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200M/09-98-981815

HOW TO KEEP BEES

I'Hotograpn by KalfH SV. Curtis
PLATE I. BASSWOOD BLOSSOM

How to Keep Bees

A Handbook for the Use
of Beginners

By
Anna Botsford Comstock, B. S,

With Illustrations

Garden City New York

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY

MCMXI

Copyright, 1905, by

Doubleday, Page & Company

Published April, 1905

All rights reserved^ including that
of translation — also right of trans-
lation into the Scandinavian languages

PREFACE

This book has been prepared especially to meet
the needs of the beginner in bee-keeping. It is not
intended to be a complete treatise for the pro-
fessional apiarist, but rather a handbook for those
who would keep bees for happiness and honey,
and incidentally for money. It is hoped, too, that
it will serve as an introduction to the more extended
manuals already in the field.

When we began bee-keeping we found the wide
range of information and varying methods given in
the manuals confusing; but a little experience taught
us that bee-keeping is a simple and delightful business
which can be carried on in a modest way without a
great amount of special training. After a beginning
has been made, skill in managing the bees is gained
naturally and inevitably, and interest is then stimu-
lated by the wider outlook which bewilders the
novice.

For the sake of simplicity this volume is restricted
to knowledge gained in practical experience in a
small apiary; and the writer has sought to exclude
from it those discussions which, however enlightening
to the experienced, are after all but devious digres-
sions from the simple and straight path which the
feet of the inexperienced must tread to success in
the apiary.

19719

CONTENTS

I.

Why Keep Bees

3

II.

How to Begin Bee-Keeping

8

III.

The Location and the Arrangement of the

Apiary .......

20

IV.

The Inhabitants of the Hive .

27

V.

The Industries of the Hive

50

VI.

The Swarming of Bees . . . .

64

VII.

How to Keep from Keeping Too Many Bee

s 73

VIII.

The Hive and How to Handle It

83

IX.

Details Concerning Honey

106

X.

Extracted Honey ....

"7

XL

Points About Beeswax

126

XII.

Feeding Bees

136

XIII.

How to Winter Bees

145

XIV.

Rearing and Introducing Queens

. 156

XV.

Robbing in the Apiary

. 164

XVI.

The Enemies and Diseases of Bees .

172

XVII.

The Anatomy of the Honey Bee

i8i

XVIII.

Interrelation of Bees and Plants

. 194

XIX.

Bee-Keepers and Bee-Keeping

206

XX.

Bee-Hunting

211

Bibliography .......

215

Index

219

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Plate I. — ^Basswood blossom . . Frontispiece

Observation hives . . . Page 2

Plate II.— (a) Two flat section boxes ^^"^° ^^^=
(6) Corneil smoker .... 14

Plate III. — (a) Dixie bee-brush, spur wire-
embedder and Van Deusen wax-tube
fastener. (6) A super with fences, (c)
The Porter bee-escape in a honey-board 15

Plate IV. Hives well shaded by a tree . 26

Plate V. (a) Queen; drone; worker.

(h) Queen cell, (c) Miller's queen in-
troducing cage 27

Plate VI. Head of drone; head of queen;
head of worker; ventral surface of
worker showing plates of wax . . 30

Plate VII. Legs and antennae of the honey-
bee 31

Plate VIII. Drone cells in a comb of honey. 50

Plate IX. Side of hive removed showing

the bees at work .... 51

Plate X. Bees hanging in a curtain secret-
ing wax 62

Plate XI. Hiving bees; cutting down a

swarm 63

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS— Co/i^mweci

FACING PAGB

Plate XII. (a) Two self-spacing frames.
(6) An empty super, (c) The Doolittle
division-board feeder ... .90

Plate XIII. Examining the brood-frames . 91

Plate XIV. (a) Alley's queen and drone
trap, (b) A well-filled section, (c)
One empty section holder, and one
filled with section boxes . . .106

Plate XV. One and a half story hive for

comb honey 107

Plate XVI. Drone and Queen trap; queen
maihng and introducing cage; queen-
protector and queen-cage used in queen-
rearing, and bee-escape . . .110

Plate XVIL "In apple-blossom time" . Ill

Plate XVIII. (a) Taking off upper story of
hive containing combs for extracting.
(6) Extracting-room showing apparatus
for extracting honey . . . .122

Plate XIX. (a) Uncapping comb before
extracting the honey. (6) Placing un-
capped comb in one of the pockets of
the extractor 123

Plate XX. (a) Drawing honey from ex-
tractor, (b) Pouring extracted honey
into keg for shipping in bulk . . 126

Plate XXL (a) Extracted honey in pails,
candied, (b) Extracted honey in glass
jars ready for market . . . .127

Plate XXII. Winter quarters in chaff-hives . 154

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS— Concluded

FACING PAGB

Plate XXIII. Plum blossoms . . .155
Plate XXIV. Sumac in blossom. Blossom

of mountain maple . . . .184
Plate XXV. Fig. 1. Vertical longitudinal
section of the body of a larva of an
insect. Fig. 2. Section of the body-wall
of insect. Fig. 3. Head of a bee and
its appendages. Fig. 4. Glands of a
honey-bee. Fig. 5. The wax plates . 185
Plate XXVI . (a) The reproductive organs
of the honey-bee. (6) Fig. 1. The
internal anatomy of the honey-bee.
Fig. 2. The respiratory system of the

honey-bee 192

Plate XXVII. An old-fashioned apiary . 193
Plate XXVIII. (a) Thorn-apple blossoms.

