BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
To medicine any of the above foods when dealing with Foul Brood, add to each pound of sugar as much naphth beta as can be heaped on a threepenny-bit. Dissolve this in methylated spirit, whisky, or sweet spirit of nitre, and add to the food when cool.
## V Handling Bees
The idea that bees will sting upon the slightest provocation, or even without this, is a very prevalent one amongst people who know very little about bees and their ways. Needless to say it is quite erroneous. The sting is given to them as a weapon of defence and not for offence. \(ullet\)
The essentials for handling bees with the minimum amount of stings--it would be foolish to suggest that bee-keepers never do get stung--are quiet but firm manipulation, a knowledge of their habits, and withstand gentleness.
Bees should never be handled in cold or wet weather, nor yet too early in the morning or too late at night. The best time to deal with them is about midday when the sun is shining; there are then fewer bees in the hive, they are lively, and if they settle upon the person they quickly fly off, instead of creeping in amongst the clothes to seek warmth, which they will do in the early morning or very late at night. If they do this, then it is not a very pleasant experience, at either supper or breakfast, to sit down unexpectedly upon a bee, with its underside next the flesh. In cold weather the brood will be killed from exposure, and wet weather will do equally as much harm. At the same time it must not be imagined that bees cannot be handled at any other time than that given as _the best._ They can be handled at all times except those specially mentioned.
Those who have seen a swarm hived by their owner will have been struck with their docility upon that occasion. This is accounted for by the fact given in the chapter dealing with swarms, that the bees are full of food; when in this condition they are good-tempered and disinclined to sting. The difference between the temper- of bees in a swarm that has just issued and one that has been out for several days and exhausted their food will be painfully apparent to any person living them. \(ullet\)
Whenever they are frightened bees always prepare for contingencies by filling their stomachs with sufficient food to last them several days. Knowing this failing, the bee-keeper takes advantage of it to get the bees under control.
They are very frightened of smoke and also the -- " carbonic acid, therefore either of the -- "subjugator. The former can be blown into the hive from a pipe or cigarette, but usually an appliance called a smoker is used. This is a tin cylinder having a removable conical nozzle with the pointed end open, the other being like the bottom of an ordinary tin. This is fastened on to the top of a small pair of bellows with a connection between the two at the bottom end. Ordinary thick felty brown paper or corrugated paper is rolled into a cartridge to fit the barrel of the smoker ; this is lighted at one end and put in the barrel with the lighted portion furthest away from the nozzle. The bellows are then worked, when the air passing through the lighted cartridge carries the smoke out at the open nozzle in a dense volume.
If it is intended to use carbonic fumes, then a calico cloth, just a little larger than the top of the brood chamber, is sprinkled with a weak solution of carbonic acid and water. This, when not in use, should be kept in an air-tight tin to prevent the escape of the odour.
When manipulating bees it will be necessary to protect the face. This should always be done by wearing a veil. It should be of ample proportions, and be constructed of white mosquito netting for coolness, with a black panel of black silk net in the front to enable the operator to have the best possible vision. The veil should have an elastic band at the top and bottom to make it fit tightly and prevent bees from getting inside. It should be worn on a hat with a very wide brim to hold it clear from the face.
Gloves should not be worn as they make the fingers clumsy and mitigate against gentle handling. The sleeve cuffs should be secured with elastic bands to prevent the bees creeping up, the trouser bottoms either tucked into the socks or treated the same as the sleeves.
When it is necessary to attend to the bees, proper preparation should be made. Have everything ready, decide upon the work to be done, carry it out as expeditiously as possible, then shut the bees down and leave them alone. Compatiable with good management, the less bees are disturbed the better they will thrive. Constant meddling is one of the mistakes perpetrated by the beginner.
