Isaac Hopkins

“ That the nutritive quality of the plants in any growing crop is not diminished by the abstraction of honey from their blossoms would appear to be evident from the fact already referred to, that those plants have actually thrown off the honey from the superfluity of their saccharine juices, as a matter which they could no longer assimilate. There would appear, on the other hand, to be good reason to believe that the plants themselves become daily more nutritive during the period of their giving off honey—that is, from the time of flowering to that of ripening their seeds. ”

“ The agriculturist himself should be the best judge of the value of such effects.
The beneficial effect of the bees' visits to fruit-trees has been well illustrated by Mr. Cheshire in the pages of the British Bee Journal, and by Professor Cook in his articles upon “Honey Bees and Horticulture” in the American Apiculturist. (See also “Bulletin No. 18, Bee-culture,” New Zealand Department of Agriculture.) In fact, even those who complain of bees cannot deny the services they render; what they contest is the assertion that bees do no harm.
CAN BEES HARM THE SOIL OR THE CROPS? ”

“ Nevertheless, the complaint is sometimes made, in a more or less vague manner, by persons who ought to know better; and even beekeepers appear occasionally to adopt an apologetic tone, arguing that ‘‘bees do more good than harm,’’ instead of taking the much higher and only true stand by asserting that bees, while conferring great benefits on agriculture, do no harm whatever, and that the presence of an apiary on or close to his land can be nothing but an advantage to the agriculturist. ”

“ It is, of course, quite open to the agriculturist to keep any number of bees he may think fit; only, he must consider well in how far it will pay him to add the care of an apiary to his other duties. No doubt everyone farming land may with advantage keep a few stands of hives to supply his own wants in honey—the care of them will not take up too much of his time, or interfere much with his other labours ”

“ It is known that during the whole time the clover or other plants remain in blossom, if the weather be favourable, there is a daily secretion of fresh honey, which, if not taken at the proper time by bees or other insects, is evaporated during the midday heat of the sun. It has been calculated that a head of clover consists of fifty or sixty separate flowers, each of which contains a quantity not exceeding one five-hundredth part of a grain in weight, so that the whole head may be taken to contain one-tenth of a grain of honey at any one time. ”

“ When it is desired to treat colonies in the autumn after brood-rearing has ceased, just put the bees into clean hives provided with ample winter stores in the shape of frames of honey from clean colonies. The disease is not likely to reappear.
Feeding and Disinfecting.
In all cases when treatment is going on and honey is not being stored freely, feed sugar-syrup liberally after shifting the bees on the fourth day. Mix half a pint of water with each pound of sugar used, stir well, and bring it to the boil; when cool it is ready. Always feed within the hive and in the evening. ”

“ It is beyond the accomplishment of the average beekeeper to determine the exact amount of moisture a given sample of honey contains, neither is it necessary, as we shall be able to arrive in time at the knowledge we require by very simple means—that is, through the density or specific gravity of the article. A very great number of tests must be carried out before anything approaching a reliable standard of the specific gravity for ripe honey of different varieties can be established. ”

“ Even when the honey is allowed to ripen within the hive it is necessary to have shallow tanks to mature or clarify it, for, no matter how small in the mesh the strainer may be or how carefully the honey is strained, it is impossible to prevent very fine particles of wax and pollen-grains running from the extractor into the tank with the honey. If the body of the honey is deep these particles cannot rise to the surface as they do in a shallow tank, forming a scum, which, when skimmed off, leaves the honey in the very best form for market. ”

“ Given a fair supply of stores in late autumn, when fixing the bees up for winter, a colony will use comparatively little during the winter months, but as soon as breeding begins in the latter part of July or early August the stores are largely drawn upon for feeding the brood, and unless nectar can be gathered to help them out, the stores will rapidly diminish. As a rule willows and other spring forage afford a good supply in fine weather, but the weather is frequently far from fine at that time—generally unsettled, and against the bees securing nectar. ”

“ In the first place, it must be recollected that a large proportion—in some cases the great bulk—of the honey gathered by bees is obtained from trees, as, for instance, the linden in Europe, the bass-wood and maple in America, and in this country the forest-trees, nearly all of which supply rich forage for the bee, and everywhere from fruit-trees in orchards. A large quantity is gathered from flowers and flowering shrubs reared in gardens; from clover and other plants grown for hay, and not for pasture ”

“ That wax-moths, large and small, are only enemies of careless bee-keepers and of those who have not advanced beyond the common box-hive stage is a well-known fact. Careful, up-to-date beekeepers have nothing to fear from these or any other insect enemies, but, as my correspondent says, as long as we have the careless man with us so long will the moths flourish. ”

“ In case the larvæ are capped over, the cappings do not become dark, as in the case of the contagious diseases, but they may be punctured. So far no cause can be given for this disease, and whether or not it is contagious is a disputed point. Usually no treatment is necessary beyond feeding during a dearth of honey, but in very rare cases when the majority of larvæ in a comb are dead from this cause the frame should be removed and a clean comb put in its place to make it unnecessary for the bees to clean out so much dead brood. ”

