Beekeeper

“ For the beekeeper's purpose the daily forecasts published in newspapers are scarcely enough; and if no daily weather maps are convenient near by, it will repay the beekeeper well to subscribe for them. They are valuable not only at the time of putting the bees into the cellar but at many other times of the year. ”

“ The wise beekeeper is not deterred by a bad season but simply bides his chance. He knows that in course of time the bees will make good all losses and give in addition a handsome profit to the owner for his kind attention and thoughtful consideration. ”

“ Older beekeepers, both on the farm and professional men, also are beginning to study beekeeping. They attend short courses, subscribe to scientific bee papers and study bee literature. With increased study and knowledge the whole status of the beekeeping industry is just now undergoing a rapid change. ”

“ Every bee-keeper should be a book-keeper; that is, so far as to have a permanent record of the events of the apiary and the fortunes of his bees. A book similar to a tradesman's journal would be very suitable for the purpose. In it he should note down the date of the first swarm of the season especially, and those of the other swarms also; and in autumn, the quantity of honey taken from each hive should be entered, with remarks on the probable size of the various stocks. ”

“ Every well-conducted hive has presented him with eighty or a hundred pounds of honey; there are some even which will have given twice that quantity, all gathered from the sun-lit flowers that will have been visited a thousand or two times every day. The bee-keeper gives a last look at his hives, upon which slumber now is falling. From the richest he takes some of their store, and distributes it among those that are less well-provided. He covers up the hives, half closes the doors, removes the frames that now are useless, and abandons the bees to their long winter sleep. ”

“ THERE is one industry, if I may call it so, which has left its mark on our local maps and terriers; I mean the occupation of bee-keeping or bee-farming. The bee-keeper (beó-ceorl) was an important man when honey was used instead of sugar, and we may be sure that those hamlets in Hallamshire which lay near the moors had their bee-keepers, and their bee-farms. The bee was then of far more importance than the grouse, and the busy insect sucked the flowers of heather and wild thyme to the great profit and advantage of the people who lived on the edge of the moors. ”

“ When nectar is plentiful and the brood-chambers are full to overflowing with honey, the workers are quick to take the hint and begin to store their surplus in the section boxes.
You will notice that there is just one entrance to the hive. This front door is sacred to the occupants. When going among his hives, the bee-keeper who knows his place keeps to the rear. If you respect their privacy to this extent, the bees will [304] come out in front, rise, and sail off above your head without taking the slightest notice of you. ”

“ This classic in American apiculture has been revised and kept up-to-date by the scholarly Dadants', father and son, who are well known on two continents as successful bee-keepers. This book written by the father of American apiculture is comprehensive, and is good literature as well as good bee-keeping.
Lubbock, Sir John. "Ants, Bees and Wasps." Although this is a book of scientific experiments, it should be read by every bee-keeper. No other book tells so well the patience and ingenuity necessary to discover what the bee knows and why it does certain things. ”

“ First of all a home must be sought for bees, and a post where neither winds may have entry—for winds hinder them carrying their forage home—nor sheep and butting kids tread down the flowers, or the straying heifer brush the dew from the meadow and trample the springing grass. Likewise let the bright scale-backed lizard be far from their rich folds, and the birds that come with the bee-eater, and the swallow, her breast marked with those blood-stained hands: for they spread universal havoc, and carry off the bees on the wing, dainty morsels for their fierce nestlings. ”

“ When the bee-keepers are working up an apiary from swarms, or driven bees, autumn feeding is essential, for it is very seldom that late swarms or driven bees are capable of securing sufficient winter stores without the assistance of the bee-keeper. ”

“ It is the duty of every bee-keeper, who expects to succeed, to know which his weak stocks are; an examination some cool morning, can be made by turning the hive bottom up, and letting the sun among the combs. The number of inhabitants in them is easily seen. When weak, close the entrance, till there is just room for one bee to pass at once. The first real pleasant days, at any time before honey is obtained plentifully, a little after noon, look out for them to commence robbing. ”

“ No sight is more exciting than that of a swarm of bees. The air is clouded with the circling bees—vocal with their united music, while the eyes of the bee-master quietly watch their descent. As soon as the queen settles, the bees cluster around her and hang from the branch on which she has settled. As soon as the great mass has settled, take your bee-box or hive, hold it with one hand, mouth or bottom upward, beneath the swarm, enclosing as many of the pendent bees as the situation will allow. ”

“ Be all this as it may: the course of our party of bee hunters is to make a wide circuit through the woody river bottoms, and the patches of forest on the prairies, marking, as they go out, every tree in which they have detected a hive. These marks are generally respected by any other bee hunter that should come upon their track. When they have marked sufficient to fill all their casks, they turn their faces homeward, cut down the trees as they proceed, and having loaded their wagon with honey and wax, return well pleased to the settlements. ”

“ Success in bee-keeping is all a question of numbers. The more worker-bees there are when the honey-flow begins, the greater will be the honey-harvest. The whole art of the bee-keeper consists in maintaining a steady increase in population from the first moment the queens begin to lay in January, until the end of May brings on the rush of the white clover, and every bee goes mad with work from morning to night. ”

“ We soon discovered them to be our neighbours of the next farm, in pursuit of a swarm of bees which was hovering in the air over their heads. The bees at length alighted on the tall pear-tree in our orchard, and hung in a bunch from one of the boughs. A ladder was got, and a man ascending, with gloves on his hands, and an apron tied over his head, swept them into a hive which was rubbed on the inside with honey and sweet herbs. ”

“ Show me the bee-keeper and I will show you a poet; a lover of waters that go softly like Siloa; with the breath of sage and pennyroyal about him; an observer of nature, who can handle his bees without veil or gloves. Only a few men keep bees,—only philosophers, I have found. They are a different order utterly from hen-men, bee-keeping and chicken-raising being respectively the poetry and prose of country life, though there are some things to be said for the hen, deficient as the henyard is in euphony, rhythm, and tune. ”

