BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
A fresh hive known to be free from disease is provided. The frames should contain only strips of foundation about an inch wide. Then we should have an empty hive body or other box provided with a lid which may be quickly and tightly closed. The diseased colony is gently set to one side and in its place isset the new hive. Spread newspaper in front of the hive so that the bees can crawl up to the entrance without having to claw their way through any grass or weeds in front of their new dwelling. Then as quietly as possible remove each frame from the diseased colony and give it a quick downward shake so as to deposit the bees on the newspaper. Repeat this as quickly as possible with each frame in the hive and as quickly as the frames are cleared of bees they must be placed in the empty hive body provided for that purpose and the lid should be replaced after each frame is inserted. As soon as all the bees have been shaken in front of their new quarters they should be urged to enter the hive by the liberal use of smoke. This too will tend to keep bees from other colonies from investigating the moving day program and hence will avoid any chance of some strange bee carrying a load of infected honey back to his healthy children. As soon as the bees have en
## 11 BEE DISEASES 113
tered the hive the newspaper should be gathered up and burned.
In the case of European foulbrood, it is now customary to re-queen the colony at the time the swarm is shaken. It appears that the old queen is able to convey the disease to the new hive. There are various ways of introducing the new queen to the colony after the old one has been killed but this is work that the beginner had best leave to the hands of some experienced friend as the bees do not always welcome a new "ruler."
It will be noticed through this entire process that the object is to get the bees into new quarters and to avoid the chance of any outside bees carrying away any disease-producing honey. Of course the bees carry with them into the new hive all the honey they can hold, but since they are confronted with brood frames containing only strips of foundation they are unable to begin rearing any brood for some time. They must first draw out the
to one of good size and it in turn may be treated as above outlined.
The essentials in the treatment are the removal of all infecting material and the protection of this material from robber bees. Sometimes the bees resent being transferred to a new hive and have a tendency to abscond. This may be prevented by placing over the entrance what is known as an entrance guard which is simply an arrangement of wires so spaced as to allow the passage of worker bees, but through which the larger bodied queen can not pass. If the bees swarm out past such a guard, they quickly find that the queen has been left behind and they then return home and are usually satisfied to go to work.
If a diseased colony is neglected it will die sooner or later and any honey remaining in the hive will be carried out by the other bees in the neighborhood. Sometimes bees will rob colonies several milesfrom their home apiary and in this way disease may be spread.
Consequently it is to the interest of all beekeepers to cooperate with one another in an effort to stamp out these troubles. One man working alone can not do much to keep his bees healthy but all beekeepers in a neighborhood working in cooperation can rid their community of disease and keep it in that condition. Many states have bee inspection laws and proper officers to enforce them but laws are of little effect unless the public is willing to cooperate with the law enforcement officials. As long as the public smiles on "boot-legging," prohibition will not prohibit, and as long as a careless beekeeper insists upon keeping bees in inspection proof-box hives and as long as he fails to treat diseased colonies our bee laws will be of little avail in preventing the spread of disease.
Another brood disease that is not so well understood as the two foulbrood diseases, is called "sacbrood." In the past many different names have been applied to this trouble which is characterized by the death of the larva and the formation of a scale on the side of the cell. These scales (the dried bodies of the larvae) always turn up at the tip, giving what beelepers have long termed the "Chinaman's shoe" effect.
Like the other brood diseases it is infectious though probably less so than the first two disorders mentioned. Doctor White has done much admirable work on this disease but has been unable to isolate any definite organism which can be labeled as the actual cause of the troubles. He has found, however, that the disease can be transmitted by means of the dead larval remains. Such remains contain a virus of which very little is known except that it will reproduce the disease. It is apparently not found in honey. Consequently the danger of transmitting the disease from one colony to another is much less than it is in the case of either American or European foulbrood.
may be traced to this disease. However, it is a trouble that requires expert knowledge to diagnose. Some work has been done along the line of developing a medical treatment by the use of drugs in this disease, but the results so far are not conclusive enough to warrant any definite statements as to what may be expected along this line.
Dysentery is a disease of the late winter months caused by the fact that the bees have been closely confined to the hive and retain in the intestinal tract the accumulated fecal matter of several months. During prolonged cold weather this may result in the death of many individuals of the colony. Ordinarily the trouble corrects itself if the bees have a few hours' flying during some warm day. At such times the hive and the surroundings may be liberally marked with brown. During open winters when the bees are able to fly every few weeks the trouble seldom appears. Doctor L. Bahr, of Copenhagen,Denmark, has recently called attention to a condition which he calls "'bee typhoid." He has described a bacillus which he thinks is the cause of the trouble. Doctor White in commenting on the Danish discovery says that we probably have the trouble in this country and it more than likely is being included under the general term "'dysentery."
