BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
Figure 90: Cross-section of the Dadant hive as taken from "Langstroth Revised."
Q. Kindly give the manipulations of divisible brood-chamber hives.
A. Perhaps not two who use divisible hives manage them exactly alike. In a general way, I may say that advantage of divisible hives is taken by reducing to a single story at time of giving supers, although some make the first and second stories exchange places. This last, you will see, throws the honey that was above the brood-nest right into the middle, and the bees are supposed to get busy carrying it up into the supers for the sake of getting brood in its place.
Q. I have decided that a divisible hive consisting of shallow frames and supers, one, two or three, according to the strength of the queen, is about what I want. Is it a practical combination? It looks to me like this hive will be extremely easy of manipulation and that the job of queen and queen-cell finding will be minimized. I wish to winter out of doors, and think I can make a warm hive of the shallow frames and supers by contracting the brood-nest horizontally with a tight division-board on each side and packing between them and the outside; the ends being closed.
A. I doubt the advisability of your trying shallow or divisible-chamber hives. To be sure, some good beekeepers use them, but the majority of beekeepers prefer a frame not less than the Langstroth, and some like a still larger frame. If you do decide to use some of the divisible hives, try only a very few at first, until you decide whether they are suited to your use.
Q.Which is better in a double-walled hive, a dead-air space, or planer shavings packing?
A. It is generally considered better to have packing in the space. Theoretically, air might be thought a better non-conductor than shavings, and so it is if the air would remain still; but the trouble is that it will not remain still, but when a part, of it becomes warm, at the warmest part it travels to a cooler part to give up its heat there. The packing stops it from traveling so much.
Q. Is a "chaff" hive entirely practical? If not, what are the objections to it? I have no cave and do not like to contemplate the work incident to packing 50 or more hives with paper or other material.
A. Chaff hives have been successfully used to quite a large extent, although perhaps not so much as formerly. One objection is their weight and unwieldiness; another that when the sun shines on a hive in winter it takes too long for the heat to penetrate the thick walls. They are much used in northern states.
Q. (a) Do the double-walled hives produce more honey than the single-walled?
(b) Are bees wintered out-of-doors better in the former hive than in the latter?
A. (a) No; and in general it may be said that differences in hives are more for the convenience of the beekeeper than for the bees. Looking at it in another way, however, if two hives stand side by side, one with double walls and the other with very thin walls entirely unprotected out-doors in a very cold climate, it might be said that more honey would be produced in one than the other, because the bees might nearly all die in one and not in the other in winter, and that would make a difference in the amount stored the next summer.
(b) Not if the single-walled hive is well packed.
Q. I use the Acme hive and Wisconsin style. Which is better, in your judgment?
A. I like the Wisconsin the better of the two, because it has the regular Langstroth frame. The dovetailed is still better, because the portico of the Wisconsin makes a good shelter for spiders.
Q. Would a 12-frame hive be a!! right to use here in northern United States? Would the bees swarm as much as they do in 8-frame hives, or would it prevent swarming?
A. Some use 12-frame hives with great satisfaction. Although they will not prevent swarming entirely, there will be much less swarming than with 8-frame hives, and with them you should get as mnnch honey.
Q. Kindly refer me to any bee-papers or other sources of information about the Long-Idea hive.
A. I don't know just where to refer you, although years ago there was quite a little scattered through the bee-papers about the Long-Idea hive. Although used somewhat largely in Europe, it is nsed very little in this country. O. O. Poppelton is its chief apostle, a very able beekeeper of Florida, who likes it much. All there is of it is to make the one story large enough to contain all the frames you want, so as to use no second story. Some use a queen-excluder so as to separate the hive into two compartments, one for brood and the other for honey. I'm not sure about it, but I rather think Mr. Poppleton does not use this excluder.
**Holy Land Bees.--\(Q\)**. Are the Holy Land bees a different kind from the others, or are they a substitute under a different name? I would like a description of them--color, etc.
