Beekeeping

“ There are, however, many places where an experienced bee keeper can make a good living by devoting his entire time and attention to this line of work. It is usually unwise to undertake extensive beekeeping without considerable previous experience on a small scale, since there are so many minor details which go to make up success in the work. ”

“ The physical ability is required because beekeeping demands real hard work—yes, back-aching work—not suitable to the sick ladies and gentlemen so often ill-advised to go into beekeeping. The mental ability is required to keep the beekeeper abreast of the times and its rapidly changing conditions. ”

“ I once saw a beekeeper take a very heavy colony consisting of two colonies which in swarming clustered together, and smother them, because he thought that owing to the large number of bees the colony might not have enough winter stores. Yes! a clown of a fellow actually burned with straw his young swarms, because they came rather late. But I do not intend to occupy my time describing the wrong mode of keeping bees, as through the length and breadth of the land this has been so passionately spoken of and they will learn, only 129 as matters progress, to adopt a better mode of beekeeping. ”

“ He loves not the honey, but the bees; and, it must be confessed, is frequently on the lookout for these industrious little insects. He plants himself on a post of the fence, or on a small tree in the garden, not far from the hives; and from thence sallies on them as they pass and repass, making great havoc among their numbers." The ravages of this little tyrant are not confined to the bee species; he is to be seen often "in pasture fields, taking his stand on the top of rank weeds near the cattle, and making occasional sweeps after passing insects, particularly the large black gad-fly. ”

“ But notwithstanding these destroyers, a thousand swarms of bees may be pastured here for every one now gathering honey. The greater portion is still covered every season with a repressed growth of bee-flowers, for most of the species are annuals, and many of them are not relished by sheep or cattle, while the rapidity of their growth enables them to develop and mature their seeds before any foot has time to crush them. The ground is, therefore, kept sweet, and the race is perpetuated, though only as a suggestive shadow of the magnificence of its wildness. ”

“ It is intended, by inducing the queen to remain in her original apartment, that all breeding should be there performed, as well as the storing of bee-bread and honey, for the winter sustenance of the bees. The cap hive, or upper chamber, known as the "super," is for the storing of honey, which the bee-keeper looks upon as a surplus, and which, at the close of the honey gathering, or as soon as filled, he intends to deprive the bees of, and appropriate to his own use, of course taking care to leave sufficient in the lower or stock hive for winter sustenance. ”

“ That the bees of a fairly large apiary should produce a considerable volume of sound in their passage to and fro between the hives and the honey-pastures is in no way remarkable. In the heyday of the year—the brief six weeks’ honey-flow of the English summer—probably each normal colony of bees would send out an army of foragers at least twenty thousand strong. What really seems matter for wonder is the way in which bees appear to concentrate their movements to certain well-defined tracks in the atmosphere. ”

“ It is not so, and I never have had any robbing in my apiary. No good bee-keeper, it seems to me, so does his work in the apiary that robbing is induced. Of course when putting up queens the nuclei must be opened in the middle of the day. Sometimes robbers come around to see what is going on. The work of removing a queen is quickly performed and if strange bees appear the hive is closed; that is, combs replaced, cover put on and a handful of grass is thrown against the entrance. While the bees of the colony can find their way out of and into the hive, no strange bee dares to try to enter. ”

“ Becker, of Pleasant Plains, had 53 colonies in the spring, and increased to 62. He took about 700 pounds of honey. The bees are in good condition for winter. He grows small fruit in connection with bee-keeping. For extracting he uses three sets of full frames—supers full of comb to each hive. Induces the bees to go into the supers by placing partly-filled sections in the middle of the supers. He raises the hives from the bottom-board during the swarming season, and thinks it prevents swarming, and induces the bees to work in the supers. ”

“ Directly the comb-frames are laid bare these cloths are drawn over them, and in a few moments every bee has crowded down terror-stricken into the lower regions of the hive, leaving the honey-chamber free for instant and swift manipulation.
p. 164CHAPTER XXIII
SUMMER LIFE IN A BEE-HIVE
If you go to the bee-garden early of a fine summer’s morning you will be struck by the singular quiet of the place. All the woods and hedgerows are ringing with busy life. The rooks are cawing homeward with already hours of strenuous work behind them. The cattle in the meadows are well through their first cud. ”

“ In treating of that useful insect the honey-bee, we will first explain briefly the domestic economy of the hive, and the distinction between the different individuals composing the entire colony, and then pass on to the more practical details of bee-keeping.
A beehive contains three kinds of individuals—a queen, drones, and workers. The queen is a female, and is the mother of the community. The drones are males, and the working bees neuters, being neither males nor females. During the warmer part of the year the queen seems to be incessantly employed in laying eggs. ”

“ This is another pretty bee which chooses a hole in some tree-stem which has been made already by a beetle or boring insect, and in order to make things quite comfortable for her future family she goes to the woolly hedge-nettle or the wild lychnis, and scraping off the wool she rolls it into a ball and flies to her nest with it, then she unrolls the wool and lines the sides of the hole with it, thus making a warm soft nest in which to place her eggs and the store of pollen and honey which they will require. ”

