BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
From the Farmer's Advocate, Bee Stings. R. F. HoltermANN. The beginner is perhaps troubled with his bees being cross, and a hint as to how to prevent being stung will doubtless be appreciated. First and foremost bees object to offensive odors, one's person should be clean and sweet ; if overheated you had better not go near the bees, they will not only be more apt to sting you but the sting will be more painful. You should have a light straw hat, and cotton or line clothing ; woolly clothing having fun on it they object to, and you are liable to get stung ten times when wearing it to once when dressed in smooth garments. Next, let your movements be deliberate and do not appear to fear the bees ; quick, nervous movements, the bees resent. If a bee is trouble-some and you wish to retreat, put up your hands quietly and shield your face, and as quietly retreat ; if you throw up your hands wildly and run, you may be sure you will lose the race and the bee leave his mark. In handling prevent crushing bees, if you crush a bee she gives off the poisonous smell and this irritates her companions and they will become cross. Do not jar the hive, this irritates them. These are the secrets in successful handling. Every worker bee is liable to sting any one, the difference is as given above and in the disposition of the bee. Certain strains of hybrids are very cross ; do not breed such strains. The next thing is what to do when you do get stung. A bee when it stings leaves the scent of poison upon the spot, and if left other bees are liable to attack you. The sting, which is always left in your person, is so constructed that it works in deeper, and the setting of the muscles about the poison bag which is attached to the sting helps to force the poison into the wound, therefore scrape with your nail sideways the sting away. Do this the moment after you are stung, the sooner the better. After removing the sting, many just give the spot a good smoking, which deadens the poison scent, or if you wish you may wash the spot. Many things are recommended as an antidote to apply to the wound, such as moistened baking powder, blueing and ammonia. Some find one the best, others another ; ammonia is perhaps as good as any with most. Apply it at once but do notrub the spot. Very rarely a sting is dangerous. Should anyone have bad symptoms following, such as-torpidity and the like, ammonia and water should be taken internally, but be careful not to give it strong enough to choke the patient. Cold water may be applied externally. If horses or other stock on the farm are dangerously stung apply blankets and cold water. Fatal results from bee stings are happily far more rare than attacks from dogs and stock on the farm.
## 6 The Bee-Keepers' Magazine.
From the Bee-Keeper's Review.
**Feeding Baek.**
R. L. Taylor.
Whether feeding back to secure the completion of partly filled section pays, in the long run, I shall not now attempt to decide, but I shall content myself with suggesting three or four points which must be maturely considered before the question can be rightly determined.
First, the honey thus produced is never, I think, of the finest quality. I always imagine it to have a flavor foreign to comb honey produced in the ordinary way ; and, at least, it candies readily, which alone is likely to place it among the lower grades of honey. Secondly, when it becomes noised abroad that comb honey is produced by feeding the bees, consumers will be startled, and the markets will be affected more or less ; and the sale of candied comb honey will have even greater effect upon the market. The inexperienced will buy it unawares and the purchase by them of no more honey of any kind would be a very natural result. Thirdly, to be a success, feeding-back must be done in the interval between password and fall flowers, when, of all the year, the weather and the bees are the most trying--a combination which makes the labor very undesirable. Fourthly, if foul brood should find a lodgment in an apiary, and remain for a time undiscovered by the apiarist, nothing else would spread it so rapidly and effectively as feeding back.
Were it not for these troublesome matters, feeding back to make partly filled sections available for the market, would no doubt, be profitable. To test the matter somewhat, three years since, I fed one colony extracted honey sufficient to complete three cases of sections--not sections partly filled but new sections with--foundation. When completed I found I had fed 124 pounds and had in three cases 78 pounds of comb honey in fine shape. There was not a pound of honey in the brood chamber either when the experiment was begun or when it ended. In this case there was perhaps profit enough, as markets usually are, to pay for the labor involved besides leaving the colony in greatly improved condition.
Now, suppose I had varied this experiment by taking six cases partly filled, containing, say 60 pounds of honey. As the foundation would be well drawn out, and consequently the honey more rapidly stored, I estimate that the 124 pounds would have been sufficient to complete the cases and turn out at least 150 pounds of well-capped comb honey. We may approximate the profit by comparing the expenses with the result. The 60 pounds of unfinished sections would be worth not more than the extracted honey, which being added makes 184 pounds, at say eight cents, giving an expense of $14.72, which, taken from $24, the value of 150 pounds of comb honey at sixteen cents, leaves a profit of $9.28, or sixty-three per cent. The improved condition of the bees and the increased saleness of the product may be considered an equivalent for the necessary labor.
To insure the largest success I have found that the following several particulars must be faithfully observed :
First--If separators are not used, it will not do to put the unfinished sections into cases haphazard. The comb of some must be trimmed and sections equally worked out must face each other in order to secure shapely sections of honey.
