BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
A. (a) When they get to be large trees, 20 to 25 feet is close enough. It is not a bad plan to plant only half as far apart as you want the trees finally; then when half grown, to cut out three-fourths of them. The danger is that you will be too tender-hearted to cut them at the right time; but you will not have so much nectar from the large trees that are too crowded. You will easily see, however, that up to the time they get half their full growth there would be a gain in nectar by having the larger number of trees.
(b) I don't know. One would think that conditions are all right; yet I don't remember that anyone has reported planting basswoods on a large scale in California.
(c) Not before 8 to 12 years in this locality; but things move faster in your pushing climate.
(d) At a guess, I should say the same amount as crops in general, particularly other trees.
Bees are no good without pasturage, and pasturage is no good without bees. You can't very well get along without a hive. But if you insist that I must pick out some one thing to which the bekeeper must give the greatest attention, I think I would say the queen. For whatever the queen is, that decides what the bees are. By breeding for the best all the time, a man is more likely to get ahead than by giving his attention to something else, such as hives or pasturage.
**Bees, Cross.-Q.** I have a colony of bees that is very cross, and one that is very tame. How could I introduce a queen from the tame colony to the cross one so as to make them all tame? And at what time ought I do it?
A. Rear a queen from the better stock, kill the objectionable queen, and introduce the new queen in an introducing cage. Or you may do the other way. Take two or three frames of brood from the good colony, put them in an empty hive, fill out with empty combs or frames filled with foundation, and set this on the stand of the bad colony, moving the bad colony to a new place close by. Now lift out two or three frames from the bad colony (be sure you don't get the queen), and shake the bees from these frames into your new hive, returning to the bad colony its two frames of brood. In two or three weeks there ought to be a queen laying in your new hive. You can strengthen it by adding brood and bees from the bad hive, or you can unite with it all of the bees and brood, killing the bad queen two or three days before uniting. Pehaps you would like to have two colonies instead of one. In that case kill the bad queen a week after the first move, and two or three days later exchange one of the two frames in your new hive for one of the frames in the bad hive, making sure there is a queen-cell on the frame, and also on the frame you leave.
**Bee-Escapes.-Q.** When you have on more than one super how would you put a bee-escape under? Would you lift the supers one at a time and put them on a bench, and then, after the escape is on, put them back?
A. If there are two or more supers on the hive you are not likely to want to take all off at a time unless at the close of the season. So lift off supers until all are off that are ready to take, setting them on end on the ground, leaning against their hive, or perhaps setting them on top of an adjoining hive. Then return any that are not ready yet, put on the escape, and then the super or supers that are ready to take.
Q. Does the Porter bee-escape ever get clogged up with bees trying to carry out dead bees, larvae, etc?
A. Yes, although there is not much chance for it. Dead bees are not likely to be in supers, neither is brood often present.
Q. Will queens and drones pass easily through the Porter bee-escapes?
A. Not nearly so easily as the workers.
**Bee-Houses.-Q.** I propose to build a bec-house in the spring, for protection against too hot summers and the cold months of winter. Our summers are not long, but sometimes very hot; the winters short and not very cold, occasionally in winter the thermometer will fall as low as 15 degrees above zero. Kindly give your advice on this question, also the advantage or disadvantage.
A. Bee-houses, such as you contemplate, were more or less in use some years ago, but have been mostly abandoned. They have the advantage that when the bees are handled in summer they will not sting so much as out doors, and they are safer from thieves. But they are hot and inconvenient for the beckeeper. In spite of the fact one does not generally relish advice against one's own inventions, I advise you to let the bee-houses alone.
**Bee Hunting.-Q.** How can I find bees out in the woods?
A. Set your bait and watch the direction the bees go when they leave it. Then move your bait in that direction, and try again. Keep on till you find that the bees go back in the opposite direction, and then you'll know you've passed the right place, and you can bait back nearer to it; all the while keep close watch on the trees to see or hear the bees flying in or out. Another way is to cross-line. After watching the direction the bees take, instead of moving directly in that line, move at right angles to it and watch the line the bees make. Now guess about where the point would be where these two lines cross, and try accordingly.
