BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
right angles to each other, and then the dovetailed ends may be closed down with a knock from a mallet.
Each section must be fitted with a guide of foundation, which should be cut in the form of an equilateral triangle, with the sides about \(1
rac{1}{2}\) inch to \(2\) inches long. To fix this into the section a block is cut (the size of the inside of the section and \(
rac{1}{6}\) less than half its width), over which the section is placed, and the foundation laid on the block close against the side of the section; a little melted beeswax is run along the junction of the foundation with the side of the section; the section is then turned over and the process repeated, the foundation being by this means fixed very firmly.
By using full sheets of 'foundation in sections "pop-holes" are avoided; and the combs being built close up to the sides, much finer and better-finished sections are secured. A section made expressly to take full sheets of foundation is made by Messrs. Lee & Sons, of Uxbridge, Middlesex : it has the top bar split through, and a groove running all round the three other sides. The section is folded, all except one division of the top bar, which is left open; a sheet of foundation is cut with a die to the exact size, and then slipped into the groove, and the other division of the top bar is closed down. A little melted beeswax run along the top bar will make all secure.
Messrs. Taylor, of Welwyn, make a section (fig. 22) very similar to that just described. This section is grooved on all sides, and is neater than Messrs. Lee's, as the top bar is not
Figure 22: Taylor's Patent Grooved Section
split through. It is folded in a section block (fig. 23, a); but before the top bar is fixed down, the sheet of foundation is slipped into a groove. The foundation should be secured to the top bar with melted beeswax.
### The Size of the Sections.
The one-pound sections now in general use are \(4
rac{1}{4}\) inches square outside, and are made of bass wood \(
rac{1}{8}\) inch thick ; they are made in two widths--viz., \(1
rac{1}{2}\) inch and \(2
rac{1}{2}\) inches--of which the \(1
rac{1}{2}\) inch are perhaps the best for commercial purposes, though the 2-inch sections present a more solid and substantial appearance to the eye.
The two-pound sections most used are \(6
rac{1}{4}\) inches by \(5
rac{1}{4}\) inches outside.
Some sections have " bee-ways " cut on two sides, as in fig. 21, and some on four, as in fig. 23, b: they are hence known as " two-way " and " four-way " sections respectively.
### Section Crates.
Sections are worked in crates (fig. 24, a) placed above the frames of a hive, and also occasionally in frames (fig. 24, b) which are placed at the sides of the hivo and divided from the brood nest by a dummy of " queen-excluding " zinc (fig. 24, c) the holes in which are of such a size as to prevent the queens and drones from passing through them, while workers go
Figure 23: \(-\)a, Section Block ; b, Four Bee-way Section.
through without difficulty. Sections worked in frames are seldom so well finished or so white as those produced in crutes; and so it is only in districts where little honey is to be got, or in bad seasons when it is difficult to get the bees to enter supers, that it is advisable to use them. Some bee-keepers give the bees a
frame of sections just before the commencement of the honey flow, and, so soon as they are being well worked out and filled with honey, they place them in a crate to entice the bees up. This is certainly a good plan, as the bees will enter a super containing these sections which they have commenced to fill much more readily than one fitted entirely with empty sections.
There is no need to place queen-excluding zinc under section crutes, as it is found that queens _very_ rarely enter or lay eggs in them.
The most popular style of crate or "rack" is that which will hold twenty-one sections 2 inches wide--seven sections in
Figure 24:, Section Crate ; B, Frame of Sections ; c, Queen-excluding Dummy.
each row. The corners of the sections rest on strips of wo d (fig. 25, 4) \(
rac{1}{4}\) inch thick, and atout \(
rac{1}{2}\) inch or \(
rac{1}{4}\) in h broad :
they are thus slightly raised above the tops of the frames, which allows the bees to pass freely underneath them.