Secondly--Fairly strong colonies of proper characteristics must be selected for the work. Italians will not do well. So far as my experience goes, a cross between the Italian and the black, with the blood of the latter predominating, rather than that of the former, is best.
Thirdly--The brood chamber must be contracted to the capacity of five L. frames.
Fourthly--The work must be done during warm weather and should be undertaken promptly on the cessation of the flow from white clover and basswood.
Fifthly--The feeders must be kept constantly supplied with honey, which,I think, should not be diluted, but fed as it comes from the extractor.
The feeders should be capacious, the one known as Heddon's is far the best --and are to be placed immediately above the sections.
By observing these hints and the dictates of sound common sense any one may, I think, attain fair success ; but as I have intimated the work is not a pleasant one, and it is well worthy of consideration whether it would not be better to keep a few more colonies and thereby obtain equal results with less of wearing labor.
_Laper, Mich.,? June 22, '88._
Editor Bee-Keepers' Magazine :
By chance I recently secured a copy of the Magazine of this year, of our editor, and was very much surprised to see what a fine bee paper we had right here in our State. Although I have been in the bee business for years, yet this is the first I had seen of the Magazine since you became its editor. Well, you are certainly doing wonderfully, and I hope you may continue in your good work.
It has been, until now, one of the poorest seasons known in twenty years. Our spring was very late, the weather was so cold and rainy that it was almost impossible to get the bees in any condition. The fruit bloom was abundant, but the weather continued so cold and rainy that the bees could not work on it much. When raspberries were in bloom it was about the same. White clover blossomed finely, but did not yield much honey--no surplus, but enough to carry them through the winter. Basswood was almost an entire failure. Buckwheat is now in full bloom, and the bees are a booming. I have already extracted fifty pounds per colony from it, and I think I shall be able to get as much more. One thing, my courage is good yet, and am still hoping.
LESLIE Stewart.
Fefferson, N. Y., Aug. 19, '88._
Golden rod promises to be a good source of honey supply, in many localities, this fall.
The Bee-Keepers' Magazine.
The Bee-Keepers' Review.
Feeding Back Extracted Honey to Secure the Completion of Unfinished Sections.
Ever since engaging in the production of comb honey we have been practicing the above. We have fed, during the past five years, at least 13,coo pounds of extracted honey ; but our success has been so varied that we have never felt like encouraging the practice. One year, with certain colonies, we would meet with splendid success as to be greatly encouraged, while the results of the next year, or the performances of certain colonies, would, perhaps, lead us to declare that we were done with '' feeding back.'' But, when the next season rolled around, and the close of the linden harvest found us with perhaps 2,coo unfinished sections on hand, and we sat down and figured up how much they would be worth if completed, we felt, as Dr. Miller once expressed it at a Chicago convention, that it might pay to feed to secure the completion of nearly finished sections even though the feeding of four or five pounds of honey increase the weight of the sections only one pound. Did we not consider drawn comb of considerable value in getting the bees started in the sections in the spring, we should unhesitatingly pronounce in favor of feeding to secure the completion of unfinished sections. That is, this would be our decision so far as the management of our own apiary is concerned ; but is does not follow that this decision would be the proper one at which all bee-keepers should arrive ; although it would seem that there is one class that would be glad to so decide, and that is the one that finds the use of drawn comb in sections so very objectionable. So much by way of introduction, and now, for the benefit ot those who, for any reason, may wish to practice feeding back, we will tell what we have learned in feeding back the 13,coo pounds of honey. Perhaps the best way will be to tell exactly how we would conduct the operation, but first allow us to say that the feeding of honey for the purpose of having it
There, friends, we have told you all that we know about ''feeding-back ;'' or, at least, all that we can think of just at present ; and now will you have the kindness to tell us what you know about it, and allow us to print it all together in the July _Review_, thus making it the special subject of discussion in that issue? Perhaps some of you would like to ask some questions in regard to the matter. If so, all right, send them on, and we will answer them if we can, or else get someone to answer them.
About the best thing that can be used in our smokers for our bees is corn cobs, a little of which should be pounded on starting the fire.
The Bee-KeeperS' Magazine. 271
Sameres' Department.
Sary for successful wintering, it is advisable to buy some extracted honey and feed it to the bees.
_Foul Brood_ is the most terrible disease the honey-bee is heir to, and the greatest care should be taken that it never enters the precincts of your apiary. It is a disease that causes the brood to die and become maloderous to a shocking degree.
On opening, and sometimes on passing a hive, the stench turns one sick.