It should be said that none of these bee diseases could possibly be transmitted to man. Those which are produced by known bacteria may have the causative organism present in the honey which we eat, but we can as entirely disregard them as though they were non-existent.
Bees have other enemies besides the diseases mentioned and frequently these enemies go hand in hand with the more serious diseases. Of these the wax moths are by far the most spectacular. I have on many occasions heard beekeepers say that the "'wax moths" had killed all or part of their colonies. Such a statement
one or two of the brood combs had been entirely destroyed and the remaining ones ruined for any future use.
Whenever they are found we may be quite sure that some other agency is at work to weaken the colony; the moth being only a danger signal to warn us to look closely and discover what it is that is weakening the bees to the point where they are no longer able to resist invasion.
In some sections of the country ants are a serious pest in the beehive. They may be prevented from reaching the colony by using a low platform set up on short legs. Each leg should be stood in a tin cup containing any heavy oil. The ants will not cross the oil. Such an arrangement must be given occasional attention, however, for rain-water will collect in the cups and float off the oil. In place of the oil the legs of the hive stand may be banded with tree tangle foot, a sticky preparation similar to that used on fly-paper. It will remain viscid and effective during the
## Appendix B Bee Diseases 123
length of the average summer and will effectively prevent ants and other insects from crawling into the hive.
With the exception of American and European foulbrood all of the pests of the apiary can best be combatted by keeping all colonies in a strong condition. The natural resistance of a strong colony is of more service to us in repelling obscure and little known diseases and insect enemies than any amount of fussing about the hive that we can do. The two forms of foulbrood are just as liable to attack a strong colony as a weak one, and in such cases our assistance is imperative if we are to save the life of the colony. For most other troubles our best course is to manage our bees so that at all times the colonies are strong in numbers and are provided with sufficient stores. Under such conditions the honey-bee, especially if it be of the Italian race, can nearly always hold its own.
## Chapter 7 Honey plants
Beginning beekeepers, and occasionally ''old timers,'' ask what flowers they can plant in order to provide pasturage for their bees. Too often they have the idea that a few extra pots of geraniums or a couple of hollyhocks will make a difference in the honey crop. They fail to realize that plants suitable for bee pasturage must be exceedingly numerous before any perceptible results may be noticed in the amount of honey that is stored in the hive.
Some beekeepers have made a practice of planting an acre or two of such plants as buekwheat, thinking that they will thereby furnish a regular fall least to the honey gathers. It is true that buek
come less common. Formerly every pasture contained patches of this clover so dense as to constitute almost a "pure stand," but with the better understanding of crop rotation the old pastures have been broken up and seeded to other crops. As a result the white clover has been driven back to road sides, fence corners and abandoned fields where it still thrives and still produces limited amounts of its beautiful honey. The plant is not a native but was probably introduced from Europe or Western Asia very early in the settlement of this country. It is claimed to be identical with the "Shamrock" of Ireland although this is another of these matters which are in dispute among Irishmen and far be it from me to express my opinion.
The yield from white clover is often dependent upon the weather conditions to a very great extent. Being a biennial it must grow from the seed one season and bloom the next. Consequently, cool moist
The same thing is true, in a lesser degree perhaps, with most other honey producing plants. It is important that the beekeeper know from what plants his surplus is most liable to come and then be prepared to secure that surplus promptly when the time arrives.
The introduction of sweet clover, an European weed, into the white clover sections has had something to do with the crops from the older plant. Both bloom at about the same time and as a result the fine white clover honey is contaminated with the greenish colored product of the sweet clover. While the latter is by no means a bad honey it does not rank with the white clover and the mixture has been the means of practically eliminating the older honey from the market.
Perhaps I am a "'erank" on white clover honey. Certainly I am very sensitive to the least trace of strong honey when it is mixed with white clover. Some curious arrangement (probably a defect) of
pose. In the sections where it will grow it should be more widely planted as it produces a better quality of hay and often a larger quantity than does the red clover. It is grown in the same way as red clover and in soils adapted to its culture will live from year to year and about as long as the red. On dry soils it does not succeed and soon "runs out" leaving the field to weeds. Many beekeepers have adopted the plan of furnishing alsike seed to their neighbors at less than the market price in order to get them to plant large acreages of it, and where this has been done a noticeable increase in the honey crop has been realized. The honey produced is very similar to that from white clover, and probably many consumers will fail to distinguish one from the other. It has become an important honey plant in many sections and should become still more important each year.