**Dividers.**
Between each row of sections a "divider" or separator (fig. 26) is placed, which ensures the faces of the combs being scaled over perfectly flat by the bees. Dividers may be obtained made of either wood, tin or zinc. The "slotted" divider
Figure 25: ****Rack or crate of sections, showing interior working arrangements. \(\star\), Pieces of wood on which the sections stack.
Figure 26: ****Dividers : \(\star\), Plain ; B, Slotted.
(fig. 26, b), which allows the bees to pass very readily from one section to another, has now become very popular, as indeed it deserves to be. Some apiarists, who use sections \(1
rac{1}{2}\) inch wide, and fit them with full sheets of foundation, claim that dividers are unnecessary under such circumstances.
The " W. B. Carr " crate (fig. 28a), first fully described in the _British Bee Journal_ for June 18th, 1891--has the sections placed in frames, thus preventing the bees from soiling the wood with propolis or " bee glue," a substance with which they fill up cracks and crevices in their hive, often smearing it on the quilts, etc. This crate, which seems to possess many great advantages over all those previously invented, is probably destined to supersede those now in general use. It is manufactured and sold by nearly all the dealers in bee appliances.
**When to Super.**
A very important point--perhaps the most important--in the production of comb honey is, when to put the super on the hive : if it is put on too early, the bees will not enter it ; if too late, much valuable time is lost. It is impossible to fix any date for supering, as everything depends on the locality and the weather. In places where fruit bloom is abundant the bees will sometimes require supers in April. As soon as the bees begin to elongate the cells near the top of the frames and fill them with honey is the time to put on the super ; so we only have to turn back the quilt of the hive, and if we see that the bees have elongated the cells at the top of the frames with beautiful white wax--forming a strong contrast to the rest of the old discoloured combs--we may take out one of the frames, and, if the new cells are being filled with honey, the hive is ready to be supered.
In placing the crates on the hives it is immaterial whether the sections run parallel or at right angles to the frames. The spaces between the sides of the crate and the ends of the frames must be covered with several thicknesses of quilting, so as not to let the heat escape. This is a most important matter in inducing the bees to enter the super, as, if the heat escape, they will all be required below to keep the brood warm ; for this reason the top of the crate must also be covered with plenty of quilts.
**Raising the Super.**
When the bees have about half completed the sections in the first crate, a second one should be placed underneath the first. When honey is coming in freely, it may even be necessary to place a third super under the second, a few days later.
When the sections in the first crate are completed, they should not be left on the hive for the bees to soil their cappings by constantly walking over them.
**Taking off the Super.**
As the bees usually glue the supers to each other or to the frames below with propolis, it requires some care to remove them without jarring the hive at all. The best way is to gently ease up one side of the crate with a screwdriver, and then do the same to the other side, when the super may be lifted off without difficulty. It should then be placed in a dark room or cellar having one window, which must be left open, and in an hour or so the bees will all have escaped : it is, however, necessary to watch that robber bees do not enter the room, attracted by the smell of the honey (as they often are in autumn), and, returning from their hives, bring with them scores of other bees, which quickly clean out the combs. The objection to brushing the bees off the sections is that they often become so frightened that they tear open the cappings of the cells in order to fill themselves with honey. Another way of clearing a super of bees is to spread a cloth over it, soaked in carbonic acid solution and wrung out very dry : the bees then quickly run down to escape the fumes of carbonic acid, and the super may be removed.
The sections should then be sorted into finest and second quality, while all the badly finished ones should be given back to the bees to complete, or, if it is quite at the end of the season and no more honey is being gathered, they may be passed through the extractor and then placed behind the dummy-board in some hive for the bees to clean out--the dummy-board being, of course, raised almost half an inch to allow free passage underneath ; after which they should be done up in brown paper, twelve in a packet, with some pieces of camphor or napthaline to keep away the wax-moth.
## 0.2 Packing Sections.
Sections to be sent by rail require careful packing to prevent their getting broken. The best kind of crate to send them in is the one shown in fig. 27, which has glass at the back and front; the honey is thus plainly visible, and is likely to receive careful handling. All sections should have the propolis scraped off the wood before being packed for the market.
