Bee colony

“ The healthy brood will mature and emerge in due time, and the putrid matter remaining in a few cells will dry up and be removed by the workers. All this will certainly result from a well-timed removal of the queen from such colonies. If such removal becomes necessary in the spring or early part of the summer, a supernumerary queen is thereby obtained, by means of which an artificial colony may be started, which will certainly be healthy if the bees and brood used be taken from healthy colonies. ”

“ Early and continued stimulation to activity, by feeding the bees, causes the colony to become strong in numbers. If therefore we wish for handsome profits from the labors of the bees, we must have them in great numbers, at all times in the hive. If we expect great quantities of honey from weak colonies, we are doomed to disappointment. In almost every locality there is a time, during the spring or summer, when bees cannot gather nectar from the flowers. ”

“ Occasionally a colony settles around the stem of a tree, or some place equally inconvenient for being detached. The difficulty may sometimes be met by brushing as many bees as can be got at into a hive, or by holding a hive above the place of settling, and - 181 - by smoke driving the insects upwards, till they learn the whereabouts of comfortable quarters. At other times there is no resource but making the swarm take to flight, in the hope that a more suitable place will be chosen by them for their next assemblage. ”

“ They leave behind the Honey stores, except such as they can carry in their honey stomachs, the brood, some workers, drones, several queen cells, from which will later emerge young queens, but no adult queen. By this interesting process the original colony is divided into two.
The swarm finds a new location in some place, such as a hollow tree, or, if cared for by the bee keeper, in a hive. The workers build new « 18 » combs, the queen begins laying, and in a short time the swarm becomes a normal colony. ”

“ Then the ability to recognize hive mates and to distinguish them from other honey bees will enable a colony to defend itself against attempts at robbery.
“However, the honey bee community does not defend itself by attacking every invader that does not possess the community odor. Strangers are attacked only under certain circumstances. In order to investigate these circumstances two colonies of differently colored bees were placed close together, with their entrances only two inches apart, so that bees often went into the wrong colony by mistake. ”

“ When brought out of the cellar it is well to place the colony on a new stand, apart from the other bees, contract the entrance, and lean a board against the front of the hive. It is also safest to bring it out late in the day, even just at dusk, so the bees will begin flying from it gradually and not attract the attention of robbers. It may be well, when removing a colony from its stand to save it from robbers, to put in its place a hive with combs containing a little honey and pollen. ”

“ I then give the hive a laying queen, and two or more frames of sealed brood, according to the time of year, and have a good colony.
I am waiting patiently for Novice to invent a machine for making straight worker comb; for as yet I have found no way of securing all worker comb, except to have it built by a weak colony. My bees build some drone comb of very strong, even if their queen is not a month old ”

“ Friend S. it seems, has the rare good sense to see that single experiments do not settle a matter by any means. We are quite taken up with the old hat idea. Get one just large enough to hold your colony, and keep plenty of sealed honey below them, and they will be in the best possible wintering trim, if we know aught of bees. We once wintered a colony without any honey board. We supposed they had been given the ordinary allowance with the rest but may have been mistaken. They were out of food before March, but they had commenced to rear brood briskly—rather in advance of the rest. ”

“ If we had not happened to be at hand at the moment this colony started, it would have been irretrievably lost to us. Many swarms and colonies are lost, simply because the departure takes place without anyone witnessing it. Let us hope that runaway bees may always fall into the hands of those who are as capable of taking care of them as our neighbours appeared to be on the occasion we have described. ”

“ My best colony gave me 150 pounds of extracted honey, and my average of comb and extracted was about 20 pounds per colony, spring count. The increase was about 25 per cent.
I have some of the extra-light colored bees, and I like them. My queens are prolific, their colonies are just as populous as any of my dark ones—they are rustlers to work. If honey is left exposed, they will find it first, and get the lion’s share, too. I think they are just a little inclined to steal from the blacks. They are very easy to handle, stick right to the combs, and protect them from robbers. ”

“ If uniting can be done during a honey flow, there is less danger of loss of bees by fighting, or if done in cool weather, when the bees are not actively rearing brood, the colony odors are diminished and the danger is reduced.
It is an easy matter to unite two or more weak swarms to make one strong one, for during swarming the bees have lost their memory of the old location, are full of honey, and are easily placed wherever the bee keeper wishes. They may simply be thrown together in front of a hive. Swarms may also be given to a newly established colony with little difficulty. ”

“ Injure a single bee in the hive, and the whole colony is instantly exasperated. Cause the honey to run out without injury to any of the bees, and the effect is somewhat different. Tear the comb containing sealed brood, and the bees are at once enraged. And for what purpose? For self-preservation as a colony, in caring for the offspring. Why do they gather honey? For self-preservation and perpetuation of the species. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The next season, and even that fall, there were hybrid colonies all over the country, even at the distance of 7 miles, one man had one colony. One man, 5 miles from me, wished me to introduce an Italian queen into one of his colonies. I think he had 6 and I was surprised to see 4 of them hybrids, how they came there he did not know. Others said to me, “I have your kind of bees, but where they came from I cannot tell.”
All breeders of Italian queens find it very difficult to keep their stock up to the standard of purity. ”

