BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
**Drones.--Q.** At what time do bees begin to rear drones?A. Eggs are likely to be laid in drone-cells as soon as there is a considerable flow, and drones will appear 24 days later.
Q. Will drones stay with a colony of bees without a queen?
A. Yes, better than with a queen.
Q. Two of my hives have some drones yet (November.) Why is it?
A. I'm afraid they're queenless; yet it sometimes happens that drones are suffered late where there is a good queen and plenty of honey.
Q. I find that one of my colonies is still rearing drones. The queen looks all right. She has been one of the best among 65. She is supposed to be young as she came through the mail in May, and I started her with a small bunch of bees, and she built up a strong colony. I didn't notice any drones until lately. (January.)
A. The queen may be all right and she may be all wrong. It sometimes happens that a colony takes a notion to cherish some drones after drones are generally killed off, keeping them through the winter, while the queen is afl right, but the fear is that your queen has become a drone-layer, even if she is not old. You can probably tell by the sealed brood next spring or even now, if there is any sealed brood present. If you find cappings of worker-cells flat, that's all right. If they are raised and rounded, like so many little marbles, the queen is a drone-layer, and should be killed. To be sure, there has been known such a thing as a queen getting over being a drone-layer, as W. M. Whitney has reported, but you better not count on that.
Q. My bees had no drones to speak of this season, except on two or three days, when I saw four or five flying from two hives, and the bees killed them right away. What was the cause?
A. The absence of drones may be due to the poorness of the season. Keeping drones is a sort of luxury that bees indulge in when they are prosperous, and when forage is scarce they do not feel they can afford it.
Q. My nearest bekeeping neighbor is a mile and one-quarter. If I stock up with Italians is there much danger of my queens being fertilized by his black drones? I use full sheets of foundation, and have very few drones. He uses only starters, and I saw whole frames in his hives that were built out solid with drone-comb, except two inches where the starter was. He had six colonies, and got no surplus. They swarmed as soon as they got a half-gallon of bees in a hive, and I don't want any of his stock, but would like to rear most of my own queens. Two of those I reared were larger and better layers than the one I bought.
A. The probability is that your neighbor's drones will be obliging enough to meet most of your queens. Can't you get him to change to Italian blood?
Q. Would you advise rearing drones and queens from the same mother?
A. It will be better to rear queens from your very best colony and drones from a few of the next best. Yet if you should try to rear queens and drones both from the same colony it is not certain that much harm would come from it, for the young queens would be likely to meet drones from other colonies, perhaps from a colony a mile or more away.
Q. I thought I saw a few black drones in an Italian colony. Do you think I was right, or was I fooled in the kind of bees?
A. Nothing strange about it. Drones are freebooters, and in prosperons times will be accepted in any colony. So black drones may have come from some other colony. It is also true that pure Italian drones are sometimes very dark when the workers are properly marked.
Q. Are the drones from a mismated Italian queen still pure Italian, or are they hybrids?
A. It is generally considered that the drone progeny is not affected by the mating of the queen, although some maintain that the blood of the queen may be so affected as to affect the character of the drone progeny slightly in the direction of the drone which the queen met.
Q. I have one colony that has two kinds of drones. About half show yellow bands, while the others do not. The workers do not all show three yellow bands. What race are they?
A. The drones are not uniform, and only the workers are relied on to decide purity. Your colony of bees that do not all show three yellow bands is hybrid unless some bees have entered from other hives-a thing that often occurs. To be sure entirely, examine the young bees that have not left the hive; if all of these have three yellow bands you may count them Italians.
Q. About how many drones should there be in a healthy colony?
A. Some think it best to try to keep them down altogether, except in one or more of the best colonies. I think G. M. Doolittle allows to each colony what drones they can rear in a square inch of drone-comb.
Q. When should the drones be caught? Why are there so many when it is only necessary for them to meet the queen once?A. Any time. Prevention, however, is better than cure. Allow very little drone-comb in your hives and you'll have few drones.
For greater safety to the queen. If there was only one drone for each queen, the queen might make many trips before mating.
