BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
If wooden tops are provided for the skeps, four holes \(\frac{1}{4}\) inch wide, \(8\) inches long, and \(1\frac{1}{4}\) inches apart, should be made in the middle. By placing the brood-chamber so that the openings in the crown-board run from side to side, the bees will be compelled to build their combs across the openings and from front to back, thus increasing the ease of access from the brood-chamber to the super, while to some extent doing away with the inducement for the queen to enter the super, which a large central hole affords.
\(\underline{Hiving}\) the swarm.When the floor-board has been set as directed, the skep may be removed and the swarm hived into it.As soon as the bees have settled the skep must be moved on to the floor-board with great care so as not to disturb the cluster. As the bees carry with them a plentiful supply of honey with which to start in their new home, food should be given sparingly unless untoward weather prevents their leaving the hive. In that case a liberal, but not too rapid, supply is needed. Should food be deemed necessary a supply of Porto Rico sugar will furnish the best means of saving the lives of the bees, and assisting them in the building of new combs.
_When to super._ Too often stocks and swarms are allowed to remain days and even weeks without supers, a practice that should be abandoned, for, not only is there a loss, and sometimes a great one, but, by the storing of surplus in the brood-chamber, the queen is "crowded out "--that is, the cells in which the queen should be depositing eggs are used by the bees for the storage of honey. The consequence is that, at the end of the season, such a stock will contain a very large amount of honey, but a very small number of bees, mostly old ones. Thus the progress of the colony the following spring will usually be unsatisfactory. As soon as a swarm is lived into an empty skep the bees cluster, and having obtained a sufficiently high temperature commence secreting wax with which to build their combs. The combs should, in the main, be composed of worker cells, otherwise a superabundance of drones each summer while the hive is in use will be inevitable.
Building combs of worker cells alone by the swarm will continue if the income of food is only moderate, but if the honey-flow is on, and there is a large inflow of honey, the bees will build combs mostly of drone cells for storing purposes. The necessity for a meansof compelling the bees to build combs composed of worker cells only is manifest, and must be accomplished by the use of foundation, for which a provision is made in the hives next to be described.
In about a week or ten days after hiving, a strong swarm will have filled three-fourths or more of the brood-chamber with combs. If a super is then placed on the hive with the needful precaution to prevent the escape of heat, the bulk of the daily income will be carried above and deposited in combs mainly composed of drone cells. The building of drone comb in the super for the storage of surplus is economical to the bees, and immaterial to the bee-keeper. Below, in the brood-chamber, the combs will be kept for breeding purposes, and they will be completed with worker cells as a rule. The advantage of this method of procedure will be seen in the full supers and the crowded brood-chamber at the close of the honey-flow.
In supering, swarms and stocks are similarly treated, and when strong colonies are supered early in the honey-flow the second super, supposing there be a continuance of fine weather, will be required in a very few days after the first has been given. In the case of a stock a second super will generally be necessary to prevent swarming, inasmuuch as the bees when crowded commence building queen cells, with a view to swarming, as soon as the ordinary cells in the hive are occupied, whether it is with bees, grubs, honey, or pollen.
This moving out of the worker bees in search of a new home may be avoided by supplying a second super under the first. Give a gentle puff of smoke at the entrance to the hive, and then gently separate the super from the brood-chamber. To keep the bees quiet puff a little smoke in between the super and the brood-chamber as the former is raised. Lift up the super and place between it and the brood-chamber another super. More room having been given the bees will concentrate their energies upon furnishing the lower super with combs. In the new combs much of the freshly-gathered nectar will be stored for ripening previous to being carried above to complete the upper super.
_Removing supers._ As soon as the upper super is completed it should be removed and placed on the super clearer, and, when emptied first of the bees and subsequently of the honey, it may be returned to the hive for placing below the remaining super or on any hive where more super room is required. Should the honey-flow be on the wane, when the top super is removed the lower super should not be interfered with, unless it is to give a little extra covering with sacks or other heat-retaining material adding to the protecting power of the straw. The bees are then more likely to complete work in the super instead of being driven down into the brood-chamber by the lowering of the night temperature.
The "Ivo " Cotager Bar Hive.
The second style of hive which may be adopted is still on the fixed-comb principle, but greatly ahead of the skep, in that the results obtained by its use may, by the use of foundation, be increased to a very great extent. What may be done by a stock in a straw skep is well known by bee-keepers of experience. In order to show the superior results of working with this style of hive, a record of a late swarm may not be out of place.
