BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
There is considerable risk connected with filling orders and shipping honey to persons or concerns that are not known to the bekeeper, unless cash accompanies the order. This practice is followed by very few buyers of honey, especially retailers, and even individual persons rarely send money with their order. The fact that it is not always certain whether the orders can be filled by the beekeeper, and the consequent inconvenience of having the money returned, together with a certain degree of distrust on the part of the purchaser, has made the "'strictly cash with order" business an impracticable one. But it is not advisable to simply ship one's honey, produced by many days of hard toil, to unknown buyers without having some assurance of receiving pay for the honey. For this reason the practice of shipping C. O. D., or sight draft attached to bill of lading serves a useful purpose. Although this method of shipping was not popular several years ago, mainly because the buyers did not favor the idea of the binding effect, the objections to it have waned. It is the only absolutely safe way, and it has been adopted by quite a number of beekeepers.
The honey shipment is billed out on a special form or "'shippers order" bill of lading, which coensigns the honey to the shipper himself at destination, but immediately under this are the words, "'notify................... at..................." in which the purchaser's name and address are filled. This bill of lading is then taken to a bank, together with a statement showing the amount of the order filled. Upon request the banker will write out a sight draft, and after it is signed by the beekeeper, attach it to the bill of lading which has been properly endorsed by the shipper, and send this to the nearest bank to the buyer. To obtain the honey it will be necessary to pay for it, or the amount of the sight draft, in order to secure the bill of lading, without which the honey can not be obtained from the railroad company. Thus the honey is still the property of the beekeeper until the buyer has paid for it at the bank. If such a shipment is refused the bank will return the draft and notify the beekeeper, who can then have the honey reconsigned to another buyer from whom he may have an order, by presenting the matter, with the original bill of lading, to the agent at his own shipping point. This saves having the honey returned, unless one has no other orders for it, in which case storage charged by the railroad company, after a certain length of time, will acerue. Hence, disposition of the shipment should be made immediately. Such refusals are not common; but, if they do oceur, it is better to be out the freight and storage and still possess the honey, than to let some dishonest person have it.
## shipping honey.
Usually honey is shipped with no loss whatever if the proper precautions are followed in packing it. Most'extracted honey is shipped in 5-gallon, or 60-pound eans, two in a case, and some in friction top pails of various standard sizes. Not so much is now shipped in barrels as in earlier years, only inferior grades of honey being put up in that way. Their use is not advisable. Bulk eomb honey is always shipped in the various styles of standard eans and pails, put up in eases. However, the two sixty-pound can cases are not so popular now; the friction top pails are much more in demand.
Shippers of honey are cautioned to use nothing but first class cans and strong wooden eases. Most of the eases on the market are too frail to carry heavy eans of honey in them, and reach their destination in a very dilapidated condition In some instances that have eome under my observation, the cases were almost entirely torn off the eans of honey, giving them practically no protection, and they were consequently smashed up to such an extent that part of their contents leaked out.
This matter is a very serious one. The beekeeper does not feel the loss and the damaging effect, and hence his neglect of effort toward remedying it. The result is, that many buyers of honey become discouraged and cease handling it because they are not able to get honey shipments without more or less loss from damage. The beekeeper seldom has opportunity to know the facts, because he never hears of the condition in which his honey was received; neither does he learn the number of claims for honey shortages received by the railroad companies at the destination of the shipments.
A close study has revealed that hundreds of honey shipments are damaged to some extent each season, and the consequence will be a serious one to the beekeeping and honey shipping industry unless remedied. It was ascertained that during a period of less than one month there were twelve claims made to one railroad company for damaged honey shipments and loss by leakage. This was between the dates of August 14 and September 10, a period of 27 days, long after the main honey shipping season. Considering the numerous other railroads and the thousands of other honey shipments, it is evident that this matter should be taken in hand and remedied at once.
It is hoped that the beekeepers, small and large, will assist in reducing this damage by using nothing but good, well-made honey cans and pails, boxed securely in strong well nailed wooden cases that will carry the heavy contents in first class condition to the purchaser.
To neglect this, will ultimately mean disastrous results, in that many buyers will refuse to handle honey at all, and, more serious than this, is the fact that the railroads have threatened to refuse to carry honey improperly boxed, or to raise freight rates for its transportation. As all honey in cans properly protected in wooden cases goes at a very low (fourth class) freight now, it behooves beekeepers to take warning and keep it so.
## 6 Granulation of honey.
Nearly all pure honey will become hard and white as soon as cool weather approaches. Some persons look upon this with suspicion as being a sign of adulteration of the honey with sugar, or otherwise. On the contrary the granulation of honey is a sign of its purity, as adulterated honey, especially that to which glucose has been added, does not granulate or become solid.
