BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
"The bees are swarming!" These are magical words, which arouse every member of that family whose pride is a few hives in the garden. It is a cry that starts the sluggish blood, and sends a quiver of excitement up and down the spinal column while one rushes to the scene of action. How gracefully that moving mass of black particles undulates in the air, as if it were a drifting cloud instead of a self-willed, one-minded colony of socialists! How the heart rises and sinks inversely to this rise and fall, and how hopeless it seems when the swarm lifts itself superbly over all surrounding obstacles, and disappears above the tree tops! No one who has had this experience will wonder at the ancient custom which obtains even now in the country districts on such occasions of beating tin pans, ringing bells, and shouting "'whon" at the top of the lungs. All of this racket had its inception in the needs of the bee-keeper to adequately express his feelings at this crisis. If the bees ever stopped and settled because of this din, it was probably from sheer amazement at witnessing such folly on the part of human beings; this explanation would hold, perhaps, if bees ever
very soon; it may injure the feelings of the bees, but it certainly does not injure them physically, as it simply impairs their power of flight by wetting the wings. Even after a swarm has settled, a little sprinkle of water will keep it clustered safely until the hive is made ready to receive it.
It is highly desirable that the swarm should cluster on the tip of a branch not far from the ground; for then the process of living is comparatively simple. My personal plan has been to place a sheet, kept for the purpose, on the ground near the clustering swarm; place on this a covered hive filled with frames containing brood foundations. Lift the front edge of the hive about an inch by putting blocks under the two corners; then cut the branch above the cluster, and taking it in hand shake the bees off in front of the hive and placidly watch them live themselves with true bee celerity. This use of the sheet is a habit formed in childhood, and I persist in it, though my partner decides the practice. He shakes the bees down on the board on which the hive is standing; or he takes the top off the hive, and shakes the bees down among the frames in the most summary fashion. But I think the sheet makes a softer mattress for the little citizens to fall upon, and certainly they find their way from it more easily into the hive. I am a conservative person, and like to do things as I always have done them before--a conservatism that is by no means dangerous in our apiary where the senior partner is given to new ways and many inventions.
If the bees alight high in a tree, then our methods have been to get at them by climbing the tree, or attaining the branch by the use of a ladder. However, I doubt if there was ever a fruit found on any tree that needs quite so much care in the picking as does this; and it is decidedly a ticklish performance to chamber down a tree holding gingerly a branch laden with a swarm of bees in one hand and clutching at supporting branches with the other. Sometimes the bees are not accommodating enough to alight on the end of a branch that may be cut off. They may even go so far as to cluster on the large branch itself; then there is nothing to do but to brush them off in a box with a bee brush, a performance which they object to; or to dip them off with a tin dipper, or to jar them into a basket, and then to dump them out in front of the hive. The most embarrassing situation of all is when the swarm clusters on a tree trunk. Squaring the circle is not a much more difficult feat mathematically than to brush all the bees into a square box from this cylindrical position. It is usually necessary to bring the smoker to help in elucidating this problem; for, paradoxical as it may seem, smoke properly applied clears up many a situation in the bee business.
If only one were able to find the queen in the clustering swarm and secure her by placing her in the hive, the work would be easy, for the other bees would soon follow. But to hunt for the queen in the clustering swarm is, for most of us, quite like hunting for the traditional needle in the haystack;and while we are hunting we are wasting precious time, as the swarm may make up its collective mind to remove from our vicinity its component atoms. In shaking, or dipping, or brushing the bees into the hive, we should remember to deal with them as gently as the situation and mental perturbation will permit.
Sometimes the bees seem to feel defrauded at having a house chosen for them, and insist upon swarming out of their new quarters within a day or two after they are placed in possession. Thus it is a wise precaution to give the hives of the newly swarmed attention for two or three days, lest they indulge in this sort of perversity. If the bees seem unsettled and unhappy, and hang around home instead of going into the fields to work, it is advisable to place in the middle of the hive a frame of unsealed brood taken from some other colony. A bee's motherly instinct may always be depended upon, since caring for the young is a shining civic virtue as well as a domestic duty among the bee people. When there are helpless larvae to care for, the bees willingly forego every personal inclination to pack up and move, and cheerfully proceed to give the youngsters every attention.
## 6.2 decoy hives
When the self-appointed scouts of a bee colony start out house-hunting for the swarm which is about to issue, they evidently examine the premises carefully; if they find a house for rent in the immediate neighbourhood, they are likely to go no farther in their quest. Thus it is the practice of many bee keepers to place about the apiary hives empty, except for brood-frames filled with foundation, hoping thus to entice the swarms to take possession, and save all trouble. Mr. Root goes so far as to advise that such hives be fastened in the lower forks of trees in the neighbourhood of the apiary, and thus provide a most expedient bee tree. A decoy hive should not contain more than three brood-frames, as other frames may be added when the bees move in. The reason for this is that the sheets of wax foundation, when sufficiently close together for the convenience of the bees, prove also entirely convenient for the occupancy of the bee moth; and one ought to be particular about one's tenants when renting houses in the apiary.
