BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
For the sections which are easily set up even by the novice, the foundation must be cut up in pieces of the desired size, and fastened to the top of the section by a machine used for this purpose called a foundation fastener. There are several styles of which the daisy is the most popular. A cheaper one consists of two blocks of wood, and the wax is fastened, while moderately warm by pressure. If only one or two colonies are kept, the wax may be fastened by warming a thin table knife to the right temperature and running along the edge of the wax so as to melt it and stick it securely to the wood. The pieces of foundation are then straightened up so as to hang penpendicularly when in the hive. Care should be used to get this in the center of the section. Some bee-keepers use full pieces in sections, some use only one inch strips as starters, others use both top and bottom starters, while still others use a V shaped piece. With a little experience each one will be able to decide for themselves what they like best.
On general principles, it is a good investment to use foundations liberally in the sections, or extraction frames. If chunk honey is to be produced, the extracting frames must not have the foundation wired. If a good flow is on, the bees will need a second super as soon as the first one is well under way. The second one may be placed on top of the first one until the bees have begun work in it when the position of the super may be reversed. Other supers may be added as required keeping the finished or nearly completed one on top and the empty one next to the brood chamber. This requires care, good judgment and some knowledge of the pasturage, so that the close of the season does not find the bee-keeper with a lot of unfinished sections on hand which are not marketable except at reduced prices.
If extracted honey is to be produced, one does not have to be quite so careful in this respect.
The producers of comb honey should have supers, sections and foundations on hand to take care of any possible flow. It is better to carry over some unused material to another season, than to have honey lost because of lack of these things.
One should decide as soon as possible whether they wish to produce extracted, comb or chunk honey, or both comb and extracted.
More extracted honey can be secured with the same number of colonies of bees. When once the combs are built they can be used for many years while, if comb or chunk honey is produced, the comb is sold with the honey.
Chunk honey is usually produced in half depth extracting frames.
If one can dispose of this in a local market, the cost of this method is small. It is a good method for the busy man who has little time to devote to the bees, there will be less tendency to swarming and more honey can be produced. For home use or a neighborhood market much'may be said in its favor. The honey may be sold in the frames or cut from the frames and put in tin pails, which may be secured from supply dealers. For the fruit grower who desires bees in the orchard for the purpose of pollination and does not care to spend much time with them, this method may appeal to him.
Figure 17: Comb honey super taking plain sections and fences
Figure 18: Used in extracting super or for choice honey production
it finally reaches the consumer. The small glass container is the most expensive way. More pounds of honey can be produced by this method, practically double the quantity that can be produced in one round sections.
One may have enough supers so that they need not extract until the close of the harvest, or the honey may be removed from the combs as fast as it is ripened and capped by the bees. 1f honey is extracted before this and put on the market without being artificially ripened, the results will be unsatisfactory to both consumer and producer.
The room in which the extracting is done will need to be kept at a temperature of about 8o degrees F., for some time before extracting, so the honey may be thoroughly warmed, or trouble will follow in getting it from the combs without damage to the combs.
Marketing Honey
While there is not as much honey consumed as there would be if people realized its food value, or were accustomed to its use, still the demand is usually greater than the supply.
The bee-keeper or would be bee-keeper should carefully consider the opportunities of his home market,--if there is already a demand for honey, or if, with a reasonable effort, a demand could be created. If honey can be disposed of in the locality where it is produced, where it may be delivered to the dealer or consumer direct, it is a great advantage over the producer who must ship to a distant market and deal with those with whom he has never met. Until the express companies are compelled by a strong law to handle comb honey more carefully, this means of conveyance between producer and consumer will never be satisfactory.
Parcel post is comparatively a new mode and almost untried. Small parcels less than eleven pounds have been shipped five hundred miles with safety but at present there are too many cases of breakage to justify dependence. I look for great improvements in the parcel post system when times are again normal. From my own experience freight shipments have been the safest. Eight or ten cases of comb honey are packed carefully in a carrier (see Fig. 21) provided with handles which has a layer of hay, straw or similar material at the bottom, of sufficient depth to make a safe cushion to prevent breakage. This makes a package weighing three hundred to three hundred and fifty pounds which is too heavy to be thrown about.
Regardless of how honey is shipped, it should always be plainly marked with printed cards telling the contents, and asking that care be exercised.
For comb honey, or extracted in glass, more care must be taken in packing than for extracted in tin cans. Even this must be properly packed and crated to insure delivery in safe condition. A card for comb honey should be similar to the following:
COMBHONEY
FOR.....................