A. The Holy Land is the same as the Palestine, and comes from Palestine. They are distinguished as being very prolific, and for starting and maturing a great number of queen-cells; but for some reason they seem not to be in general favor.
**Honey, Bitter.--\(Q\)**. In this vicinity, 30 miles north of Chatta-nooga, all of the honey stored before May 20, this year, was decidedly bitter. Some say it was peach bloom, some black gum, some dogwood. Do any of these cause bitter honey?
I have been inclined to think the bitter honey came from the bitter weed, or yellow fennel, which was stored in the brood-chamber last September, as there was lots of it in this section last fall. Some of my colonies stored as much as 20 or 30 pounds apiece in supers. It was as bitter as quinine. I fed it to weaker colonies. Could this have been removed from the brood-chamber and carried into the super, as they wanted to make room for the brood, and mixed with other honey?
Figure 21: Blossom and stalk of the bitterweed of the South. It is the cause of most bitter honey.
A. I'm rather glad to live where I have no chance for practical knowledge of such objectionable honey.
Generally, the honey in the brood-chamber is used up for brood, but if the queen were crowded for room the bees might carry honey from the brood-chamber into the super to make room for her.
Helenium tenuifolium, also called "bitterweed" and "sneeze-weed," yields bitter honey, but it is not the same as fennel (Anthemis cotala), which is a chamomile and yields no honey.
**Honey, Bottled.-Q.** What do you think of the plan of bottling honey and making it an expensive luxury so that the consumer can just taste of it occasionally? Would there not be more of the spirit of "loving our neighbors as ourselves" to cut out the middle system of bottling and sell it to him at a figure so that he can make it an article of everyday diet? In the long run, would there not be more dollars and cents for the beekeeper?
A. The way to do is to sell honey in as large and inexpensive containers as possible so as to make as little expense as possible for each bound sold. That ought to give the consumer the most for his money and the producer the most money for his honey. Unfortunately, however, we are often controlled by conditions and circumstances. A large part of the consuming public is in the habit of buying in small quantities. A Chicago retail grocer who should keep honey only in 20 to 60-pound packages would probably sell very little honey; whereas, plenty of customers will buy a pound at a time, even if they must pay for a bottle of no value to them. What better can he do than to keep the small packages?
**Honey, Color of.-Q.** I would like to know the cause of dark honey.
A. The color of honey depends upon the source from which the bees obtain the nectar. From buckwheat they get honey that is very dark, from fireweed that which is very light, and varying grades from other plants. Sometimes there is a difference in the shade of the same kind of honey obtained in different regions or on different soils. Some alfalfa honey is a shade darker than the lightest to be found elsewhere.
Q. The bees are all storing dark honey, and it has a strong flavor. No one seems to know what causes it, as we have lots of white clover, and also lots of rain.
**A.** The trouble may be honeydew, and there is no remedy, unless it be to take off all surplus arrangements at the beginning and end of the honeydew flow. Indeed, it is the same if the dark honey comes from any other source.
**Honey, Foaming.--Q**. In a covered tank I have honey harvested a few months ago. Whenever I dip it up with a spoon and fill a glass it becomes all foamy and runs out of the glass. Does it show that the honey is not ripe? I don't remember if it was all sealed.
**A.** The probability is that the honey was very unripe.
**Honey, Freezing.--Q**. It is the custom here in Russia to keep and sell honey in wooden tubs without any covers. Usually it granulates in October or November. It is kept all winter in buildings without stoves, where the temperature is under freezing point. Does freezing injure honey?
**A.** Freezing does not in any way injure granulated honey. It hastens the granulation of liquid honey, and may crack the combs of comb honey.
**Honey, Harvesting.--Q**. What month can honey be harvested? (New York.)
**A.** Comb honey is generally ready to be harvested whenever it is fully sealed over. That probably means in your locality that most of it will be taken off in July and August and still later if there is a late flow. The same rule applies to extracted honey, only some of the best beekeepers prefer to leave all on the hives until the close of the season.