Mr. West's device for saving swarms is the most alluring of any about which we have read. Since the clipped queen cannot fly, she expresses the aspiration within her breast by climbing anything at hand, like a blade of grass or a shrub. Mr. West observing this, drives a bare, forked branch into the ground a few inches in front of the hive, having cleaned the ground between it and the hive of all obstacles. This branch having a few twigs upon it, is leaned away from the hive entrance. The queen promptly climbs this tree, like Zaccheus, and the swarm clusters around her and remains there conveniently at hand for hiving.
## 7 How to keep bees
maxims for giving bees
Clip the old queen's wings.
Go through the lives every ten days to destroy queen cells.
As the swarming season approaches, have hives ready with foundation in brood-frames, and hive-stands ready to receive them.
Keep a serene spirit while living bees.
The hive in which the colony is placed should be kept cool and not heated from standing in the sun; it should be shaded, as the swarm will not enter a hot hive.
If the bees refuse to accept a hive, give them a frame of unsealed brood to reconcile them.
## Chapter 7 How to keep from keeping too many bees
"Are, there's the rub!" For the beginner who wishes to keep a few bees, this is the most difficult problem to solve on the bee-keeper's slate, and it must finally be solved by each according to his own capacity and method.
We confess frankly that we were once driven out of the bee business because we were too successful. Caring for fifteen or twenty hives was a delightful avocation. We kept our colonies strong, for we wished to make comb-honey; consequently, splendid swarms came off, and we had the fatal gift of seeing them when they came and of living them successfully. Thus our avocation began to intrench upon our vocation in a most alarming manner. While we enjoyed taking care of our bees, we were nevertheless following the vocation which we had chosen, and which we liked best; and the time came when we were obliged to decide whether we would leave our regular business and become bee-keepers, or abjure bee-keeping and attend to our regular business.
We gave away what swarms we could and we sold some; but selling bees is a business quite as much as caring for them, so that was not practicable. Philosophically, we argued that since we had enough bees we would let the swarms that came off abscond and bid them God-speed; but here we reckoned without properly considering the amount of human nature which had fallen to our share. Although we knew that every swarm in our apiary above twenty would be an embarrassment and a tribulation, we could never rest content not to hive a swarm when it issued; and the more unattainable the place where it clustered and the less we wanted the bees, the more determined we were to secure that special swarm.
Such inconsistency brought its own punishment, and our only resource was to sell out; and for many years the spot in our garden which our apiary once occupied was never viewed without a sense of loneliness and longing for its busy little tenants. During these years we thought it over and finally came around to the right frame of mind, and firmly concluded to keep bees for our own honey and our own happiness. We limited our ambitions to ten hives; and last summer when our best-tested Italian queen took us unaware and departed with a large and enthusiastic following, we did not mount; all we did was to venture to hope that the young queen left in the hive had mated with one of our own handsome drones, and not with a mad black prince from one of Mr. Coggshall's take-care-of-itself apiaries in our neighbourhood. As soon as our new brood made us sure that our queen had made no _metalliance_ we were entirely content.
Our lack of success in preventing swarming when trying to produce comb-honey was a source of great chagrin to us until we read that so eminent a bekeeper as Mr. Hutchinson declared that "there is no way of preventing first swarms profitable to the comb-honey producer," and then our feelings were salved. 'The following are in brief a few of the more successful ways practised to prevent increase:
_By clipping the queen's reigns.--_Almost all beekeepers practise this now, whatever their method of preventing increase or securing it. A queen with clipped wings is necessarily a "'stay-at-home body," and the swarm will not leave without her. However, when depending upon this method it is very important to guard against the hatching of new queens, and this can only be done by closely scrutinising the brood-comb to discover and destroy the queen cells. The brood-frames should be examined in each hive about once a week during the months of June and July, if this method is to succeed. Many a time have we sat smilingly by and watched a swarm come out of the hive with great pomp and circumstance, only to sneak back when it was discovered that her majesty was unfit for travel.
_By the use of a queen-trap.--_This is a device used by some instead of clipping the wings of the queen. It is a box of perforated zinc placed over the entrance of the hive, the slots in it large enough to allow the workers to pass in and out, and small enough to hold back the queen and drones. Although this method saves time, yet comparatively few recommend it. The cost of the trap is one objection; but the greater objection seems to be that it inconveniences the workers when returning from the fields; and is, therefore, likely to affect the amount of honey stored, since much time is lost and some annoyance occasioned to the bees by being obliged to squeeze through; it also scrapes the pollen off their legs. (Plate XVI.)