A strong swarm was put into a hive, properly prepared with foundation, on June 23, 1892. On June 26th the foundation in the brood-chamber, and also that in the super, was found worked out by the bees into perfect combs ; and in the super there was even then a fair quantity of honey stored. At the end of the honey-flow the net weight of honey taken from the supers was 37 lbs. 4 oz., and an ample supply for winter use was left in the brood-chamber. In 1893 the stock sent out a 5-lb. swarm, and as the hive v was standing in garden two miles away, another hive had been placed ready for a swarm in case one issued. The lady, in whose apiary the hive stood, sent for a shoemaker to hive the swarm. Being one of the old school who cannot bear the "' new-fangled notions," he took the foundation out of the bars, made a ball of it, and threw it into a pan as useless. He then hived the swarm, giving the bees access to super as well as brood-chamber ; in fact the hive from floor-board to roof was at their service. When examined a few days later crooked combs were found in the brood-chamber far too advanced in building to be disturbed. The bees were, therefore, driven out of the super, so that they might first complete the combs below. This they did, and at the end of the season the honey-return from the supers was as follows : from the stock hive 61 lbs. 14 oz., and from the swarm 27 lbs. 1 oz.
Here is a most significant fact. While the stock hive, after sending out a large swarm, stored in supers nearly 52 lbs., the swarm gave about half the quantity, though combs in the brood-chamber had to be produced in the ordinary way from wax which the bees secreted. Had the hiver of the swarm allowed the sheets of foundation to remain in the bars of brood-chamber and super, the bees would have had honey representing more than a week's work to carry into the super, producing a total surplus that must have equalled if it did not considerably exceed that stored by the stock.
The "' Ivo," which has been designed by the writer, is intended to take the place between the straw shep and the bar-frame hive. It is an undoubted fact that many bee-keepers who have been induced to adopt the bar-frame hive have managed their bees so unsuccessfully that they have given up bee-keeping in disgust. Their want of success was not, however, due to the system of bee-keeping which they adopted, but rather to the want of acquaintance with the methods of working such hives successfully. Although, taking one season with another, a fair profit may be obtained by managing bees properly in skeps, the full benefit of the work of the bees can only be obtained by the use of foundation ; and it is with that one object primarily in view that this hive has been designed.
The hive consists of floor-board, brood-chamber, supers, lift, and roof. Two supers will at all times be necessary, but three may be needed in good districts. The brood-chamber consists simply of four walls, the front and back being \(\sharp\) inch in thickness, and the sides the same or \(\sharp\) inch. The tops of the front and back walls are rabbeted inside to admit the ends of the bars, and allow the tops to lie level with the tops of the walls. In other words, when the bars are in position the top of the hive should present a flat surface being broken only by the \(\sharp\)-inch openings between the bars. The depth of the walls is eight inches.
_Supers._ The supers are in all respects, except depth, similar to the brood-chamber. The depth is only \(\sharp\)\(\frac{1}{2}\) inches for the following reasons : (1) Shallow supers are more readily entered by the bees ; (2) when full they are more easily moved by the bee-keeper ; and (3) because, though the hive is to be worked for run honey only, the supers will be of a size to be converted into crates for sections in a few minutes.
_Lift._ This is an absolute necessity with all wooden hives in which the tops of the frames are level with the tops of the hive sides. It allows of quick and secure packing of quilts, and it also raises a shallow roof sufficiently to allow of a feeder being placed above the frames. The lift for this hive is simply a super without the bars, which may be used whenever required.
_Bars_. As the combs in both brood-chamber and
supers are, when built, to be attached to the front and back walls, bars, not frames, as in the movable-comb hive, are provided.
The bars are \(14\frac{1}{2}\) inches long, \(1\frac{9}{3\,0}\) inches wide, and \(\lx@sectionsign\) inch thick. In the centre of the bar, and running nearly from end to end, is a saw-cut to receive the sheet of foundation. The ends of the bars only are \(1\frac{9}{2\,0}\) inch wide, and they fit close together so that the combs when built will be the correct distance apart,viz., \(1\frac{9}{2^{6}}\) inch from centre to centre. On each side of the bar a piece 9 inches by \(\frac{1}{a}\) inch is taken out, so that when the bars are in position there will be access to the supers through holes 9 inches long and \(\frac{1}{4}\) inch wide.
After the hive is stocked with bees and the combs are built, the brood-chamber should never again be interfered with except to renew old combs. If any examination of the interior of the brood-chamber should be deemed advisable, it must be inverted and treated as are the fixed combs in a straw shep. To remove combs, each end alternately of the hive should be raised to an angle of about \(45^{o}\) to allow of a knife being passed from side to side to sever the comb attachments. On returning the hive to the horizontal position, the bars with the combs attached are easily removed, and others prepared with foundation may at the same manipulation be placed in the vacant spaces.
The bars as described above are for use in the brood chamber alone ; those for use in the supers are 1% inches in width. Wider bars are provided in the supers because when storing surplus, bees invariably build combs much thicker than those used for breeding purposes. The width of the brood-chamber and supers is 13 inches full, to accommodate in the former nine narrow bars and in the latter seven wide bars.
