Quilting bee

“ Abbot, of Wakeman, O., uses leather instead of Quilts. He says the leather is cheaper and does not rattle or stick. He fits them tight on the top of frames and they did not mould last winter and the bees wintered better than under quilts or tight frames. My bees in my hot-house when it has been warm enough for them to fly (no fire as yet) readily find their way back to their own hives, while those on their summer stands (though protected on the top and north sides) died by hundreds if not thousands on the snow as they lit and fell on it last week. ”

“ We then remove the roof, taking care not to jar the hive, and, lifting up a corner of the quilts, we send another gentle puff or two of smoke between the frames. We do the same at another corner. After this we make bold to lift out a frame covered with bees, and to our surprise we find that it is filled from top to bottom with a delicate white comb. It is already quite heavy with the honey which glitters in thousands of cells. Here and there a cell contains, instead of honey, a dark mass of pollen-paste called bee-bread. ”

“ Most of them will be loaded with pollen, proving them martyrs to their own industry and your negligence. When I see a bench three feet high and no wider than the bottom of the hive, perhaps a little less, and no place for the bees to enter but at the bottom, and as many hives crowded on as it will hold, I no longer wonder that "bee-keeping is all in luck;" the wonder is how they keep them at all. Yet it proves that, with proper management, it is not so very precarious after all. ”

“ A clean enameled or carriage-cloth quilt should be laid over the tops of the sections, if these are open above, and this weighted down with a board which has been clamped to prevent warping. At this time the flight hole should be full width and the hive protected from the direct rays of the sun during the hotter portions of the day. With small, single-walled hives, such as hold eight combs or less, it may be necessary, if the hives are crowded with bees, to raise them slightly from the bottom board or slide them back, so as to give small openings at the rear. ”

“ At the end of eight or ten minutes, the upper hive may be raised, and any bees sticking between the combs brushed down with a quill. The two queens in this case are of course together; one will be destroyed, and no difficulty arise. But if either of them is a young one, and you have been convinced by some "bee-doctor" that such are much more prolific, and happen to know which hive contains her, and wish that one to be preserved, you can do so by varying the process a little. Instead of inverting one hive, set them both on a cloth right side up, and smoke the bees ”

“ The sooner a young queen can take the place of the old one in maternal duties, the less time will be lost in breeding, the more bees there will be to defend the combs from the moth, and the surest guaranty for surplus honey.
When the bees have filled their sacks, proceed to drive them into the upper hive by striking the lower one rapidly from five to ten minutes. A loud humming will mark their first movement. When you think half or two-thirds are out, raise the hive and inspect progress. They are not at all disposed to sting in this stage of proceeding, even when they escape outside. ”

“ When this top is nailed on, the hive is ready. A less number of holes is often used, and one is thought by some to be sufficient; experience has satisfied me that the more room bees have to enter boxes, the less reluctance is manifested in commencing their work in them; but here is another extreme to be avoided: when the holes are much larger, or more of them, or even one very large one, the queen is very apt to go into the boxes and deposit her eggs, which renders the comb tough, dark, &c., also bee-bread is stored near the brood. ”

“ A kind of an idea that one swarm, and occasionally two or three, are reared sometime in June, or fore part of summer, is about the extent of their reflections on the subject. Whether the drones deposit the eggs, or that a portion of the workers are females, and each raise a young one or two, or whether the "king bee" is the chap for laying eggs, is a matter beyond their ability to answer. It is but a few years since, that a correspondent of a Journal of Agriculture denied the existence of a queen bee, giving the best reasons he had, no doubt, that is, he had never seen one. ”

“ It is economy to do it—bees enough may be saved to pay the expense. During the first spring months, the stocks contain fewer bees than at any other season. It is then that a numerous family is important, for the purpose of creating animal heat to rear the brood, if for nothing else. One bee is of more consequence now than a half dozen in midsummer. When the hive stands in a bleak place, the bees returning with heavy loads, in a high wind, are frequently unable to strike the hive, and are blown to the ground; become chilled, and die. A chilly south wind is equally fatal, but not so frequent. ”

“ As soon as the honey given them is gone, the tumult is greatly increased, and great numbers are destroyed. If any of your neighbors near you have bees, you must expect to divide with them.
If the honey to be fed is in the comb, and your hives are not full, and they are to be wintered in the house, bottom up, it may be done at any time through the winter, merely by laying pieces with honey on those in the hive. The bees readily remove the contents into their own combs; when empty, remove them and put in more until they have a full supply. They will join such pieces of comb to their own ”

“ It has been argued by some, and with much reason, that "nature is the best guide, and it is better to let the bees have their own way about swarming—if honey is abundant, and the stock is in condition to spare a swarm, their own instincts will teach them to construct royal cells; if it fails before they are ready, and the royal brood is destroyed, it is because the existence of the swarm would be precarious, and it is best not to issue." ”

“ When collecting only pollen they alight on the flowers, passing rapidly over the stamens, detaching a portion of the dust, which lodges on most parts of them, to be brushed together and packed into pellets when again on the wing. Thus they keep alternately flying and alighting until a load is obtained, when they immediately return to the hive; each bee bringing several loads in a day. Honey, as it is collected, is deposited in the abdomen, and kept out of sight till stored in the hive. ”

“ Placing the two weak hives on either side of the empty one, the frame with the bees from the right hand hive are transferred to the right side of the new hive. A dummy is then placed and all holes through which a bee might crawl carefully blocked up. The frames from the other hive are then placed in - 63 - the remaining space and the hive closed up. Care should be taken to fasten the quilt down firmly so that the bees cannot obtain access to each other, for if they do they will surely fight. ”