Q. (a) What kind of bait is the best for lining bees in the woods?
(b) How can I set it so the bees will scent it?
A. (a) Honey diluted with water, perhaps half and half. Some make a smudge by burning, and some flavor the bait with anise. Some make a smudge by burning old combs.
(b) Set it out in the open in the woods where the bees are prospecting.
Q. (a) What is a good way to hive a large swarm of bees from a bee-tree? The small entrance is about 20 feet from the ground, and the tree is too valuable to be cut.
(b) When is the best time?
A. (a) I have some doubt whether there is any way by which you'can get those bees into a hive--provided the tree is not to be cut--without costing more trouble and labor than the bees are worth. Possibly you might smoke 'em out, if you can in some way secure footing enough to operate so high up in the air. The first thing is to decide as nearly as you can where the colony is located with reference to the entrance, for I take it from what you say that there is only one entrance. That may be at the top of the cavity, at the bottom, or somewhere between. With your ear against the tree, listen to the noise of the bees when you found upon the tree, and you may be able to locate them. If the entrance be at the top, or near the top, then make another hole at the bottom; otherwise make a hole at the top of the cavity. Then into the lower of the two holes send something whose odor will drive the bees out of the upper hole; carbonic acid, tobacco smoke, etc. Even ordinary wood smoke from a smoker may suffice if persisted in. As soon as the bees are out., plug the holes so they cannot return, and then treat them as a swarm.
(b) If you want to save the bees, a good time is not later than fruit bloom. If you want merely to get the honey, take it at the close of the honey-flow.
**Bee Martins.--Q.** Do martins seriously bother bees? If so, would they prove a handicap to a person who is just starting bekeeping in a community where there are a great many of these birds?
A. I have never heard that martins were seriously troublesome to bees.
**Beemoth.--Q.** How does the beemoth get a start? It seems to start after combs are taken off the hive.
A. The beginning is an egg laid by the beemoth, and this hatches out into the larva, or "worm," as it is commonly called, in which state it does its mischief in destroying honey combs, after which it changes into the moth.
The trouble seems, as you think, to be worse off than on the hive, because off the hive there are no bees to protect the combs, although the eggs are generally laid on the combs while they are still in the care of the bees. It seems strange that the bees will allow moths to lay their eggs in the hive, but they do. At least black bees do, to some extent, although Italians seldom allow it.
Q. What can I do for worms in bees?A. The best remedy for wax-worms, as the larvae of the beemoth are called, is a big lot of bees. The worms are not likely to get much of a start in a rousing colony, but a weak, discouraged colony is their proper prey. If your bees are blacks, you will find that changing to Italian blood will be a great help. Indeed, a colony of good Italian blood, even if quite weak, will keep the worms at bay.
If the worms have made a fair start, it may be worth while to give the bees some help. At least you can dig out the big fellows. Take a wire nail and dig a hole into one end of the gallery that the worm has built. Now start at the other end, and as you dig the gallery open the worm will crawl along and come out of the hole you first made, when you can dispatch it.
\(Q\). How early in spring will the wax-worm begin its destructive work on combs stored in the honey-house?
A. Something depends upon the character of the honey-house. It needs considerable warmth for the favorable development of the miscreants, and if your honey-house is a warm place you may expect them to flourish by the first of May. Otherwise not till the last of the month. In a cool cell
Figure 4: Tunnels of the moth in a brood-comb.
trouble before the combs are needed for swarms. Of course, if the weather is warm their work will be earlier than when there is a cool spring. Moths cannot winter in a house where it freezes hard.
Q. Do bees carry moths while swarming?
**A.** I don't believe that bees ever carry with them the moth, its larvae, or its eggs.
Q. (a) I had two weak colonies which I was going to unite, but found a weavy web on the combs and in them a handful of small worms. Those on the comb were about three to the inch in length, and not a live bee to be found, and no honey. The worms resembled cut worms.