“ Experienced beekeepers can judge in a moment by the weight of the hive, without opening it, whether the supply of food is running short or not, and every beekeeper should learn to do this. By putting one foot on the back of the bottom board to keep it steady, and with one hand raising the back of the hive, one can get the weight at once, and after a little practice can judge to within 1 lb. the amount of honey inside. ”

“ With us in New South Wales the first brood of moth appears in the early spring, from caterpillars which have passed the winter in a semi-dormant condition within the walls of their silken coverings, and only turned to pupæ or chrysalids upon the approach of warm weather. ”

“ They are physically incapable, but they consume a large quantity of food gathered by the workers, and where many are present the yield of honey from that hive, and consequently the profit, will be considerably curtailed. Some drones are needed for the impregnation of young queens, but it is found in practice that a sufficient number for this purpose will be bred, even when the breeding of them is restricted as much as possible, by making the fullest use of worker-comb foundation. ”

“ Except for disinfecting hives and appliances, I do not recommend the use of drugs in the apiary.
The Starvation Cure.
The so-called starvation method for treatment of foul-brood or brood-diseases is now recognised as the most effective, and has been universally adopted by leading beekeepers. Where the disease is so far advanced as to have left few bees in the colony, then it will be safest to destroy everything that has been in contact with it by fire: tinkering with such a colony would be both useless and dangerous. ”

“ Nothing has yet been brought forward to refute the theory that the ripening of honey, as previously stated, is simply a mechanical process—evaporating the surplus moisture by means of heat, whether inside or outside the hive. ”

“ A favourite haunt of the grubs is on the top of the frames under the mat, or where there are two mats they will get in between them. In the daytime they apparently hide from the bees, and at night attack the combs; but when the colony becomes very weak the grubs show no such fear, and attack the combs at all times.
It is the larvæ or grubs of the moth which prove so destructive to the combs, burrowing through them under the protection of strong silken galleries which they spin round themselves, secure from the bees as they advance in their work of destruction. ”

“ These works, which may be said to form the foundation of a rational system of agriculture, were written with that object alone in view, and the passages about to be quoted were not intended to support any theory in favour of bee-culture or otherwise; they deal simply with scientific truths which the layman can safely follow and accept as true upon such undeniable authority, although he may be incapable himself of following up the processes which have led to their discovery or which prove their correctness. ”

“ Securing control over breeding is not the only advantage gained by a free use of comb-foundation. For instance, a fair swarm of, say, 5 lb. weight hived upon ten sheets of comb-foundation in a Langstroth hive will have in twenty-four hours, in an average season, several of the sheets partially worked out and a goodly number of eggs deposited in the cells, and in thirty-six hours the queen can henceforward lay to her full extent. ”

“ Admitting, therefore, that every pound of honey of which the grazing stock are deprived by bees is a loss to the farmer, and therefore to be looked upon as a set-off to that extent against the benefits conferred by the bees in other ways, it will be necessary to consider to what extent it is possible that such loss may be occasioned. ”

“ Now and again beekeepers in the Waikato districts suffer considerable loss, and are put to extra trouble through the storage of thick honey, although in the midst of clover country. The same occurs in a few other districts in the colony. There are some parts—notably, nearly the whole of the country north of Auckland—where the honey is continuously of so dense a nature that the honey-extractor is of no use whatever. ”

“ Healthy brood in the larva stage—that is, before it is sealed or capped—presents a clear pearly whiteness, but when attacked by foul-brood it rapidly changes to light buff, then to brown, coffee-and-milk colour, and finally to black, at which stage nothing is to be seen in the cell but a flattish scale-like substance when examined closely. ”

“ Under these conditions, where there is a good queen, breeding will go ahead very rapidly, and in a short time there will be a big lot of brood to feed, and a large quantity of food needed. If at this time bad weather should set in and last for several days, preventing the bees gathering nectar, probably within a week pretty nearly all the reserve stores within the hive will be used up, and if the bees are not seen to before they arrive at this stage they will probably die of starvation. ”

“ Now, cattle and sheep graze during the night and early morning, long before the bees make their appearance some time after sunrise; all the flowering plants they happen to eat during that time will contain the honey secreted in the evening and night-time; during some hours of the afternoon the flowers will contain no honey, whether they have been visited by bees or not; and even during the forenoon, when the bees are not busy, it is by no means certain that they will forestall the stock in visiting any particular flower. ”

“ In a hot summer, when the deficiency of moisture prevents the absorption of alkalies, we observe the leaves of the lime-tree, and of other trees, covered with a thick liquid containing a large quantity of sugar; the carbon of the sugar must, without doubt, be obtained from the carbonic acid of the air. The generation of the sugar takes place in the leaves, and all the constituents of the leaves, including the alkalies and alkaline earths, must participate in effecting its formation. ”

“ It is true that if he possessed such an amount of knowledge as might be expected to belong to an intelligent agriculturist, working upon rational principles, he should be able, upon reflection, to see that such ideas were entirely groundless. ”