Frank Benton

“ The second essential to enable one to avoid stings is to have a good smoker at hand whenever the bees are to be handled. Any way of getting smoke of any kind into the hive and about it may answer the purpose, but for ease and effectiveness in keeping bees under control nothing will take the place of the modern bellows smoker (fig. 1) . A good one lasts years, and its cost is so slight ($1 to $1.25 for the medium sizes) that the expenditure may be considered one of the wisest that can be made in fitting up an apiary. ”

“ It is then that the greatest destruction ensues, for such a colony will defend itself vigorously, and a pitched battle, with perhaps fifty or sixty thousand Amazons on either side, leaves the ground literally strewn with dead and dying. ”

“ As complete a list as possible should be made of the plants and trees visited by honeybees, and notes should be added as to period of blossoming, importance of yield, whether honey or pollen or both of these are collected, quality of the product, etc. If gaps occur during which no natural forage abounds for the bees, some crop can usually be selected which will fill the interval, and, while supplying a continuous succession of honey-yielding blossoms for the bees, will give in addition a yield of fruit, grain, or forage from the same land. ”

“ Nature has provided that the accumulation of waste products in the body of the bee during its winter confinement should be small under normal conditions, but unusual consumption of food, especially of a highly nitrogenous nature like pollen, necessitates a cleansing flight, or diarrheal difficulties ensue, combs and hives are soiled, the air of the hive becomes polluted, and at last the individual bees become too weak to generate proper warmth or drive off the surplus moisture which then invades the cluster and brings death to the colony ”

“ Stings can be avoided, first, by having gentle bees. If no other point of superiority over the common brown or black bee than that of gentleness could be fairly claimed for some of the races introduced and some of the strains developed in recent years, it would still be worth while to get them on this account alone. When the fact of superiority in several other important points is considered also, there should be no further question as to the advisability of procuring them in preference to the common variety. The beginner is advised never to think of doing otherwise. ”

“ Ordinary paralysis may generally be cured by strewing powdered sulphur over the combs, bees, and along the top bars of the frames, the precaution first having been taken of removing all unsealed brood. This brood would be killed by the application of sulphur, but as there is no danger whatever of spreading the disease by the transfer of brood or honey from one hive to another, provided absolutely every one of the adult bees has first been shaken or brushed from the combs, the latter may be given to healthy colonies which need strengthening. ”

“ OUTDOOR WINTERING.
Cold and dampness are the great winter enemies of bee life. A single bee can withstand very little cold, but a good cluster, if all other conditions are favorable, can defy the most rigorous winters of our coldest States. But if not thoroughly dry, even a moderate degree of cold is always injurious, if not absolutely fatal. Dampness in winter is therefore the most dangerous element with which the bee keeper has to contend. ”

“ Opening the hives once or twice weekly and destroying all queen cells that have been commenced will check swarming for a time in many instances, and is a plan which seems very thorough and the most plausible of any to beginners. But sometimes swarms issue without waiting to form cells; it is also very difficult to find all cells without shaking the bees from each comb in succession, an operation which, besides consuming much time, is very laborious when supers have to be removed, and greatly disturbs the labors of the bees. If but one cell is overlooked the colony will still swarm. ”

“ The main difference to be observed in preparing colonies for the production of comb honey, instead of extracted, is in the adjustment of the brood apartment at the time the supers are added. After the colony has been bred up to the greatest possible strength, the brood apartment should be so regulated in size, when the honey flow begins and the supers are added, as to crowd many of the bees out and into the supers placed above. ”

“ It may be safely said that any place where farming, gardening, or fruit raising can be successfully followed is adapted to the profitable keeping of bees—in a limited way at least, if not extensively. Many of these localities will support extensive apiaries. In addition to this there are, within the borders of the United States, thousands of good locations for the apiarist—forest, prairie, swamp, and mountain regions—where agriculture has as yet not gained a foothold, either because of remoteness from markets or the uninviting character of soil or climate. ”

“ Any repository which is damp or one whose temperature falls below freezing or remains long below 38° F. is not a suitable place in which to winter bees. When in repositories, the bees have no opportunity for a cleansing flight, nor do they, when the temperature rises outside, always warm up sufficiently to enable the cluster to move from combs from which the stores have been exhausted to full ones; hence in a cold repository they may possibly starve with plenty of food in the hive. ”

“ Laws against the sale of adulterated goods as genuine, known commonly as pure-food laws, are in operation in some of the States, and where bee inspectors or bee keepers have taken the pains to have these laws applied to the marketing of honey, a check has been put upon the selling of adulterated honey in the liquid form, which has been practiced to a greater or less extent and still occurs in some of the city markets. ”

“ The value of bees in the pollination of various fruit and seed crops is often sufficient reason to warrant the keeping of a small apiary, even if circumstances do not favor its management in such a manner as to secure the largest possible crops of honey or to insure the saving of all swarms. The quality and quantity of many varieties of apples, pears, plums, and small fruits depend absolutely upon complete cross-pollination. The most active agents in this work are honey bees. ”

“ Good wintering, followed by careful conservation of the natural warmth of the colony, the presence of a prolific queen—preferably a young one—with abundant stores for brood rearing, are, together with the prevention, in so far as possible, of swarming, the prime conditions necessary to bring a colony of bees to the chief honey flow in shape to « 30 » enable it to take full advantage of the harvest. ”