_By giving-room.--_Supposing that our queen is clipped or confined, which is the first step, the next is to give plenty of room in the brood-chamber. Lack of room for brood and honey is one of the most potent reasons for inducing swarming. So the first thing to do after the disappointed swarm comes back to the hive is to tier up the supers. It is also well to remove from the hive a frame or two of brood which may be put in the hive of some weaker colony; in place of the removed frame is substituted another containing a starter of foundation; and the would-be swarm, finding that there is plenty to do, is content to remain at home for a time.
_By extracting honey.--_It will often pacify a colony to take the frames from the brood-chamber and extract the honey from them. This may be done when the brood is present, if care is taken not to run the separator so rapidly as to throw out the larvae, a performance quite as distasteful to the young bees as to the consumer. However, this should not be practised unless much honey is coming in, as otherwise the brood may be starved.
_By using large \(hives\).--_Many bee-keepers of high standing have practically solved the swarming problem by using large hives. The Dadants, well known on two continents as successful apiarists, use the large Quinby hives in their own apiaries, and have introduced them into France and Switzerland. The Dadant-Quinby hive has about the capacity of a twelve-frame Langstroh. The frames are both deep and large, measuring 18\(
rac{1}{2}\) by 11\(
rac{1}{2}\) inches, and so give the queen plenty of room. The Dadants have no trouble with swarming, as only enough swarms come off to make good the winter losses in their apiaries.
There are three reasons why we have not used these large hives: first, they are too heavy to handle well, being altogether too productive of backaches. Second, they are necessarily much more expensive, as wider pieces of perfect lumber are used in the making. Third, and most important to us of all, we find it difficult to produce comb-boney in a large hive; when the bees have so much room in the brood chamber, they discover no reason for carrying honey up into the supers. If we made extracted honey, as do the Dadants and the European apiarists, we would certainly use the larger hives, simply to be rid of this nuisance of constant swarming. The colonies grow to be so much stronger in the larger hives that they are much better able to withstand the vicissitudes of winter than are smaller colonies, which is a great advantage.
_By the brushing or shaking-out method.--_When the bees at the beginning of the honey-flow seem to be getting ready to swarm, the hive is moved to one side of the stand and on the exact site is placed another just like it, which contains frames set with foundation starters. As gently as possible the bees are shaken or brushed from the frames of the old hive upon the threshold of the new, great care being taken to include the queen. The supers from the old hive are then placed upon the new hive with a queen-excluder between. The old hive may stand beside the new one until the brood has emerged, when all of the inhabitants of the old tenement are shaken in front of the new habitation. This shaking of a colony into a new hive so surprises and confounds the bees that they get the impression that they have already swarmed, and go to work with all diligence in their new quarters. The partly filled supers from the old hive encourage them midrily in the ways of well-doing.
_P.y dividing swarms.--_This method we have practised with quite satisfactory results. The troublous question is just when to divide. If we divide too soon we weaken the colonies, and decrease the honey harvest. If we wait until too late, the bees do the dividing themselves. The process is as follows : The queen's wings are clipped before the new queen is to emerge, and she is placed in a new hive furnished with brood-frames containing foundation-starters; enough of the bees are taken to the hive with her to start a good colony, and the deed is done. However, the fact remains that in this way the number of colonies is increased as much as if the swarm had come off naturally.
_By removing the queen.--_Some apiarists remove the queen during the honey-harvest and cut out all the queen cells. They give the queen a nucleus if they wish more brood; meanwhile the colony will not swarm without her. Whether queenless bees are as easy in their minds and, therefore, as ready and enthusiastic in the task of gathering honey, is a mooted question. Bees, like people, work to the best advantage when they have fewest worries. One difficulty with this method is that before we are aware of it a queen may be reared despite our careful and onorous labours in hunting for queen cells. Another difficulty with this practice is the encouragement of the egg-laying workers, which is a most demoralising influence to introduce into a hive.