HANDLE WITH CARE
DO NOT DROP IT
HAUL ONLY ON VEHICLES HAVING SPRINGS
KEEPWARM
Cartons are valuable in Handling comb honey (see Figs. 22 and 23). They protect it from dust, dirt and flies, lessen greatly the liability of breakage in transit and appeal to both the dealer and consumer. Comb honey should be eaten just as it reaches the home of the consumer. Every effort should be made on the part of the producer to see that it is kept pure and clean.
## Care of Honey
From the time honey is removed from the hives, care must be taken by those who handle it, or much of its fine flavor will be lost. To the producer of honey falls this first care, and, if he neglects this important duty, no subsequent care can remedy the matter. When removed from the hives, it should be placed in a room that is warm and dry, preferably a sunny room. As the weather reaches the freezing point, it is better that some artificial heat be provided but it is important that the tempera
Figure 23: Shipping case made to hold 34 sections. May be used for shipping honey in cartons
Figure 22: C a r t o n to hold one section of honey
ture does not vary greatly. Honey gathered during a hot, dry season keeps much longer than if gathered during damp or cool weather. All pure honey will become solid in time if kept at a low temperature. I am quite certain that in a temperature that varies greatly from cold to heat, granulation takes place almost as quickly as in a room which is cold all the time. The room should be a reasonably clean one and one in which no bad odors are present. It should be so piled that dust and flies cannot get to it.
When honey is sold, if to dealers, they should be instructed as to its care. As a rule the consumer buys in such small quantities that it is used before much harm can come to it.
It is important however that the consumer does not place honey in the cellar for many days before it is used, because honey that has been kept in perfect condition may lose much of its rich flavor even by a few days in such places. Keep warm and dry until ready for use. A kitchen cupboard, if not too near the range, is all right. By placing the honey in the refrigerator a few hours before using, it is improved for most people.
Removing Honey From the Hive
When one only keeps a few colonies, it is a good plan to leave the surplus honey on the hives until the close of the season. If a completed super is taken off and an empty. one put in its place, the bees seem to resent it and do not readily enter the empty one. By raising the nearly completed super and placing the empty one under it, work begins without delay and continues in both supers. In a good season, if too many supers have to be added, the top ones may be removed.
To remove the supers, lift off, put an escape board underneath and put supers back in place. In twenty-four to thirty
Figure 24: Doolittle division-board _random_ to be huge in place of frames
six hours the supers will ordinarily be free of bees. In some cases, there may be brood in the supers, especially drone brood, and the brood will continue to hatch and some worker bees will instinctively remain with the brood. In this, as in all operations with bees, it is better to use a little smoke.
Where many colonies are kept, eight or ten supers may be piled up with an escape underneath and another escape (see Fig. 25) fixed in the cover.
In this way one can get along with less escape boards. Where one has no escapes, the supers may be tiered up in the same manner over a strong colony, being very careful that no cracks are left so that bees can enter or leave except through the entrance. Some very cool morning, the top supers may be taken off tree or nearly free of bees. If weather is warm this method will not work out. Supers from different colonies may be tiered in this way where a little smoke is used without fighting, as the bees are confused and all pass, a few at a time, down through the escape. On flying out, all but the very young bees return to their own colonies. The bottom super of the pile should be from the colony on which the supers are placed and should be full of bees.
If only a few colonies are kept, a bee tight box could be used by making a two inch hole at top over which fix a cone made of wire screen with a hole at top just large enough for a bee to pass out.
The cost of a good escape board is so small that one cannot really afford to get along without them and, with good care, they will last a lifetime.
Figure 25: Porter bee escape, used in escape boards
## Chapter 10 Does From Spraying
There is so little spraying done at the present time, while fruit trees are in bloom, that it may not be necessary to sound a warning against this practice.
I would hesitate to spray fruit trees while in bloom for fear of injury to the tender functional organs of the blossom even if there was no danger to the bees.
Nearly all fruit-growers of today appreciate the value of bees in orchards and the important part they play :n the better pollination of the blossoms and, consequently, increased quantity and quality of fruit. Spraying just before the blossoms open and after the petals have fallen serves every purpose without danger of killing the bees or injuring them. Where it becomes necessary to use a sweetened spray, every precaution should be taken to guard against killing the bees.
They might be kept from poison spray by feeding a syrup made of one part sugar to two parts water, or honey would be even better. If fed in the open, one of sugar or honey to three of water might serve the purpose. It would be better fed in the open only for the liability of feeding other bees but I would feed in an opposite direction from where the poison is being used. It would help if bees were at work on prepared feed before poison spray was applied.
## 111 Value of Honey as a Food
Few people know or appreciate the value of honey as a food for human use. Few physicians have given the matter any thought, and have little knowledge as to its real value in the sick room. I have never talked with a physician who has learned of its value who is not a warm advocate of its merit.