While many persons like, or even prefer, granulated honey, it is easily made liquid again by simply setting the vessel into a larger one filled with water on the stove, and heating slowly until the honey is entirely liquid. Some thin pieces of wood should be placed under the bottom of the vessel of honey to prevent scorching, and it should not be heated too long or the aroma of the honey may be spoiled.
Some honey granulates much more readily than others, and, unless the beekeeper is very sure that the honey will not granulate for a long time, all the extracted honey must be heated to the temperature of 152 degrees Fahrenheit. It is mutually understood between producer and buyer that honey must reach destination in the liquid form, unless granulated honey is especially ordered, and a virtual guarantee is, that it will not granulate within 30 days after shipping. Although it is not always necessary to heat all honey at certain times, it is well to be provided for it. While a single can at a time is heated in a wash boiler, either on the kitchen stove or an out-door fire, the result is slow and requires the burning of much wood. A far better method is to make an improvised furnace, as here shown.
It is constructed of several concrete blocks, simply laid together. One with a hole through it and a round lard can with its bottom removed set over this, serves as the chimney. The large vat holds six cans which rest on a wooden frame so that the honey does not scoreh. It requires very little fire and attention. The cans must be left open to prevent bursting.
Although some honey can stand more heat than 152 degrees Fahrenheit, it affects the color and mild flavor and aroma of most honey, hence care should be taken not to injure these by overheating.
A natural desire to multiply their kind is the cause of bees swarming. When a colony becomes crowded, or other conditions, that man does not fully understand, exist, preparations for a division of the colony and the establishing of a new home are made. The first evidence of this to the apiarist is the appearance of queen cells in various stages of development on the brood combs. Ordinarily when these cells are sealed and the weather conditions are favorable, the colony will swarm. Bad weather may delay the swarm several days. However, bees may swarm before the cells are sealed, or, as is frequently the case with Italians, before the building of cells has begun.
Swarms, as a general rule, issue during the warmest part of the day, between 9 a. m. and 4 p. m. Just previous to the issuance of one, the colony will not be working as usual, while inside the hive a great common exists. All at once the bees come pouring and tumbling out of the hive entrance with a rush, as if pursued by some thing, and take wing immediately, to fly around with thousands of others, in a manner that makes one dizzy to watch. The queen does not lead them out, as many suppose. In fact, she is often among the last to come forth from the hive. It is always the old queen that goes with the first prime swarm.
There is no rule that governs which of the bees shall go with the swarm or which shall remain in the old home, consequently, bees of all ages are found in each division. Bees, so young that they can not fly, may be found in front of the hive trying to join the swarm, but unable to do so, and within the hive will be found bees ranging from those just emerging from the brood cells to the very oldest, shiny and almost worn out bees.
The swarm will eirele around in the air, sometimes shifting from one part of the apiary to another, and often some distance from it, before alighting, while in other instances the bees might almost at once. The noise made by a swarm is a characteristic, loud one, very much like that of a rapidly running machine heard at a distance. Usually the alighting place is on a limb of some low growing shrub, or other object from which the swarm can very easily be shaken off in front of the entrance of a hive and allowed to run into their new home.
It is very disagreeable for swarms to cluster high up in tall trees,necessitating climbing after them. If clustered on a small limb this may be sawed off and lowered to the ground by means of a long rope. Valuable trees need not be injured in this way, however, because the swarm may be shaken or brushed into a light basket or box, quickly covered over with a large cloth and brought down and hired. A convenient contrivance for this purpose is the swarm catcher, with a long pole, which enables the apiarist to get down swarms from high places. It is only necessary to get the biggest part of the swarm of bees into the basket, when it is lowered over a limb in such a way that the lid will be thrown over the top of the wire basket and confine the bees. It is then by means of the tripod legs, suspended in the air near the flying bees, and these will cluster to the outside of the basket.
In the mean time a hive for them is prepared on the stand from which the swarm issued, after removing the old hive to a new stand. The swarm catcher, with the bees, is carried to this and ''dumped'' in front of the hive entrance through which they will enter the hive immediately.
As swarming bees are always well filled with honey, to last them on their journey, they are not inclined to sting when hired, unless roughly handled, and need not be especially feared. This makes it possible for the larger children, or the ''women folks'' to hive the swarms, in the absence of the beekeeper.