_Preparing the hive._ The first thing to be done after making or purchasing, with the necessary parts, a hive of good sound material well and accurately put together, is to give two or three coats of white or a light-coloured paint. It is an error to think that any coloured paint is suitable for bee-hives. Probably any colouredpaint of good quality will be equally effective for the purpose of protecting the wood from the effect of weather, but whether the paint shall be coloured or white is a very important matter to the bee-keeper. Black is the worst of all, because that colour is known to absorb the heat rays of the sun. Hence the lighter the colour the less influence will the sun have upon the hive and its contents. This question may be tested by any one placing in the rays of the sun, on a hot summer day, a board, half of which is painted white and half black. After being exposed for some time it will be found, by applying the palm of the hand first to one half, then to the other, that the black part has absorbed more of the heat rays than the white, and is therefore hotter. Mr. A. I. Root, one of the foremost of American bee-keepers, some years ago, in reply to a correspondent who complained of the heat melting the combs in his hives, said that he had met with the same trouble, but that since he had painted his hives white he had not had a single break-down from that cause.
The next step in preparing the hive for the swarm is to fit sheets of foundation into the bars. The sheets of foundation, as received from the manufacturers for fitting into the frames for the movable-comb hive, measure, or should measure, 134 inches wide by 73 inches deep. If each sheet be cut into two pieces 43 and 34 in depth, the former, when fitted into the narrow bars for use in the brood-chamber, will hang down 4 inches, and the latter, placed in the wide bars for the supers, will hang down 3 inches. In the brood-chamber there will then be a space below the foundation of over 3 inches. The building of drone comb in this space from the bottom edges of the foundation will be prevented, should the honey-flow be at its height, first by the giving of a super, but in addition and effectually by a board, or two inch-boards clamped together, to cover the bottom of the hive except for about half an inch in the front. This block, or false bottom, will have the effect of crowding the bees upon the sheets of foundation thus accelerating the work of comb-building so much that the first super might be given on the evening following that on which the swarm was hived. The queen will by that time be busy depositing eggs in the newly worked-out combs, and be less likely to go into the super with the rush of worker bees. But all fear of the queen leaving her own compartment may be avoided by using a sheet of queen-excluding zinc (Fig. 34) upon the bars of the brood-chamber.
As soon as the super becomes warm, by the heat ascending from the brood-nest, the bees will commence work in it, and in a few days, when they are working well, the hive might be lifted gently off the floor-board to allow of the false bottom being removed. As the bees will then be busily carrying their surplus stores into the super, brood-rearing will be continued below, and combs of worker cells will be extended downwards nearly to the floor-board. This may be confidently expected if the queen is a young one. A second super will, in all probability, be required even with a swarm, and if strong and hived early in the season, there is no reason why, with fine weather and abundant forage close at hand, it should not give three supers or 75 lbs.
The first super must never be quite completed before the second is placed between it and the brood-chamber, otherwise preparations for swarming will be commenced.
_Removing supers_. These supers may be cleared of bees by placing them on the box-clearer or by raising the super to be removed and placing under it a cloth to sever the connection between it and the lower super or the brood-chamber, if only one super is on the hive. See Chapter XI.
When the super is raised, one or two of the combs may occasionally be found attached to the bars below ; and the force exerted in raising the super will cause a piece of comb to be broken off. Should this happen, puff a little smoke under the super or plaoe it over a board that has been slightly sprinkled with dilute exdolic acid. The fumes of the acid will keep the bees in the super while the pieces of comb are being removed from the bars of the brood-chamber with a knife or spatula. The dripping honey and comb should be put along with the knife into a can provided with a lid, so that robbing is not induced while the cloth is being spread and the super returned. The bees in the super, finding themselves cut off from the brood-chamber, will be in great commotion, and glad to escape by the perforated zinc cone placed in the roof.
When free of bees the super may be removed to the house and then tilted up to allow of the comb attachments being severed with a knife. The bars may be lifted out with the combs attached, then holding a bar by one end pass a sharp knife downwards close to the bar to cut off the comb, which allow to fall into a pan. The combs should then be sliced with a knife and put into a sieve or strainer in order that the honey may be drained therefrom. The broken combs when melted
will produce more wax than will pay for the foundation which must be inserted in the bars each time a super is used.
Amateur Hives.