(6) Wild crab-apple blossoms . .198
Plate XXIX. Buckwheat in blossom . .199
Plate XXX. Box-elder, staminate and pis-
tillate flowers . . . . . 210
Plate XXXI. Blossoms of black locust . 211

HOW TO KEEP BEES

An ordinary beehive made into an observation-hive by inserting glass panes in
sides and putting a glass sheet under the wooden cover. (From V. L. Kellogg.)

An observation-hive holding only two frames, wth the two sides wholly of glass,
so that any single bee can be continuously watched. (Form V. L. Kellogg.)

CHAPTER I

WHY KEEP BEES

The reasons for keeping bees are many and various ;
for it is an industry as many-sided as the cells of
a honey-comb, one of its chief charms being that
it appeals equally to "many men of many minds."
To know all the reasons why one should keep bees
one must be conversant with the history of man; he
must be familiar with the Vedas of India and master
of the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt; he must study
the life of the common people in the Hebrew Scrip-
tures and the classic literatures of Greece and Italy,
and must be able to translate into terms of common
human experiences the myths and legends of diverse
peoples. For bees have been a part of the conscious
life of man from the beginning. Not only have they
sweetened his daily bread with beneficent honey, but
they have had their place in his religious rites, and
also in his family observances, as millions of happy
lovers may attest who have experienced the "honey-
moon." However, lacking the erudition necessary
to enumerate all, the author of this book is quite
content to mention a few of the more cogent reasons
why anyone should, in this day and generation,
undertake the keeping of bees

iMMui vaatuBt

W.CSMtColkg§

4 HOW TO KEEP BEES

One may keep bees for the sake of the honey,
which is a most legitimate and fit reason. Honey is
a wholesome and delicious addition to the family
table. Though it is a luxury, yet it may be afforded
by one living in moderate circumstances, if he be
willing to give a modicum of time and care to the
happy little creatures that gladly make it for him,
free of all expense. But for the one possessed of
great wealth, and able to corner the honey-market
any day, there is sure delight, as well as education, in
raising his own honey. Any person of experience
well knows that the honey made by one's own bees
has quality and flavour superior to that made by
other people's bees. In fact, the only way to become
a connoisseur of honey is to keep bees, for thus
only may one learn to discriminate between honey
made from basswood and that gathered from clover;
or to distinguish, at first taste, the product of orchard
in bloom from that drawn from vagrant blossoms,
which, changing day by day, mark the season's
processional. He who has once kept bees and be-
come an artist in honey-flavours, would never again,
willingly, become a part of the world at large, which,
in its dense ignorance, dubs all white honey ** bass-
wood" or ''clover" indiscriminately, and believes
all dark honey is gathered from buckwheat.

Some, perhaps, might keep bees for the sake of
making money. For him who would get rich keeping
bees, this book manifestly is not written; its title
explains that it is meant to show how to keep bees,
and not how to make bees keep him. The person who

WHY KEEP BEES 5

would, from the first, make bee-keeping his chief
work should receive his training in a large apiary.
As a vocation it demands the entire time and energy
of a shrewd and able person to insure success; of
such, America already has a great number, with
yearly incomes varying from $1,000 to $10,000.
However, the desire to make the bees keep them-
selves and add more or less to the family income is a
practical and sensible reason for keeping bees.
Fifteen or twenty colonies may be managed with
comparatively little time and attention and the work
may be done largely by women or the younger mem-
bers of the household. If proper care be given to
such an apiary, it will prove of material benefit to the
family purse; for, if the season be favourable, the
product of one colony should net the owner from
four to ten dollars. We know of boys who have thus
earned their college expenses ; and many women have
bought immunity from the drudgery of the kitchen
with money paid them for their crops of honey. It
should be borne in mind that honey-money is not
obtained without thought, energy, and some hard
work. The bees would have been less beneficent
to mankind had they bestowed honey without de-
manding a return in care and labour.

Many have kept bees as a recreation, and there is
none better. It gives delightful and absorbing oc-
cupation in the open air and is not merely a rest from
mental and sedentary labours, but is a stimulus to
health and strength as well. In the various bee
journals are recorded testimonials from thousands

6 HOW TO KEEP BEES

who, when tired, ill, and nervously worn out, began
bee-keeping, and through it regained vigour and
found a new interest in life. Notwithstanding the
fact that bees have honest stings, they can work the
miracle of changing a dyspeptic pessimist into a
cheerful optimist with a rapidity and completeness
that merits our highest admiration.

A love for natural science is a very good reason for
keeping bees. Nowhere are there more fascinating
problems for the investigator than those still unsolved
in the hive. Of all the lower animals, bees are, per-
haps, the most highly developed in certain ways;
and it is more probable that the mysteries of the
eternal heavens and the distant stars be made plain
than that we ever learn the truths that underlie the
development of the ''Spirit of the Hive."

