BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
About ro a.m. the bees commence to rush pell mell out of the hive, and fly round in a circle until the air is full of the insects, all emitting a contented hum, which can be recognised many yards away by the experienced bee-keeper. Eventually the old queen joins the crowd and away they go to settle on the branch of a tree or some other position previously selected by the scouts sent out from the hive for this purpose. The swarm contains anywhere from fifteen to twenty-five thousand bees. They settle in a large pear-shaped cluster; as soon as all have settled down they should be lived into a temporary home, there to remain until the evening, when they can be run into their permanent anode.
Sometimes the swarm is disinclined to settle. If this restlessness exhibits itself, it is quite possible that they maytake a long, long flight before alighting, or they may even enter some cavity such as a disused chimney flue, or under the roof of a house difficult of access, and from which it is almost impossible to evict them. To prevent them absorbing in this manner, water should be sprinkled amongst them by means of a garden syringe, or failing this, handfuls of earth thrown up amongst them gives the impression that it is raining, and down they come to cluster.
The temporary home may consist of an empty straw hive ; a wooden bucket or box will do just as well. The box bucket or skep is held under the cluster with one hand, while with the other the branch upon which the bees are resting is given a few vigorous shakes, so that they are dislodged and fall into the waiting receptacle. This is then turned over gently to give the bees time to gain foothold upon its interior to cluster ; it should stand on a board with a brick under the edge to allow the hot air to come out and cool air to enter. Bees will die very quickly unless ample ventilation is provided. To keep them cool and contented, their resting-place must be shaded from the sun by placing over it an opened umbrella, or covering it lightly with a sheet ; the latter may with advantage be damped with cold water from time to time.
The disadvantage of obtaining increase by natural swarms is that much time is wasted by watching for their exit, and when they do come out there is always the danger of losing them. On this account the keeper of bees in modern hives who requires increase makes it by artificial means. Knowing the habits of the bee this is an easy matter.
The cardinal points to remember in making artificial swarms are that bees locate position and not the hive, and that it is the old flying bees and old queen which constitute the swarm.
It is useless to try to make artificial swarms from weak stocks. Commence to stimulate those it is desired to manipulate for this purpose about the end of March, or beginning of April, according to the weather, so that the hive is teeming with bees at the beginning of May.
About ten o'clock on the morning of a day that is warm, and the sun shining, bring out the new hive, which has been fully prepared by painting the outside, and fitting the frames with full sheets of wired worker base foundation. Examine the combs in the stock to be dealt with until the queen is found, then remove the central frame from the new hive, and put in its place the comb with the queen and adhering bees, close up the combs in the parent stock, place the frame of foundation removed from the new hive so that it is the one nearest the hive wall on one side, wrap both lots up warmly, move the parent stock to a new site some few yards away, put the new hive on the position it occupied. The old foraging bees go out to work from the old hive in its new situation ; upon their return they go to the old position, which is now occupied by the new hive in which are a few bees and the old queen. In this way the old bees, which constitute a swarm, are sifted out. Young bees do not fly until they are fourteen days old ; the parent hive retains all these for its population just as it would if a natural swarm had issued. Finding they are queenless these young bees immediately set to work and rear a queen, which, after she has been mated, forms the head of the colony. The only difference between a natural and an artificial swarm is, that there is a longer period of queenlessness in the latter than the former.
## 4 How to Establish and Manage Bees
The best and cheapest way to commence bee-keeping is by means of a swarm obtained as early in the spring as possible. If a stock, _i.e._ bees on their combs established the previous season, is bought, it will be more expensive--the former costing from fifteen to thirty shillings, the latter from forty shillings to three pounds. With a swarm there is not much fear of disease being present, as there is with a stock. The combs have to be built by the swarm ; a record of their age can be kept so that they can gradually be renewed as required, thus there will always be a few new combs in the hive with full-sized cells to keep up the size and stamina of the bees. The advantage of commencing with a stock is that a return in honey will be obtained the first year, whereas this is not always possible with a swarm. If the latter establishes itself and stores sufficient food to last through the winter, the bee-keeper is satisfied. All things considered, there is no doubt that the experience gained in watching the development of a swarm into a stock is ample compensation for the loss of a little honey, apart from the saving in cost.
The hive should be obtained in January, the roof covered with calico, and the whole exterior painted with three coats of good white paint. If this is done early it will give the paint ample time to harden before the hive is required for use, thus avoiding the inconvenience caused by the various parts sticking together, which is bound to happen if they are put in position before the paint is quite hard.
