BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
Numbers for hives are made in this way : Pieces of tin \(4 imes 2\!\!\!/_{2}\) inches have a small hole punched in each one, near the edge, about midway of one of the longer sides. With \(\!\!\!/_{2}\) inch wire nails, nail them on the top of a wooden hive-cover or other plane surface. Then give them a couple of coats of white paint, and when dry, put the numbers on them, from 1 upward, with black paint. There is room to make figures large enough to be seen distinctly at quite a distance. These tin tags are fastened on the fronts of the hives with \(\!\!\!/_{4}\) or inch wire-nails driven in not very deep, making it easy to change them at any time from one hive to another.
I have also used manilla tags with figures printed on them, but the figures are not seen at so great a distance as on the white tin tags. The tin tags cost more in the first place, but are cheaper in the long run, for they last twenty years or more, while the manilla scarcely last a fifth of that time in satisfactory shape.
## order of numbers.
When the lives are put on the stands in the spring, the numbers are all mixed up. The first thing to be done is to enter upon the record-book these numbers. The first hive in the first row should be No. 1, the next No. 2, and so on ; but in the place of No. 1 stands perhaps 231, on the place of No. 2 stands 17t, etc. So, on the new record-book I write No. 1 (331) on the first page at the top ; one-third the way down the page, I write No. 3 (17t), and so on.
Just as soon as convenient the tags are taken off the hives where they are wrong, and the right ones put on. If on No. 1 the tag says 331, then that tag is taken off and the tag that says 1 is put on.
## the record-book.
I can tell more or less of the history of every colony of lees since I began keeping bees in 1861. \(\lambda\)t first I kept the record of each colony from year to year in the same book, but for a good many years I have had a new book each year. The book I like is 12 x 512 inches, containing about 160 pages (Fig. 17). Three colonies are kept on each page, so the book is a good deal larger than I need, for I have never had quite \(400\) colonies. But a good many pages are used for memoranda and other things, and it is better to have too much room in the book than too little. While the size of the book is not so very important, the binding is. If the book were bound the same as the book in which you are now reading, it would come to pieces if it should be left out long enough in a soaking rain. Of course a book never should be left out in a rain, but of course it sometimes is. SoI want a book that will suffer no greater harm than to have the cover come off if it should be rain-soaked. It must be stitched together through the middle, so that the one set of stitches does the whole business, the first leaf being continuous with the last leaf, the second continuous with the next to the last, and so on.
## history of queens.
While the record-book is very important to keep track of the work from day to day, it is perhaps more important for the purpose of tracing the history of queens from year to year. On each page is left a margin of about 34 of an inch. In that margin is put the last two figures of the year in which the queen is born, '99 if she was born in 1899, '01 if in 1901, and so on. In that margin is also found anything important to have recorded about the queen. "Very cross" may be in the margin if the workers distinguished themselves in that direction; "seals white" if the capping of sections was uncommonly white; "dark" if the workers were unusually dark, etc. Especially am I interested in the memoranda in the margin relating to swarming and storing. You will find _so_ if the colony of that queen swarmed last year; _no c_ if no queen-cells were found in the hive during the whole of last season. _z k_ if twice I killed queencells that were started. No doubt the printer will feel like putting some periods after these contractions. Please don't do it, Mr. Printer, for I never take time to use any such embellishments when making entries. The number of sections stored by the progeny of the queen the preceding year has a place in this margin; _24 sec_ if 24 sections were stored; _100 sec_ if so many sections were stored. If an unusual number of sections was reached, that record follows the queen as long as she lives. For instance, in the year 1903 there may be found in one case in the margin, _44 sec, 60 sec_ in _1000, 178 sec_ in _90_. That means that the progeny of that queen stored 44 sections in the preceding year, 1901, 60 sections in 1900, and 178 sectionsin 1s99. An unusual record, considering the character of the seasons in 1900 and 1901. If, in the year 1902, a 1900 queen is by any means replaced by a young queen, a line is drawn through the _00_ and _02_ is written below it.
As soon as I have entered in the record the old numbers that were on the hives, as previously mentioned, I am ready to enter the respective ages of the queens.
If, for instance, I find at the beginning, No. 1 (331), I turn to No. 331 in last year's record and find the year set down for the age of the queen, and put it in the new book at No. 1. This I do throughout all the numbers.
I do not need to be in the apiary to do this work; it can be done in the house just as well. Indeed I spend a good deal of time in the house with my record-book, studying and planning, perhaps lying on the lounge. I
Figure 16: Entrance Closers.
had two out-apiaries, one three miles north at Jack Wilson's, on the old farm where my wife was born; the other five miles southeast at cousin Hastings'. Frequently I studied my book most of the way in going to one of these apiaries, making my plans, and jotting down memoranda of what was to be done when I got there. That saves time. Another advantage is that my records are safe from interference, for with slates, stones, etc., in the apiary, there is always danger that records may be changed, either through accident or mischievous design. One disadvantage of the book is the danger of forgetting it. One may forget it at an out-apiary, and then have to make a special trip to get it. I've done that.