Many ornamental cases are now made to hold single sections, some of cardboard and others of enamelled tin with glass in front, while a very simple one is constructed much on the same plan as the American sections, being V-grooved and folding close round the section, with a groove running all round each side, in which the glass is slipped. These cases greatly add to the attractiveness of the sections, while they also exclude dust and insects.
### Strong Stocks Indispensable.
To produce comb honey it is quite indispensable to have strong stocks--stocks which are literally boiling over with bees at the commencement of the honey flow.
If, as is sometimes the case, the tyro has a number of weak stocks after the winter, and wishes to obtain comb honey, it will be necessary to unite two or three of them together. This is best done towards the end of March on some nice warm day when the bees are flying. The hives to be united should first of all be placed side by side; so if they are some di-tance apart, they must be moved a foot or two--not more--nearer together on each day that the bees are flying freely; they must on no account be moved on days when the bees are not flying, as, in that case, the bees would be out of reckoning as to the positionof their hive, and, next time they were flying, would return to the old spot, fly round and round it, and fall at last from exhaustion, never to rise again. The bees in each hive should have been reduced to only just as many frames as they can well cover, which in the spring will probably not be more than two or three for a very weak stock.
### How to Unite.
When the hives are standing close together, smoke each of them thoroughly ; and when the bees have had time to gorge themselves, examine one of the hives and remove the queen (the youngest and most prolific queen will of course be the one to be _retained_) ; then sprinkle some thin syrup over the bees in both hives, and place the frames of the one hive alternately between those of the other. In place of thin syrup, the bees may be sprinkled with flour from an ordinary flour dredger, which method generally proves entirely successful. The empty hive must now be taken away, and the other placed midway between the places where the two hives have just stood.
If the bees are at all inclined to rob, uniting must be performed towards the evening of some fine, warn day.
It is well, as a matter of precaution, to cage the queen in a "pipe cover cage " (fig. 28), pressed down on some cells of uncapped honey in the hive, for twenty-four or forty-eight hours, lest the strange bees should kill her. During the honey flow, however, it will be found quite needless to remove either of the queens or to cage them, as the bees at such a time unite very amixably if simply gorged with honey, and soon settle for themselves which queen they will keep ; but should one queen be older than the other, it would of course be well to remove her.
### How to Find the Queen.
To find the queen it is necessary to remove the frames one by one and examine them, beginning at one side of the hiveand gradually working to the other. When we take a frame from
Figure 28: Pipe Covar Queen Caga.
a hive, if the bees all begin running towards one spot, the queen will most likely be found there; but if they run about in wild excitement all in different directions, we may know that the queen is not on that frame.
If a hive which is being worked for comb honey, should throw a swarm, the best way is to remove half the frames, being sure to get a queen cell with them, and place them with the adherent bees in a new hive at some distance from the old one; then fill up the old hive with frames fitted with half-sheets of foundation, cut out _all_ the queen cells from the combs left in the hive, raise the section crates by placing an empty one underneath those already on the hive, and return the swarm to the old hive: the probability is that the bees will not swarm again the same season, or at any rate not for a considerable time; and, moreover, the bees which we removed will build up, with a little careful feeding, into a fine stock before the winter. It is, however, always best to try and prevent swarming when working for comb honey, as the bees do but little work for several days before the swarm comes off.
Figure 82: ****The "W. B. Curr " section rak
## Chapter 7 The production of extracted honey.
Extracted or run honey possesses many advantages over comb honey. In the first place, it is much easier to produce, and a good stock will make much more of it than it will of section honey : the reason of this is not far to seek, as the bees do not have to build so much comb, because when they have filled the combs with honey we extract it and return them to the hive. Extracted honey is also much easier to send long distances, whether in large or small quantities. The apiarist will therefore do well to produce extracted honey, although it does not command so high a price as the beautiful sections. If we have plenty of frames of empty comb, so much the better ; but if not, we must make the bees build them early in the season before the honey flow commences.