Q. A day or two ago I removed a super of honey, either basswood or sumac, which was entirely sealed over. Upon tasting the honey I found it left a raw taste in my mouth. I suspect it was green, and gave it to the bees again. How can I tell when it is ripened?
**A.** Generally honey is ripe when it is sealed, and it may be that the objectionable taste comes from some peculiar plant. If that be the case, the bad taste may or may not disappear. Indeed, basswood itself has the reputation of a raw taste until it has attained a certain age, and that taste may disappear, even if the honey be off the hive. I know of no way you can tell when it is ripe except by the taste and the consistency.
Q. (a) When is the best time to take honey from the bees, at noon, in the morning, or in the evening?
(b) How can I kill bees and save the honey? I have two little swarms that are not worth keeping.
(c) How can I get the bees separated from the honey after it is taken off?
A. (a) That depends somewhat on circumstances. Generallybeekepers take comb honey from time to time as fast as each super is finished and sealed, or nearly so. In that case most of it is taken during the season that bees are busy at work, and it is better to operate while most of the gatherers are abroad in the field, and not so early in the morning or late in the evening. If, however, bee-escapes are used, they are put on'toward the after part of the day, and the honey taken before the middle of the next day.
Much the same thing may be said about taking extracted honey, although some of our best practitioners do not take their extracted until the close of the season for each kind of honey. Of course, it is also true that the last of the comb honey is taken at the close of the flow. At such times there may be some gain by getting at work pretty early in the day, before robbers are much on the wing. Those who are in the business extensively do not pay much attention to the time of day, but work away any time of day, or the whole day, just as suits their convenience.
(b) The usual way to kill bees is with the fumes of burning sulphur. But if each of those colonies is too small to be worth saving you may be able to make one fair colony out of the two. Or, you could add each one to some colony that would be the better to be a little stronger. Nowadays it is not usually considered good practice to kill bees.
(c) There are various ways of getting bees out of surplus honey. Some use the Porter bee-escape. Some drive part of the bees out with smoke then pile up the supers on the ground and set a Miller escape on top of each pile. Some simply brush them off the extracting-conbs. For a small quantity you can put the honey in a large box, put a sheet over it, and turn the sheet over from time to time as the bees collect on it.
Q. I have several supers of fine honey all capped over and finished. Would you advise me to take it off and put it in a well- ventilated room, or leave it in the hive? If the latter, how long?
A. Take it off as soon as finished. The honey will be as good or better if left on longer, but the comb will become dark. Keep it in a dry, warm place.
**Honey, Keeping.-Q.** Can honey from this year be kept till next year without spoiling?
A. Yes, there is no trouble in keeping extracted honey over, and even comb honey may be kept in a dry, warm place.
Q. In reply to the question when to take off supers, you say,"Take off each super when it is full." Now, will you please tell me how to take care of the honey after taking it off, until I can sell or eat it? If I take the super off and put it, no matter where, the ants get at it.
A. Keep the honey it a warm, dry, airy place. If warm and dry it doesn't matter so much about being airy. A place where salt will keep dry, and where it never freezes is a pretty good place. One way to keep it from ants is to have it closed in something so tight-fitting that ants cannot get to it. That's a hard thing to do, especially with a large quantity. An easier way is to put it on some kind of platform supported on four feet, each foot resting in some old dish or can kept supplied with some kind of oil or water. Perhaps you can kill off the ants. If you can trace them to their nest, you can give them a dose of bisulphide of carbon, or gasoline. You can wring a sponge out of sweetened water and put it where the ants will collect on it, then dip ants and all in boiling water, repeating the performance until you have used up the ants. This last you must, of course, do before the ants begin on the honey, for they may prefer the honey to a sweetened sponge.
**Honey, Kind to Produce.-Q.** I have been running my apiary for chunk honey, but find that I can find a sale for quite a lot of extracted honey. I have a few nice, straight combs on medium brood-foundation, wired. What would be the storing capacity of one colony with 1-inch foundation-starters, one colony with full sheets of medium brood-foundation, as compared with a colony with full-drawn combs; that is, if a colony with full-drawn combs could fill 20 frames, about how much could the other respective colonies fill, everything else being equal? I expect to use full sheets of thin surplus for chunk honey, and full sheets of medium for extracting. I ask these questions simply to have some idea as to how much foundation of each kind to buy this season.