The brood frames are fitted with full sheets of worker base comb foundation. Foundation is pure beeswax sheeted and impressed with the base of cells, either worker or drone as required; by its use perfectly straight combs, of either kind of cells, are obtained in any desired position. It also saves the bees a good deal of labour by providing them with a certain amount of wax, the secretion of which entails a great deal of labour and the consumption of much food. The foundation should be wired into the frame; this is accomplished by stretching very thin tinned wire across the frame, attaching it to the middle of either end bar either by hooks or threading it through holes made with a bradawl. The sheet of foundation is then inserted into a saw-cut which runs right along, and in the centre of, the top bar. The frame is now laid on a board, which fits loosely inside to hold the foundation up to the wire, when a small serrated wheel, which has been previously heated, is run along the wire, forcing it into the foundation. It is thus held quite rigid in the frame, and when the combs are built makes them very strong, in the same way that steel bars placed in cement castings give us reinforced concrete.
Our next care is to choose a suitable position for the hive. It is a mistake to imagine that because bees are creatures which love sunshine, they should be placed in the warmest position available. Too much sun on their home is bad for them, and will cause much distress. Extreme shade is equally unsatisfactory. A walled-in garden where there is very little circulation of air, or close up to the south side of a wall, is not a good position. Choose a place which is shaded during part of the day and where air can play freely round the hive at all times, for instance at the side of a standard fruit tree or a pergola. The entrance should face south-east; the back of the hive should come close up to a path, to avoid treading on cultivated ground when manipulating the bees. Bees object to be hindered in their work by people passing in front of their home; if this occurs, they at once attack the intruder. The ground in front of the hive for at least a yard must be kept clear of all vegetation.
The legs should stand on bricks to give stability and also to prevent decay of the wood. The floor-board should stand perfectly level from side to side, also from back to front if the frames run parallel with the entrance; if they run at right angles, which is generally the case, then the front should slope about half an inch to throw out the moisture which condenses inside.
The brood chamber is now put in position on the floor-board; the tops of the frames must be covered with a quilt, a piece of calico or ticking cut just a little larger than the size of the brood chamber, to keep the bees confined to the frames and also to keep them warm; over this place about three pieces of some good thick warm material, such as house flannel, or several layers of neatly folded newspapers will serve the same purpose.
Upon the arrival of the swarm in its travelling case, it should be placed in a cool room, such as the cellar, until about seven o'clock (normal time) in the evening, when it can be put into the hive.
The hive is prepared for its reception by removing all the outer casing, if a W.B.C. The entrance is made about a couple of inches high, by propping up the front of the brood chamber with the entrance slides; a board about three feet long, the same width as the floor-board, is placed sloping from the alighting board to the ground; over this spread a cloth to make a smooth surface for the bees to travel up. Open the travelling case containing the swarm, shake it vigorously to loosen the bees, then shake them all out on to the cloth about six inches away from the entrance to the hive. The natural inclination of bees is to travel up hill; the inclined plane thus provided conducts them into the hive. When all are inside the brood chamber is lowered to its proper place and the outer portions restored to their normal position.
It is advisable to feed a swarm for about a week after hiving. The food given is syrup made from white cane sugar; to one pound of sugar add one pint of water, heat over the fire until the sugar is dissolved. This syrup is put into a feeding bottle having a perforated metal cap with an index finger, which fits on to a feeding stage placed over a hole cut for the purpose in the calico quilt. The number of holesto which the bees are allowed access to suck the food is regulated by turning the index finger to the number on the stage; these numbers range from one to nine, and whichever number the finger is set to allows that number of holes to be exposed through a slot in the metal work of the stage. The food must be given in the evening and about new-milk warm.
As already indicated a swarm does not, as a rule, do more than establish itself and store sufficient food for the winter, though at times they not only do this, but give a good surplus as well.
The second season, if all goes well, the stock will reach full strength about the beginning of May; if more room is not provided at that period the bees will swarm as already explained.
The method of present-day bee-keeping is to prevent this by giving room in advance of requirements; this is carried out by means of the supers. These are of two kinds: section racks for the production of comb honey and shallow frame boxes for extracted honey. Section racks consist of a wooden frame, just the size of the brood chamber, 41 inches deep,with a slatted bottom to hold the sections in position. Sections are purchased in the flat, and can be folded into a square measuring 41 by 41 inches, being held in position by lock joints at one corner. A groove in the top provides the means of fastening the foundation, which in this case is very thin and transparent, for, as the honey and wax is all consumed by the purchaser, it would be rather disagreeable if there were a thick mid-rib to come in contact with the teeth.
The sections are placed in seven rows of three upon the slats in the rack; each section has a small piece removed from either edge top and bottom to allow the bees to pass in at the bottom, and also when other racks are placed in position to pass out at the top into them. Between each row of sections is placed a metal divider, to prevent the bees extending the comb beyond the wood-work of the section; if they did this it would be difficult to make the section into a saleable package. Each section when filled with honey and sealed over contains approximately one pound, and they are sold in normal times for one shilling each.