**Drumming.-Q**. What do you mean, in answering queries, by "drumming" the bees out of a hive in transferring, and how is it done? Is it knocking on the sides or top, and for how long, and how hard? Do you use just the fingers, or fist, or stick?
A. Turn a hive upside down, drum on the sides of the hive with your fists or a heavy stick on the opposite sides, and if you drum long enough with heavy strokes you will set the bees to running up into whatever is placed over. No light tapping with your fingers will do, neither with the fists, unless strong and heavy.
**Dummies.-Q**. What are dummies? What is their construction and use?
A. Take a top-bar and nail a board on so that the length of the board is the same as the length of a frame, and the depth of top-bar and all the same as the depth of frame, top-bar and all. That's your dummy. It may be an inch thick, or anything less down to one-quarter inch. It is used to fill up any space desired, and especially at one side of a hive. If no dummy is in the hive it is hard to get out the first frame, if the frames are self-spacing or fixed-distance frames. If there is a space filled with a dummy at one side, it is easy to take out the dummy, and then easy to take out any desired frame.
(See also Division-Boards.)
Q. You are often called upon to explain what dummies are, how they are made, and how used in the hives. In confining a small colony to one side of the hive, do you fill the empty space with anything?
A. A weak colony, say one that needs only four frames, may have a dummy at one side of the frames with the remaining space in the hive left entirely vacant; only the dummy must be moved and a frame or frames added as needed. Generally, however, when one has a weak colony of that kind which is expected to build up, one has enough empty combs to fill up the hive, and in that case I wouldn't use a dummy at all. You may ask whether the bees would not be warmer to have the combs that are occupied shut off from the empty combs by a dummy. One would naturally think so, yet experiments carefully made, if I remember rightly,by Prof. Gaston Bonnier, showed that the empty combs were just as good as a board partition.
For winter, the space behind a dummy may be filled with warm absorbents.
**Dwindling.-Q**. (a) Why do some colonies (having plenty of stores and a fairly good number of bees) start brood-rearing in the latter part of winter and get a good deal of capped brood and brood in all stages, and when cold weather comes the whole outfit dies? This has happened with me two seasons.
(b) How can I avoid this thing?
A. (a) This seems to be a case of what is called spring dwindling. The cause is somewhat in doubt. It looks a little as if the bees were old, had more brood started than they could take care of, then died off with the strain of trying to provide digested food for the brood, sometimes swarming out with plenty of food in the hive.
(b) I don't know, unless it be to have colonies strong with bees not too old the preceding fall.
**Dysentery (See Diarrhea.)**
**Dzierzon Theory.-Q**. The following was copied from a daily paper. Is the doctrine true? I have never heard of it before.
"The strangest thing that Mr. Watts told the Review reporter was that the drones are produced from unfertil eggs. One with experience with poultry would expect such eggs to fail to hatch. Scientists, both by microscopical examination of the eggs found in drone combs and by studying the life history of bees, have proven that the drone actually has only one parent, the queen mother, and every observing apiarist has seen convincing evidence of this fact."
A. Of all the bee journals of any language in the world, the one that I have valued most is the first volume of the American Bee Journal. That was published in 1861. Its chief value consists in the fact that it gives a full discussion of the Dzierzon theory, the kernel of which is that the queen is fertilized once for life, laying fertilized and unfertil eggs, and that the unfertilized eggs produce only drones. In the half century since then there has been some attempt to controvert the Dzierzon theory, especially by Ferdinand Dickel, but intelligent beekeepers quite generally accept it; so that the clipping is all right.
**Egg-Laying.-Q**. When does the queen begin laying in the spring?
A. In a colony wintered outdoors she begins, in the north, in February, or even in January. In Texas, probably earlier. Ifcellared, she begins about the time bees are taken out of the cellar.
Q. What would you think of a queen that fills every cell in most of the combs with eggs, and in numerous places has eggs in half-built cells, and in cells filled with beebread?
A. That is just what every good queen should do, except laying in a cell containing pollen. When you find eggs in a pollen-cell you may generally count that laying workers are present, although it is possible that occasionally an otherwise good queen may do such a foolish thing.