After-swarms
An after-swarm is one that is led by a virgin queen and may come off within sixteen days after the first natural swarm departs; usually it occurs within a week. Most bee-keepers consider the after-swarm as a manifestation of "'pure cussedness" on the part of a colony; but it is only a poorly adjusted method practised by the bees for getting rid of superfluous primesses. After the old queen decamps with her followers, there are usually several queens ready to emerge from their cells; the ordinary story, as told in books, is that the first queen that emerges hastens to slug her yet helpless sisters, or battles with them singly until but one queen is left in the hive; and this actually does occur often. However, there are differences between bee-colonies, as there are between individual people, and every young queen does not seem blood-thirsty; or perhaps in some instances the citizens restrain her from carrying out her murderous intent, and try to get rid of her by sending her forth with as many followers as can well be spared from the parent colony. Other queens may issue, and if this charitable insinct still persists, another and still another swarm may be sent out. This misguided kindness to young queens is as demoralising to the colony as unwise giving of alms is in the human world, and finally a swarm may be sent off so small that a teacup would hold it. Of course, this means certain death to all of its members. Finally the limit of endurance is reached, and with the last possible swarm are sent out all the young queens left in the hive save the one retained as queen mother. Whether the workers send out these burdensome members of royalty as a measure of good riddance, or whether in their excitement they fail to guard the queen cells and so let them out and they voluntarily join the procession, is not as yet surely ascertained. One of the formalities of the after-swarm is that before it occurs the queen sounds her pibroch, a tune which probably excites her listening subjects to rash departure. The beekeeper gets to know this sound very well, and when he he hears it, he knows that an after-swarm will issue very soon unless he does something immediately to prevent it. One thing particularly exaggerating about the after-swarm is that the virgin queen, being lighter bodied and lighter minded than the old queen, may take the occasion of swarming to get married, and go on her wedding journey; and thus is likely to lead her followers a mad chase and leave her proprietor so far in the rear that he loses the swarm entirely.
For the real reason of after-swarming we must look upon the colony as an individual; and as nature is wasteful in the production of individuals, these weak after-swarms are analogous to the weaklings among animals or plants, which must be sacrificed for some inscrutable reason on the altar of the preservation of the species.
prevention of after-swarms
Mr. Hutchinson practises the following method: When the first swarm comes off he places it in a new hive like the old one, and puts the new hive on the exact site of the old one, while the latter is moved away just a little and faces in a different direction than before. The new hive has four or five frames with foundation starters, and on it is placed the super with partially filled sections from the old hive, with a queen-excluding board between the two; thus the new swarm, having no brood ready, will store in the supers until the brood-comb is built. Most of the bees from the old hive, returning from the field, will enter the new hive because the entrance to the old hive is turned away. The old hive is then turned a little each day, until its entrance, which should be contracted, is parallel to the entrance of the new hive, and very close to it. If, on the seventh day after the first swarm issued, the old hive be removed to some new location, its numbers will have been so depleted that there will be no attempt to send off after-swarms.
How to unite colonies
If two colonies are weak late in the season, it is often best to unite them. This may be done by moving the hives nearer to each other, a little each day, until they are side by side. The queen of one colony is killed, the best frames from each hive are alternated with each other in one hive, and the bees shaken into this; the other hive removed, and the one remaining placed midway between where the two stood. Sweetened water flavoured with peppermint may be sprayed over both colonies just before uniting, so that they will all be scented alike. The above is the method advised by Professor Cook.
## Chapter 3 The Hive, and how to handle it the brood-cisamer
The essential parts of a hive are the following: A bottom-board, the first story, or brood-chamber, containing frames for the support of the combs, and a cover. When extracted honey is to be produced, a second story like the first may be placed between it and the cover; when it is desired to have the surplus honey stored in section-boxes, one or more shallow stories containing the section-boxes are placed above the brood-chamber; these shallow stories are known as the supers.
Formerly the brood-chamber was a mere cubiform box with two horizontal cross-pieces passing through the centre at right angles to each other for the support of the combs. Sometimes the bee-keeper furnished the bees with a hive made from a section of a hollow log, with a board nailed over one end for a cover, or the hollow log was placed in a horizontal position. Such a hive was known as a "bee-gum," probably because it was often made from the trunk of a gum tree; but the bee-gums with which we were familiar in our childhood were made from hollow basswood logs.
To-day in every well-regulated apiary the brood chamber is furnished with the movable hanging frames for the support of the combs, which were invented by Langstroth a half-century ago, or by some modification of these frames. It was the invention of these frames that made the science of modern bee-keeping possible. A large part of the manipulations of the hive is dependent upon the ability to remove the combs from the hive separately. Two of these frames, one empty and one containing a sheet of foundation, are shown in Plate XII. These are of one of the newer styles, known as the Hoffman self-spacing frames. In these frames the upper part of the end-bars are wide, so that, when the frames are in contact, there is room for a bee-way between the combs; the lower part of the end-bars are narrower, so that the bees can pass freely around the ends of the frames.
In the old days, and at present in some apiaries where 'home-made frames are used, the spacing between the frames has to be done by eye or rather by finger; the thickness of the tip of the finger between two frames being necessary to afford a bee-way. But with the new frames in the market to-day this is done away with, as they are arranged to space themselves, thus relieving the novice of much anxiety and some embarrassment in deciding whether his finger is as thick as that of the average apiarist. Also in these newer frames a little staple at each end of the top sets each frame exactly right in relation to the ends of the hive.