## spring over-huling.
After the bees are hauled to the out-apiaries, I am ready for the spring overhauling as soon as the weather is right for it. I do not want to open up the hives except at a time when it is warm enough for bees to fly freely. Too much danger of chilling the brood. Sometimes there may come one good day followed by a week of weather too bad for bees to fly. So I may commence overhauling in April, and perhaps not till in May : and if I do commence in April I may not get all done till well on in May.
## hive seat.
Having due regard to my own comfort, I want a seat when I work at a hive. Mr. Doolittle once tried to poke a little fun at me in convention, because I accidentally admitted that I sat down to work at bees. If I were obliged to work all the season without a seat, I am afraid I would have to give up the business from exhaustion. Moreover, if I had the strength of a Samson I don't think I should waste it stooping over hives, so long as I could get a seat. I generally have three or four seats about the apiary, and they may not all be of the same kind. A common glass-box is more used than
Hired help does some such work as carrying out and hauling bees, putting together lives, etc., unloading honey brought from the out-apiary, taking sections out of supers, etc. Sometimes it has been a convenience that I could call on the hired help in the employ of my good brother-in-law, Ghordis Stull. Ghordis has the place pretty well filled with raspberries and strawberries, and he is "way up in such matters.
Previous to his occupancy of the place, it was chiefly in grass, for I could give no attention to cultivated crops. The only thing I pretend to oversee of the farm work is the cultivation of the rose-beds. I could hardly live without roset, and my wife is an expert in chrysanthemcrop I have nothing whatever to do except with the finished product, and only so much of that as we can finish in the house--by no means a small quantity.
Miss Wilson was a school-teacher with health run down, and in 1882 she stopped a year for the out-door life of bee-keeping. She is still stopping. Although never rugged in health, I think she has never missed a day's work in the apiary during all the years since, when there was work to be done. Small of stature and frail of build, she yet has a remarkable capacity for work, perhaps partly owing to the fact that she is full-blooded Scotch, and she will go through more colonies in a day than I can, do my best. I think, however, that the bees prefer just a little to have me work with them. They have more time to get out of the way, and not so many of them get killed.
## 7.1.
Well, I started in for a digression, but I didn't mean to write a history. We were talking about seats. Another kind of seat is made of an old T-super. A piece of lath is nailed to two opposite diagonal corners, and another piece nailed to the other two corners. That stiffens and strengthens it, so it makes a good seat for one who doesn't like a low seat.
## 8.2.
Of all the live-tools I have tried, I like best the Muench tool (Fig. 20). Its broad semi-circular end with sharp edge can hardly be excelled for the purpose of raising covers and supers, and when the other end is thrust between two frames, a quarter turn separates the frames with the least possible effort. Miss Wilson has a liking for the Root tool. I have not used it much, but it has the special advantage that it is a fine scraper. Beside the live-tool for opening the hive and starting the frames, if the lives are to be cleaned out another tool is needed.
After trying a number of different things for hive-cleaners, I have been best satisfied with a hatchet, the handle saved short, so that it will not be in the way when working in the bottom of the hive, the edge dull and a perfectly straight line, and the outside part of the blade also ground to a straight line and at right angles with the edge. This right-angled corner is to clean out the corners of the hive. In cleaning, the hatchet is moved rapidly back and forth, or rather from side to side, the blade being held at right angles to the surface being cleaned. The weight of the hatchet is quite a help, something like a fly-wheel in machinery.
It would be a nice thing to clean the propolis out of all hives every spring, because I am in a region for profitable propolis production if it ever comes to be a staple article of commerce; but it takes some time to clean the hives, and it is not done every spring.
## cleaning hives.
If the hives are to be cleaned, an empty clean hive is ready in advance. The empty hive is placed at right angles to the hive to be overhauled, the back end of the empty hive near the front end of the other hive, thus leaving plenty of room for my seat beside the full-hive, and leaving the empty hive within easy reach.
## opening hive.
A single puff at the entrance if the smoker is going well, or two or three puffs if it is yet scarcely under headway, notifies the guards that they needn't bother to come out if they feel a little jar. The cover is cracked open the least bit at one corner by the tool, then the other corner is cracked open and the cover lifted. It could be lifted without using the tool twice, simply prying up one corner enough, but that would jar the bees more, and excite them. The desire is to get along with the smallest amount of jar and smoke possible, for the queen is to be found, and too much smoke or jarring will set the bees to running so the queen cannot be found. As soon as the cover is raised, a little smoke is blown across the tops of the frames, not down into the hive.