Another reason for keeping bees is the insight to
be gained therefrom into the conditions of perfect
communism. The bees and their relatives are the
most intelligent and consistent socialists that have
yet been developed in this world; and, through
studying their ways, one may discern with startling
clearness how the perfect socialism grinds off all
the projecting corners of the individual until it fits
perfectly in its communal niche. In the hive indi-
vidual traits, as exemplified in kindness, selfishness,
love and hate, are moved up a notch in the scale and
characterise the whole community, even though
they are eliminated from its members. If one is
a social philosopher, he may become very wise,
indeed, by studying the results of the laws of socialism

WHY KEEP BEES 7

which have been executed inexorably through count-
less centuries in the bee commune.

Last, but by no means least, one may keep bees
because they belong to home life and should have
place in every well-kept garden or orchard. There
is no more beautiful domestic picture to be found in
the world than a fine garden with a row of holly-
hocks hiding the boundary fence and affording a
fitting background for a neat row of white hives. It
is not alone the aesthetic beauty the bees bring to the
garden which touches the deeper currents of feeling
and is productive of profound satisfaction ; it is some-
thing more fundamental; for since the thyme of
Hymettus yielded nectar, the happy hum of the bee
has yielded comfort to the human senses. The
garden without bees seems ever to lack something;
mayhap, the silent longing of the flowers for their
friendly visitors, intangible but real, so permeates
the place that we are dimly conscious of it. Be
that as it may, the perfect garden can only be attained
through the presence of happy and populous bee-
hives.

CHAPTER II
HOW TO BEGIN BEE-KEEPING

THE VARIOUS WAYS OF BEGINNING

There are so many ways of beginning this inter-
esting work that no classic way obtains. Many
people have received the stimulus from a swarm of
bees, escaped from some apiary, which has alighted
on a tree or bush on the premises, and which seemed
too much like a gift of the gods to be ignored. In
fact, no one with blood in him would do otherwise
under such circumstances than to hunt up a soap-
box or a nailkeg and, with an intrepidity amounting
almost to heroism, place it under the cluster and
shake the bees into it. Then, if the swarm feels
content, the fact is accomplished ; and the involuntary
owner finds a new interest in life, and enthusiastically
becomes a bee-keeper. This is an excellent and
inexpensive way to begin, and for all who are thus
favoured it is by far the best way. But one may
wait many years before this happens, and after all
there are other and more direct methods. The
best way is to begin by wishing sincerely to keep
bees, and then to adopt one of the following plans:

The cheapest way is to visit the nearest neighbour
8

HOW TO BEGIN BEE-KEEPING 9

who keeps bees, and buy of him a swarm, which will
cost, perhaps, two or three dollars. If the neighbour
be a good apiarist, this may be an excellent method,
for he will give practical advice and be a most helpful
friend in time of future diflSculties and doubts;
he will also explain appliances and make the labours
and perplexities of the beginner much smoother.
Besides these advantages, it is a help to neighbour-
liness, for keeping bees is almost as close a bond be-
tween two neighbours as an interest in golf or
automobiles, and has a much broader and more
philosophical basis.

Of course, the bees may be bought at any time of
the year convenient, but the early spring is the
best season for beginning, for then one has the ad-
vantage of increase by swarms. If one is ingenious
and inventive, one may easily construct other hives
like the one bought; but there are other things
needed which may be obtained cheaper and better
from firms that sell apiarists' supplies. However,
we are acquainted with several apiarists who furnish
all of their own supplies except the sections for comb-
honey, the wax foundations, the smoker, the cartons
and the honey-extractor.

The usual way of beginning is to send to some of
the dealers in bee-keepers' supplies for a catalogue
and to invest in a library of bee books. There is
something most fascinating about these books
written by bee-keepers, for no one makes a success of
bee-keeping unless he loves the bees; and if he loves
bees he writes of them so persuadingly, and his lines

10 HOW TO KEEP BEES

are so full of insidious allusions to the enchantments
of the occupation, that whoever reads one of these
volumes finds life arid without bees.

Then the catalogue of bee-keepers' supplies has
its own attractions. Never were such breathlessly
interesting pamphlets written; and I would add
that, on the whole, they are the most honest and
reliable of all advertising catalogues. They almost
invariably give good and sensible advice to beginners,
suggesting proper outfits at moderate prices. To
the would-be bee-keeper these catalogues are so
delightful that, if the purse is long enough, he feels
inclined to order a specimen of everything listed.
However, this is not the best way to do. A moderate
number of things can be ordered at first, and other
things may be ordered later as the growing sense of
their need develops.

If one is minded to go into bee-keeping as a
regular business, the best way to begin is to spend a
year with a successful bee-keeper, working for him
and with him and paying for the tuition, whatever
may be charged. Thus one may gain his knowledge
of the business and get his practical training under
the guidance of experience. The very worst way
to begin, and one that is sure to result in disaster, is
to buy a large number of colonies at first. This is
a too expensive way of learning the extent of one's
own ignorance and limitations as a bee-keeper.

As we have begun keeping bees three times in the
course of our lives, we feel more or less competent to
give advice about this special phase of bee-keeping.