“ If, by reason of the stinging qualities of the bees kept, an examination for the purpose of ascertaining the condition of a colony of bees becomes a disagreeable task to the one who cares for the apiary, little things necessary to the welfare of the colonies will be postponed or omitted altogether and the apiary will soon present a neglected appearance, and the actual profits will be affected. ”

“ The parent colony, removed from its old hive as soon as the first swarm issues, will rarely cast a second swarm, especially if a young queen is at hand to be introduced within a day or two. The surplus queen cells are likely to be destroyed by this young queen, with the assistance of the workers. A laying queen will be readily accepted by a colony which by swarming and removal has lost its old bees, and ten to fifteen days will be gained in the production of brood. ”

“ A private letter from a gentleman with several hundred colonies of bees, located a short distance below Memphis, Tenn., dated March 5, says: “My colonies are mostly very strong; they are bringing in 5 kinds of pollen; many are clustering in front of their hives; most of them had large quantities of honey left over, and I could extract an average of 15 lbs. per colony with profit to the bees. Bees here are given no attention in the fall, but are left on the summer stands, sometimes with the second story over them, and often with only a honey-board. ”

“ Even a good apiarist often loses a colony when his bees swarm at an inconvenient time, and the new colony may set up quarters not far from the old. For years I refrained from starting a line from my own lawn because of the presence a mile and a quarter away of a number of colonies belonging to a gentleman known as Chicken Smith. Chicken Smith’s bees used my flowers regularly. Then one day I decided to start a line anyway just for interest and found a wild swarm in my own sugar bush.
One question often asked is how much honey one gets from a bee tree. The amount varies enormously. ”

“ The combs of diseased colonies which contain brood may be assembled over a single one of these colonies, or, if the amount of brood be too great for one colony to care for, over several such diseased colonies, until the young bees have emerged. All of the honey is then to be extracted. While it is wholesome as food, it should not be offered for sale, lest some of it be used in feeding bees or be inadvertently exposed where foraging bees might find it and carry to their hives the germs of this disease, harmless to other creatures but so fatal to bee life. ”

“ I notice in some instances that half the bees of the colony are in the hat. When those in the hat get hungry, and those below get cold, how nice and easy it is for them to exchange places, much easier than to go from the outside of the cluster to the inside over or around the frames—that is, provided that is their way of doing—for instance, when one little fellow’s feet get cold he goes inside to warm them, and another little fellow comes out to take his place. ”

“ One queen bee is necessary to form each colony, and wherever she flies they follow. Nature [683, 684] directs them to march in a body in quest of a new settlement, which, if left to their choice, would generally be some hollow trunk of a tree. But man, who converts the labours and instincts of so many animals to his own use, provides them with a dwelling, and repays himself with their honey. The early swarms are generally the most valuable, as they have time enough to lay in a plentiful store of honey for their subsistence through the winter. ”

“ Atchley reports that she could not get her bees to take hold of sorghum. I had 5 colonies which I fed on it last October, sufficient to carry them through the winter. They are now all dead but one colony, and that one is reduced in numbers to a mere handful of [124] bees. They all had plenty of sealed stores when they died, and fell down on the bottom-board. All of my other colonies are wintering well, that have honey stores. ”

“ There are the future inhabitants of the colony in every stage of existence, from the egg to the perfect Bee, and these in a driven hive are all totally destroyed—eggs, larvæ, nymphs, in one word, the brood, in whatever state, is all destroyed, when the Bees are driven from it and not suffered to return. ”

“ For instance, a fair-sized colony may 106 consume 11⁄2 lbs. of honey per month, and endure confinement without soiling the combs for 6 months; now, if they consume 6 times this amount in 2 months, they must fly at the end of that time or the combs will be soiled very soon thereafter. We often read, “My bees wintered well and consumed but very little honey,” while the fact was that their consuming but little honey was the reason they wintered well. Thus we are able to answer the question why one colony dies, and another at the side of it does not. ”

“ It is always well for even the most casual bee-keeper to take the trouble to re-queen from his strongest and best colonies. However, the time when queen cells are naturally built may not be the most convenient or the most desirable time for giving certain colonies a new mother. This being the case, queens may be developed through the power of suggestion, as follows: Select a frame of brood from the best colony ”

“ Scouts leave the swarm to find a new home, to which they finally conduct the whole swarm. Thus is founded a new colony. "This swarming of the honey-bee is essential to the continued existence of the species; for in social insects it is as necessary that the colonies be multiplied as it is that there should be a reproduction of individuals. Otherwise as the colonies were destroyed the species would become extinct. With the social wasps and with the bumblebees the old queen and the young ones remain together peacefully in the nest ”

“ To prevent the injuries of this pest the colonies should be kept strong. The bee-moth follows the rule of other parasites and attacks only the weak and the irresolute, and never injures a comb that is covered with bees. A queenless colony, dejected and discouraged, is usually victimised by it. The Italian bees have learned to cope with the bee-moth and exterminate it whenever attacked by it. Some bee-keepers, when a comb becomes infested, introduce it into the centre of an Italian colony, being sure that the little wretches will find there the fate they deserve. ”

“ Storifying, though generally, is not invariably successful in causing the clustered bees to reenter the boxes: where it fails to do so, if a young queen were ready to assume the sovereignty of the colony, the clustered bees would swarm and seek a new habitation with the old one. ”