“ Although we never attempted to start a London apiary at all approaching in extent that of our predecessor, we have occasionally kept bees on the house-top, both in Holborn and Regent Street. At each of those situations, we have noticed that the bees bring "pollen" as well as honey into their hives. Last summer, there was brought under our notice an illustration of the acuteness of the scent of bees and of their diligent search for food, proving, too, that if sweets can be obtained even from unusual sources, the bees will find them out. ”

“ Of course, the carrying in pollen was soon discontinued, as there was no brood to feed; the material, weighing sixteen pounds, being all honey and wax. I also saw them active in defence of their homes against the wasps; and although some wasps contrived to enter, I have seen the bees bring out their corpses now and then since, showing that they appear right.
To-day, the sun shining very bright and the temperature being warm, I am flabbergasted by seeing crowds of drones going in and out, and no slaughtering of these now unnecessary mouths. I say, can all be right? Is the queen still alive? ”

“ 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. ”

“ He runs the gauntlet every time he enters. Through my glass observatory windows I watch the conflict. One bee, half his size, seizes him by the throat, another gives him a taste of his sting, and two or three watchers seize him by the legs and drag him out. I have hit on an admirable plan of keeping him off, well worth disclosing to every bee-master. I place at the entrance of the hive a stick of barley-sugar a couple of inches long. This brings to the entrance a dozen of bees, who thankfully feed on it. ”

“ What I have found a very good way with my bees you cannot find a very bad one. The stocks are taken up in the old way as soon as the heather goes out of flower. I hope many a man will learn by my letter to take them up by the fingers, instead of the sulphur match, that ready instrument of bee-murder. In France they put their hives into a boat, some hundreds together, which floats down the stream by night, and stops by day. The bees go out in the morning, return in the evening, and when they are all back and quiet, on the boat floats. ”

“ Harvesting any crop has interesting features, but nothing has the peculiar charm of taking off [317] honey. Loosen the cover, puff in a little smoke, lift the cover, then the whole super off. Put on a new super and replace the cover. Have your bee brush ready and as you lift the fitted sections out of the super, brush the bees that cling to them down to the entrance to the hive. This is the old way and is fraught with dangers. Moreover, the bees may regard one robbery as sufficient excuse for another. Robbery is a serious matter in the apiary. ”

“ This is done by bringing the box up sharply under him with the lid open as he sits on the edge of a bloom and slapping the lid home as he tumbles into the box. It is not so hard as it sounds, especially if the bee is on a high bloom of milkweed or goldenrod. It is essential that the bee be caught. During the midst of a good honey flow a bee will never voluntarily abandon the flowers and go to a comb, no matter with what aromatic lure you may have anointed it. Forget for all time the accounts of writers who drench a handkerchief with anise and throw it over a bush near a stand with loaded comb. ”

“ Those whose conception of a bee-keeper is mainly of one who looks on from his cottage door while his winged thousands work for him, and who has but to stretch out his hand once a year to gather the hoard he has had no part in winning, know little of modern beemanship. This would be almost literally true of the old skeppist days, when bees were left much to their own devices, and thirty pounds of indifferent honey was reckoned a good take from a populous hive. But the modern movable comb-frame has altered all that. ”

“ 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. ”

“ They select, when not more than three days old, an egg or grub previously intended for a worker-bee, and then enlarge the cell so selected by destroying the surrounding partitions; they thus form a royal cradle, in shape - 10 - very much like an acorn cup inverted. The chosen embryo is then fed liberally with a peculiar description of nurture, called by naturalists "royal jelly"—a pungent food, prepared by the working bees exclusively for those of the larvae that are destined to become candidates for the honour of royalty. ”

“ As soon as all, or very nearly all, the bees have gone up into the skep, or into the quarters they are to occupy, it is advisable to move them to the stand intended for their permanent position. Some apiarians, however, recommend waiting till evening for taking this step. We must dissent from their opinion for two reasons: firstly, because it often happens that, in a place away from the apiary, something may occur to disturb the bees, and they will forsake the hive. ”

“ On this account the orchard is a good place for an apiary, for it seems—more abundant the honey, more plentiful will be the fruit. Bees bear the fructifying matter from one sex of flowers to the other, but they confine their attention to one kind of flower during each excursion: and the careful observer may see how the colour of the pollen on the bodies of the bees will vary from yellow to red and brown, according to the kind of flowers from which it has been gathered. ”

“ When the store is fully exposed, the bees will give up, and will begin to load with honey. Then they are harmless, and will not sting unless jammed. As soon as the bees give up, you may remove your protection, roll your sleeves up, sit on the tree and help yourself to the choice bits. You need not feel nervous if bees are flying all about you. The fight is all out of them as soon as the honey is exposed.
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I forgot to say that when the first blow of the ax falls, after the tree is down, the fierce roar which the bees make would frighten a nervous person out of his senses. ”

“ From this depend a number of straw skeps tied over with cheese-cloth. A bee-smoker and a set of driving-irons complete the equipment, and there is no more to do than sally forth into the country in search of condemned bees.
It is usually not difficult to persuade the cottage apiarist to let you operate on his hives. As soon as he learns that all you ask for your trouble is the bees, while you undertake to leave him the entire honey-crop and a pour-boire into the bargain, he readily gives you access to his stalls. ”

“ 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. ”