BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
In 1813, having removed to Philadelphia, Mr. Langstroth, with the help of his wife, began to experiment with lives of different forms, but made no special improvements in them until 1851, when he devised the movable frame hive, used at the present day in preference to all others. This is recorded in his journal, under the date of October 30, 1851, with the following remarks: "The use of these frames will, I am persuaded, give a new impetus to the easy and profitable management of bees."
This invention, which gave him perfect control over all the combs of the hive, enabled him afterwards to make many remarks and incidental discoveries, the most of which he recorded in his book, on the habits and the natural history of the honey-bee. The first edition of the work was published in 1852, and in its preparation he was greatly assisted by his accomplished wife. A revised edition was published in 1857, another in 1859, and large editions, without further revisions, were published until 1880, when the Dadants undertook the first re-writing of the book.
In January, 1852, Mr. Langstroth applied for a patent on
his invention. This was granted him; but he was deprived of all the profits of this valuable discovery, by infringements and subsequent law-suits, which impoverished him and gave him trouble for years; though no doubt remains _now_ in the mind of any one, as to the originality and priority of his discoveries.
From the very beginning, his hive was adopted by such men as Quinby, Grimm and others, while the inventions of Munu and Debeauvoys are now buried in oblivion.
Removing to Oxford, Ohio, in 1858, Mr. Langstroth, with the help of his son, engaged in the propagation of the Italian bee. From his large apiary he sold in one season \(\sharp\)2,000 worth of Italian queens. This amount looks small at the present stage of bee-keeping, but it was enormous at a time when so few people were interested in it.
The death of his only son, and repeated attacks of a serious head trouble, together with physical infirmities caused by a railroad accident, compelled Mr. Langstroth to abandon extensive bee-culture in 1874. But when his health permitted, his ideas were always turned toward improvements in hee-culture. On the 19th of August, 1895, he wrote us, asking us to try the feeding of bees with malted milk, to induce the rearing of brood. He had also written to others on the same subject. On the 19th of September he wrote in the American Bee Journal, that, after comparative experiments he had found that a thirteen comb Langstroth live gave more honey than the ordinary ten frame hive, thus showing that his mind was at all times occupied with bees.
Mr. Langstroth died October 6th, 1895, at Dayton, Ohio, while delivering a sermon. He was nearly eighty-five years old. His name is now "venerated" by American bee-keepers,who are aware of the great debt due him by the fraternity. He is to then what Dzierzou" is to German Apiarists, a master whose teachings will be retained for ages.
Mr. Langstroth was an eminent scholar. His bee library was one of the most extensive in the world. He learned French without a teacher, simply through his knowledge of Latin, for the sole purpose of reading the many valuable works on bees in the French language. He was a pleasant and eloquent speaker. His writings are praised by all, and we can not close his biography better than by quoting an able writer, who called him the "Huber of America."
## Chapter 4
## Biography of Charles Dadant
**Mr.** Charles Dadant was born May 22, 1817, at Vaux-Sous-Aubigny, in the golden hills of Burgundy, France. After his education in the College of Langres, he went into the merean-tile business in that city, but ill-suecess induced him to renove to America. He settled in Hamilton, Illinois, in 1863, and found a profitable occupation in bee-culture, which in his hands yielded marvelous results. He soon became noted as one cf the leading apiarists of the world.
After a few years of trial he made a trip to Italy, in 1872, to import the bees of that country to Auerica. Though at first unsuccessful, he persisted in his efforts and finally achieved great success. He was the first to lay down rules for the safe transportation of queen bees across the sea, which is now a matter of daily occurrence.
Later on, in partnership with his son, C. P. Dadant, he undertook the manufacture of comb foundation which has been continued by the firm, together with the management of several large apiaries, run almost exclusively for the production of extracted honey.