HOW TO BEGIN BEE-KEEPING 11

We first began when we were children and two
swarms were bestowed upon us by an uncle who
moved away from the neighbourhood. This was
long before the idea of supers and box comb-honey
had been thought of. We were among the first
to adopt the old glass-sided super when it was
introduced. The second and third times we
purchased our outfit of a dealer in apiarists' supplies,
and both of these beginnings were good and suc-
cessful; so perhaps the best way to tell others how to
begin is to describe how we began. The following
is the order which we sent to a dealer.

A BEGINNER'S ORDER

One colony of bees, in an eight-frame, dovetailed,
chaff hive with a deep telescope cover, and with a
tested Italian queen.

Two complete supers ready for use, with 4J x 4J x
1^ plain sections.

One super cover.

Three extra IJ-story chaff hives uniform with the
above, and with super covers.

One standard Corneil smoker.

One bee-veil.

One pair bee-gloves.

Two hundred and fifty sections, plain, no bee-
way, 4J X 4i X 1 J.

One pound medium brood foundation.

Two pounds thin super foundation.

One Daisy foundation-fastenero

12 HOW TO KEEP BEES

One Van Deusen wax-tube fastener.
One J-pound spool No. 30, tinned wire.
One Porter bee-escape, with board.
One Manum's swarm-catcher.
One Dixie bee-brush.
One DooHttle division-board feeder.
One Alley's queen and drone trap.

•

NOTES ON A BEGINNER'S ORDER

THE BEES

The selection of the bees is the first and most im-
portant consideration, since race and heredity
determine to so great an extent the bee's efficiency
and disposition.

The consensus of opinion to-day is in favour of the
Italian bees; this is so much so that the other races,
except the German, are hardly on the general
market in America. Taking all points into con-
sideration, the Italian has a higher average of sat-
isfactory qualities than has any of the other races.

Our earliest experiences were with the ordinary
black German bees, and it was through them that
we first learned to love bees, although their nervous-
ness and their unhappy habit of considering us in-
truders when we neared their domain were always
somewhat embarrassing, and made us feel like
James Whitcomb Riley's visiting base-ball team,
that "we weren't so welcome as we aimed to be."
Therefore, when we decided to buy bees, we un-

HOW TO BEGIN BEE-KEEPING 13

hesitatingly ordered Italians. These are much
more gentle and friendly than the others, and it is
one of our greatest pleasures to be on good terms
with our bee-folk. Under all ordinary circumstances
the Italian bees are not only tolerant of human
interference, but are sweet tempered and optimistic,
believing that we mean well by them; and one can-
not work with them without learning to love them.

If one begins bee-keeping in the spring, some
money can be saved by buying a nucleus and tested
queen, instead of a full colony of bees. A nucleus
in bee-keeping parlance is a small colony with only
one, two, or three frames. The colony should be
large enough to build combs with sufficient rapidity
to keep the queen fairly busy, so as not to encourage
in her the habit of loafing, and so that too much tim^e
shall not be required to build up a full colony. Two
frames with about a quart of bees will accomplish
this well.

Such a nucleus as this in a hive, with a division
board on either side of the two adjacent frames,
can be soon built up into a full colony if there is
plenty of nectar and pollen to be had. A division
board is a solid board of the shape of the frame,
but a little larger so that it is close-fitting in the
hive. The frame should be watched closely, and
as soon as the comb is filled with brood, and there
are enough bees to cover the brood well, another
frame filled with brood foundation should be added ;
this should be continued until the hive is filled with
frames.

14 HOW TO KEEP BEES

A TESTED QUEEN

As the queen is the mother of the whole colony, her
powers for transmittmg a kind disposition and
superior honey-making qualities are of the greatest
importance. It is essential, therefore, to know that
the queen, which is to serve as a foundation for the
apiary, has mated with a drone of the desired race.
A tested queen is one that has been kept until some
of her offspring have been reared. The colour of
these will indicate whether the queen has mated with
a drone of her own race.

THE HIVE

Next to choosing the bees comes the selection of
the hive, for there are several kinds of hives in gen-
eral use, and all of them are apparently good. We
chose the Langstroth hive because its merits are
attested by the fact that it is more largely used than
all others taken together. We chose the eight-frame
in preference to the ten-frame form because we
wished to produce comb-honey, and it is easier to
induce bees to store surplus in the sections when the
brood-chamber is small. If one wishes to produce
extracted honey, the ten-frame hive is the better
one. We ordered the more expensive chaff hives,
as we wished to save the trouble of moving the bees
into winter quarters; and we think this would be
the case with anyone with whom bee-keeping is an
avocation instead of a vocation. In fact many peo-

(a) The Dixie bee-brush, spur wire-embedder, aid Van Deusen
wax-tube fastener.

(l>) A super with fences and two rows of section-boxes in place;
a separate fence.

■1'

PLATE III. (0 The Porter bc-

i\ a honey-buard.

HOW TO BEGIN BEE-KEEPING 15

pie who make bee-keeping their principal business
prefer chaff hives, for they not only keep out the
cold in winter, but also protect the bees from the
heat in summer. The objections to them are that
they are heavy to handle and are expensive, though
the expense can be reduced considerably if one has
the ability to make them. Another thing we like
about the chaff hives is that they are fine and dig-
nified in appearance, and we find that their majestic
proportions, white and beautiful, set against the
background of our larches, add much to our con-
scious pleasure every time we look upon our apiary.
We ordered a deep telescope cover, as we wished
room for two supers on the hive at once.