The following procedure will give an idea of how the work should be carried out, but one practical demonstration by a 't' is better than much reading of how to do it. operated upon and blow a few puffsof smoke in at the entrance, say about half a dozen ; too much is injurious and will stupefy the bees, the very thing which must be avoided. Wait for about a minute to give the bees time to fill themselves with food, then quietly take off the roof and lift, turn back the corner of the quilt and blow a few puffs of smoke along the tops of the frames to drive the bees down. If a carbonic cloth is being used, take off the roof, turn back the quilts, letting the cloth follow them and take their place, remove it and replace the quilts for about a minute. Commence on one of the outside combs, lifting it up by means of the lugs at either end, examine one side, then reverse it to examine the other side ; this must be done carefully and methodically, it must not be turned flat, but reversed in such a manner that it is kept edgewise the whole of the time. If turned flat in hot weather, the comb being soft is liable to break away from the frame. The same precautions must be observed in returning it to its original position. The comb can now be reared up against the outside of the hive to provide room to manipulate the others. Only the comb actually to be removed from the hive should be uncovered at one time ; as they are put back they must be covered with a second quilt, _i.e._ one quilt follows up the other.
Never stand in front of the hive to manipulate or the outcoming bees, resenting the hindrance, will sting. Don't kill a single bee by crushing, through careless or rough treatment of the combs ; if this is done the smell of the formic acid from the damaged poison sac will irritate the other bees and cause them to sting when otherwise they would not do so.
## VI **Ogtaining Heater Honey**
Heather honey is obtained mainly in Scotland and Wales, but a fair amount is also gathered in the north of England. The honey is of a dark amber colour, gelatinous in consistency, very pungent in odour, and bitter-sweet to the taste. The honey is not much favoured by people living in the south, but is highly prized by northerners. The harvest is gathered in the latter part of August and the beginning of September. Owing to unsuitable weather for the bees to work frequently prevailing at that period, the crop is a very precarious one. The honey sells for just double that obtainedordinarily, for that reason it is well worth extra effort on the part of the bee-keeper to obtain a crop from this source. In the north it is no unusual thing for the bee-keeper to take immense trouble to move his bees for many miles to the moors when the heather is in bloom. For this reason it is necessary to use a special hive, in which arrangements are made for ample ventilation when the bees are being moved.
The stocks that are going to the moors are prepared by rapid feeding, so that they fill up the cells in the brood combs; this compels them when at the moors to store all they obtain in the supers. The supers, whether section racks or shallow combs, are supplied with comb ready drawn out. The nights are so cold at this period of the year that wax secretion by the bees is well-nigh impossible; they can manage sufficient for the cappings, but that is about all.
When placed in position on the moors, it is usual to give a shepherd or gillie a few shillings to keep an eye on them; they must have plenty of good warm wrappings, on and round the supers, otherwise very little work will be done.
At the end of the heather bloom they are taken home intact, the supers being removed at leisure when they have recovered from the excitement of the journey.
Owing to the honey being so thick it is impossible to extract it by the ordinary centrifugal method. The combs are cut out, tied in cheese straining cloth, and put in a special press, which, by turning a screw, applies great pressure, which squeezes it out through the straining material, the wax being left behind in the latter.
If shallow combs are used, they have to be refitted for future use with foundation and the combs built again; so much food and time is wasted, the wise bee-keeper therefore obtains as many drawn-out sections as possible. This is done by extracting uncompleted ones at the end of the ordinary honey harvest; no spoliation of combs then occurs. The completed heather sections are sold as they are, while the uncompleted ones are squeezed to provide the extracted honey required.
## 72 Rearing and Introducing Queens
Queen-rearing is one of the most interesting and profitable branches of bee-keeping. The success of the calling dependsalmost entirely on having good stock. Before the advent of the "' Isle of Wight Disease " the best stock to use was undoubtedly British. It has been found that they do not resist the disease so well as hybrids. The Dutch bee which has been boomed by some papers should be shunned as a plague. They are not, as is repeatedly claimed for them, immune from I. of W. Even if they were, the advantage would be far outweighed by their great swarming proclivities. It is no unusual thing for a person to commence the season with one stock of Dutch bees and finish up the season with twelve stocks in the garden. The bee-keeper has a great deal of excitement in hunting after and living these swarms, but the return in honey is nil.