To prevent the queen from entering the sections, depositing eggs, and spoiling them with brood, a perforated metal sheet, called a queen excluder, because the perforations will allow the workers to pass through but debar the queen, is laid over the top of the frames after the quilts have been removed, the rack is placed over this, and the quilts on top. The bees, finding they have more room, go up, build out the combs, and fill them with honey instead of swarming. When the first rack is about two-thirds full of honey it is lifted up and a second one placed underneath; this is repeated until the honey flow ceases, about the end of July.
The shallow frame super is used in exactly the same way. The frames are fitted with stout drone base foundation; this gives the bees an opportunity to exercise their desire to build drone comb in a place where it will be harmless; the larger cells also allow the honey to be extracted more easily than is the case with the smaller worker cells.
If desired, section racks and shallow frame supers can be used in conjunction on the same hive, instead of devoting it to one kind of super only.
When the combs in the super are filled with honey, and all the cells sealed over, they are removed by means of a bee escape, which is a small metal trap fitted into a board the size of the top of the brood chamber. This is slipped under the super to be removed in the evening; during the night the bees pass through the trap to the chamber below, from which they cannot return, so that the next morning the super can be taken off free from bees.
In the case of sections they are removed, cleaned, and stored away ready for sale. If it is a shallow frame super, then it is necessary to extract the honey. To do this, the cappings are first cut off from either side with a carving knife, previously heated by dipping it into hot water--a cold knife would tear the combs instead of cutting them. The combs are then placed, two at a time, into the cage of an extractor; this consists of a large round tin, with a cage so fitted that it can be made to revolve very quickly by turning a handle on the top. When this is done with the combs inside, centrifugal force slings the honey out of the cells on to the side of the extractor, where it drains down to the bottom, and is drawn out by means of a tap into tins or jars through muslin to strain it. When one side of the combs has been extracted, they are lifted out, turned round, replaced, and the other side treated in the same manner.
The combs are then returned to the bees; they repair what little damage has been done and again fill them with honey.
At the end of the season the supers are removed, cleaned down, and stored away. The most profitable system of working bees is for extracted honey, for this reason : to make one pound of wax the bees consume from ten to twenty pounds of honey, therefore when a section is sold one of the most valuable assets (wax) goes with it. Shallow combs are never destroyed, but are used year after year ; they are never used for breeding purposes, therefore are always perfectly clean. For every pound of wax preserved for use as combs in this way, the consumption of a large amount of food and much valuable time is saved to the bees.
Immediately after the honey harvest has been gathered preparation for the winter should be commenced. This in most districts will be about the middle of August. It is no use attempting to winter weak stocks. If there are such they should be united. This is accomplished as follows : Move the hives containing the weak lots not more than one yard per day when the bees are flying until they stand in pairs side by side. If moved more than this distance the bees will not find their way into the hive ; as already pointed out, they locate position and not the hive, so a great many will be lost. When they reach their final position, let them stand side by side and work for several days so that they get well used to the new location. On a fine warm evening, about six o'clock (normal time), remove all the combs from each stock that are not covered by bees, kill the worst queen, space the combs in one hive equal distances apart, having previously dusted the bees well with ordinary wheaten or pea flour. Now take the combs from the other hive one by one, dust the bees on each with flour and interspace them between the spaced combs in the other hive. Remove the empty hive, move the one containing the bees so that it stands in the centre of the space which was occupied by the two hives, wrap down warmly. The two lots of bees will have one common home and so winter successfully. Bees recognise each other by smell, hence the use of flour to give them all the same odour ; if they are put together without this precaution they will fight and many bees will be killed, possibly amongst the number the most valuable one, _i.e._ the queen. Plenty of flour should be used in the operation ; this is not wasted, the bees clean themselves from it, store it in the cells and use it for food in the same way that they collect and use pollen from the flowers.
If there are weak stocks in the spring, the same method can be followed to unite weak ones which would otherwise spend all the summer in gaining sufficient strength, and stores to winter on, instead of giving surplus. By uniting and making one strong lot out of each two weak ones, surplus will be obtained.
The next care will be to see that all stocks are headed by young vigorous queens. Those having failing mothers should be re-queened by young ones, reared and introduced as explained in the chapter on Queen Rearing and Introduction.