The hive-stand we ourselves made from lumber
taken from dry-goods boxes. It is simply a smooth
platform, six inches wider than the hive on three
sides and extending about a foot out in front of the
hive, thus serving as an alighting-board.

TWO COMPLETE SUPERS

We knew that we would need these very soon,
for the basswood harvest was imminent ; we
ordered them ready for use, as we wished to see
all the ''new wrinkles'' in supers, and exactly how
the parts are arranged. We used the supers as
models later in putting together and fitting other
supers. This proved a wise precaution, as it saved
us much time in reading directions and studying
out independently the arrangement of parts. We

16 HOW TO KEEP BEES

ordered 4J x 4} x 1 J sections, as this is the size most
generally used, and we chose the no-beeway, or
*' plain" style, because we think it presents a better
appearance when filled with honey. We will return
to this question in Chapter VIII.

THREE EXTRA HIVES

We wished to have these on hand for any swarms
which might possibly issue.

ONE STANDARD CORNEIL SMOKER

I do not know just why we chose this of the many
excellent smokers, but perchance the name called
to mind happy experiences with sundry Cornell
smokers of quite a different feather, and we were
thus favourably disposed toward this one. It has
not disappointed us in the least, for it is both handy
and practical. It may seem an unfriendly act to
smoke one*s own bee-people, but a little smoke
wisely applied is as efficacious in preserving pleasant
relations with the bees, as was the smoke from the
pipe of peace in preserving similar relations between
our forefathers and the savages. (Plate I.)

ONE BEE-VEIL

The senior partner of our apiary rarely uses a
veil, but when he does use one he needs it very much,
and it is an article necessary to have at hand. To
the beginner it gives a calmness of nerve and a sur-
plus of courage which are highly desirable when deal-
ing with such high-strung creatures as bees. Also

HOW TO BEGIN BEE-KEEPING 17

there always occur times during the year when the
bee-tempers are on edge for some reason or other;
and at such times, if one be intrenched behind a bee-
veil, it facilitates work and encourages a serene
spirit.

ONE PAIR OF BEE-GLOVES

While we do not use these ordinarily, yet when
we have some special work to do which involves
changing many bees from one location to another,
we find these gloves most convenient to keep the
disturbed little citizens from crawling up our sleeves,
thus saving both them and ourselves from a most
embarrassing situation.

250 SECTIONS

Only a small supply of sections was ordered, as
but few would be needed the first year in addition to
those in the two complete supers. (Plate 11.)

ONE POUND BROOD-FOUNDATION

This was for use in the frames in the extra hives.

TWO POUNDS THIN SUPER-FOUNDATION

This was for use in the sections.

ONE DAISY FOUNDATION-FASTENER

In the early days of our bee-keeping we fastened
the foundation into the sections and frames with a
common kitchen-knife which we heated "over a lamp
and then applied to the edge of the wax foundation
held against the section, thus melting it and pressing

18 HOW TO KEEP BEES

it fast to the wood. Afterward we used a Parker
fastener, and found it a great improvement over the
primitive method. But this Daisy foundation-
fastener as described in the catalogue appealed to
the modern spirit in us. Wien we tried to use the
machine, we were bitterly disappointed at the end
of five minutes, but that was because the iron was
not hot enough to properly melt the wax. After a
little we learned to hold the foundation on the plate
just long enough to melt it to a proper consistency
so that it adhered to the section as soon as it was
dropped upon it. Then it was that filling sections
was placed on the list of sports. The rapidity with
which we filled four dozen sections almost took our
breath away.

ONE VAN DEUSEN WAX-TUBE FASTENER

This was ordered under the impression that it
would be needed for fastening the foundation in the
brood-frames, but when the hives came we found
that a much better method of fastening the founda-
tions had been devised. This is described in Chap-
ter VIII. (Plate HI.)

TINNED WIRE

This is used for strengthening the foundation in
the brood-frames, as described later.

ONE PORTER BEE-ESCAPE

The Porter bee-escape is a simple and most use-
ful device. It is set in a thin board just the size of
the top of the hive ; in the middle is a bit of tin which

HOW TO BEGIN BEE-KEEPING 19

forms a round pit on the upper side. The bees
descend into this pit, and, trying to get out, push
apart two strips of tin set at angles to each other,
fastened at the ends, which act like a valve, letting
the bee out but not permitting her to push back.
This is put between the super and the hive in order
to free the super of bees before removing the honey.
This escape is also used on the doors and windows
of workshops or extracting-rooms or other places
where bees get in and it is desirable to get them out.
(Plates III., XVIII.)

THE MANUM SWAKM-CATCHER

We bought this because we liked the idea of it,
but as yet we have never had occasion to use it; how-
ever, we never look at its long handle without being
filled with a mad desire to try it on a provoking
swarm of bees clustered in the top of a cherry tree.

ONE DIXIE BEE-BRUSH

This is an exceedingly useful instrument for brush-
ing bees from frames and from sections. (Plate III.)