Although well versed in the English language, which he mastered at the age of forty-six, with the help of a pocket dictionary, Mr. Dadant was never able to speak it fluently and many of the readers of his numerous writings were astonished when meeting him to find that he could converse with difficulty. His writings were not confined to Aneriean publications, for in 1870 he began writing for European bee-journals and contained to do so until his methods were adopted, especially in Switzerland, France, Italy and Russia, where the hive which the recommended is now known under his name. For twenty years he was a regular contributor to the Revue Internationale D'Apiculture, and, as a result, there is probably not another bee-writer whose name is so, thoroughly known the world over.
Mr. Dadant was made an honorary member of more than twenty bee-keepers' associations throughout the world and his death, which occurred July 16, 1902, was lamented by every bee publication on both continents.
Mr. Dadant was a congenial una and a philosopher. He retained his cheerfulness of spirit to his last day.
In addition to his supervision of the revision of this book, he was the author of a small treatise on bees, "Petit tours d'Apiculture "Hat also published, in connection with his son, a pamphlet on "Extracted Honey," 1881, now out of print.
The first editions of the work of Langstroth were honored with the title of "The Classic in Bee-Culture." The first re-written revision was published in 1889, and this was so well received in the bee-keeping world that Mr. Charles Dadant translated it into the French language. With the help of Edouard Bertrand, it was published at Geneva. A little later a Russian edition was published\(-\)by Kandratieff, of St. Petersburg\(-\)which has caused a revolution in bee-culture in Russia.
Mr. Charles Dadant died in 1902. Meantime progress has continued and we again have to bring this classic work forward by additions and a few corrections.
In this edition we have aimed to preserve the first experiments and quotations made, whenever they have proven correct. We believe in giving credit to the first man who has ascertained a facet in natural history or has made a discovery. We have discarded all the euts from Girard, because it was evident that most of his anatomieal studies were copied from Barbo and Clerici, without giving them credit, and we have preferred to secure permission to copy the latter, whose work has not yet been excelled. It is now published in Milan, under the title of "Atlante Di Apicoltura," by A. De Rauschenfels, editor of L'Apicoltore.
Experienced bee-keepers will notice that we do not describe many new implements. It is because we believe in teaching beginners to use only that which has been thoroughly tested and is unquestionably good. Many new things will not stand the test of long years of practice. It is sufficient, among other things, to quote the metal corners for frames and the reversible hives. Metal corners were recommended at the time of our first revision, and we gave them a mention; they are now disearded even by their inventor. Reversible hives were the eraze, and were praised in every way. We gave two of them a mention in our pages, with a warning against their use. Reversible hives are now almost entirely abandoned.
We recommend the large hives, yet we know they are not popular, because buyers want inexpensive hives. We have bowed before public wishes and give descriptions of several popular hives which are certainly successful. But we use large lives ourselves, for we consider then the best.
In our preface of the first revision we extended our thanks to Mr. C. F. Mnth, now deceased, and to Miss Favard, for their help in our work. The writer has undertaken this last revision alone, but owes gratitude for sound advice on many points to a man who has to do with both praetice and theory and whose long experience entilles him to the consideration of all bee-keepers, Doctor'. C. Miller, author of "A Year Among the Bees" and "Forty Years Among the Bees." Dr. Miller, with small hives, enlarged at the proper time and again reduced in the brood chamber for the honey crop, has shown what could be done with intelligent and energetic management. He is not only a successful writer but a most extensive producer of comb honey, and is justly entitled to the name given him of the"Nestor of.American Bee-Keeping."
The work of Father Langstroth, sustained in Europe by the pen of the Senior Dadant, has entirely changed European methods of bee-culture. The improved hive, based upon the Langstroth system, has been adopted all over the world, and testimonials come to us from the most remote countries showing that the methods taught have proven successful.
The best half-tones in this edition are due to the work of the "Globe Engraving Company" of Chicago.
C. P. Dadant.
_Hamilton, Illinois, June,_ 1906.
## Chapter 1 The Hive and Honey Bee
**Chapter I.**
physiology of the honey-bee.