While it is bad to use too much smoke, it is also bad to use too little, for if the bees are once thoroughly aroused it takes more smoke to subdue them than it does to keep them under in the first place.
When the cover is removed the dummy is taken out. If the dummy was on the near side, the frames are all crowded to that side, allowing me to lift out the farther frame. Whether that farther frame is now to be put into the empty hive depends upon circumstances. It is to be put in if the next frame contains brood; otherwise not.
Figure 18: Hive-Seat with Strap-Handle.
For I want the brood-nest to begin with the frame next to the farther outside frame, at least that is generally the way. Then I can tell at any time afterward how many frames of brood are in a hive, merely by finding where the brood begins on the side next me. One after another the frames are changed into the empty hive, making sure that at least those containing brood maintain their original relative positions.
When the old hive is empty, then it is set off the stand and the other takes its place. The order of proceeding may be changed by first setting the full hive off the stand and putting the empty one in its place. Or the change may be made when half the frames have changed their places. The last makes the lifting a little lighter, but takes more time.
The empty hive is now to be cleaned out, the hatchet being used for all but the rablet, which is a separate contract. Propolis is used in large quantities in my locality, and the trough formed by the tin rablet will, in the course of years, become completely filled.
In the matter of propolis, there is a difference in bees as well as localities. The worst daubers I ever had were the so-called Puncics or Tunisians from the north of Africa. One colony put so much propolis at an upper entrance that I rolled up a ball of it somewhere between the size of a hickorynut and a black walnut.
To clean out the rablet, the small end of the hive-tool is well adapted. Holding it perpendicularly, with the edge of the tool diagonally in the trough, I play it backward and forward until the trough is emptied of propolis. Still better is a screw-driver, rather sharp, ground to just the right width to fit easily in the trough.
The empty hive is now used to take the place of the next hive to be overhauled, which in its turn is cleaned and then used again, and so on.
While the frames are being changed from one hive to the other, observations and necessary changes are made. If there is no cleaning of hives, then the work is shortened. The dummy is taken out, and one frame is also taken out so as to leave freer working room. This one frame may be put in an empty hive standing convenient; or it may be leaned against the hive being operated on, or against an adjoining hive. If the dummy was on the near side, then the frames are all pushed toward me, two or three being started at a time, and when all are started the tool is pushed down between the farther frame and the side of the hive, and all the frames at one push shoved toward me enough to give plenty of room at the farther side. If the frames are Hoffman (a few hives contain Hoffman frames) then it is necessary to start each frame separately before it can be lifted out.
## watching for queen.
As the frames are being handled, the thing that receives closer attention than anything else is to see the queen so as to know whether she is clipped or not. For if a colony should have an unclipped queen there is a fair chance that it might swarm and decamp; and it is possible that almost any colony may have superseded its queen the previous fall, leaving it with an unclipped queen.
If the queen is unclipped, of course I clip her. Nearly always I use a pair of scissors for clipping, although I have tried a knife. The strongest argument in favor of the knife is that a knife is always on hand. But it is as easy to have a pair of scissors on hand. They may be tied to the record-book, and the record-book is sure to be always on hand. Most of the time I have had a pair of embroidery scissors tied to my record-book with a string long enough to allow the scissors to be freely used, but I have been surprised to find that much larger scissors will do very good work. Latterly I have used a common pair of gentleman's pocket scissors, and I am not sure but I like them as well as the embroidery scissors.
sors. It is just as easy to have a pair of these as a knife constantly in the pocket. To make good work clipping, a knife should be very sharp, and I find it is harder to have a _sharp_ knife constantly on hand than a sharp pair of scissors. Neither is it so necessary that the scissors be sharp.
## finding queen.
Before a queen is clipped she must be found. I have seen some attempt at rules for finding a queen, but after all is said, you must do more or less hunting for a queen if you would find her. I generally begin looking on the first frame of brood I come to--hardly worth while to look on any frame before the brood is reached--and as I raise the frame out of the hive I keep watch of the side next me. Then when the frame is lifted out of the hive, before looking at the opposite side, I glance at the nearest side of the next frame in the hive ; for it requires scarcely any time to do this, and if she happens to be in sight it will be a saving of time to lift out immediately the frame she is on. Not seeing her on the frame in the hive, I look over both sides of the frame in my hand, and continue thus through all the frames. Although it was not worth while to look for her on any comb before the brood-nest was reached, it is worth while to look for her on the comb or combs remaining after passing over those that contain brood, for in trying to get away from the light she will go onto the outside combs.