**Eggs.-Q.** Has the queen the power to fertilize eggs or not?
A. Sure. She fertilizes all but the drone-eggs.
Q. In regard to bee-eggs, is there any difference or distinction between the eggs from which a queen and worker are hatched or reared? If I am correct, bee-men use any egg they may come to when transferring eggs to queen-cells, and the difference results from the size of cell and the material on which the young bees are fed.
A. An egg laid by a good queen in a queen-cell is precisely the same as one she lays in a worker-cell. A drone-egg is a different thing. A drone-egg is unfertilized and can produce nothing but a drone, even if fed in a queen-cell; other eggs are fertilized.
Q. I have only one colony of bees, in which I find many cells with from 2 to 6 eggs in each. And at the front end of some of the combs there are cells that seem to have 30 or 40 eggs in each. I never saw anything like it before. I could not find the queen. Did laying workers try to fill the cells with eggs?
A. Almost certainly it is laying workers. You will probably find that if any drone-cells are in the brood-nest the nuisances have been specially favorable to them. Also, you will be likely to find one or more queen-cells, and in these there may be as many as a dozen eggs in each. Better break up the whole business, giving combs with adhering bees to other colonies.
Q. I have a queen that I reared in a nucleus. She is of good size and pure Italian; very gentle. I have seen her lay while holding up the comb, but I have counted as many as six eggs in one cell. What do you think is the matter with her? She is in a hive, but the bees cover only four frames in it. Do you think there ought to be more bees in it so the queen could have more room?
A. It is nothing unusual for a good queen to lay more than one egg in a cell when she has so small a fqce of bees that she hasn't room to spread herself; although it is unusual for her to
A. Not if the entrance-guard is perfect and the queen of normal size. Some have thought that when a queen is not laying, her abdomen consequently smaller than usual, she might get through a perforation smaller than when in full laying. But it is not the size of the abdomen that prevents her passage, it is the thorax. The abdomen is soft and yielding, and when at the largest it will easily flatten out to go through any perforation large enough to allow the passage of the thorax. The thorax is a sort of bony structure, which is the same whether the queen is laying little or much..
**Entrances.-\(Q\).** I have contracted the entrances to all hives of colonies that need feeding or that are weak in bees. The strong colonies don't need any contracting, do they?
A. It is not so important to lessen the entrance, as to avoid everything that may start robbing. This year my nuclei have the same entrance as the full colonies--12 by 2 inches--and there has also been one case of robbing at a full colony with a normal laying queen. Very likely some unwise thing had been done to start the robbing.
\(Q\). Do you contract the entrance in the spring during cool nights? If so, how much? Is it not a good plan to contract the entrance on account of robber-bees in spring?
A. Yes, just as soon as my bees are taken out of the cellar the entrances are contracted to a hole three-quarters to one inch square. It helps against robbing and keeps the bees warmer, day and night.
\(Q\). Would you contract a wide entrance during a cool spell in summer?
A. No. Takes too much work. But if I had only a few colonies, and worked them as a sort of pastime, I might change the entrance according to the weather.
\(Q\). Is there any advantage to have the entrance 1% inches deep and full width of hive?
A. Yes; it gives chance for better ventilation in hot weather, and also in winter, if you winter in the cellar. But you cannot have 1% inches under bottom-bars in summer unless you have some provision to prevent the bees building down.
\(Q\). Should I diminish the entrance of the hive in winter? (California.)
A. In your locality probably no contraction is needed.
\(Q\). Should the entrance be 1x5 inches, with a wire-cloth in it to prevent mice entering?A. Wire-cloth with three meshes to the inch is a good thing at the entrance for winter, but not when bees are flying daily.
Q. If a colony is extra large, how large should the hive-entrance be?
A. Full width of the hive.
Q. What do you think of having the entrance the long way of the hive seven-eighths of an inch high during the honey flow? Did you ever try it?