Ordinary red clover yields large amounts of nectar. Perhaps I should say
next season. The bloom comes between the fruit bloom and that of white clover and for this reason is rather important in white clover sections. Ordinarily there is a long gap between fruit bloom and clover which does not furnish the bees with as much forage as they should have in order to enable them to build up their colonies. With more general planting of crimson clover in the white clover districts this gap would be effectively bridged and while a great increase in the crop might not be expected we would at least find our bees in better position to give an account of themselves during the heavy white clover flow.
In parts of the West, alfalfa, another important clover, has become a great factor in honey production. The honey from it is not quite so fine as the best white clover honey, but it ranks near the top in the matter of quality and always finds a ready market.
It should be remembered that alfalfa is
been known to store over twenty pounds of honey in one day from basswood bloom. Mr. G. M. Doolittle, a pioneer in scientific beekeeping in the United States and a man who has contributed much to our knowledge of the honey-bee, states that he has never known the basswood to fail to yield a good supply of honey. The flow, according to him, lasts from three to nearly thirty days. Unlike white clover the yield from basswood is not liable to be interrupted by rains. The flowers of this tree are pendant and hard dashing rains do not remove the secreted nectar at the base of the petals. Like all other flowers, however, it yields most nectar during periods of warm nights.
Mr. Doolittle's observations cover a long period of years--a period during which the basswood was a far more common forest tree than it is at present. Originally it was one of the fine timber trees of our American woods, but because of the value of its timber, it was eagerly
important honey plant unless it be in parts of Michigan and Wisconsin. Several years ago in Vilas County, Wisconsin, I saw great forests of hard wood trees in which there were a great many lindens. At this time the hungry hordes of timber companies were making inroads at a rapid rate and this last outpost may be gone to-day. The tree is of sufficient import in honey production that the bekeeper can well afford to take the time to plant it along his roads and around his home. It makes an admirable shade tree, blooms at an early age, and as it grows older becomes an important pasturage factor in the life of the bee. Ten trees, twenty years old, ought to supply a colony of bees with enough nectar to enable them to store a considerable surplus of honey and while some of us may not be here twenty years hence it is pretty certain that some one else may and it is possible too that "some one else" may want to keep bees.
Another native tree that once yielded
the "fire weed," that pink flowered wanderer that takes possession as quickly as the fire has made a place for it. The tall stalks, sometimes reaching a height of six feet, are topped with a cluster of bloom that grows with the season and unfolds a succession of flowers from July until frost. In many of the burned areas it is the dominant plant for years after the fire has killed the young trees that were left by the wooden. Thousands of acres of such country exist along our northern boundary and south of that line, and in the whole territory there are comparatively few bees kept.
And yet, the honey that the bees obtain from the fire weed is nearly as fine as that from white clover. Aside from possible trouble in severe winters it would appear that this burned area offered about the last stand in the way of virgin pastures for bees in this country. I am personally familiar with some thousands of acres of such pasture in which I know to a certainty that not a bee is kept and as the plant yields large amounts of nectar it appears as though some one were overlooking an opportunity.
The wild raspberry of the northern states contributes a very large share to the national honey crop. The drooping bloom which opens in early summer (late May or early June) resembles the linden in that the nectar is not easily washed out by rain. This drooping character of the bloom of these two important honey plants may account for the fact that both of them are reliable yielders practically every year. The raspberry honey is white in color and has a delightful flavor that easily places it commercially with white clover--the inevitable standard of excellence among all men who produce honey.
In the South much honey is collected from the bloom of one of the hollies. This low growing, evergreen bush ranges on low flat lands from Massachusetts to Florida but reaches its best development in the southern part of its range where it is called "gall berry." It sounds like a strange name for a honey-producing plant, but nevertheless the product is said to be entirely free from any tinge of bitter. It is a honey with which I am not personally familiar but I am told that it is of fine quality and that it is produced in tremendous quantities. Unfortunately bekeeping in many parts of the South is in a very backward state and comparatively few really modern a
him with some ''real honey'' and presented him with a section of my best white clover product. It required a great deal of argument on my part to convince him that I also was not in ''cahoots'' with the food adulterators. As a matter of fact there has never been a pound of artificial comb honey produced by any one at any time. A high government food expert once made the break of mentioning artificial comb honey in one of his reports and he has been the laughing-stock of beekeepers from that day to this. Mr. A. I. Root, who might be called the dean of modern beekeepers, offered a thousand dollars reward for a single pound of artificial comb honey. This reward was offered many years ago; it still stands but has had no claimant.