### How to Produce Combs.
As soon as the bees are strong enough with brood hatching out freely, a frame with a full sheet of foundation should be placed in the centre of the brood nest, and others added every few days till the hive is full ; and the bees must be gently fed with syrup meanwhile : any combs which contain no brood should be taken away and the honey extracted (see page 46) ; they will then be ready for placing in doubling-boxes to give to the bees so soon as the honey flow commences.
When there is no room to place any more frames in the body hive, and when the bees are strong enough, four or five frames should be lifted out and placed in a doubling-box, their place being taken by frames fitted with foundation ; all must be kept covered up very warm, and at first the bees should be confined to half the doubling-box, the rest being divided off with a dummy. As fast as the foundation is drawn out the frames can be removed, and the syrup which the bees havestored in them extracted ; but those which contain trood must be left in the bive till the brood is hatched out. In this way two or three strong stocks will build sufficient combs for several hives before the honey flow commences. The foundation should be wired into all frames intended for extracting. In order that a stock may draw out combs as rapidly as possible, it is necessary to feed it with about a pint of syrup daily, beginning with half a pint early in the spring, and gradually increasing it to a pint: if stocks are drawing out combs in a very large number of frames at once, they may sometimes even be fed with more than a pint a day with advantage. The syrup is made by adding a quart of water to four pounds of rcfined cane (not beet) sugar, and beating it over the fire till all the sugar is melted. It is most important to stir it constantly to prevent the sugar being burnt. Half a teaspoonful of salt and one tablespoonful of vinegar should be added to every quart of water used.
**Doubling.**
As soon as the honey flow commences, two frames of brood must be taken from each hive and placed in a doubling-box filled with frames of empty comb, spaced \(1
rac{1}{2}\) inch from centre to centre ; the empty space below formed by removing the two frames can be filled up with a couple of frames of comb. The object of placing two frames of brood in the doubling-box is to induce the bees to ascend at once ; care must be taken that the queen is left below, and in order to keep her there a sheet of queen-excluding zinc must be placed on the top of the frames in the body hive, cut to the exact size of the top of the hive. As soon as the doubling-box is getting full of honey another must be placed between it and the body hive. During a very honey flow it may even be necessary to place on a third doubling-box, as the bees often gather honey much faster than they can ripen it during a heavy honey glut.
**Extracting.**
As soon as the bees begin to seal the honey in the top doubling-box is the time to extract it. It will then be sufficiently ripe, and there will not be so much uncapping to do. The best way is to shake the bees off the combs and brush off any that remain with a goose wing, or a yucca brush, sold by the dealers in bee appliances specially for the purpose. The frames should then be placed in a comb-box (fig. 29), and carried to some outhouse, there to have the honey extracted from them. First of all the uncapping knife (fig. 30)--previously heated in a jug of very hot water--(or an ordinary table knife will do) must be passed across the combs to remove the cappings on both sides, and they must then be placed in the cages of the extractor (fig. 31, b), and the wheel moved rapidly round for a minute or two; the honey on the sides of the combs next the sides of the extractor will by that time have been all thrown out, and the combs must then be taken out and turned round, when by turning the wheel again all the honey will be extracted from the other sides of the combs. Most cylinder extractors are made to take two combs at a time; but a few take four. Every extractor should be fitted with a lid to keep the bees out, as they are often very troublesome when one is extracting, getting into the extractor in great numbers, where they fall into the honey and are drowned.
Figure 30: Unapping Knife.
Figure 31: Unapping Knife.
As soon as all the combs from the first hive have been extracted, they should be returned, and those from the next hive extracted. The cappings may be collected and melted down for bees-wax in a "wax extractor" (fig. 32), which may be obtained from any of the dealers. The lower part of the wax extractor must be filled with hot water and put on the kitchen stove to boil. The cappings or old honey-combs that we wish to melt down should be placed in the perforated metal basket in the top part of the wax extractor, and when the water in the lower part boils, the wax melts and drips slowly out of the spout at the side. A pie-dish, half full of water, must be stood below this spout to catch the clear bees wax as it runs off.