A. I don't know. If you want me to guess, I'm willing to do my best at guessing. I must premise that by saying that the answer depends somewhat upon the flow. If a short and very heavy flow is on, the fully drawn combs will have a much greater advantage than they will have in a light and long-continued flow. In the former case, while the colony with full combs stores 20 pounds, the colony with one-inch foundation-starters will store from 10 to 15 pounds, and the colony with full sheets of thin surplus from 12 to 17. With medium brood-foundation it ought to do just a little better than with thin surplus.
In the case of the long, slow flow, while built combs give 20,the starters should give 15 to 18, and the full sheets of foundation 16 to 19. I can, however, imagine an extreme case with an immensely heavy flow lasting only a day or two, in which 20 pounds would be stored in built combs and not a drop in the others. On the other hand, I can imagine a very long flow with a very little more gathered daily than the bees need for their own use, and very nearly as much stored with starters as with full combs. But remember that all this is only guessing, and my guesser may not work in perfect order. I think the editor-in-chief knows more about it than I do, and I'd be glad to have his guess, even if it makes mine look like the guess of a beginner.
(My guess would be a greater difference when built combs yielded 20 pounds, say 10 to 15 pounds for starters, and 15 to 18 for sheets of foundation. I have seen sometimes what Dr. Miller states, 15 to 20 pounds in built combs and not a drop in the others.--Editor.)
**Honey, Purity of.-Q.** Some dealers tell me that I have been feeding my bees sugar syrup. Others ask me if it is machine-made. I would like to be able to prove that my nice, white comb honey is pure honey, produced by the bees, but as I am not very well posted on honey yet, I do not know just what to say. I have heard it said that somebody, somewhere, offered $!,000 for a pound of machine-made honey. Who was this man, and is the offer still good, and has he got the $!,000 yet? The trouble is that many persons believe that clean, white combs without stains are machine-made; that pure amber honey is colored, and if it is clear and white it must be nothing but sugar and water.
A. An argument that I think was first advanced by C. P. Dadant ought to be enough to convince anyone with sufficient reason that section honey is not machine made. Take any two sections of honey and place them side by side. If machine made they would be exactly alike; whereas there will be no difficulty in pointing out differences that will knock out all idea that they are made in the same mold, and establish clearly that each section is an individual job, worked out by the bees. Pop-holes in one will be clearly different from those in another, and variations of cells will be evident. You may also show a section just as it is when you give it to the bees, and that will be convincing to most men that the bees do the rest.
The offer of $!,000 for a section of honey made without the aid of bees was first made by the A. I. Root Company, and is still good, with many thousands of dollars back of it. No one has yet captured the reward. The same offer has also been made by the National Beekepers' Association.
**Honey, Ripe.--Q**. When honey is sealed and capped over by the bees, is it ripe and ready to take off, if not, how is one to know?
A. As a rule, when honey is sealed it is ripe, and it isn't ripe, until it is sealed. That's the rule, and if you follow it in taking off honey all the mistakes you make will never send you to the penitentiary. As with most rules, there are exceptions. The bees may seal up honey before it is ripe, and they may leave it unsealed after it is ripe. You can tell by seeing whether the honey is thick or thin. If it's thick, call it ripe. But the exceptions are so few that in actual practice I never paid any attention to them, merely counting all honey ready to take off if sealed.
**Honey, Soil Affecting Yield.--Q**. Why is it that some plants produce honey in some places and don't in others? Cotton, for instance, yields heavily in both north and south Georgia, but does not yield honey, or the bees do not get it, just a little north of the center of the state, among the red hills.
A. I don't know; only I know it is so. The soil or the elevation may have something to do with it.
**Honey, Sour.--Q**. (a) Will honey extracted from comb freshly built and not capped over sour if placed in a can? If so, how would you prevent this?