Even in the smallest apiary queens should be reared. It is not necessary to adopt the elaborate methods followed by the queen breeders on a large scale.
The best variety of bees to keep at the present time are Italians or Italians crossed with British drones, called Italian hybrids.
The stocks from which the queens and drones are to be obtained should be chosen the year previous to that in which they are required. The selection should take place with the following facts in mind. Working qualities and constitution come from the mother, while disposition is transmitted by the father. Stocks which are vicious in temperament should not be allowed to rear drones. This is avoided by close spacing the frames in the brood chamber, by withdrawing to the extreme end each alternate metal end, then pushing all the combs close together; if drones are being reared in the cells it is impossible for them to get out.
Early in the year, say about the first week in April, both the stocks from which drones and queens are to be obtained should be stimulated to get them as strong as possible by the end of the month. When that period arrives the stock set aside for the production of drones can be left alone, beyond putting on the supers at the proper time. The one from which the queens are to be procured should be teeming with bees. From it a nucleus is made as follows:
On the morning of a fine warm day have ready an empty hive; it should contain a division board; this is a board made to fit inside the brood chamber, but not too tightly, and is used to contract the size of the brood chamber to keep the inhabitants warmer when the full complement of ten combsare not in use. From the queen-rearing stock take out three combs with the adhering bees, being very careful not to take the queen; one comb should have unsealed brood and eggs, the other two should have food only; the two outside ones are usually in this condition and they should be the ones taken. Place the comb containing the brood between the other two, to enable the clustering bees to keep it warm, close up with the division board and wrap down warmly. In the parent stock, the gaps made by the removal of the three combs are filled up by putting in their place frames fitted with full sheets of worker base foundation. They, too, may be supered in due course. The small lot, finding they are queenless, will immediately start to rear a queen. To ensure good results, it is advisable to break down the cell walls of several worker cells containing eggs; the best queens are reared from eggs and not from larva. If left to their own devices it is more than likely that the workers will make queens from the latter. The queen will eventually emerge from the cell, be mated to a drone, and commence to lay. She can then be removed and introduced to a stock requiring a young mother. To get further queens from the same stock, all that is necessary, after the queen has been removed from the nucleus, is to exchange one of its combs for another containing eggs from the queen-rearing stock, place it in the nucleus which, being queenless, will repeat the process of queen-rearing. This can go on until all the queens required have been obtained.
The nucleus should be made as near midday as possible. It should be populated by young bees which have never flown, so that when they do come out they locate the position of the nucleus hive. If old bees are taken they go out from the nucleus and return to the parent stock; the brood thus forsaken dies. At midday the old bees are out foraging; the young ones left at home are the ones obtained. If there are not sufficient bees on the three combs taken (there should be about a quart), the adhering bees on two other combs may be shaken into them, bearing in mind the avoidance of taking the queen. If bad weather prevails at any period, the bees in the nucleus must be fed.
When it is necessary to replace one queen with another in a stock, or give a queen to a queenless one, it is necessary to place her in such a position that she can acquire the scent of the hive, obtain food, and yet the bees be unable to get to her. If they can do this they will kill her. The queen to be introduced is placed in a wire cage, together with attendant bees from her own stock, and a supply of food. This is hung between the combs and she is kept imprisoned for thirty-six hours; at the end of that time she is released and will be accepted. If a stock is to be requeened the old mother must be removed at least twelve hours before the other is put into the hive.
## VIII Diseases
The chief diseases to which bees are subject are Dysentery, Foul Brood, and Isle of Wight Disease.