## 113 SCOUTs before swarming.
A first, or prime, swarm very rarely fails to alight before going to the place where its future home is to be. Whether this clustering is done to perfect better organization of the forces that make up the emigrating swarm, or whether it is for the purpose of sending out ''seouts'' to look for a suitable place to which the journey may be made, is merely guessed at by man. Apparently there are many evidences that a colony of bees, preparing to swarm, will previously select a location for a new home by sending out ''seouts,'' or a number of bees to go out and find a suitable place, to which the swarm proceeds later. It often oceurs that quite a number of bees will be discovered searching about a pile of empty hives or supers, only to suddenly disappear and to be followed by a swarm of bees a week or so later to make their abode in the selected place. The same has been observed in hollow trees, where it was thought a "'bee tree" had been discovered, but closer examination frightened the bees away by the disappointed discoverer. In many cases a swarm was found in possession of the same hollow tree soon after.
In one instance bees were issuing back and forth from a knot-hole in the wall of a building, right under the eaves. But after a few rays were made on the wall they soon dispersed. As a forethought, or fearing that a swarm might enter there, the opening was closed with soft soap. Seven days passed by when, about noon, a roaring noise, near the building, proved to be a very large swarm, which was trying to enter the knot-hole in the wall. They finally settled on a small tree near the building, and were lived.
Whether all colonies send out such scouting parties, or whether certain colonies always do, would be hard to determine. It is known that they do this very often, however. These parties vary in numbers. Most of them are composed only of two dozen bees or more, while the one mentioned above consisted of quite a large number of bees, resembling very much a miniature swarm. The actions of the bees, however, were very much unlike those of a swarm.
It is therefore important that the swarms be lived immediately upon clustering, and then moved away to the stand to be occupied, so that returning seouts, if any have been sent out, will fail to find the swarms and hence prevent them leaving for the selected abode.
The amateur looks upon natural swarming with delight, so he may count his hives in greater numbers, and it seems to him the only way of increasing his bees. The experienced beekeeper, however, regards natural swarming as a real nuisance, especially if his colonies run up into the hundreds,'scattered in several, or many, apiaries. This is due to the fact that it requires a good deal of watchfulness and much hard labor, on the part of the apiarist, during the swarming season, for excessive swarming may not only cause a loss of bees, but a greater loss in the honey crop on account of the weakened forces to gather it. Swarming is, however, known well enough now so that it is no longer feared as it used to be, and, although it may always be a hindrance to a more or less extent in keeping a large number of apiaries, and the production of the greatest amount of honey, it can be so regulated and controlled that beekeeping is profitable. Many methods are employed by which the end of swarm prevention may be achieved.
One of the chief requisites is a large hive, so manipulated that the bees may be kept at work and contented. Aramped brood nest, in which the egg laying room of the queen is restricted, and the otherwise crowded condition, the lack of storing room and improper ventilation of the hive, are all factors tending to produce the "'swarming fever." By looking after these details properly it can be held in check to a marked degree.
Ventilation can be given by increasing the size of the entrance, simply placing a small stone or a piece of wood under the front of the hive after it has been raised by inserting the hive-tool into the entrance and lifting the hive up. This will also give the bees a better passage-way into and out of the hive during the busy working season. Shading the hive will aid in cooling it and will also help to keep down swarming.
Swarming can be delayed in many instances, and often entirely discouraged, by destroying the queen cells every nine or ten days, but this must be done carefully and not a single cell overlooked, or the bees will swarm just the same. Besides requiring much tedious work, and the desire of the bees is to swarm, and rebuilding cells throughout the greater part of the season, they do not work with the vigor they would if they were not discouraged in their efforts. These precautions only help to allay the swarming desire, and are effective only before the bees have gotten into the notion to swarm. Once they are determined to do so, it is a difficult matter to prevent it. The only proper remedy then is to satisfy their desire, not by allowing them to swarm according to their own sweet will, but by doing it for them.
The most successful plan generally resorted to, is "the brushed or shaken swarm" method, one that can be modified to suit local and particular conditions. Briefly, colonies that are found preparing to swarm, and with queen cells in the hives, are treated by shaking nearly all the bees off their combs as they are removed from the hive, and then placed in an empty hive, which is set on a new place, given a caged queen, or the remaining bees allowed to rear a new queen from several cells left on a comb that has not been shaken, and the inmates destroyed by the jars. There should be enough bees to properly protect and care for the brood, especially during cool weather. The combs removed are replaced in the old hive by frames containing full sheets of comb foundation. This change has the same effect upon the bees as if they had swarmed naturally. The bees will behave exactly like a swarm, and no colony of bees works with greater vim and vigor than a newly hived swarm. This treatment results in an increase in the number of colonies. If this is not desired, the number can easily be reduced after the swarming season by reuniting as many colonies as is necessary.