**1. All the leading facts in the natural history, and the breeding of bees, ought to be as familiar to the Apiarist, as the same class of facts in the rearing of his domestic animals. A few crude and half-digested notions, however satisfactory to the old-fashioned bee-keeper, will no longer meet the wants of those who desire to conduet bee-culture on an extended and profitable system. Hence.we have found it advisable to give a short description of the principal organs of this interesting insect and abridged passages taken from various seientific writers whose works have thrown an entire'y new light on many points in the physiology of the bee. It the reader will bear with us in this arduous task he will find that we have tried to make the descriptions plain and simple, avoiding, as much as possible, seientifie words unintelligible to many of us.**
**2. Honey-bees are insects belonging to the order** _Hymnemoptera;_ **thus named from their four membranous, gauzy wings. They can flourish only when associated in large numbers, as in a colony. Alone, a single bee is almost as helpless as a new-born child, being numbed by the chill of a cool summer night.**
**3. The habitation provided for bees is called a hive. The inside of a bee-hive shows a number of combs about half-amineh apart and suspended from its upper side. These combsare formed of hexagonal cells of various sizes, in which the bees raise their young and deposit their stores.
**4**. In a family, or colony of bees, are found (Plate 5) -- _1st,_ One bee of peculiar shape, commonly called the _Queen,_ or _mother-bee._ She is the _only \(p^{c}\)rfecit female_ in the hive, and all the eggs are laid by her;
_2ml,_ Many thousands of _worker-bees,_ or inequplete females, whose office is, while young, to take care of the brood and do the inside work of the hive; and when older, to go to the fields and gather honey, pollen, water, and propolis or beetle, for the needs of the colony; and
_3d,_ At certain seasons of the year, some hundreds and even thousands of large bees, called _Drones,_ or male-bees, whose sole function is to fertilize the young queens, or virgin females.
Before describing the differences that characterize each of these three kinds, we will study the organs which, to a greater or less extent, they possess in common, and which are most prominently found in the main type, the worker-bee.
General Characteristics.
**5**. In bees, as in all insects, the frame-work or skeleton that supports the body is not internal, as in mammals, but mostly external. It is formed of a horny substance, scientifically called _chitime,_ and well described in the following quotation:
**6**. "Chitime is capable of being moulded into almost every conceivable shape and appearance. It forms the hard back of the repulsive cockroach, the beautiful scale-like feathers of the gaudy butterfly, the delicate membrane which supports the lae. wing in mid air, the transparent cornea covering the eyes of all insects, the almost impalpable films cast by the moulting larvae, and the black and yellow rings of our native and imported hees, besides internal braces, tendons, membranes, and duets innumerable. The external skeleton, hard for the most part, and varied in thickness in beautiful adaptation to the strain to "," which it may be exposed, gives persistencey of form to the little wearer; but it needs, wherever movement is necessary, to have
delicate extensions joining the edges of its unyielding plates. This we may understand by examining the legs of a lobster or crab, furnished like those of the bee, with a shelly case, but so large that no magnifying glass is required. Here we see that the thick coat is reduced to a thin and easily creasel nembrane, whrcrc, by flexion, one part is made to pass over the other,''......
''Again, almost every part of the body is covered by hairs, the form, structure, direction, and position of which, to the very smallest, have a meaning.'' (Choshire, ''Bees and Bees-keeping,'' p. 30. London, 1887.)
**7.** Mr. Cheshire explains that, as the skeleton or framework of the bee is not sensitive, these hairs act as organs of toneh, each one containing a nerve. They also act as clothing and aid in retaining heat--
''and give protection, as the stiff, straight hairs of the eyes, whilst some act as brushes for cleaning, others are thin and webbed for holding pollen grains; whilst by varied modifications, others again act as graspers, sieves, piercers, or mechanical stops to limit excessive movement.''
**8.** The three sections of the body of the honey-bee are perfectly distinct : the head; the thorax, or centre of locomotion, bearing the wings and legs; and the abdomen, containing the honey-saek, stomach, bowels, and the main breathing organs.
The principal exterior organs of the head are the antennae, the eyes, and the parts composing the mouth.
**9.** The eyes are five in number; two composite eyes, one on each side of the head, which are but clusters of small eyes or facets, and three _convex_ eyes, or _ocelli_, arranged in a triangle at the top of the head.