(b) Is that comb of any use to put in other hives?
(c) How did the worms get in the hive without the bees destroying them?
A. (a) The worms were the larvae of the beemoth.
(b) Yes, unless too much of it is destroyed.
(c) Eggs were laid in the hive by the moth, and from these eggs worms were hatched. The colony must have been weak and like enough queenless.
Q. I have a lot of honeycombs that I will have to keep through the summer months. What is the best remedy to keep the moths out of them? I have them packed closely in a chest. Will fumigating them with sulphur do, or is bi-sulphide of carbon the best?
A. Sulphur will do, but it takes a gread deal of it to finish the big worms, and it does not kill the eggs, so that it must be used again two weeks later to kill the worms that have hatched out from the eggs that were left. Carbon disulfide (which is the later name of bisulphide of carbon) acts more vigorously, and at one operation cleans up big and little, eggs and all. After you have the worms all killed you must keep the combs where the moth cannot get at them.
On the whole, it is nicer to give such combs to the bees. They will clean them up and keep them in nice condition. You can fill a hive-body with them and put it under a colony, so that the bees must pass through in going out or in.
Q. I have a number of frames which look very ragged on account of moth ravages, some in which more than half of the comb is gone. Will the bees repair this and fill out the frames again if I give them to the bees next spring? Or would I better cut out all this comb and put in new foundation?
A. If the comb is in good condition except for the ravagesof the moth, it's good property, and it is well worth your while to keep it to give the bees again. Something, however, depends upon how the bees fill out the vacancies in the combs. If they fill them up with drone-comb you might better melt up the combs and give foundation. If given to a strong colony in a flourishing condition you can count on a lot of drone-comb; if given to a nucleus, or to a swarm when first hived, you may count on worker-comb.
Q. If I brush the bees from my section honey and put it in folding cartons, such as are listed in supply catalogs, right in the bee-yard, will I be bothered with the beemoth in my honey, and will this not save trouble in fumigating? Of course, this honey will be well sealed before putting in cartons.
A. No, you can't trust to anything of the kind. Years ago, if I took off sections and kept them where no moth could touch them, within two weeks tiny worms would appear here and there. The only way I could understand it was that the moth must have gotten inside the hive and laid the eggs on the sections. Of late years I have no trouble of the kind, probably because of the Italian blood. With black bees I had a good deal of trouble, and fumigated with sulphur. Carbon disulfide may be better.
**Bee-Paralysis.--Q.** Two of my colonies are killing what
Figure 5: What remains of a comb devastated by beemoth.
scems to be old bees. They turn black, and are driven out. The brood seems to be all right. I had one colony affected the same way last year that became all right. I would like to know the cause and cure, if any. I have over 100 colonies, but never saw anything like it before.
A. The probability is that it is a case of bee-paralysis. The bees are black and shiny from losing their plumage. They come out of the hive and jump around on the ground, generally with bodies somewhat distended, and there is a peculiar trembling motion of the wings. The sound bees appear to pester and drive the sick ones. As far north as you are, it is doubtful if you need pay any attention to it. I've had several cases of the disease, and never did anything for it and the disease disappeared of itself. Far enough south it becomes a terror, and although many cures have been offered they generally fail to effect a cure. O. O. Poppieton says he cures by sprinkling sulphur over the bees and comb. Texas beekeepers of late claim that excessive dampness in the hive is the prime cause. They practice shaking the bees onto perfectly dry combs in a dry hive.
Q.Will camphor prevent bee-paralysis if I put a small piece in the hive?
A. It will probably have no effect whatever.
**Bees, Best Strain.-Q.** What is the best bee for this country, the Buckeye strain, 3-banded, golden Italian or leather colored?
A. There are good bees of almost all kinds; the majority of beekeepers probably prefer the 3-banded leather colored Italians.