A. If you mean to have the entrance the long way of the hive, and that the only entrance, I shouldn't like it so well as to have the entrance the usual way, because the latter allows ferer entrance of air. In Europe it is quite common to have the entrance as yon describe. That's called the "warm arrangement," and the frames running at right angles to the entrance (the common way here) is called the "cold arrangement." I never tried the single entrance at the side, but have practiced largely having the entrance on all four sides. I like it much, but now have only one opening two inches deep, as being, in the long run, more convenient.
Q. How about a separate entrance to supers?
A. Some advise it, but generally it is not used. An opening above for ventilation, in very hot weather, however, may be a fine thing.
Q. Does it make any difference if the hive-entrance faces the north during the winter, and would it be a good plan to build a sort of box around and close the entrance one-half its present width? (Ohio.)
A. So far south as southern Ohio it probably makes little difference how a hive faces. Yet a good many favor facing south, and having no protection on the front. In this way the bees more quickly get the effects of the sun on a warm day in winter.
**Equalizing Brood.-Q.** Is it a good policy to equalize brood in the spring?
A. Yes, if rightly done, and no brood taken from any colony unless it has more than four frames well filled with brood.
**Excluders.-Q.** Do you use a queen-excluder on your hives to keep the queen from laying in the sections? If not, how do you prevent this?
A. With full sheets of foundation in sections, and frames not too shallow in the brood-chamber, the queen so seldom makes trouble in the supers that I never use an excluder to keep her down.
Q. Are not queen-excluders a hindrance to bees, or will I have to get some excluders? If so, how many? A. While it is generally thought best to use excluders for extracted honey, some do not use them, such prominent men as C. P. Dadant and E. D. Townsend being of the number. The latter says that by giving additional supers always on top he has no need for excluders. If you find it is better to use them, you will need one for each colony.
Q. Have you tried the new queen and drone-excluders, or honey-boards, made of wire? Have they any claim to be classed as an improvement on the perforated zinc, or is it only a scheme of the manufacturers? A. I do not use excluders under supers, so I don't use many excluders, although for some purposes they are indispensable. Having quite a stock of the old kind of excluders on hand, I have never tried the wire excluders. I don't suppose there is a great deal of difference, but one would suppose that the bees would like the smooth wires better than the sharp edge left by the punching of the metal for the perforations. The wire excluders also allow better ventilation. Q. Can virgin or unfertile queens pass through excluding zinc? A. A laying queen looks much larger than a virgin, but it is the abdomen that's larger, not the thorax. It's not the abdomen, but the thorax that prevents a queen going through the zinc, and I think the thorax of a laying queen is no larger than it was when she was a virgin; so she ought to go through no more easily one time than another. But a virgin queen probably makes a more vigorous effort to go through, so she might go through an aperture through which she would not force herself after she settled down as a laying queen.
**Extracted Honey-Q.** I am going to buy five dovetailed 10-frame hives this spring. I only want honey for the house. Which is better for me, the extracting hive or sections? I read in the bee-books the extracting hive is best for home use. Please tell me why. A. Extracting saves the bees much labor in building comb, so it is generally estimated that you can get about one-half more extracted honey than comb. So, in deciding the question for yourself, the question is whether you would rather have 100 pounds of comb honey or 150 pounds of extracted. Q. Is it advisable to extract honey as soon is it is gathered? Is there any danger of it getting sour?A. It may be extracted early if it is sealed; otherwise not till the crop is well over. It may sour, and the flavor may be poor.
Q. Owing to the lack of supers I extracted some honey when about two-thirds capped. Will it do to sell it that way?
A. If the honey is very thin, it is better not to sell it in that condition, but the mere fact that a third of it is still uncapped does not condemn it. If it is good, thick honey, it does not matter that it was partly unsealed. If thin, it may be brought to a better consistency by letting it stand uncovered where it will be heated to 100 or 125 degrees.
**Extracting-Combs.-Q.** Can I get honey out of the extracting-frames without the extractor? Can I melt it over the stove some way without breaking the comb, and will the bees store honey in the comb again?