### Storing Combs in Winter
In the autumn, when all the honey gathering is over for the season, and when all the combs have been extracted, they should be placed behind the dummy-board of some weak stock (the dummy having been previously raised slightly to enable the bees to pass under it), for them to clear out, after which they should be done up in brown paper, half a dozen in a parcel, with a few small pieces of camphor to keep away the wax moth.
They should be placed in a fairly warm, dry room, from which the frost must be excluded if possible, and they will then be found in splendid condition the next spring when they are again wanted for use. In place of camphor naphthalene may be used.
**Ripening and Bottling.**
When the honey has been extracted, it must be placed in a honey ripener (fig. 33) in a warm, dry room, having, if possible, a temperature of 80\({}^{\circ}\) Fahr. The honey ripener, as will be seen from the figure, is a tall narrow vessel, in which the thin honey rises to the top after a short time, when the ripe honey may be drawn off from the tap below and bottled. Honey requires to remain for three or four days, at least, in the ripener after being extracted before it is bottled. The most favourite way of doing up honey for sale is in one pound glass jars, those having metal screw tops being of a particularly attractive appearance. Many elegantly designed labels are sold by the dealers for attaching to the jars of honey, which considerably enhance their appearance. Honey sold in large quantities may be packed in barrels or tins, the latter being perhaps the best.
Figure 33:1Louey Ripener.
### Shallow Frames.
Some persons prefer to use frames the same length as the standard size, but not so deep, for the production of extracted honey. The objections to the use of two different-sized frames in the same hive, such as the impossibility of interchanging frames between the stock-hive and doubling-boxes, and many similar disadvantages, are obvious ; but for those who would like to give shallow frames a trial, certain manufacturers make a very convenient hive, in which the doubling-box is made in two rings, the lower one being deep enough to accommodate shallow frames, or when used both together they accommodate standard frames. It is claimed for shallow frames that the combs, being smaller, are less liable to break ; but little trouble need be feared on this score even when standard frames are used, provided that the foundation is wired.
### Heather Honey.
Heather honey is so thick that it is impossible to extract it. Therefore in districts where heather is plentiful the apiarist should always run his bees for comb, and not extracted honey. In some places, of course, there is a crop of white clover first, and the heather does not come into bloom till that is over.
### Metal Honeycomb.
Metal honeycomb, made of aluminium, has recently been introduced both in America and England, especially with a view to the production of extracted honey, its strength giving it some advantages for that purpose. Bees will also rear brood in it ; but the tyro will do well to use the natural beeswax honeycombs to commence with.
Great care must be taken to cover up the feeder very warmly, so that no heat may escape from the hive. The progress that a stock thus stimulated will make in five or six weeks is amazing. The syrup used for stimulation should be thin, made with 3 lbs. of sugar to a quart of water, one tablespoonful
of vinegar and half a teaspoonful of salt being added to every quart of water.
A superior form of stimulative feeder, in which the amount of syrup taken by the bees may be regulated is shown in fig. 49, page 105.
Supposing that at the beginning of March a hive still has abundance of stores left over from the winter, instead of feeding such a hive, we may with a sharp knife uncap some of the honey on the outer combs with great advantage; the bees will then carry the honey to the brood nest and the effect will be to stimulate brood rearing: a good patch of honey should be unscaled on a warm day about once a week, but care must be taken to commence feeding with syrup before the bees run at all short of stores, otherwise a serious check will be given to the production of brood, as the far-sighted bees, forcseeing a scarcity of food, will refuse to add to the number of their population when the means of supporting them runs low.
### Spreading the Brood.
When the bees appear daily getting stronger from the increasing quantities of brood hatching out, we may "spread
Figure 34: Strimulative Feeder.
increase and the profitable production of bees. 53