In the case of dysentery, which is caused by bad ventilation, damp, or food containing too much moisture or which has fermented, the combs and interior of the hive are badly stained with the excreta of the bees; when in good health bees never foul their home. It makes its appearance usually in the very early spring. The treatment is to change the bees into a clean hive, remove all the stained combs possible, and feed with either candy or good warm thick syrup.
Foul Brood is a disease caused by a micro-organism which attacks the larvae. Instead of lying curled up in the cell in the form of a C, and being pearly white in colour, the larva lies elongated, is flabby in appearance, gradually assuming a yellow colour turning eventually to a deep brown. The cappings covering the brood are sunken and have irregular perforations in them. In some cases an offensive odour is also present. If the disease is allowed to run its course, the colony soon succumbs. Affected bees should be fed on medicated syrup, Apicure placed in the hive, and renewed when it has evaporated, until the disease disappears.
Isle of Wight Disease is at present somewhat of a mystery; very little is known as to its cause. When affected, the bees come out of the hive and crawl about on the ground until they die. The wings are dislocated and the abdomen is badly distended, sometimes the bees are constipationed, at others they evacuate profusely. In very bad cases the safest plan is to destroy the bees and burn all the internal arrangements of the hive. If slight, then a cure may be effected by feeding with syrup medicated with Izal or Bacterol.
The bees and interior of the hive should also be sprayed
**CALENDAR OF WORK FOR THE YEAR**
January.--This is a season of rest and quietness in the Apiary. Keep the entrances to the hives clear from dead bees and shade from the sun when snow is on the ground. Repair and paint empty hives and appliances.
February.--Should doubt exist as to the food supply, give a cake of candy. Continue with repairs, etc.
March.--If the weather be warm, without a cold wind, peep into the brood chamber by just raising the quilt. If food is short, give candy. The brood combs must not be disturbed by lifting out.
April.--Stimulative feeding may now be done where food is required. If an abundance of food is present, bruise some of the foodappings. Place out the drinking fountain, taking care to shade it so that the flying bees will not soil it. Get ready brood frames and supers. Use full sheets of foundation in all cases.
May.--The hives will now become crowded; give room as required either by extra brood frames or supers. Make artificial swarms and prepare for queen rearing. In bad weather continue syrup feeding.
June.--Look out for swarms. Put on extra supers where required, taking care always to put empty ones under the full ones. Newly_lived_swarms must be fed for at least a week. Carry out queen rearing.
July.--Supering will now be in full swing. Remove sections as completed. Shade the bees from the sun. Watch and see that the brood combs do not become clogged with honey. Should this occur, take out a couple and extract the honey and return them. Carry out this work in the evening to prevent robbing.
August.--The Heather harvest will now be on in those districts where moors exist. Take full advantage of it by using drawn-out comb in the supers. Watch for robbing and contract the entrances to the hives. Remove all supers; do this work in the evening, taking care to place those removed where they are inaccessible to bees, or robbing may commence Those stocks requiring fresh queens should have them introduced this month. Unite weak stocks and commence to feed those which have very little food in the combs.
September.--All supers should be extracted and the shallow combs given to the bees to clean down, after which they should be cleaned and stored away in a dry place, protected from wax moth, ready for use again next year.
October.--The bees should now be prepared for winter. Those with insufficient food should be fed rapidly. Wrap down warmly and open the entrances to about five inches. Faulty roofs should have a couple of coats of paint.
November.--The bees should now be snug for the winter and should not be molested at all. Finish cleaning appliances and storing them for the next season.
December.--The bees are at rest, so the beekeeper can do likewise.
The Method is Simple
The Result is Certain
Thousands of Bee-keepers have used, and are now using, "Bacterol," for curing and preventing Isle of Wight disease with the same uniform success. The bees like it, the cure is very rapid, and, what is of remarkable importance, nearly every report speaks of it imparting to the bees a more vigorous life than they ever possessed before.
**DIRECTIONS.--**Medicate each pint of Syrup with r teaspoon of General "Bacterol." Str in when Syrup is just warm or'cold. See that all stores of honey are removed before giving Syrup.