“ The hive soon becomes crowded with bees, and royal cells are constructed, in which the queen deposits her eggs. When some of these young queens are advanced sufficiently to be sealed over, the old one, and the greater part of her subjects, leave for a new location, (termed swarming.) They soon collect in a cluster, and, if put into an empty hive, commence anew their labors; constructing combs, rearing brood, and storing honey, to be abandoned on the succeeding year for another tenement. One in a hundred may do it the same season, if the hive is filled and crowded again in time to warrant it. ”

“ As soon as daylight shuts out the view, and no danger of their movements being discovered by their enemies, they throw off their inactivity, and commence searching for a place to deposit their eggs, and woe to the stock that has not bees sufficient to drive them from the comb. Although their larvæ has a skin that the bee cannot pierce with its sting, in most cases, it is not so with the moth, and of this fact they seem to be aware, for whenever a bee approaches they dart away with speed ten times greater than that of any bee, disposed to follow! ”

“ The old queen leaves with the first swarm; as soon as cells are ready in the new hive she will deposit her eggs in them, at first for workers; the number perfected will correspond with the supply of honey and size of the swarm. When the supply fails before leaving the old stock, she remains there, and continues laying throughout the season; but the bees matured after the 20th of July (in this section) are not more than sufficient to keep the number good. As many die, or are lost during their excursions, as the young ones will replace; in fact, they often lose rather than gain ”

“ Although a large family, as much care is needed as with the smaller ones. Also such as are affected with diseased brood should receive extra attention for the same reason.
Some bee-keepers are unwilling to risk the bold measure of inverting the hive, but content themselves by merely opening the holes in the top; this is better than no ventilation, but not so effectual, as all of the moisture cannot escape. There are some who cannot divest themselves of the idea, that if the hive is turned over, the bees must also stand on their heads all winter! ”

“ I have known stocks repeatedly to mature brood from the egg to the perfect bee, when shut in a dark room for months, when it was impossible to obtain a drop; also stocks that stand in the cold, (if good,) will mature some brood whether the bees can leave the hive or not. These facts prove that some are reared without water. As they get sufficient honey to require more comb to store it, they will at the same time have a brood; and it is easy to guess they need it for brood as comb, without a little investigation. ”

“ The hive must be inverted, and the bees smoked out of the way. Our attention is to be directed to the breeding cells; with a sharp-pointed knife, proceed to cut off the ends of some of them that appear to be the oldest; bearing in mind that young bees are always white, until some time after they take the chrysalis state. Therefore, if a larva is found of a dark color, it is dead! Should a dozen such be found, the stock should be condemned at once, and all the bees driven into an empty hive. ”

“ In these cross-bar hives, the animal heat rises into the box from the main hive, making it as warm as below; the queen goes up with the bees, and finding it warm and convenient for breeding, deposits her eggs; and young brood as well as honey is found there. When we think it full, it is then indispensable to return it, if taken off, till they hatch, (otherwise they spoil it by moulding) , which makes the combs dark, tough, &c. Another objection to such open tops is, that open bottom boxes must be used, which are not half as neat for market. ”

“ One early swarm is worth two late ones. Suppose a stock, instead of collecting food and nursing its young, is compelled to expend its honey and labor in secreting wax and constructing combs before it can proceed with breeding advantageously, it must of necessity be some weeks later.
Further, I have always found it best to have the bees out of the way, during this operation. It will be found much more difficult to drive the bees out of a hive in the cool weather of March or April, than in summer, as they seem unwilling to shift their warm quarters and go into a cold hive. ”

“ When such hive is divided, the chances are not more than one in four, that this apartment will have any young bees of the proper age from which to raise a queen; if not, and the old queen is in the part with the brood-comb, where she will be ninety-nine times in a hundred, one half of the hive is lost for want of a queen. ”

“ During an excursion the bee seldom visits more than a single species of flower; were it otherwise, and all kinds of flowers were visited promiscuously, by fertilizing one species with the pollen from another, the vegetable kingdom would be very likely to get into confusion. Writers, when noticing the peculiarity of instinct governing the bee here, cannot be content always, but must add other marvels. They follow this trait into the hive, and make her store every kind by itself there. Relative to honey it is not an easy matter to be positive ”

“ All the breeding combs in the hive become one putrid mass, with an exception, perhaps, of one in ten, twenty or a hundred, that may perfect a bee. Thus the increase of bees is not enough to replace the old ones that are continually dying off. It is plain, therefore, that this stock must soon dwindle down to a very small family. Now let a scarcity of honey occur in the fields, this poor stock cannot be properly guarded, and is easily plundered of its contents by the others. ”

“ They do not affect the bees. In swarming, the old queen abdicates and heads the swarm, and a young queen mounts the throne in the hive. The outgoing queen, followed by five thousand or six thousand bees, either ex proprio motu, or guided by pioneer scouts, selects a rose-bush, or a cozy opening in a laurel-hedge, and all her subjects hang on, forming a cluster of bees as large as the largest bunch of grapes. As soon as they have nearly all settled, take -136- your empty hive or bee-box, which must be thoroughly dean, as bees hate dirt and slovenliness ”

“ In some instances we might save the stock by breaking out most of the combs, leaving just enough to be covered by the bees. When success attends this operation, it must be done before the worms have progressed to a thorough lodgment. When the stock is weak, and appearances indicate the presence of many, it is generally the safest, and will be the least trouble in the end, to drive out the bees at once and secure the honey and wax. The bees when put into a new hive may do a little, but if they should do nothing, it would be no worse. ”