“ There are many plants and trees of economic value, in addition to their production of honey, which may be utilized in one portion or another of the United States in the manner indicated. Adaptability to climate and soil, the periods of honey dearth to be filled in, markets for the crop produced, etc., must all come in to influence the choice. The following list includes the more important plants of economic value in this country which are good honey and pollen yielders. ”

“ How to bring bees successfully through the winter in the colder portions of the United States is a problem which gives anxiety to all who are about to attempt it for the first time in those sections, and « 36 » even many who have kept bees for years still find it their greatest difficulty. It may happen occasionally that a queen, apparently young and vigorous in the autumn, will die during the winter, when a young one can not be reared, and as a result the colony will dwindle away. ”

“ The regular deposition of eggs in worker cells may nearly always be regarded as a safe sign that mating has taken place. Eggs will usually be found in such cells within the first ten days of the queen's life. After-swarms may remain in the air, circling about for some time, and they frequently cluster high—a good reason, in addition to the more important fact that their issuance is not consistent with the production of the most surplus honey, for the prevention of all after-swarming. ”

“ Among other diseases of a bacterial nature paralysis is most noticeable, although not to be dreaded as foul brood. It affects the adult bees only, producing a paralyzed condition of their members and a « 44 » swelling up of their bodies. The diseased bees, often set upon by other workers, lose the hairy covering of their bodies, and, black and shiny in appearance, may often be seen wriggling away from their hives to die. In such cases the working force of the affected colony frequently becomes so greatly reduced as to preclude any return in the form of honey or swarms during the given season. ”

“ It is not to be understood that bees will always refrain from stinging if one remains somewhat passive in the vicinity of their hives, for the fact is that at some seasons common black bees and crosses having blood of this race fly some distance to attack passers-by, or even, without just provocation and with but slight warning, to plant a sting in the face of one who is standing near the apiary. ”

“ Indoor wintering should be confined to regions where there are several weeks, at least, of continued severe weather. When all conditions are right, consumption of honey will be less indoors and loss of bee life less than with the methods usually practiced in outdoor wintering. Under proper conditions, however, especially when abundant protection has been given, colonies out of doors will consume no more food nor meet with greater losses in numbers than those wintered under favorable conditions indoors. ”

“ For comb honey, hives permitting the insertion in the brood apartment of any number of frames up to eight, or frequently up to ten, are most in use. In securing extracted honey, those with ten to twelve frames in each story are preferable, and as many stories, one above the other, are employed as the strength of the colony and a given harvest may require. A construction, therefore, which readily admits of expansion and of contraction, as occasion demands, is desirable. ”

“ Rape can be grown successfully in the North for pasturage, for green manuring, or for seed, and when permitted to blossom yields considerable pollen and honey. Winter varieties are sown late in the summer or early in the autumn, and blossom in April or May following. This early yield forms an excellent stimulus to brood rearing. Summer or bird rape, grown chiefly for its seed, blossoms about a month after sowing. It does best during the cooler months of the growing season.
Russian or hairy vetch is a hardy leguminous plant of great value for forage and use in green manuring. ”

“ Farther north, and especially in the cold Northwest, much greater protection becomes an absolute necessity. Quilts with newspapers or thin packing above do not alone suffice. The side walls of the hive may be made of pressed straw (fig. 18) . These, with top packing, if kept dry outside, are excellent for outdoor wintering, even in climates so cold that ordinary wooden hives do not afford sufficient protection.
In the severest climates, however, still greater protection on all sides of the colony is needed, and packing with chaff or other soft material is decidedly the best plan. ”

“ Any person with fairly steady nerves and some patience and courage can easily learn to control and manipulate bees. There are, it is true, a few exceptional individuals whose systems are particularly susceptible to the poison injected by the bee, so much so that serious effects follow a single sting. Such cases are, however, very rare. In most instances where care is not taken to avoid all stings the system eventually becomes accustomed to the poison, so that beyond momentary pain a sting causes no inconvenience. ”

“ Insufficient or poor winter stores, hives faulty in construction, lack of protection from cold and dampness, too much or too little ventilation, too great a proportion of old bees or too great a proportion of young ones, overmanipulation late in the season, etc., are the most important and most easily detected causes of loss in wintering bees. In some instances colonies supposed to have been placed in the same condition under which others have wintered well become diseased and die or dwindle away without prominent signs of disease. ”

“ With a small apiary, planting for honey alone certainly can not be made profitable. Small plats of honey-producing plants are valuable mainly because they afford an opportunity of observing when and under what circumstances the bees work on certain blossoms, and for the purpose of determining what might be depended upon to fill a gap in the honey resources of a given locality whenever the size of the apiary might make this a consideration of some importance. ”

“ Carniolans are much larger bodied and somewhat lighter gray in color than the Caucasians, but show likewise in many instances one or two rusty or dark-red bands. Their great hardiness and excellent wing-power enable them to fly freely in much cooler weather than some other races stand, and to regain their hive entrances under adverse conditions. They are prolific, active, and good honey gatherers, producing combs of snowy whiteness. As in the case of the Caucasians, their prolificness causes them to fill small hives to overflowing with bees, and this naturally results in numerous swarms. ”

“ It is even the case that in most apiaries managed on approved modern methods more pounds of foundation are employed than wax produced; hence less progressive bee keepers—those who adhere to the use of box hives and who can not therefore utilize comb foundation—are called upon for their wax product. As each pound of wax represents several pounds of honey, all cappings removed when preparing combs for the extractor, all scrapings and trimmings and bits of drone comb, are to be saved and rendered into wax. ”