**Alternative Method.--**Spray daily all crawlers on alighting board and in front of hive with a solution of r t tablespoon of General "Bacterol" to r quart of sweetened water. Use a mist sprayer, obtainable from any bee appliance manufacturer.
A 5 per cent, solution spr yed over and inside the hives will disinfect any excreta and destroy all germs and parasites.
TESTED AND PRJIVED BY EXPT BE-KEEPERS IN THE MOST MODELS CASES.
Manufactured by "Bacterol.," Limited, London, N., and may be obtained post free by sending P.O. for **2e. 6d.** for a half-pint bottle from
**MENLEY & JAMES, Ltd., Menley House, Farrington Rd., London, E.c.1.**
## 8, Lon Isa, Rhubina Garden Village, Whitench, near Cardiff, October 10, 1917
Sirs, I am a beckeeper in this district, and I thought my experience with "Izal" would be of interest. Last April I bought a bottle of -- as a disinfectant for the prevention of Isle of Wight disease in my 3 stocks of bees, as this disease had been rather prevalent in this district for some time past. I sprayed my bees about once or twice a week with it, my bees being quite healthy then, but this was done just as a "'prevenative." I't notwithstanding all my precautions, my bees contracted Isle of Wight -- disease, for on the evening of June 25th, when I arrived home from business, my bees were out in front of the hives in their thousands, crawling about, and on examination of the interior of the hives, the marks of excreta were plainly visible. I called in a local bee expert, and he diagnosed the case as a very bad attack of Isle of Wight disease, and advised me to destroy the lot, as he thought the case was hopeless. But I did not intend doing so without a struggle. The same evening I set to work disinfecting with the above-mentioned disinfectant, spraying comls an.I barying all crawlers. I continued this treatment for about a week, but disease was still as prevalent as ever Then, as a last resource, I got a 1/- bottle of Izal, diluted it to 1 in 90 with Iakewarm water, and started spraying bees with it. I had each cimb of bees out, and sprayed them with it Almost immediately I noticed improvement. I continued spraying with Izal of foregoing strength for about 2 weeks. At the same time I washed all floodsards, alighting boards, and other parts of the hives with I part Izal in 50 parts of water, giving the disease no rest; the bees were then busy gathering honey, and breeding fast, no crawlers anywhere, so I came to the conclusion I had, with the aid of Izal, cured the disease. A friend of mine also had an outbreak of the disease with his bees, and together we treated them the same; and in about 14 days we had cured his with Izal. Since then I have not had the slightest sign of the disease reappearing, and I have had a splendid lot of honey from them. If the foregoing experience of mine is of any use to you, you are at perfect liberty to use it in any way you please, as I am convinced Izal _curved_ mine, and also my friend's bees.
Yours faithfully, (Signed) II. W, ROBINSON, Member Glam, B.K.A.
Manufacturers :-- NEWTON, CHAMBERS & CO., LIMITED THORNCLIFFE, near SHEFFIELD
**Cernal University Library**
**523.H567**
**See-keeping in year-time.**
**3 1924 003 423 849**
# BEE CULTURE IN MAINE
By O. B. Griffin, Caribou, Maine
Nearly everyone whose early years have been spent in the country has, at some time in their youth, learned the taste of honey. Perhaps their first knowledge of the most wholesome of nature's sweets may have come from robbing and destroying a nest of bumblebees of their hard earned treasures, or it may have been purchased at considerable cost in pain and facial disagreement, but who has not felt well repaid after the battle was over and the victory won, and who has not resolved after an acquaintance with the beautiful solid combs of honey of the honeybee (Apis Mellifica), that as soon as possible they would own some bees and produce their own honey. If they did not make such a resolve, it was because they were deterred only by the fear of their stings.
With flowers everywhere during the spring and summer months, many of which secrete nectar, it is really a pity that so few have honey as a part of their bill of fare, or even know of its real value as food.