This trying to get away from the light on the part of the queen, by going from one comb to the other, makes me go over the combs as rapidly as possible without looking too closely, for if I do not see her with a slight looking, the chances are that she is on another comb, and I count it better to run the chance of going over the combs again, rather than to go too slowly. For if one goes over the combs _slowly enough_, it is a pretty safe thing to say that the queen will be driven clear to the other side of the hive.
My assistant, however, who is an expert at finding queens, holds a different theory, and as a consequence her practice is different. She thinks it better to go more slowly and make sure of finding the queen first time going over. She takes more time to go over the combs the first time. but she doesn't often have to go over the combs a second time; so perhaps one way is as good as the other.
_Fig. 10--Hive-Seat with Hand-Holes._
If the queen is not found the second time going over, she _may_ be found the third time, but it is quite possible that she is hid in such a way that it may be impossible to find her with long searching. So it is economy to close the live, and try it again another day, or at least to wait half an hour.
pair is put an inch or more distant from the first pair, and the remaining combs in the live on the stand are arranged in pairs the same way. Wherever the queen is, it will not be long before she will be in the middle of whatever pair of combs she is on. Going on with work at another live, I return after a little, and look again to the same way.
_Fig. 20--Mench Hive-Tool._for the queen. Litting out the conb nearest me, I look first on the side of its mate in the hive, and if I do not see the queen there, I quickly look on the opposite side of the conb in my hand. I am pretty sure to find her in the middle of one of the pairs.
If the pairs are sufficiently separated from each other ( I don't mean the two conbs of each pair separated, for the two conbs in each pair should be as close together as possible, but that one pair should be far enough from another pair so that the bees should not communicate), the bees will, after standing long enough, show signs of uneasiness by running over the conbs, all but the one pair that has the queen on, and the quietness of the bees on that one pair is sufficient warrant for seeking the queen there.
If the bees get to running, it is hardly worth while to continue the search for the queen until they have quieted down. Sometimes she will be on the side or the bottom of the hive, and will be found only by lifting out all the conbs.
## 1. Bee-strinner
A strainer may be used for straining the bees through and leaving the queen. A queen-excluder is fastened to the bottom of an empty hive-body, and that makes the strainer. The strainer is set over a hive-body in which there is a frame of brood but no bees--at least it must be certain that the queen cannot possibly be in the hive-body under the strainer. Then all the bees are shaken and brushed from the conbs into the strainer. The workers will go down through the excluder, being hurried by a little smoke if necessary, while the queen will be left in the strainer.
On the whole the queen is generally found so easily by the ordinary looking over the conbs that it is seldom that any other plan is resorted to.
It happens once in a great while that the queen is on the cover when it is lifted off the hive, so it is well to
queen is scurrying across a comb, or when you get just a glimpse of her in the hive, it is much easier to tell at a glance that she is clipped if both wings on one side are cut off.
## advantage of clipping.
Although nowadays the practice of clipping has become quite general, there are a few who doubt its ad-
_Fig. 21--Caching the Queen._
Visability. I would not like to dispense with clipping if I kept only one apiary and were on hand all the time, and with out-apiaries and no one to watch them it seems a necessity. If a colony swarms with a clipped queen, it cannot go off. True, the queen may possibly be lost, but it is better to lose the queen than to lose both bees and queen.
If there were no other reason for it. I should want my queens clipped for the sake of keeping a proper record of them. A colony, for example, distinguishes itself by storing more than any other colony. I want to breed next spring from the queen of that colony. But she may be superseded in the fall after that big harvest, and if she is not clipped there is no way for me to tell in the following season whether she has been superseded or not. Indeed I can hardly see how it is possible to keep proper track of a queen without having her clipped.
Sometimes when a queen is being found, she will quickly run under and out of the way, giving one a mere glimpse of her, so that it is not easy to say whether it was a queen or a worker that was seen, in which case the missing wings aid in recognizing her. To this, however, it may be replied that there is less need to find queens where they are not kept clipped.
## Bee-smokers
You who have used smokers ever since you began working with bees hardly know how to appreciate them. At least it is doubtful if you appreciate them as much as you would if you had done as I did when I first began bee-keeping, going around with a pan of coals and a burning brand on it, or else a lighted piece of rotten wood (indeed this last was quite an improvement over the first), the only bellows I had being a sound pair of lungs. Any one of the various makes of smokers I have tried will do quite satisfactory work. I have used up more Clark smokers than any others. Although low in price, the Clark is really more expensive than any other. It works beautifully while new, but the "new" wears off entirely too soon. The bellows becomes incapacitated by reason of the smoke sucked into it, and then there is no good way to clean it out.
## continuous and cut-off blast.