Honey is regarded by far too many people as a luxury. I would estimate that not over five per cent of the homes in this State use honey as a regular article of diet as they do sugar, butter, eggs or fruit. All of these are necessary articles of diet. Not enough uncooked fruit is used, but could honey replace much of the cane and beet sugar used, it would be far better for the health of those who consume it.
The craving of sweets by nearly all normal children is natural and should be gratified in reasonable quantities. It is far better for their health that they have honey, natures pure wholesome sweet, than sugar and candy. It is not simply a sweet, it is a food. Fourteen ounces of honey, about the net quantity purchased when a section of honey is bought, is equal in food value to one and a half pounds of beef steak, eleven and one-fifth ounces of cream cheese, seventeen ounces of walnuts, two quarts of ordinary milk, twenty eggs or nearly two pounds of boneless codfish.
When compared with fruit, fourteen ounces of honey has a nearly equal value of ten bananas or sixteen oranges of average size. Hon, W. B. Barney of the Iowa food and dairy department, is responsible for these comparisons.
Dr. C. C. Miller of Marenge, Ill., says, " It would be greatly for the health of the present generation, if honey could be at least partially restored to its former place as a common article of diet. The almost universal craving for sweets shows a real need of the system in that direction but the excessive use of sugar brings in its train a long list of ills.
" Now in the wonderful laboratory of the bee, there is found a sweet that needs no further digestion, having been prepared fully by those wonderful chemists, the bees, for prompt assimilation without taxing the stomach or kidneys."
Dr. Miller at eighty-seven years of age, healthy and vigorous for his years, eats honey every day in place of sugar, and believes that it has contributed in part to this health and length of days.
Prof. A. J. Cook, formerly State Horticultural Commissioner for the state of California said, " Physicians may be correct in asserting that the large consumption of cane or beet sugar by the average Twentieth Century Man is harmful to the great eliminators, the kidneys, and is a menace to the health and long life.
" There can be no doubt that in eating honey our digestive machinery is saved work that it would have to perform if we are cane sugar, and in case it is overtaxed and feeble, this may be just the respite that will save it from a breakdown."When sugar is eaten it cannot be assimilated until it has been changed into grape sugar. Very often the stomach fails to do this work properly and the kidneys are taxed beyond their strength to remove this excess sugar from the system. With honey it is entirely different as it is already in the form of grape sugar and is assimilated without any effort on the part of the stomach and thus the kidneys and other organs are relieved from any extra work.
Honey was a common article of food three thousand years before the first sugar refinery was built. It is used in medicines and is the base of many of the cough remedies and salves. It may be used in many ways, in place of sugar on rice, oatmeal or other cereals and breakfast foods. It is both appetizing and nourishing on baked apples. It may be used in cooking or in making candy. As a warm drink for children or those who cannot use tea or coffee, it is a substitute of value. Stir one or more teaspoonfuls of extracted honey in a cup of moderately hot water and add cream or milk as desired. In the years just previous to 1915 about 80 pounds of sugar on an average was consumed annually by every man, woman and child in the United States. We know that many did not get this amount, consequently some must have eaten much more.
The average consumption of sugar in my home in normal times has been about three pounds per person a month, while the amount of honey consumed is about four pounds per person. No account is made of extra help or visitors, which would reduce the individual quantity. In this one thing at least we practice what we preach,--
"Eat thou honey because it is good," Prov. 24-13.
Every housekeepinger should obtain and carefully read Farmer's Bulletin No. 653, " Honey and its Uses in the Home." This can be secured by addressing the Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
## Requeeing and Introducing Queens
When an old queen begins to fail and her vitality is exhausted to a certain point, the bees often replace her by rearing several young queens in the same manner as when swarming. In fact, this most often occurs during the swarming season. A new swarm may result when the first young queen emerges from her cell. Much depends on the season of the year and the strength of colony.
It is better if the bee-keeper attends to requesting his yard each autumn or late summer at the close of the honey flow, replacing all poor queens and all queens which have passed their second season, unless they are known to have sufficient merit to warrant giving them another season. Queens may be purchased from any breeders of queens, in different parts of the country. Their advertisements may be found in any number of " The Bee Journals," or they can be reared in the home yard with a little experience and study. These should be reared from the best stock in the yard and careful selection practiced. If queens are purchased and the instructions for introducing, which accompany each queen, is carefully followed, there will be no trouble as a rule, though occasionally a queen may be lost.