**Bees Dying.-Q.** What ails my bees? Quite a number of them are dead or dying. One day when the snow was on the ground I saw dead bees on the snow. While I was there a bee came flying out of the hive, lit on the snow and was frozen; it was zero weather. I have a box set over the hive; the front side is open. They are not packed. The entrance of the hive is wide open, and they have plenty of honey to winter on, with nothing to disturb them. They are Italian bees.
A. There may be nothing wrong at all; depends upon what is meant by "quite a number." In a strong colony it is nothing strange if a thousand bees die off in the course of the winter; and when the sun is shining upon the white snow it is not alarming to see a bee fly out to meet its death in the snow.
Q. What is the cause of a colony of bees dying in the winter with plenty of honey in the hive? It seemed to be in good shape when it went into winter quarters.
A. It may be that the cluster of bees was in the center with honey on both sides; the honey was all eaten out of the center, and the bees drew to one side; they at all the honey on that side and a long cold spell prevented their going to the other side until they starved to death, leaving plenty of honey in the hive; or, the colony may have been queenless and weak at the end of the honey season.
**Bees Flying Out.-Q**. On a warm afternoon the bees crowd around the entrance to the hive almost clogging it full. Some of the bees crawl up the front of the hive, take wing and fly back to the entrance of the hive and go in. Some of them crawl up the front of the hive and fly away. A few take wing from the entrance and after circling back and forth in front of the hive, fly away. Why is this?
A. The young bees are taking their play spell and at the same time marking their location. You will notice that at first they fly with their heads toward the hive.
**Bees, Livelihood from.-Q**. I have been trying to decide on a move for several years; that is, in the keeping of bees. I had a slight experience of two years with bees, but just became greatly interested in them when I left the country to accept a position in the Postal Department in New York City. I still hold such a position, but my desire and love for bees have increased so much that I am contemplating a change to the country. My hesitation comes from the doubt whether I could make a good living from them alone should I devote my entire time to them. What is your opinion? Would it be wise and profitable to give up my position of $100 a month to lurch into beekeping? I would not go in extensively at the start, but try and feel my way as I advance. W'ill you kindly give me advice I seek as to whether there is a profitable field in the keeping of bees as a business proposition?
A. Your question is one that is exceedingly difficult to answer. If it be a mere matter of dollars and cents, I should say that beekeping is a good business to let alone, for the same amount of brains and energy that will make you a living at beekeping will make more than a living at almost any other business. But if you have the great love for beekeping that some men have, then it may be the part of wisdom for you to choose beekeping in preference to any other business that would net you ten times as much money. For your true beekeeper doesn't have to wait until he has made his pile before he begins to enjoy life, but every day is a vacation day, and a day of enjoyment.
But you must have a living. Can you make a living at beekeping? I don't know. There are a few who make a living at beekceping alone. There are probably a few more who can. You may be one of them, and you may not.
It would not be advisable for you to cut loose from everything else and start in at beckeeping with the idea of making a living at it from the very start. If you have enough ahead so that you can afford to do nothing for a year or two, with a fair assurance that you could take up your old line of work at the end of the year or two, if you should so elect, then all right. For you must count it among the possibilities that the next two years may be years of failure in the honey harvest.
If you can take such a risk, perhaps you can grow into quite a business with bees, while still continuing at your present business. Indeed, that might be the best way. In a suburban home you could probably care for 25 or 50 colonies mornings and evenings. Or, you might have a roof apiary in the city. The profit from them would be all the while bringing you nearer the point when you could cut loose from everything else. After a year or two you could judge better than anyone else whether it would be feasible and advisable to try beekeping alone.
**Bees Restless in Winter.-Q.** I have two colonies of bees I moved 14 miles last December. I packed them in chaff about 3 inches thick, and they have plenty of honey. They seem restless and come out of the hive when it is 20 degrees below zero. What is the cause of this? Are they too warm?