This disease is a Bacillus (a microscopic organism) which develops rapidly and spreads from bee to bee, and from hive to hive, to the destruction of your whole apiary. It is often communicated by bees eating honey containing these bacili. All this about fool brood is told you that you may be extra careful as to the apiary from which your feed comes. Should you not be perfectly certain, proceed as follows: Take a large kettle and fill it partly full of water. In this immerse another vessel, one as large as possible, and fill it with the honey you are going to feed; place them on a stove and bring all to the boiling point and allow to boil ten minutes; put the honey away to cool and feed when needed. Be sure and not burn the honey. Freezing will not destroy the germs of foul brood, but boiling kills them effectually.
Follow my advice and you need have no fear of foul brood entering your hives through the feeder.
Now comes the question of finding customers for the honey your bees have gathered during the season. You think, perhaps, they are few and far between. Just try your neighbor across the road, and that other one just up the street. Take a nice clean pintmeasure jar of glorious golden honey, and say, "How about buckwheat cakes and this honey, when the chestnut burrs begin to open ; it is extra nice honey, but I am willing to let you have it for fifteen cents per pound." I tell you, beginners, customers go down before the golden honey like wheat before the reaper.
Nothing makes me so mad as to get myself smeared with honey--it sticks so and is so gummy, I make up my
mind that a man who hands me a bottle, box, or jar, sticky with honey must be my enemy. The hands and clothes are not the place for honey, but rather the inner lining of the stomach. It is, therefore, highly important that you preserve great cleanliness in putting up your honey. 'Sell your honey near your home. The great markets are no places for the small bee-keeper. If you think this advice is wrong, just try a small shipment some year and see for yourself. Let your wife eat honey, let your children eat honey, eat honey yourself, and I will guarantee that health and happiness will be your portion.
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When the pollen grain lodges upon the stigma, if the latter be in a right condition, as shown by its adhesive secretion, the pollen grain increases somewhat in size, and soon a tube, sometimes more than one, pushes out through a perforation of the serine. The tube passes through the whole length of the style till it reaches the ovule which is to be fertilized. The time required for the descent of the pollen-tube varies from a few hours to two or three days. A. J. Cook. _Agricultural College, Mich._
BEE STINGS.
What Becomes of the Part Remaining in the Flesh after the Top is Broken Off. I am requested by a subscriber to _Gleanings_ to explain how the bee sting is removed from one's skin when broken off in the act of stinging. He suggests that, if it does not work out, it must be absorbed by the system ; in which case he thinks that some bee-keepers must be largely composed of stings.
The skin consists of two layers--the outer scarf skin, or cuitical, also called epidermis, and the inner true skin or corium, also called _cuits vera_. The outer skin is made up of what is known as scaly, or pavement epithelium ; that is it consists of innumerable minute overlapping scales. The inner scales contain pigment in their substance, and thus the color of skin. The albino has no pigment, and hence his skin is transparent, and looks pinkish, as we look right through and see minute blood-vessels filled with blood. The inner skin consists of an outer part, which like the cuticle, has no nerves, and so is not sensible to pain or touch. This is made up of white fibrous tissue and small involuntary muscles contract if the skin is chilled, and drawing the skin away from about the hairs forms the well-known "'goose-flesh." Be-neath this layer, which is known as the reticulum, because of its intercrossing fibers, is the papillary layer. This is the very inner part of the skin. It takes its name from the fact that little teat-like processes--papillae--push up against the outer part of the skin. The The disorder is significant and important, not so much on account of the actual numerical loss entailed upon colonies affected, which in my own case, and in many cases reported to me, have been severe, as in furnishing proof of failure on the part of those food elements indispensable during the breeding season to meet the large demand for larval food, and essential in maintaining the health and vigor of the bees while the digestive and secretory organs are being taxed to the limit of their capacity. This failure of natural resources results in low vitality, susceptibility and predisposition to disease, and inability to successfully perform the function of hibernation. With some exceptions, due to local advantages, throughout the States stricken by the drouth of the past summer, the 'bees have entered upon the period of hibernation under conditions more or less unfavorable in proportion as they have suffered in greater or less degree from the effects of all-consuming drouth and heat.
The symptoms of starved brood are distinctively characteristic. Upon opening the hive a slight offensive odor may be noticed if the colony has been suffering for some time. If the comb frame be lifted from the hive, and the bees shaken off, few if any eggs can be found. Of such brood as is sealed, the cappings to be thin and flat, and slightly sunken and commonly of darker color than is usual in prosperous colonies. Upon opening the cells they are found to contain dead pupae in various stages of development, always inferior in size, and the food supply exhausted.