It should be understood that it is not necessary to treat each colony in the apiary as described. Only those that are actually preparing to swarm receive this treatment, and the number is not large if the proper precautions are taken to keep the colonies comfortable and contented so the desire to swarm is not awakened in them. In some seasons the desire to swarm is greater than in others, consequently more difficult to control.
A fact that should be remembered by the bekeeper in his efforts toward swarm control, is that if swarming can be kept in check until the honey flow begins, all swarming preparations will come to an end. That a honey flow will put a quietus to the swarming desires of the bees is generally known among Texas bekeepers. Instead of continuing swarming preparations, they divert all their activities to gathering and storing honey, and, as a general rule, no more swarming may be feared.
This is entirely unlike the conditions in the North and East, where the opening of the honey flow brings with it wholesale swarming that is more difficult to control and keep the forces in such a state that a paying crop of honey may be secured. It is by far an easier matter to control swarming before the honey flow comes, as exists in Texas, and where the bees cease swarming entirely upon the opening of the honey flow.
## preventing apterswarms.
After a first, or prime, swarm has issued, the old colony is left queenless, having, however, queen cells that will hatch in about eight days; or, if the first swarm has been delayed, in less time than that. It will take a longer time, of course, if queen cells were not already started, but in this case the queenless bees will proceed to start these cells at once.
If the old colony is still strong in numbers, they may swarm again in nine days' time. Otherwise, only one queen will be allowed to hatch, and she immediately proceeds to tear a hole in the side of her rivals' cells and sting the inmates to death. After mating, she becomes fertile and takes up her duties in egg laying in due time, and the colony soon builds up to its normal strength again.
It is not wise to allow a colony to cast more than one--the first or prime swarm--and all after-swarms should be avoided. Each succeeding swarm will not only be weaker in numbers, but the hive from which these swarms issue will finally become a worthless, weak colony, that will not profit the bekeeper anything, and may succumb entirely.
After a colony has swarmed, all queen cells, except one of the largest, should be removed from the combs and the colony watched, to make sure that the queen from this emerges and becomes successfully mated. While this prevents immediate after-swarming, the colony with the new queen may soon be strong enough again to swarm with its new queen, if the desire to do so has not been given up. To thwart the bees in this, it is customary to leave the old hive near its old stand, on which the swarm now is, for a week or ten days. After this length of time, the old colony is moved to its new location in the apiary during the day, at which time most of the bees are flying. The flying bees will find their hive gone upon returning, and the apiarist, being sure to have the hive of the swarm nearest to the flying bees, these will join the swarm.
This method does not only prevent further swarming of the old colony, by weakening it in strength of bees, but since it is the swarm that will store the largest amount of surplus, the addition of the bees aids materially in this direction, as they are worth more, added to the swarm, than if left in the old colony.
Clipping queens' wings.
It is aggravating to find swarms of bees clustering in almost inaccessible places, especially in the top of high trees. It is also disagreeable to lose swarms when nobody happens to be near the apiary. For this reason many beekeepers clip one or both wings of their queens to prevent them going with the swarms that may issue. This is a very simple operation. The queen is grasped carefully by the thorax with the thumb and forefinger of the left hand and lifted from the comb, and with a pair of small scissors in the right, part of a wing is easily clipped off. Exceeding care must be exercised, however, not to clip any of the queens' legs, which have a tendency to get in the way in her struggles to be released.
The best time to clip queens' wings is in the early spring, as they are easily found in the hive before the colonies become very populous in numbers. Care must be taken not to clip the wings of a young virgin queen, as this well prevent her being mated and she will be worthless.
The practice of clipping queens' wings is increasing from year to year, not only because they can not then go off with a swarm, which is worth the time and trouble it takes to do it; but, for another reason as important, i. e., to keep a record of the queens and their ages as well. Beginning with clipping the right wings of all the queens of a certain year, the left wings of all queens the next year, and both wings in the third year, the age of each queen may be known at a glance. As the average life is three years, it is hardly necessary to have another manner of clipping for the fourth year, when all new queens are again clipped on the right wings. Any queens kept over three years may have another distinguishing clipping mark on one or the other wing, in addition to the regular manner of clipping each year.
It is an easy matter to handle a swarm with a clipped queen. Unable to go with the swarm, she will be found crawling on the ground in front of the hive from which it has issued. She may be caged, and after the old hive has been removed to one side and a new one with full sheets of foundation put in its place, the cage be laid in front of the entrance. The swarm may cluster or not, but it will soon discover that its queen is not with it, and immediately return to the old location and enter the new hive. As the bees do so the queen is released and enters with them, and thus the swarm hives itself, even if it had alighted in a tall tree or other inaccessable place.