BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
As soon as a bee has passed through, the springs return to their former position and prevent bees passing upwards. It is best to move supers bodily, but when long hives are used the back frames will be used as honey receptacles. Each frame from which the honey is to be extracted must in such cases be lifted out separately, so that the adhering bees may be returned by a sharp jerk of the frame. Any bees not detached may then be dislodged by a wing or feather, or the Yucea brush.
Removing Sections.
From a section create the honey must, as has already been pointed out, be removed carefully to avoid damaging the comb. If the erates have been placed upon an adapting board, and removed before much propolis has been used, there will not be much difficulty in getting the sections out without damage. Their removal will be rendered easier if the laths, upon which they rest, have been slightly rubbed over with a little vaseline before putting in the sections. It is certain that there will, at times, be some sections not properly finished. These ought to be placed together and given to a stoek requiring more super room, or to any other stoek likely to complete the work.
## Chapter 3 Queen raising and introducing
The heading of colonies with young, and consequently vigorous laying queens, is of great importance, hence the necessity for rules to guide in the rearing and introducing of queens to stooks that have lost their queens, or have queens of inferior quality. It does not follow that, though queens are of little use to an advanced bee-keeper after their second season, they must be removed from every stock which has not sent out a swarm for two successive seasons, because bees undoubtedly raise queens to supersede those failing in their power of egg-laying.
A few years ago a bee-keeper, owning a large apiary, noticed during the manipulations of a particular colony that there were newly-formed queen cells in the hive, though at the same time the queen was laying. This circumstance would have received little notice, but for the fact that it was not near swarming time, and the colony was evidently not preparing for swarming. The progress of events was carefully watched, and during a subsequent examination a young queen was found on the combs, whilst the old queen was alsostill laying. In a few days the virgin queen left the hive on her wedding trip, and, the object of her visit having been obtained, she entered the hive and killed the old queen. This instance proving, if proof were necessary, that stocks do request themselves, is given to show the necessity for removing any queen known to be of inferior quality. A young queen may be easily recognised by her downy appearance, but the appearance of a queen must not alone be the guide as to whether or not she is to be superseded.
Work in the form of egg-laying is what we require in a queen ; therefore it is the manner in which she lays that must decide her fate. It is impossible to say what quantity of brood should be in a hive at any particular date, for seasons vary. The earlier the season the more forward will be a good stock. It is, therefore, chiefly by comparison that the merits of queens must be decided. When a stock, apparently equal to others in the apiary in point of numbers and amount of stored food, shows a small amount of brood while others are in this respect fairly equal, the conclusion we may fairly come to is that the queen in question is not worth keeping, and consequently must be replaced by one of better quality. In some well-managed apiaries it is rarely that a queen is allowed to remain at the head of a colony beyond her second season, as she is, from a bee-keeper's standpoint, worn out or has reached that stage in her existence when to keep her means a lowering of the profit obtainable from that particular stock.
These remarks will doubtless be sufficient to emphasise the necessity for keeping a strict account of the age of every queen. It is not a difficult matter for a cottager to know the ages of his.queens, for a stock out of which a swarm issued, say in 1894, will have a queen of good quality in 1895, one that may be expected to do good work that season and probably equally so in 1896, because, being provided with brood-chambers of limited capacity, queens heading stocks in skeps do remain profitable longer than those whose energies are directed to filling with eggs, the combs of an extensive brood-nest such as is found in a bar-frame hive.
In case the idea should be entertained that no harm can result from stocks requeeing themselves, it is well to state that every effort should be directed to obtaining and keeping in each colony only queens exhibiting the most desirable qualities. This cannot always result if requeeing is left to the bees, for when the necessity for superseding a queen arises the stock will, in all probability, be thin in numbers ; and as the nurse bees play an important part in the rearing of bees, it is best to ensure the raising of queens in full colonies.
Queen Raising.
Movable combs render the operations of queen raising and introducing comparatively easy.
Having selected the stock from which it is desired to raise queens, remove the queen about noon on a warm day, when most of the old bees are out foraging. By giving very little smoke the bees will not be disturbed, and the queen will most likely be found at work on one of the centre combs. If a queen of good quality she must not be sacrificed, but given to another stock known to possess a poor queen. When the bees in the queenless stock find out their loss, they commence the formation of queen cells around some of the cells containing worker eggs or grubs that have just emerged from such eggs.
To ensure the best results queen raisers prevent queen cells being formed over grubs a few days old, as queens so produced are not of the best quality. Ten days after the removal of the queen the queen cells will be sealed over and ready for removal to other colonies from which we take the inferior queens. The day before it is decided to remove the queen cells all hives to which queen cells are to be given should be deprived of their queens ; but in order to ensure that no stocks are left queenless at the close of the season, these queens, or the best of them, should be placed in _nuclei_ until the stocks from which they are taken have fertile queens. There should be as many queenless colonies as there are well-shaped queen cells to spare.