If there is plenty of honey in the brood combs for the bees to live on in the winter, there will be no need to feed. For this purpose there should be at least eight combs well filled and sealed over. If there is not this quantity then it will be necessary to feed with sugar syrup. It is well to remember that no food suits the bees so well as their own natural stores, therefore when removing the supers the beekeeper should not be too varicious; if it is found that a stock has bred so well all the summer that practically all the stores gathered have been placed in the supers, then, under present war conditions, it will save much trouble and expense if one superful is left on for food; if this is done the excluder must be removed or in the cold months it will prevent the bees from going through to the food.
If artificial food must be given it can be done in two ways: by means of a rapid feeder, which is a large vessel so constructed that the bees can get at the food _ad lib._, carry it down and store it in the cells, or by means of the slow or stimulative feeder already described. The latter is the best plan, but requires more attention, therefore is not so much in favour. About the beginning of September the slow feeder should be placed in position and kept continually supplied with food; that given in the autumn differs in consistency from that given in the spring; for the former it must be thick, roughly half a pint of water to one pound of sugar. The bees are not active except on very fine days in the winter, therefore cannot cleanse. If thin food is given there will be much waste material, the retention of which in their bodies will cause dysentery. They should be allowed access to four or five holes in the feeder. The advantage of this system is that the queen is kept laying till late in the season, so providing a numerous colony to keep each other warm in the winter. The food taken and not required for immediate use is stored
## Bee-keeping in WAR-TIME
in the cells and sealed over. If feeding is delayed until October, necessitating the use of the rapid feeder, then much of the food is left unsealed in the cells and may cause dysentery.
During very cold weather, the bees will not pass under the combs upon which they are clustering to others containing food ; for this reason it is quite possible after a long spell of cold weather to find bees dead from starvation, with food on the next combs. To avoid this, as they will pass over the top of the combs, winter passages are given, by laying a couple of pieces of wood, about half an inch square and nine inches long, over the top of and at right angles to the frames so that they hold up the calico quilt sufficiently to allow the bees to pass over.
A disinfect in the form of specially prepared naphthalene balls, split in two to prevent the bees rolling them out, is placed in the brood chamber on the floor as far away from the entrance as possible ; this prevents disease and also keeps away wax moth, earwigs and ants.
To prevent all possible chance of the bees running short of food, a cake of bee candy, in a glass-topped box so that the supply can be watched in the winter without disturbing the bees, is placed over the feed hole. Cover down with at least three good thick quilts, or an abundance of folded newspapers.
The hive must be absolutely water-tight ; to this end it is well to give each roof a coat of paint in the autumn, to prevent the driving rains and melting snow from penetrating. To secure the roof from being blow off during the winter and early spring -- gales, drive a stake down at one side and close up to the hive, tie a cord to it, and pass it over the roof ; to the other end tie a brick so that it just swings clear from the ground.
The entrance to the hive is kept open full width in the summer ; in the early spring and autumn, and also when feeding, it is closed to about an inch ; for winter it is opened to six inches.
No attention is required in the winter beyond seeing from time to time that the candy supply is not exhausted, clearing the entrance from dead bees by means of a piece of stick, clearing away snow from the alighting broad and shading the entrance so that reflected light from the snow does not enter the hive and attract the bees out to die.
The correct recipes for making the foods described are as follows :
egin{tabular}{l l} Spring and summer food-- & Autumn food-- ; 5 lb. white cane sugar. & 5 lb. white cane sugar. & * 3\(
rac{1}{2}\) & pints water. & 2\(
rac{1}{2}\) & pints water. 4\(
rac{1}{2}\) & oz. vinegar. & 1\(
rac{1}{2}\) & oz. vinegar. 5\(
rac{1}{2}\) & oz. salt. & 1\(
rac{1}{2}\) & oz. salt. \ \end{tabular}
Put the ingredients in a saucepan and place it over the fire, stir continually until all the sugar is dissolved, when it is ready for use. It is important to remember that white cane sugar and not brown sugar must be used. If the latter or beet sugar is used it will cause death through dysentery.
_To make Bee Candy.--_In a clean pan put 3 lb. of best white cane sugar and half a pint of water, together with as much cream of tartar as can be heaped on a sixpenny-piece. Stand beside the fire, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved, then place on the fire and stir continually until the mass boils ; allow it to boil for about two minutes, then remove from the fire, and stand the pan in another vessel containing cold water until the syrup begins to cloud, then stir well until it reaches the consistency of porridge, when it can be poured into glass-topped boxes, or into saucers lined with paper, so that it can be lifted out in a block with the paper adhering ; this can be put over the feed hole with the paper uppermost, but is not so convenient as the boxes with a glass top. The latter are easily made by glazing one side of a section. When set, the candy should not be hard, but a moist solid mass which can easily be cut into with the finger nail.
Candy given in January should have about a quarter of a pound of Symington's pea flour mixed with the above quantity. This should be lightly sprinkled in when stirring during the cooling process.