ONE DOOLITTLE FEEDER

Bee-keepers of extended experience consider this
the best and most satisfactory kind of feeder in use
for small apiaries. (Plate XII.)

QUEEN AND DRONE TRAP

This is not a necessity ; we bought it in order to try
experiments in preventing swarming by its use, and
also to have on hand in case an excess of drones should
be developed in any of our colonies. (Plate XIV.)

CHAPTER III

THE LOCATION AND THE ARRANGEMENT

OF THE APIARY

Where to put the hives is the first question, and
this must be determined by two or three conditions
necessary for the health and comfort of the bees.
Hives should be placed where the sunshine may
reach them in the morning up to eight or nine o'clock,
and in the afternoon from three to four o'clock. An
old orchard such as is kept because of picturesque
beauty rather than for its crop of apples is an ideal
place. The clean-culture orchards of the modern
horticulturists are undoubtedly more efficient as
producers of apples and money; but we are always
grateful that there are still remaining many fine old
orchards, on sod ground where the trees, more or less
gnarled and twisted, are a joy to the artistic eye.
Little wonder that such a place is the ideal spot for
the apiary; if the hives are grouped four or five
together beneath one tree, the requirements of shade
will be met.

Lf there is no old orchard, what then ? A young
orchard will do, unless clean culture is practised; in
the latter case horses and cultivator will not be per-
mitted on the domain of the bee-people» Jf no

20

LOCATION OF THE APIARY 21

orchard offers, then a trelHs of vines extending east
and west, eight feet high, may shade a few hives,
and may be a thing of beauty in the garden as well.
Grape vines, hops, Virginia_creeper, or any other
rapidly growing vines will do. To the one who
loves his garden, there will be many ways suggested
whereby the hives may be placed to compass both
comfort for the bees and joy to the beholder. We
started an apiary at the north of the lilac trees, and
made it a part of the lawn.

If no such happy position for natural shade is to
be found for the hives, then one must have recourse
to artificial shade or double-walled hives. A very
good method of shading, much in vogue among the
farmers of our country, consists of a few boards
placed awning-fashion above the row of hives. This
is not an attractive solution to the problem, although
perhaps it might be made so if this method were ever
resorted to by anyone with a sense of beauty; but
usually it is limited to a simple cover consisting of
two or three boards nailed together, slanting a little
toward the back of the hives to shed rain, supported
by four posts, which hold it a foot or more above
the row of hives.

In California instead of boards a thatched roof is
made for this sort of protection, and is ample enough
to allow an aisle for the apiarist between the rows of
hives set back to back.

Many people use a single shade board, which
consists of slats fastened together by cleats made
large enough to project a foot beyond the hive on

22 HOW TO KEEP BEES

either side. This is placed directly on top of the
hive, and has to be weighted down with stones, and
is therefore awkw^ard to handle when working with
the bees. If the climate is hot, or in any case, a
double-walled cover to the hive is most excellent,
since it affords a chance for free circulation of air
between the two boards which form it. However,
these double covers do not obviate the need of shade,
and natural shade is the most desirable sort.

In case the region is exposed to high winds, there
should be a windbreak around the apiary. Mr.
Root, who is one of the greatest of American bee-
keepers, uses for this a row of hardy evergreens
which grow together into a solid hedge. In case a
windbreak, either natural or made, is impracticable,
a board fence about eight or ten feet high, built on
two sides of the apiary, usually the north and west
sides, will be found to serve the purpose. This
fence may be made the trellis for vines.

In the rear of the village garden is an excellent
place for bees. A high board fence as a boundary,
and perhaps a barn at the side will act as a wind-
break, while the fruit trees yield a grateful shade.
We know several such modest apiaries which are
most attractive in appearance. There are those
who live in cities or towns who are filled with the
bee-keeper's ambitions; and even they need not
despair. There are on record accounts of several
small apiaries kept on the housetops of the owners,
who believe that roofs are for more than mere pro-
tection. Where bees kept thus get their honey is a

LOCATION OF THE APIARY 23

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.

Another necessity in the apiary is that the grass in
front of the entrance to the hives be kept mown;
otherwise many a heavily laden bee will experience
loss or injury among interfering grass blades. It is
not practicable, even if one were heroic enough to
try it, to run a lawn mower nearer than four or five
inches from the hives, so many bee-keepers place
salt^or^j]^^.hes_onJhe grass within this area. Mr.
Root goes so far as to advise the use of sheep as
automatic lawn mowers in the apiary, as nothing
else can cut grass so short as does the sheep. People
say "as silly as a sheep," but that is a silly saying,
for many people may learn something of value about
the management of bees from the sheep, which, when
attacked by them, thrusts its head philosophically
into a bush where the bees cannot reach the tender
parts, and trusts to its wool to protect it elsewhere.
As a matter of experience, sheep_kept in apiaries
are rarely stung at all.

In our own apiary, where it was not practical to
mow close to the hives, we followed two methods:

24 HOW TO KEEP BEES

When we had many bees we placed a rough board
over the ground in the immediate front of the hive;
when we had only a few swarms, it was one of our
joys to get on our knees on cold days, when only a
few adventurous workers were going into the field,
and with shears cut the grass close to the ground;
and this period spent on our knees was not penance,
but joy. However, it might well get to be penance
in a large apiary.