**10.** The facets of the composite eyes, thousands in number, are six-sided, like the eells of the honey-comb, and being directed towards nearly every point, they permit the insect to see in a great number of directions at the same time.
**11.** In comparing the eyes of worker, queen and drone, Mr. Cheshire says:
## 4 Physiology of the honey-bee.
"The worker spends much of her time in the open air. Accurate and powerful vision are essentials to the proper prosecution of her labors, and here I found the compound eye possessing about 6,300 facets. In the mother of this worker I expected to find a less number, for queens know little of daylight. After wedding they are out of doors but once, or at most twice, in a year.* This example verified my forecast, by showing 4,920 facets on each side of the head. A son of this mother, much a stay-at-home also, was next taken. His facets were irregular
the composite eye of a worker-bee magnified.
(Copled from the Atlante di Apicolutura, microscopic studies of Count Gaetano Barb0, of Milan.)
in size, those at the lower part of the eye being much less than those near the top; but they reached the immense number of 13,090 on each side of the head. Why should the visual apparatus of the drone be so extraordinarily developed beyond that of the worker, whose need of the eye seems at first to be much more pressing than his?"
* When going out with a swarm.
This question Mr. Cheshire answers, as will be seen further, in considering the antennae. (**26**)*
Footnote *: The reader will readily understand that the numbers between parentheses refer to the paragraphs bearing those numbers. This is for the convenience of the student.
**12**. The three small eyes, _ocelli_, are thought by Maurice Girard ("Les Abeilles," I'aris, 1878), and others, to have a microscopic function, for sight at short distances. In the hive, the work is performed in the dark, and possibly (?) these eyes are fitted for this purpose.
**Fig. 2.**
SMALL ETES, OR OCCILI OF THE DRONE.
Magnified. (Copied from Barb0.) The facets on each side belong to the large eyes.
**13**. Their return from long distances, either to their hive or to the place where they have found food, proves that bees can see very far. Yet, when the entrance to their hive has been changed, even only a few inches, they cannot readily find it.
Their many eyes looking in different directions, enable them to guide themselves by the relative position of objects, hence they always return to the identical spot they left.
**14**. If we place a colony in a forest where the rays of the sun can scarcely penetrate, the bees, at their exit from the hive, will fly several times around their new abode, then, selecting a small aperture through the dense foliage, they will rise above the forest, in quest of the flowers scattered in the fields. And like children in a nutting party, they will gather their crop here and there, a mile or more away, without fear of being lost or unable to return.
As soon as their honey-sack is full, or, if a threatening cloud passes before the sun, they start for home, without any hesitation, and, among so many trees, even while the wind mingles the leafy twigs, they find their way; so perfect is the organization of their composite eyes.
**15**. Bees can notice and remember colors. While experimenting on this faculty, we piaeed some honey on small pieces of differently colored paper. A bee alighted on a yellow paper, suked her load and returned to her hive. While she was absent, we moved the paper. Returning, she came directly to the spot, but, noticing that the yellow paper was not there, she made several inquiring circles in the air, and then alighted upon it. According to Mr. A. J. Cook a similar experiment with the same results, was made by Lubbrok. ("Bee-keepers' Guide," Lansinz, 1834.)
**16**. We usually give our bees flour, in shallow boxes, at the opening of Spring, before the pollen appears in the flowers. These boxes are brought in at night. Every morning they are put out again, after the bees have commenced flying and hover around the spot. If by chance, some bits of white paper are scattered about the place, the bees visit those papers, mistaking them for flour, on account of the color.
**17**. But "the celebrated Darwin was mistaken in saying that the colorless blossoms, which he names obscure blossoms, are scarcely visited by insects, while the most highly colored blossoms are very fondly visited by bees." (Gaston Bonnier, "Les Nectaires," Paris, 1879.)
