and I know at least one extensive bee-keeper who has built up a large trade. This line is very useful where, owing to the district, a crop of dark honey is secured. Dark honey makes but a low price on the market, but answers admirably for the making up of confectionery; better, in fact, than the light honey of more delicate flavour.
This class of trade has of course to be created and built up by canvassing shopkeepers and by advertisement, but when once the trade has been secured it is very remunerative. Recipes for various articles may easily be obtained, but I give two excellent ones for mead and honey vinegar.
In selling swarms the motto should be to get them as early as possible, and for this reason it is well not to give the bees too much room. Eight frames will be ample, and every incitement should be given them to swarm in May. Swarms should be sold by weight, which is the fairest.way for both buyer and seller. If it be a May swarm, charge 3/- per pound; if the month of June or early. July, 2/6 is the usual price.
MARKETABLE PRODUCTS 63
Colonies of bees may be sold at any time of the year between March and October, although they are much more valuable in spring than in autumn. A fair price for a good stock in spring is 25/- to 30/-, but in the latter part of the year they are not worth more than &1. Both colonies and swarms are very saleable, in fact I never knew a season of late when the supply was equal to the demand. In selling stocks be sure that they are free from disease, and if they are sent off by rail great care must be exercised in packing them. Bees on combs travel badly.