The day following each queen cell should be cut out carefully with a little comb attached, and one placed between the centre combs in each queenless hive. The comb attached to the cell will prevent it falling down, and a gentle pressure on the comb will fix it to the bar. Lay the quilts lightly over the frames and make no further examination until the sixteenth day from the removal of the first queen. Then examine all the queen cells, and if a well-shaped hole has been made at the mouth of the cell the queen has hatchedout properly, and an examination of the combs need not, in fact, should not, take place for another week, by which time some, if not all, the queens may have been on their wedding flight and be found laying.
As soon as it is ascertained that a queen cell has failed or been destroyed, one of the queens reserved must be introduced, and the others not required may be destroyed. Instead of killing the queens two or three nuclei may be united to form one colony, the queens being allowed to settle the question as to which shall remain alive. If more stocks are not required by the uniting of nuclei, a nucleus colony may be united to each hive near which it has been standing.
Requeening Skeps.
Swarming will be the best method of requesting stocks in skeps or other fixed-comb hives, as the old queen always leaves with the first swarm. The queen that, later on in the season, is found laying will therefore be a young one, and of the same age and quality as queens accompany after-swarms or casts. It is not an unusual occurrence for three or more swarms to issue from a good stock. The hives into which all but the first are plaeed should be marked with the figure 1, to show that the queen is in her first season. The hive into which the first swarm is placed must be marked 2 or 3, according as to whether or not she issued with a swarm the previous year.
At the end of the season bees taken from condemned stocks should be used for strengthening weak onesand giving new queens. When bees are added for the purpose of requeening, the bees of the stock must first be driven and the queen captured. The two lots can then be united according to the directions given for uniting.
Queen Introduction.
If for any reason it is desirable to introduce a queen to a colony of bees, certain precautions are necessary, otherwise the stranger will be at once killed by the bees of the stock to which she is introduced. Bees apparently distinguish one another to some extent, if not entirely, by scent, and it is very amusing to see how a well-dusted bee flying home from the artificial pollen box is received by the guards. It is not an unusual occurrence for such a bee to be refused admission to the home from which she so recently issued to find and bring home food for the colony.
Each colony has a distinctive odour, but how it emanates is not clear. Any bee-keeper of experience will know that after handling a queen the bees of that colony will cluster upon the spot where she has been, and behave in a manner that appears to betoken pleasure on scenting the queen. In order, therefore, to introduce an alien queen successfully, we must adopt a means of giving the queen an opportunity to form an acquaintance with the bees, and acquire the scent peculiar to the hive before being liberated; or steps must be taken to deprive her of the scent, to some extent, peculiar to the stock from which she has been taken.
The first object is attained by imprisoning the queen on or between the combs of a colony that has lost its queen, or by her removal has been rendered queenless. The simplest form of cage is known as the _pipe-cover cage_ (Fig. 50), a small cylinder of tin covered with fine-woven wire. The queen should be taken alone and placed in the cage, which should be standing upon a piece of thin wood or cardboard. It should then be laid upon a part of the comb where the cells contain unsealed honey. After withdrawing the cardboard the cage is pressed down into the comb, and there the queen remains confined for twenty-four hours or more, when an examination of the hive should be made. Very little smoke should be administered to the colony, as the cage is to be raised and the behaviour of the bees to the liberated queen noticed. Sometimes they will seize and ball her, that is, so surround her that they form a ball of bees. If she is not at once liberated by gently smoking the cluster, she will be crippled or
killed. After such a reception the queen must be re-caged until the bees receive her kindly.
Queens received from queen raisers at home or abroad are usually sent in a small travelling cage (Fig. 51), accompanied by a few workers to prevent the
system of direct introduction, which he had proved in practice to be not only safe but speedy. So confident was he of the success of this method that in supplying queens to customers he guaranteed successful introduction, if the rules he laid down were faithfully carried out. In "'Ivo "' apiary, since the system was first made public, scores of queens have been introduced according to the following instructions, and up to the present time not one failure has been recorded.
The stock amongst which it is intended to introduce an alien queen, if not already queenless, must be rendered so by removing the queen on a fine day at noon--in fact, the same day that the queen arrives, if received from another apiary. The hive is then closed and not touched again until evening, when all the bees are in the hive. Just before dusk the queen to be introduced must be taken alone, and placed in a match-box or other receptacle, where she will be free from a chill, and kept there for about half an hour. Then go to the queenless hive, taking a light if necessary, gently draw back the corner of the quilts, give a slight puff of smoke between the combs, and let the queen run into the hive. Return the quilts, replace the roof, and make no examination of the hive for twenty-four hours or more.