“ And even at the present time it is amusing to see how many old bee-keepers manage their bees. There is a class of old fogies, who denounce all improvements and progress in bee-keeping, and who, year after year, move in the same tracks in the management of their bees, asserting that they know all about bees that is worth knowing. It is, to say the least, amusing, to see how this class of bee-keepers manage when their bees swarm. ”

“ Where bees kept thus get their honey is a bee secret, but undoubtedly every flower in the region yields them tribute. If bees be kept in town, they must be placed on a roof or else a high fence must intervene between the hives and the highway, so that the plane of bee flight shall be set above the heads of horses and drivers; for these brave little honeymakers have never been taught to turn to the right, and so they often dispute the way with teams and usually come off victorious; and this might make the bee-keeper unpopular in his community. ”

“ You will read of keeping bees on a city roof, in a suburban attic, and on boats; but the most natural place for them is in the village or country, where fields of clover, groves of basswood, and patches of buckwheat abound. An orchard or large garden is incomplete without a few hives. The young bee-keeper with these advantages is to be congratulated; the conditions are ideal. All he needs is a liking for bees and spunk.
Before you get the first colony decide where your apiary is to be located. Even one hive must have a place and you must plan for increase. ”

“ But the prejudices against bees are quite unnecessary; bees are as tractable as they are intelligent, and it is the purpose of this little book to show that bee-culture is an easy and safe, as well as a deeply interesting, pursuit. Possibly, also, some who do us the favour to read our detailed explanations, will see how the rural clergyman, or the benevolent landlord, who keeps an apiary of his own, may be of signal service to his poorer neighbours in explaining to them the mysteries of bee-keeping. ”

“ But if the bee master is truly a bee master, he has known for several days, by how busy the hive is and by the things he hears the bees say to each other, that they are going to leave their home and find a new one. So, if he wants to keep his bees and make his garden get bigger and bigger, he has some hives standing back, all ready, and he watches, and when the Queen comes out of her door and starts to fly, he takes his bee drum and slow and easy and deep, drum, drum, drum, he beats it. ”

“ To accomplish this desirable object, every box or bee-hive should be furnished with movable wooden bars, upon each of which, or at any rate upon every other bar, pieces of worker-comb should be fixed, to serve as a guide to the bees, prior to their introduction to a swarm. This, you will perceive, has been attended to in the hive and boxes before you. And it will be found that the bees, if they have their guide-combs correctly and securely fixed, will invariably accept them as the foundations of their future structures ”

“ Bee-keepers provide different kinds of hives for the bees, ranging from the hollow tree, or the earthenware pot, or the familiar bell-shaped dome of straw which we find in our farmers' kitchen-gardens or under their windows, hidden away between masses of sunflowers, phlox and hollyhock, to what may be called the model factory, which is, as it were, the last word of man's ingenuity as applied to the bee. ”

“ The latter-day beehive, it is true, has little more æsthetic value than a Brighton bathing-machine; and the new class of bee-keepers, which is springing up all over the country, is composed mainly of people who have taken to the calling as they would to any other lucrative business, having, for the most part, nothing but a good-humoured contempt alike for the old-fashioned bee-keeper and the ancient traditions and superstitions of his craft. ”

“ Then we will take a few drops of honey in a small vial, the scent, cloth, and bait of sugar and water mentioned previously. When we find the bees watering we take the glass, without cover, and place it over the bee, which will immediately try to fly and finding himself a prisoner, will crawl around the upper part of the glass. Previous to this a few drops of the honey were placed on a piece of cardboard or large leaf. Then we lift the glass and place the hand under to prevent the bee escaping and place it on the cardboard or leaf. ”

“ Certain as it may seem that the bees communicate with each other, we know not whether this be done in human fashion. It is possible even that their own refrain may be inaudible to them: the murmur that comes to us heavily laden with perfume of honey, the ecstatic whisper of fairest summer days that the bee-keeper loves so well, the festival song of labour that rises and falls around the hive in the crystal of the hour, and might almost be the chant of the eager flowers, hymn of their gladness and echo of their soft fragrance, the voice of the white carnations, the marjoram, and the thyme. ”

“ Being struck with the remarkable facilities afforded by these superior hives for the extraction of any one comb, and, perhaps, fascinated with their easy sway over so highly organized a community, these new-fangled bee-keepers have acquired a habit of perpetually and incautiously meddling with the bees. The inevitable results in such cases are distress to the bees, impoverishment of the stocks, and loss and vexation to the over zealous apiarian. All these things may be avoided, if it be remembered that there are first steps in bee-keeping, as well as in croquet, chemistry, or cricket. ”

“ And some men, Englishmen too, have been known to shoot the bee-eater. This is a small light-green bird, as green as growing corn. From its tail hang two long dark feathers; it has a long black beak, with a stripe passing by the eye across paler cheeks. There are some kinds more brilliantly coloured than this; the beauty of it is most manifest when it is bee-eating. Then it spreads bronze wings, turns and flutters like a butterfly, and as it turns a gold sheen ripples over the green. These are sociable birds, and they sit by half-dozens on a branch of carob, taking turns to flutter and catch. ”

“ It is perhaps unfortunate, but nevertheless a fact, that honey sells largely on appearance, and a progressive bee keeper will appeal as strongly as possible to the eye of his customer.
LOCATION OF THE APIARY.
In choosing a section in which to keep bees on an extensive scale it is essential that the resources of the country be known. Beekeeping is more or less profitable in almost all parts of the United States, but it is not profitable to practice extensive beekeeping in localities where the plants do not yield nectar in large quantities. ”