When weather is cold, a safe way is to remove a few frames of hatching brood from the colony to be requeened, brush all bees off the combs, place combs in an upper story, find and destroy the old queen, cover frames with a wire cloth and set upper story over with brood frames in center, tucking in snug and warm, after the new queen has been released on the comb of brood in the upper story. In three or four days, a hole should be made through center of screen disturbing the bees as little as possible, and they will unite quietly. If weather is warm enough so that the brood will not chill, the combs of brood may be placed in an extra hive body, closing it so that no bees can escape but letting in air enough so that the bees will not smother and queen be released. On the third or fourth day the hive entrance should be opened and bees allowed to fly out.
Figure 26: Miller queen introducing cage
Later combs or brood, or brood and young bees may be added until colony has attained normal strength. Empty combs or sheets of foundation may also be given. If bees are to be treated in this way, care should be taken to gauge the size of the entrance so as to prevent robbing.
Artificial increase may be made in this way, or the colony may be divided, as the swarming season approaches, into two or three parts and allowed to raise their own queens being sure that each nucleus has bees in all stages,--at least eggs and young larva should be present. The general opinion is that the queens produced in nuclei are not as satisfactory as those raised in full colonies.
The following is a copy of directions for introducing queens, which will be found on the reverse side of address cards tacked on all queen cages sent through the mails:
"Before giving this queen to the colony be sure that it is queenless. A stock without a queen from twelve to sixteen days--long enough so it may have one or more virgins--may not accept a new queen, and bees that have nearly started queen cells sometimes refuse to accept a new queen. It is usually best, therefore, not to remove the old queen until the time of introducing the new one, but if several days have elapsed, be sure to remove every queen cell. To introduce, place the cage on top or between frames; if on top put the wire cloth down next to the bees. The bees should gnaw away the pasteboard, eat out the candy left in the cage, and release the queen, but sometimes they fail to gnaw the pasteboard. If they fail to do so in twenty-four hours tear the pasteboard away and let the bees out to eat candy. If the weather is cold, set the cage right over the cluster of bees. Ordinarily, it is not best to open the hive soon after introducing the queen, for the disturbance may cause the bees to ball her. Should queen and attendants arrive feeble, or daubed up, release at once among bees. If they ball her after they clean her, return her to cage and introduce her as explained. If she arrives dead, notify us and we will replace. If your bees are or have been robbing, you will not succeed in introducing. N. B.--Queens just from the mails usually look small and dark. After laying a few days they will improve."
## Wintering
The biggest problem for the bee-keeper in Maine is to carry the colonies safely through the winter. There are other problems to solve which mean success or failure, but they are minor ones more within the control of the bee-keeper.
A confinement of three months without flight is considered a long, hard one in most parts of the country. In northern Maine we cannot hope for less than five months and it sometimes means six. In the southern or central part of the State, where outdoor wintering is practiced, in mild winters bees may get suitable weather for one or more flights.
One must choose for himself which method seems best adapted to his locality and condition. If there is a suitable cellar under the dwelling house which can be used, the expense of this method of wintering will be small. The quiet part of the cellar which can be well ventilated and kept dark at all times during the confinement of the bees and in which the temperature can be evenly maintained between forty and fifty degrees F., should be selected. It is best that the room be rat and mouse proof as even one or two of these pests will worry a colony to the point where they will be useless for honey production during the honey season, if not killed outright. I prefer a dry cellar, although some claim good results are obtained from damp cellars.
Care should be taken that hives, when placed in the cellar, do not come in contact with posts which support the floors above, as the constant jar will be a serious disturbance.
I am satisfied that pure air contributes largely towards successful wintering. This must be arranged for without lowering the temperature too much. If a chimney reaches to the bottom of the cellar, an opening can be made near the bottom which will draw out the foul air, and the intake can be located so it will not come directly on the hives. As the weather grows warmer at the approach of spring a larger quantity of fresh air will be needed to keep the bees quiet. Hives should not be closed up with a screen or in anyway, but better be raised from the bottom boards one or two inches, thus insuring a free circulation of air. It is better that the bees which die during the winter crawl outside the hive and die, and occasionally theycan be swept up and their decaying bodies will not pollute the air. It is possible to carry bees safely through the winter in an ordinary cellar without special provisions being made, but it is far better to provide as nearly ideal conditions as one's circumstances will permit. They need not be expensive.
When bees are carefully put away for winter they should not be disturbed until they are taken out in the spring, if possible to avoid it. For this reason it is best that all colonies should be provided with an abundance of stores to carry them safely throuh the winter and until the weather is warm and settled in spring.
If natural stores and honey is not present. in the hives in sufficient quantities, the bees should be fed pure granulated sugar dissolved in water until each colony has not less than twenty-five pounds of stores and even forty would be better. There are different styles of feeders on the market which can be obtained through the bee supply dealers, or if one is ingenious a home arrangement can be provided.