But this is a digression, justified only by the fact that to many folk buckwheat honey is a standard for comparison just as white clover is for others. The two honeys do not resemble each other in the
case, a member of the smartweed family. It grows in swamps and in wet places near stream banks. Often it occurs to such an extent that profitable yields are obtained and in a few locations tremendous surplus has been recorded. The honey is light amber in color, stronger than clover but still mild enough to find a ready market. A great variation in the honey is liable to occur because there are several varieties of the plant and other honey is liable to be mixed with it.
Asters of many kinds, goldenrod and numerous sorts of "'wild sunflowers" furnish the bulk of the fall honey. Many of these plants live in low wet places and the northern Indiana marshes have long been a favorite location for commercial beelepers. With such a wealth of flora to draw upon it is to be expected that there will be a blend from many flowers. For this reason we seldom ever find samples of "pure" aster, goldenrod or sunflower honey. All of them furnish a dark col
than in the mouth. It reminds one of those warm rich days when the plum orchards bloom and we get a whiff of sweetness across the hills on the evening air.
So important is the fruit bloom to the beekeeper that in sections where he has been depending upon it he must make other provisions in years of failure. If the trees fail to bloom or if the bloom is killed by cold, it is almost a certainty that the bees will have to be fed before the early summer flowers arrive.
Altogether there is a rather close partnership between the bee and the flower. Each is dependent upon the other to a very great extent--that sort of dependence which is extremely common in many of nature's works. That the beekeeper should understand this dependence goes without saying for no one can successfully manage bees unless he also knows something of the flowers which furnish the basis for his work.
## Chapter 8 Whereing
Beekeepers annually sustain a heavier loss from cold than is generally supposed. In fact the loss is probably much greater than even the beekeepers themselves realize. The actual colony loss for the United States is said to be more than ten per eent. and it is thought to be no exaggeration to say that the actual bee loss is near fifty per eent.
The fact that a colony of bees is alive in the spring really means very little as far as success is concerned. There may be enough bees in the hive to conduct business as usual but they will not be numerous enough to prove profitable to their owner when the honey flow comes on. Really successful wintering means, orshould mean, that the bees live through with but little loss of individuals and in a strong healthy condition so that they will start promptly to rear the young bees for the next honey harvest. It is understood, of course, that all of the old bees that winter over die before the next active field season arrives. They serve only to start the new generation, but unless they are strong in numbers as well as in body they will fail in this very important function.
The subject of proper wintering has perhaps produced as much discussion as any other one phase of beekeeping--and that is stating the case about as strongly as possible, for beekeepers are prone to discuss their troubles and success with all the avidity of an invalid at a health resort.
Through all of this historic discussion run a great many references to the ''winter sleep'' of the bees. They are spoken of as animals which become dormant in the cold season and pass into a hibernating state similar to that enjoyed by the
Consequently the bee's heat generation is dependent upon what the bee has for breakfast throughout the winter. His food is more than nourishment, it is fuel--just as much as coal is fuel for a furnace. Like coal, too, it may vary in quality and burn with a clean flame and few ashes, or it may smolder and form elinkers, in which ease the furnace or the bee will suffer.
With the consumption of this food,--or fuel--the bee combines great bodily activity in the form of exercise to keep warm, in very much the same way and for exactly the same reason that a man walks rapidly and slaps his body with his arms on a bitter cold day.
There are several factors which go to make successful wintering but they may be reduced to three primary ones, shelter, food, and the strength (numbers) of the colony. It is these three factors that we will consider in discussing the problem of making the bees live over winter.
Two brood frames filled with honey. The caps will be shaved off and the honey extracted by centrifugal force. This is the method used in obtaining what the public knows as "strained honey."
ably, too, if we had any means of knowing exactly the physical condition of such a colony we would find that is was not quite up to our ideals so far as commercial beekeeping is concerned. The beekeeper desires more than to have his bees live over winter. He wants them to live over and to be in such perfect condition that they will store for him a surplus of honey --otherwise he might as well keep a colony of ants.
It is probable too that the protection afforded by a tree trunk is really greater than it seems. The wood walls are often several inches thick and the corky layer of bark furnishes an insulation of great efficiency. The same is true of the old straw "skeps" which were formerly used to house bees and which are still very largely used in some European countries. These skeps being made of twisted strands of rye straw contained in their walls innumerable dead air spaces which prevented a rapid loss of heat from the inside.
other time in the winter. When the temperature falls to fifty-seven degrees, however, they begin to bunch up and form the "winter cluster."
The outside bees on the cluster act simply as an insulating layer which helps to retain the heat generated by the bees in the center of the cluster. As the outer layer becomes chilled and stiff with cold, other bees crawl out from inside the ball and take their places--they in turn being relieved when they become cold.