_The movable-comb system._ The bee-keeper who decides to keep bees on this, the most improved of all systems of bee-culture, will be puzzled as to which pattern hive to select, out of a multiplicity of styles shown by various manufacturers. He will do well to insist on having his hives made of well-seasoned wood, and accurately put together ; at the same time aiming at simplicity of construction. The cheapest hives are by no means the best ; very often such wares prove to be " cheap and nasty." The movable-comb hive is attributed to the inventive genius of the Rev. L. L. Langstroth, the pioneer of bee-culture in America. In England, the first frame hive that came into general use was the " Woodbury," named after the designer, Mr. T. W. Woodbury, who was not slow to recognise the importance of the movable-comb system. This hive was \(14\frac{1}{2}\) inches square and 9 inches deep, and the frames were 13 inches long and \(7\frac{1}{4}\) deep.
_Frames._ Up to 1882, when the British Bee-keepers' Association, through their Committee, gave the dimensions of what has since been known as the British Standard, frames of various sizes were in use. The inconvenience of so many different sized frames induced the Committee of the British Bee-keepers' Association, in the interest of bee-culture, to consider and resolve upon the most convenient sized frame for general use.
The following Committee was appointed : Messrs. C. N. Abbott, T. W. Cowan, F. Cheshire, J. G. Desborough, J. M. Hooker, A. Neighbour, Revs. G. Raynor and F. T. Scott, and the result of their deliberations was that the frame should be 14 \(\times\) 81\(\frac{1}{2}\) outside measure, the top bar being 17 inches, thus extending beyond the sides at each end and affording, by the projection, an easy means of lifting the frame. The width, \(\frac{1}{2}\) inch, and the thickness of the wood as follows : top bar \(\frac{1}{2}\), side-bars \(\frac{1}{2}\) inch, and bottom bar \(\frac{1}{2}\) inch. The advantage of a standard frame cannot well be over-estimated, for by its use stocks may be quickly changed without trouble or inconvenience into new or clean hives, frames of honey or brood may be given to stocks requiring such help, and, above all, stocks on frames, particularly if the foundation has been wired, may be sent from one apiary to another or to any part of the country.
_Shallow frames._ In addition to the standard frame, which should be used exclusively as a brood frame, a shallow frame, 51\(\frac{1}{2}\) inches deep, really the standard frame 3 inches less in depth, as recommended and first used by Mr. W. Broughton Carr, is now extensively used in most apiaries on stocks that are worked for extracted honey. Mr. Carr first advised that two sets of shallow frames should constitute the brood-chamber,but some years' experience resulted in a return to a brood-chamber furnished with standard frames which would give a compact brood-nest.
_Distance-keepers_. As the combs are built in frames \(\frac{1}{8}\) inch thick, various devices are adopted to keep the combs the proper distance apart. Mr. C. N. Abbott, in connection with his well-known combination hive, introduced the wide-shouldered frame, with which the hives still sent out by Abbott Bros. are fitted. The top bar is cut in such a manner that a shoulder to act as a distance-keeper is left on alternate sides.
In addition to this provision for keeping the frames at the correct distance apart there is also, by reducing the thickness of the bar, at each end on the underside,
what may be termed a shoulder, fitting exactly inside the inner walls which stand \(14\frac{1}{3}\) inches apart. There is then the necessary \(\frac{1}{4}\) inch space between the ends and the hive walls. These frames are all that can be desired in the hands of a careful bee-keeper. Propolis, with which the bees busy themselves in cementing all cracks and crevices, becomes a nuisance when by careless fitting it finds a lodgment between the frame and the shoulder of the next frame.
The next contrivance as a distance-keeper, which attracted much attention, was the metal end designed by Mr. F. Lyon. Of metal ends there are now many varieties, though in their main features they are very similar. The end is made to slide over the end of the top bar, and is kept in position either by a slight top bar, as in Fig. 14, or by projections on the inner sides which press into the side of the top bar (Fig. 16).
The above metal ends have very generally given way before the tin ends known as the " W. B. C." (Fig. 14), Mr. W. Broughton Carr having designed these ends so that they could be made out of one piece of tin, and be easily slipped on the end of the frame. If pushed close up to the side bars the frames are kept \(1\frac{9}{3\cdot 0}\) inch apart.
For various reasons it is thought desirable by some bee-keepers to be able to space frames \(\frac{1}{4}\) inch apart. To do this the alternate ends of this pattern are pushed back a little towards the end of the bar, and when the frames are pushed together the metal ends overlap each other, and a distance of \(\frac{1}{4}\) inch only between the frames is obtained.
The Howard End.
The Howard metal end, which differs somewhat from the " W. B. C.," was introduced to meet the following requirements : " 1. To reduce the brood-chamber surface so that an ordinary section rack may be used between the walls of an extra body when storified, as a lift, so that the escape of heat and bees is rendered impossible. 2. That every frame shall be kept distanced strictly within the inside of the hive, thus entirely preventing propolisation on the resting surface of the underside of the frame, and--3. That the bars may be kept at right angles to the top bar."