Having found the place for the apiary, the next
thought is of hive stands. Many bee-keepers use a
hive that has a combination bottom board and hive
stand; this has an inclined plane up which the loaded
bees may climb if they strike the ground. This is
a device which also saves the lives of many bees in
cool weather, when they would scarcely be able,
through numbness, to reach the entrance of the hive
otherwise. However, there are other bee stands
which hold two or three hives, which are very com-
fortable in height for the work of the bee-keeper.
But it is always well to remember that the opening
.pf a hive should be low down, as it is easier for the
weary wings to let the honey-weighted bee down
than to lift her up to the doorway. We use a simple
platform, with blocks under the corners, so that there
may be circulation of air beneath, and extending
about a foot out in front of the hive, thus serving as
an alighting board.

The arrangement of the hives in the apiary is a
subject which will pay for thought. When begin-
ning, this is easy enough, as they may be arranged

LOCATION OF THE APIARY 25

almost any way, so long as shade and short grass are
assured. After the apiary grows they may be
arranged in several convenient ways; one is to have
the lines of hives facing each other, thus making an
alley for the bees; while there is a safe passageway
for the man in the rear of the two rows.

When there are only a few hives, it is best to have
the entrances Jace. the. so^ In fact, the entrance

should never face northward in a climate as cold as
that of New York State. There is one thing to bear
in mind in arranging an apiary; make the groups
under the trees individual, so that the bees will have
no tendency to become confused as to the location
of their own homes. If two face west, then let two
others face east, or perhaps a group of three face to
the south, etc.

When it becomes necessary, for any reason, to
change the location of a colony, a board should be
set against the hive, in front of its entrance. The
bees, meeting this obstruction as they emerge from
the hive, will fly about the hive for some time, and
thus mark the new location, to which they will return.
If this precaution is not taken, many bees will fly
from the hive, directly into the field, without noticing
the change, and will then return to the old location
and thus be lost.

A honey-house near the apiary is a great conven-
ience. If this is not practicable, the next best arrange-
ment is a honey-room in house, cellar, or shed. Such
a room is a necessity even in a small apiary. This
room should be well ventilated and screens should

26 HOW TO KEEP BEES

cover the windows, and a swinging automatic screen
protect the door; bee-escapes should be placed in
door and windows.

The room should contain workbench and tools;
a table, chairs of varying height, an oil-stove, and
boxes or cupboards in which all of the apiary sup-
plies, implements, and machinery may be stored
and kept ready for use.

Fig. I

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

#iiit.>f*»

Fig. 5

PLATE V. /. Queen Bee, enlarged. 2 Drone, s. Worker. 4. Queen
^ells. J. Miller's Cage for Introducing Queens.

CHAPTER IV

THE INHABITANTS OF THE HIVE

One of the remarkable peculiarities of bees, which
is also shared by other social insects, as ants, wasps
and termites, is that there are three distinct kinds of
individuals in the community. For, in addition to
the males and females, which are the reproducing
members of the colony, there is a third class which
performs the labours of the community. The
females, of which there is usually only one in a
colony, are known as queens; the males as drones;
and the labourers as workers. (Plate V.)

THE QUEEN (Plates V. VI, VII)

The bee-queen is the acme of a long line of com-
munistic development. It is little wonder that those
men of ancient times who observed her, and the
attitude of the other bees toward her, regarded her
as regal and called her queen. But she is a much
more important element in the perfect commune
than a mere sovereign, since she is the actual mother
of her subjects.

Too much care cannot be shown in the selection of
the queen, or mother of the bee-colony. Her blood
is their blood; her faults are their faults; her weak-

27

28 HOW TO KEEP BEES

nesses are their weaknesses. Any apiarist is likely
to have had two colonies side by side, perhaps each
equalling the other in amount of brood and number
of bees, and one may have produced five dollars'
worth of honey in a season, while the other did not
produce half of that; and the queens alone caused
this discrepancy. One produced energetic, capable
offspring, while the progeny of the other were un-
enterprising. The offspring of one were perhaps
sweet-tempered and obliging, and those of the other,
cross and cranky. Thus it is all-important to give
the colony a good mother. A queen, to be perfect,
should be well-bred, handsome and strong, and
capable of laying from two to three thousand eggs
per day during the height of the season, and espe-
cially should she have offspring possessing a kindly
disposition.

The laying queen is a very graceful insect; her
body is long and pointed, and extends far behind
the tips of her closed wings. Svelte is a graphic
word applied to her figure by the Spectator; just a
glance at her reveals her splendid physical develop-
ment and proves her a queenlier bee than those that
gather around her. It is a sight that makes men feel
how very limited is their knowledge of any other
world than their own to see the queen bee, surrounded
by her ring of attendants, each with head toward her,
as if she were the centre of a many-rayed star.

The development of the queen from the egg has
ever been a most interesting and, at the same time, a
most puzzling subject for investigation on the part of

THE INHABITANTS OF THE HIVE 29

the scientists; even now after a century of study her
growth is as miraculous as ever; and the problems in
physiology that lie as yet unsolved in her development
will keep many an investigator busy in the future.