_The Howard_ queen cage for transmitting queens by post and introducing them on arrival, is really the well-known "'Benton "' cage (Fig. 51), with an arrangement for liberating the queen. On the arrival of the queen by post, the lid must be removed from the cage, when its place is taken by a piece of perforated zinc. The cage is then placed over the space between two co
_Disfases._
Bres, like animals, are subject to disease, but fortunately for bee-keepers there is only one, foul brood, of a serious nature and highly contagious. By careful attention to the symptoms characteristic of bee diseases, it is easy to detect their presence, and by applying known remedies, cure the affected stocks.
Occasionally it is said, " If bees have such a dreadful disease that works such havoe, I will let the hobby alone." Such faint-hearted persons may like to know that in the midst of infected areas there are many apiaries in which foul brood has never shown itself, not because the germs of the disease are absent, for that seems an impossibility, but because they have no means of development, in consequence of the care and attention the bee-keeper bestows on his apiary to ward off an attack. Nearly every bee-keeper of note has had his apiary affected with foul brood. The late Rev. G. Raynor once expressed the opinion that his apiary had remained free from disease, while many bad cases were known to exist around him, simplybecause in using carbonic acid as a bee quieter he had at the same time used a powerful antiseptic.
Of the diseases to which bees are subject we need only notice here two, _dysentery_ and _foul brood_.
Dysentery.
This is a disease due chiefly to the carelessness of the bee-keeper, and is much too frequently met with in the winter and spring. Its presence is known by the bees voiding the excrement on the combs, which may result from confinement in a damp or badly ventilated hive, but is more frequently the result of bees being fed upon unsuitable food and at the wrong time of the year. On fine warm days early in the year it will frequently be noticed that the bees soil their hives and everything about the apiary. This is often from a cleansing flight which the bees need when breeding has commenced, and they have been confined to their hives for several days.
Bee-keepers who ignore the directions for feeding up their stocks with syrup of a proper consistency, while they are in numbers sufficient to maintain the heat needed to evaporate the superfluous moisture, must expect this disease to break out, for thin syrup which the bees cannot seal over is almost certain to ferment during the winter. By carefully carrying out the instructions given under the heading " Wintering," this disease may be almost entirely avoided.
The remedy, when the disease exists, is to remove the bees and combs into a clean hive, and give them fresh food. This may be effected in a warm room.
At the same time a little warm syrup and a cake of soft candy should be given. If the weather be mild the changing of quarters might be quickly performed in the open air, the warm syrup would then have the effect of sending the bees out for the cleansing flight they so much need.
Foil Brood (_Bacillus alvei_).
This is indeed a disease that bee-keepers may well dread, when they read of the sad havoc it has played in apiaries at home and abroad ; but thanks to the untiring energy of scientists who love the hobby, the ravages of the bacillus may be stopped. It is only within recent years that this disease has become so widespread, but this cannot be surprising seeing to what extent stocks, swarms, and queens have been conveyed from one part of the country to the other, and to this country from various parts of the continent, where the disease has long been known to exist. There appears to be no definite record of the disease being in existence in Britain until foreign bees were introduced. Before the traffic in bees became so general, if the disease existed it remained in a confined area and the stocks died out. Mr. Woodbury and other bee-keepers attributed the advent of the disease in their apiaries to feeding with foreign honey supposed to contain germs of the disease. On this point it is satisfactory to learn that Mr. Cowan, a very eminent authority, has not discovered germs of the disease in any sample of honey when examining it under microscopes of very high power. But at the same time it is now very generally believed to be a medium by which the disease is carried. Bee-keepers cannot, therefore, be too careful when introducing low-priced honey into their apiaries for feeding purposes.
The disease is due to the presence and propagation of a particular microscopic germ, to the bacillus of which the name _alvei_ has been given by Mr. Cheshire. The presence of the germ is absolutely necessary to account for the outbreak of the disease. It has frequently been stated that chilled brood will cause foul brood, but this is an error. It will, however, afford a resting-place for the germs, should they be in a district, and therefore we must avoid, as far as possible, providing the germs with a propagating medium. The germ has great vitality and is most difficult to destroy. When it enters a proper medium it develops into a bacillus, which multiplies at a remarkably rapid rate, until the nourishing matter upon which the bacillus feed is exhausted, and then spores or germs are produced, which, when the opportunity occurs, germinate and produce the disease.
Being of a microscopic character the germs are easily transmitted from one district to another, or from a diseased to a healthy hive. When examining hives supposed to be infected every precaution against spreading the disease must be taken. A cake of Calvert's carbonic soap should always be within reach, so that the hands may be washed after each manipulation. As a further precaution the manipulator should stand with his back to the wind.