In the midst of sealed brood patches of uncapped larvae appear, and sometimes a patch of five or six inches square, and sometimes there seems to have been no effort made towards sealing half the grown larvae in the hive, although the time for such sealing may be far overdue. The membranes of such larvae do not present the plump, nearly-white appearance common to well fed larvae. On the contrary, the membranes are more or less shrunken -and wrinkled, and not unfrequently, when the larvae have reached the advantage of the bees.
Vanced pupa stage, the compound eyes begin to color, and the cells are partially capped and then abandoned, and the appearance is that commonly designated by the term, " bald-headed bees." Sometimes a few of these bees, dwarfed in size, emerge from the cells and engage in the hive with what vigor and for such term as their limited development will permit.
In a number of tests made during the past season, the progeny of the same, queen, reared under directly opposite conditions of larval growth, so varied in size as not to be recognizable as offspring of the same progenitors. The reason for this variation was not far to seek. The changed conditions of the colony during the time when the different generations were being reared determined the modification in development. The remedy I used and prescribed for others was a preventative rather than a curative. Starved brood means starved bees. If the cause be removed, the effect speedily disappears. All that needs to be done is to supply them with a substitute for these resources essential to their own health and vigor, and indispensable in broad-rearing, in search of which they are rapidly and vainly wearing out their vitality.
The recipe for preparing the remedy is as follows :
To 10 pounds of sugar add half a pint of dairy salt, 2 tablespoonfuls of soda, 2 tablespoonfuls rye flour, 2 tablespoonfuls of very finely powdered bone ash, and 1 tablespoonful of cream of tartar. Mix thoroughly, then add 2 quarts of hot water, and stir until thoroughly dissolved, then boil for two or three minutes only. To one-half a pint of fresh milk add three fresh eggs thoroughly beaten, and when the syrup is cool enough to feed add the eggs and milk, and when thoroughly stirred feed warm. Feed in the hive as one would feed honey or syrup.
I used this same food for preventing spring dwindling, and for building up colonies to full strength and efficiency, so that all colonies may be ready for work at the very beginning of the season, when surplus honey may naturally
**be expected. This food fed in the hive keeps all the bees at home to aid in performing the functions of brood rearing, and in keeping up the temperature of the hive instead of spending their little remaining strength in battling against the cold, damp winds while searching for the food elements needed to repair the waste and drain upon their vitality while hibernating, and indispensable in brood-rearing. This food is not intended for use until after the bees have had a good flight in the spring, and almost any grade of honey or sugar may be used. This special food is a potent stimulant and tonic to the adult bees, giving tone and vigor to the organism, and furnishes the elements essential in brood-rearing in the place and in the manner suited to the convenience and tastes of the bees. No greater quantity should be fed than is required for the current needs of the colony.**
**The CONTROL of REPRODUCTION.**
**In order that the laws of heredity and the active principles of selection may be practically and persistently applied in the breeding of bees, I have in obedience to your instructions continued my experiments, striving to discover a simple and practical method for securing control of the natural process of reproduction.**
**I devised and constructed a fixture, which I call a fertilizing cage,** _2z_ **feet** **square and** _2z_ **feet** **high. Selecting a level plot of ground I set four rows of posts, four posts in each row, forming a quadrangle. The posts are four inches square and thirty feet in length, set into the ground four feet, and exactly seven feet apart. Four rows of girders, two by four inches by twenty-two and four inches are halved in two, and bolted to the inside of these posts, the first row five feet from the ground, then three rows at intervals of seven feet until the top is reached. The upper three lines of girders are continued from each side of each inside post, forming a brace on each side of each post at intervals of seven feet, and forming the bearings for the wire-cov-ered frames which cover the top of the cage. The space from the ground to the first girder, five feet, is covered with matched lumber nailed to the outside of the posts, leaving a smooth surface on both sides. The upper twenty-one feet on the sides and the top of the cage is inclosed by wire-covered frames seven feet square, bolted to the girders on the sides, and securely fastened with screws to the frame-work at the top.**
**The height of the frame is thus adjustable at twenty-six feet, nineteen feet or twelve feet from the ground by simply lowering the screen frames forming the top, and the upper row (or two upper rows as the case may be) forming the sides of the enclosure, the purpose being not only to determine whether queens or drones would mate in this cage at full size, but also how small an inclosure would be sufficiently large to give suitable freedom and range of flight.**
**These wire-covered frames are framed like a two-light window-sash, with a million in the centre, on which the two breadths of wire-cloth meet. Strips of wood secure the edges of the cloth, and cover all joints at the sides of the frames. With the lower board of the siding settled into the ground, and earth filled against the inside, and the door tight-fitting, the cage is bee-tight. I used drab-colored wire-cloth, which obstructs the light but very slightly. A shelf is fitted against the four sides of the cage on the inside one foot from the ground, and alighting boards directly opposite on the outside. Upon this shelf the hives are placed.**