**18**. For, although color attracts bees, it is only one of the means used by nature to bring them in contact with the flowers. The smell of honey is, certainly, the main attraction, and this attraction is so powerful, that frequently, at daybreak in the summer, the bees will be found in full flight, gathering the honey which has been secreted in the night, when nothing, on the preceding evening, could have predicted such a crop. This happens especially when there is a production of honey-dew, after a storm. We have even known bees to gather"These hairs, standing above the general surface, constitute the antenna marvelous touch organs; and as they are distributed all round each joint, the worker-bee in a blossom cup, or with its head thrust into a cell in the darkness of the hive, is, by their means, as able accurately to determine as though she saw; while the queen, whose antenna is made after the same model, can perfectly distinguish the condition of every part of the cell into which her head may be thrust. The last joint, which is flattened on oue side, near the end, is more thickly studded, and here the hairs are uniformly bent towards the axis of the whole organ. No one could have watched bees without discovering that, by the antennae, interconnnunication is accomplished; but for this purpose front and side hairs alone are required; and the drone, unlike the queen and worker, very suggestively, has no others, since the condition of the cells is no part of his eare, if only the larder be well furnished." (Cheshire.)
**20.** The celebrated Francois Huber, of Geneva, made a number of experiments on the antennae, and ascertained that they are organs of smell and feeling.
Before citing his discoveries, we must pay our tribute of admiration to this wonderful man. (Plate 6.)
Huber, in early manhood, lost the use of his eyes. His "!ponents imagined that to state this fact would materially discredit his observations. And to make their case still stronger, they asserted that his servant, Francis Burnens, by whose aid he conducted his experiments, was only an ignorant pleasant. Now this so-called "ignorant peasant" was a man of strong native intellect, possessing the indefatigable energy and enthusiasm indispensable to a good observer. He was a noble specimen of a self-made man, and rose to be the chief magnstrate in the village where he resided. Huber has paid a worthy tribute to his intelligence, fidelity, patience, energy and skill. \(\lambda\) single fact will show the claracter of the man. It became necessary, in a certain experiment, to examine separately all the bees in two hives. "Burnens spent _eleven_ days in performing this work, and during the whole time he scarcely
## Chapter 6 FRANCOIS HUBER,
Author of the "_Nouvelles Universitoin sur les Abelles_," published in Geneva, Switzerland, 1792-1814.
allowed himself any relaxation, but what the relief of his eyes required."
Huber's work on bees is such an admirable specimen of the inductive system of reasoning, that it might well be studied as a model of the only way of investigating nature, so as to arrive at reliable results.
**21.** Huber was assisted in his researches, not only by Burnens, but by his own wife, to whom he was betrothed before the loss of his sight, and who nobly persisted in marrying him, notwithstanding his misfortune and the strenuous dis-sensions of her friends. They lived longer than the ordinary term of human life in the enjoyment of great domestic happiness, and the amiable naturalist, through her assiduous attentions, scarcely felt the loss of his sight.
**22.** Milton is believed by many to have been a better quiet in consequence of his blindness; and it is highly probable that Huber was a better Apiarist from the same cause. His active, yet reflective mind, demanded constant employment; and he found, in the study of the habits of the honey-bee, full scope for his powers. All the observations and experiments of his faithful assistants being daily reported, many inquiries and suggestions were made by him, which might not have occurred to him, had he possessed the use of his eyes.
Few, like him, have such command of both time and money, as to be able to prosecute on so grand a scale, for a series of years, the most costly experiments. Having repeatedly verified his most important observations, we take great delight in holding him up to our countrymen as the Prince or Apiarists.
**23.** Huber, having imprisoned a queen in a wire cage, saw the bees pass their antennae through the meshes of the cage, and turn them in every direction. The queen answered these tokens of love by elinging to the cage and crossing her antennae with theirs. Some bees were trying to draw the queen out, and several extended their tongues to feed her through the meshes. Wonderful as the experiment seemed at that time,the fact is verified now by daily occurrences in queen-rearing. Huber adds:
'How can we doubt now that the communication between the workers and the queen was maintained by the touch of the antennae?''
**2.1.** That bees can hear, either by their antennae or some other organ, few will now deny, even although the sound of a gun near the hive is entirely unnoticed by them.