A. No; if you want to save the combs, it's the extractor or nothing.
Q. Can good extracting-combs be built in Hoffman wired brood-frames from 2-inch starters of medium brood-foundation?
Will they stand extracting as well as combs built from full sheets?
A. Yes, fairly good.
No; and for two reasons. Most of the comb will be built without any foundation, and the septum of natural comb is more tender and thinner than that in foundation. Also, the wires in this natural comb will not be all in the septum, as will the wires in full sheets of foundation.
Q. Can new combs be used for extracting when built on full sheets of comb-foundation and wired?
A. Yes; but while they are new and tender it is well to use caution in extracting, if they are very full. Turn not too rapidly, and extract perhaps half the honey on one side. Reverse the comb and extract all the other side. Then reverse again and finish the first side.
Q. Which would you recommend, the 8 or 10-frame, full or shallow super, for the production of extracted honey?
A. Ten-frame hives, or larger, for brood-chamber, and I think I should prefer shallow extracting combs.
**Extractors.-Q.** Will it pay me to get an extractor for twenty colonies?
A. Yes; or for three, especially if you expect to increase.
Q. I am thinking of buying an extractor. What kind would you advise me to get? How about the Novice 4-frame non reversible extractor? Is the Cowan rapid-reversible any better? Is the 4-frame too big, or not? Does the reversing help any?
A. It is generally well to make sure that your extractor is too large rather than too small, taking into account the possibility of increasing the number of your colonies. So, if you don't object to the difference in price it may be well to get the 4-frame. The reversing is a decided advantage, although one kind does as good work as the other.
_Q._ Would like to know the speed at which a honey extractor must run to do good work. I have some cogwheels spceded three turns of the smaller to one of the larger. Will that speed enough to extract honey?
A. Three to one will give you plenty of speed. Indeed, there is no trouble about getting speed enough with no cogs at all. The first extractor I knew anything about had none; each revolution with the handle made a revolution with the baskets.
_Q._ How long may an extractor remain without washing? That is, how long may the extractings be apart without injuring anything?
A. I think in some cases harm might be done by leaving an extractor daubed for, 24 hours. I know that in some cases a weck or more will do no harm. Perhaps the kind of honey or the condition of the atmosphere makes a difference.
Tin does not readily blacken the honey, but all iron parts do. Better wash the extractor often.
**Eyes of Bees.-Q.** How many eyes has a honeybee?
A. They don't all have the same number. For the sake of making the count easier, we may say the worker has three simple and two compound eyes, each of the compound eyes being made up of a number of facets; but really each facet is a separate eye. Cowan says: "There is great variation in the number of facets in the compound eyes of bees. In the worker the lowest is given as 3,500, whereas we have ourselves found as many as 5,000." Drones have more than either queen or worker. Cheshire counted on each side of the head--in a worker, 6,300; in a queen, 4,920; in a drone, 13,090.
**Fanning of Bees.-Q.** In warm weather, when the bees are fanning, do they do that to get the water out of the honey, or to cool the hives?
A. Both; but perhaps more than either to get fresh air into the hive. Bees seem to have a notion that pure air is a fine thing, summer or winter.
\(Q\). When the bees are vigorously fanning with their heads to the entrance, which is accomplished, cool air driven in, or hot air being drawn out?
A. When I have put the back of my hand near the entrance it has always felt as if the current were toward my hand, and so drawn out of the hive.
**Feeders--Q**. What is the best feeder to use for any amount of feed?
A. If a considerable amount of feed is to be given, nothing is better than the Miller feeder. The Doolittle is excellent for smaller amounts and handy for the bees. For an entrance-feeder the Boardman is good.
Q. If I have a correct idea of the Alexander feeder, it is used under the bottom-board of the hive. How would the bees get access to the feed?
A. The feeder is, so to speak, part of the bottom-board, at the back end of the hive, on the plan of the simplicity feeder, so the bees come directly down from the frames into the feeder.
Q. What do you think of the Boardman feeder?
A. Good; but when heavy feeding is to be done you would expect me to prefer the Miller.
Q. Would you recommend the division-board feeders for beginners?
A. They are excellent where you do not care to feed a larger amount than they contain.