A. The likelihood is that not very many bees are coming out, and a very few need cause no alarm. If the number is considerable it may be that a mouse in the hive is disturbing them, or that they are troubled with diarrhea. In the latter case a good flight the first warm day will cure them, unless, indeed, they have unwholesome stores, which will keep up the trouble more or less until warm weather comes.
**Beespace Over Broed-Frames.-Q.** I build my own hives. Is it necessary to have becspace between cover and brood-frames? I find some hives do not have this.
A. By all means have a space of about one-quarter inch between cover and top-bars. This for the sake of allowing a passage over the frames in winter, and also because if there is no such space the bees will glue the cover tight to the top-bars. This is on the supposition that there is nothing between the cover and top-bars. With some people it is a common practice to have a sheet or quilt over the top-bars, and in that case no space is needed except enough room for sheet or quilt.
**Beestiags.-Q.** If you wash yourself with salt and water before handling bees, will it help to keep them from stinging?
A. Unless your hands are dirty, I don't believe washing in salt water will do any good, and then soap is better than salt. When bees are swarming they seldom feel like stinging.
Q. What is the best remedy for a beesting, either for a person on whom the sting swells or on one on whom it doesn't? It does not swell on me. I have heard that a sting will always swell on a healthy person. Is that true?
A. To give all the remedies that have been offered for beestings would occupy pages. Perhaps as good as any other remedy is a plaster of mud. Most heckepers of experience seem to think that no remedy does much good; the only thing they do being to get the sting out as soon as possible. Don't pull the sting out by grasping it between the thumb and finger, for that helps to squeeze more poison into the wound; but scrape it out with the finger nail, or else, if it is in the hand, by striking the hand hard upon the thigh with a sort of sliding motion, which wipes out the sting. A sting will swell on a healthy person in nearly every case if the person is not used to it, and perhaps a little worse on an unhealthy person; but after being stung often one generally becomes to an extent immune, so there is little or no swelling. Among remedies offered are ammonia, salaratus of soda, juice of lemon or plantain leaves, kerosene, cloths wet in cold water, etc.
Q. Does the sting of the honeybee ever prove fatal? I have heard that if a person is stung on the end of the nose it is fatal. Is this a fact?
A. I don't believe a sting of itself ever caused a death. There have been cases where persons died after being stung. I've been stung many times on the nose, and I'm not at all dead.
**Beeswax.-Q.** What is beeswax, or what does it originate from?
A. Look closely at a lot of bees, especially at swarming-time, and you will see some of them that have, along the underside of their abdomens, little plates of pure beeswax, somewhat pear-shaped. That's where the wax originates, being secreted by the bee from the food it eats, somewhat as the cow secretes milk from the food she eats.
Q. Since (as it would seem) no established beekeeper produces enough wax to work into his necessary foundation, where does the surplus come from?
A. "Things are not what they seem;" at least not always. Anestablished bekeeper may not produce enough wax for his own foundation, and again he may. If he works for extracted honey, and has reached the point where he makes no more increase and needs no more combs, he may have a surplus of wax from his cappings, and probably will have; even if he renews his combs, the melted combs should furnish wax for the new ones. Upon him the comb-honey man may depend for his wax. There are also beekeepers who use little or no foundation, and such men are likely to produce surplus wax by means of the combs they melt up from the diseased colonies.
Q. What is the best method of producing beeswax? I want beeswax instead of honey. (New York.)
A. So far is I have ever learned, those who make a business of producing wax rather than honey have done it by feeding back the honey, thinned, as fast as the bees built combs and stored it. But that was in places very far from market, where the honey would not pay for transportation and wax would. It is not likely that you can make it.pay in your region.
Q. Please tell me how I can purify beeswax. I can melt it and get it out of the combs by the hot water process, but after I get it melted I cannot get the dirt separated from the wax, as underneath the wax there is some kind of fine dirt; that is, the dirt does not settle to the bottom of the vessel that the water and beeswax are in. I would like to know some way to get this dirt out of the wax, and will you please give me a way to mould the beeswax into one or two pound blocks?