Symptoms of foul broodThe first symptom usually noticed by the novice is a very unpleasant odour arisingfrom the hive, and perceptible even before it has been opened. The disease is then in a bad form, and the combs will be found in a state that will necessitate the burning of combs and in fact everything movable in the hive. When the disease is in such an advanced stage it is true economy to destroy bees, combs, quilts, dummies, and even the hive, if it is not of much value.
The name foul brood was given to the disease, as it was found that in a diseased stock the brood quickly exhibited a putrid appearance. Instead of being nearly white, the grubs, when attacked by the bacillus, turn yellow, and ultimately become a coffee-coloured, sticky mass at the bottom of the cells. The cappings of the brood combs are sunken and pierced with numerous small and irregularly shaped holes.
In spring, by inexperienced bee-keepers spreading the brood during fine weather, and at an unsettled period of the year, much of the brood becomes chilled and dies. This is sometimes taken for foul brood, but chilled brood is not like foul brood, a dark putrid mass. When there is the slightest suspicion of foul brood, any stocks that have been doing good work and become listless should be examined without delay, particularly if the bees are noticed fanning at the entrance.
_Remedies._ The remedies proposed to deal effectively with the disease are various, and the results after treatment by them the same. In many instances it is not the remedy that is at fault, but the bee-keeper, who uses it in a half-hearted manner and carelessly carries out the directions given.
_Salcigylic acid_ is a well-known remedy, and when properly administered effective. It is most effective when administered by means of a fumigator according to the directions given by the inventor, M. Ed. Bertrand, but few bee-keepers go to the trouble of fumigating. As the bacilli are found in the alimentary canal of the bee all food given should be medicated. "The salicylic acid solution for this purpose is made, according to Mr. Cowan's directions, as follows :--Salicylic acid, 1 oz. ; soda borax, 1 oz. ; water, 4 pints. Half an ounce will be about the correct amount of the solution to six pounds of sugar.
_Phenol._ Mr. Cheshire, in a paper read at an important meeting of bee-keepers in 1884, gave a means of cure by phenol ; but as bees have a reluctance to take food medicated with this remedy the syrup must be poured into the empty cells around the brood, in order that the bees may be compelled to take and use this oure. In the hands of the painstaking bee-keeper success by this method is certain.
_Formic acid_ was first advocated by Mr. R. Sproule, of Dublin, who also used phenol with success previous to the reading of Mr. Cheshire's paper. The chief merit of this means of dealing with the disease is its simplicity. The acid penetrates all parts of the hive, and in a short time, by its use, apiaries have been rid of the pest. The following directions are by Messrs. Bewdley & Draper, Dublin, who prepare the remedy. "Select a frame of clean empty comb and pour about four ounces of formic acid into it by placing it on a table and dropping the acid on it from a height of a few inches. Contract the hive to as many frames as the bees can cover, and hang the frames containing the acid at the rear of the hive, cover up warmly, and put a sheet of paper between the layers of the quilt so as to prevent the escape of the fumes of the acid as it evaporates. If the weather is warm it will be found in the course of a week that the odour of the foul brood has disappeared, and that the bees (if not too weak in numbers) have cleared the putrid matter out of the cells. It is seldom necessary to refill the comb more than once unless the disease has been re-introduced by infected combs, &c. If foul brood is prevalent in the district it may be well to keep some of the acid always in the hive as a prophylactic. In case of an ordinary ten or eleven-frame hive this can be done while honey is being stored, by putting the acid into a section of empty comb and placing the section at the end of the crate farthest from the hive entrance, so that the acid has to pass over all the combs before the bees fan it out.'Storified' hives can be treated by filling a comb and hanging it in the upper storey. For spring and autumn feeding add a spoonful of acid to each quart of syrup. As formic acid does not affect the flavour of the honey, it can be used with perfect safety while honey is being stored, and as a remedy it will be found superior to either phenol or salicylic acid."
_Naphthol Beta_, for which, as an antiseptic, we are indebted to Dr. Lortet, is the most recently introduced, and, being simple in application and inexpensive, it is now the most generally used remedy. To facilitate the use of Naphthol Beta the Editors of the _British Bee Journal_ have prepared packets containing sufficient for a given quantity of food. The directions on each packet are as follows :--" For every pound of sugar used in making syrup or candy dissolve three grains of Naphthol Beta in alcohol or rectified spirits of wine. Naphthol dissolves freely in alcohol, but is insoluble in cold water. Pour just sufficient spirits on the Naphthol to dissolve it and make it a clear liquid. Pour the solution of Naphthol into the syrup when sufficiently boiled and while still hot. In making candy, pour in the Naphthol solution when the syrup is of the proper consistence, and just before taking it off the fire."