(b) Will comb and extracted honey put in regular honey buckets sour if kept any length of time?
A. (a) Maybe, and maybe not. Sometimes honey is sealed before it is ripened, but generally not. The remedy is to wait until the honey is sealed before extracting. Even if it never soured, it will be money in your pocket in the long run if you never put anything on the market but the very best ripened article.
(b) Either kind may be kept for years without souring if well ripened by the bees and then kept in a dry place where it will not attract moisture. Keep it in a place where salt will keep dry. If salt gets moist in a certain place so will honey, unless it be extracted honey tightly sealed.
Q. What makes honey sour in the hive when the flow is at its best and no honeydew? This season I ran my bees for comb honey; in some of the hives honey soured before it was capped.
A. I don't know. I know it sometimes occurs, and I suppose it is something in the character of the honey itself.
* Q. Is it safe and right to feed bees honey that has soured? A. Yes, if fed in the spring at a time when bees are flying daily, and at a time when there is no danger of its going into surplus. They will use it for breeding.
**Honey, Thinning.-Q**. How do you thin down honey to feed bees? If I mix it with water it sours. A. Mercly stir the honey and water together--all the better if the water is hot. It will not sour if fed within a day or so, and it ought not to be allowed to stand longer.
**Honey, Unripe.-Q**. What is "green" or "unripe" honey? Is not honey good to eat as soon as it is capped over? A. Green or unripe honey is that which has not been in the hive long enough to become sufficiently evaporated. Generally it is sufficiently ripened when sealed, but there are exceptions. Fortunately, the exceptions are rare.
**Honey-Board.-Q**. How is a honey-board made? Is it just a board with a bee-escape in the underside? Would it pay to use these for extracting honey; put them on in the afternoon before you expect to extract and then just take off the supers and frames together, and wheel them into the house?
**A. Honey-boards were in use long before bee-escapes were heard of. A honey-board was one placed over the top-bars, with a beespace between, there being in the board holes or slots, over which were placed surplus-boxes. Latterly a board with an escape in it is sometimes called a honey-board, but it is better to simply call it a bee-escape. Opinions are divided as to using bee-escapes in the way you mention, some highly approving them and others not believing them worth while. I suspect that bee-eseapes work better for some than for others, either because of the difference in bees or for some other reason.
**Honey Comb (See Combs.)**
**Honeydew.-Q**. How can one tell when there is honeydew? A. I don't believe I can tell you in words how you can decide as to honeydew. I couldn't tell in words just how an orange tastes. The dark color of honeydew and peculiar taste help to decide, but I can't tell what that taste is. If you know the bees are working on some tree where there are no flowers, you may be suspicious.
* Q. Does honeydew ever appear before July 1st? A. Yes, it does, sometimes. Q. Does honeydew come any time of the year? My bees
Q. Give your opinion as to bees wintering in cellar on honey-dew. My bees used up a large portion of this honeydew which they gathered earlier in the season in summer breeding, but, while they have a good quantity of honey to winter on, much of it seems to be dark and of a strong, almost sourish taste.
A. A small amount of honeydew in winter stores seems to do little or no harm, but in large quantities it is likely to do much harm. Of course, there is a difference in honeydew in taste, and there may be kinds not so bad for wintering as others, but it is not safe to count on that. Although the honey crop was a failure, it is just possible that you had a pretty fair fall flow, and that as the brood-nest became less the vacant cells were filled with honey of good quality for wintering. If you had extracted in September, or even early in October, and fed sugar syrup, it might have been safer. You might, however, lay a cake of candy, say an inch thick, over top-bars, if you think you dare not risk what is in the combs, as the bees would be likely to use the candy first.
Honey Locust.Q. How does the honey locust compare with the linden in yielding nectar?
A. Not nearly so good. But it comes earlier, when it may help greatly in brood-rearing. The black locust is better.
Honey-Plants.Q. I would be pleased to know if there are works on honey-plants. I have a couple of acres to devote to artificial pasture just for the honey, if it is probable that success might come of it in any way.