When a colony is queenless, and has young brood
or unhatched eggs, it makes haste to develop new
queens; not one alone, but several, since it cannot
afford to put its *'eggs all in one basket." At the
height of the honey season, every day that a colony
is queenless means two or three thousand less bees
than should be present to make it successful in
securing the harvest. (Plate V.)

In developing a queen the bees usually proceed as
follows: They select the important egg, which
differs in no wise from any other worker egg, and
destroying the partitions between its cell and two
adjoining cells, give it more room. In order to make
the royal apartment of good size a projection is built
out over this large cell. This is made of thick wax
and ornamented on the outside with hexagonal
fretwork, as if it were to be the basis of comb with
small cells. It seems as if the hexagonal pattern
were in the bee brain and must be expressed, whether
it be of any use or not. As soon as the little white
larva hatches from the egg, it is fed on the regular
larval food. Royal jelly is a food developed in the
head glands of the workers; and when it is the
fate of a bee larva to develop into a worker, it is fed
with this food for three days, and then it is weaned by
having other food substituted; but the queen larva
is fed with it during her entire development, and there-

30 HOW TO KEEP BEES

by her reproductive organs are stimulated and fully
developed, which is not the case vi^ith the workers.
Think how much farther advanced are the bees than
we, since, by giving the proper food, they are able
to develop and fit each class of citizens to do* the
work required of it in the social organisation !

The queen larva is fed for five days on this most
nourishing food, and then her cell is sealed. Within
this cell the royal princess is for the first time self-
dependent, and weaves about herself a silken cocoon
and changes into a pupa. When she issues from
this state she waits a little until she ''finds herself,"
and then starts to cut an opening in the cell. She is
a good mathematician, and with her jaws, cuts a
circle very accurately, usually leaving it hinged like
the lid to a pot. Professor Kellogg tells us that some-
times when she cuts this door, the workers do n6t
wish her to come out. They accomplish their pur-
pose by carrying wax and pasting it over the
opening as fast as she cuts it, at the same time
quite devotedly feeding her through a small crevice.
But if they wish her to come out, they rush to assist
her, and perhaps for two or three days before she
issues, make the wax thin where she is to cut. It
usually requires sixteen days to develop a queen
from the egg to the adult.

When a queen issues from her cell, she is light-
coloured and, as her body is not yet distended with
eggs, it is scarcely larger than that of one of the
workers. Sometimes she chooses to stay in her
cell for a day or two after it is opened. When she

PLATE VI. (Original, drawn by A. G. Hammar.) d, head of drone ; q,
head of queen ; w, head of worker ; x, ventral surface of worker showing plates
of wax.

PLATE VII. Legs and antenna of the honey-bee (original dra^'n hy A. G.
Hammar). A , outer surface of liind leg showing the nine segments and claws ;
pb, the pollen basket r.f tibia ; B, inner surface of part of hind leg ; «'/, wax-
pincers; pc, pollen-combs; C, inner surface of part of liind leg of queen; 1),
inner surface of part cf hind leg of drone; E. part of middle leg of worker: s,
spur; /".part of fore leg showirg the antenna cleaner a; G, [art of antenna
showing rense-haiis and sense-pits.

THE INHABITANTS OF THE HIVE 31

comes out, she runs about over the comb, taking
exercise on her own royal legs, and perhaps taking
a little honey out of the cells on her own account;
especially does she hunt for other queen cells, for
she has no wish to share her duties or honours with
another. If she finds such a cell, she usually makes
a hole in its side, and in some way, she stings to
death the hapless princess within. Some observers
claim that she merely takes the initiative, tearing
down the wall of the cell, and the bees finish by
tearing it down as they w^ould any broken comb, and
destroy the inmate in the process. If, in her prome-
nade, she discovers another full-grown queen, a
contest ensues; it is a duel to the death and the
weapons are stings, which are kept sacred for this
special occasion. It is interesting that the queen
reserves her weapon for her peers, and never attempts
to sting workers, and may be handled fearlessly by
the bee-keeper. As the plate armour of the bee is
so arranged that the sting may enter in only at certain
spots, this duel resolves itself into a fencing match,
until one thrusts her weapon into some vulnerable
portion of the other. One morning we found fifteen
dead queens outside of one of our hives; a grim
tribute to the prowess of the queen within, and quite
as much a tribute to our carelessness in letting so
many queens be developed uselessly.

The belligerent attitude of the queens toward each
other seems to have been so strong an emotion that a
voice has been developed to express it, and is eloquent
with rage and fear. This note must be heard to be

32 HOW TO KEEP BEES

understood; as nearly as I am able to spell it, it is
"tse-ep, tse-e-e-ep, tse-e-ep, tsep, tsp, tsp, ts," in a
sort of diminuendo. She makes the noise when she
discovers another queen cell; if there is within this
cell a full-fledged queen, she pipes back, but it
sounds quite differently and the note is more like
*'quock, quock." This piping of queens is especially
evident before an after-swarm is to issue. The
queen will also pipe when the bees gather about her
and try to ball her, which is often the fate of a new
queen introduced into a colony not ready to receive
her. In this case the note is one of righteous anger
at the indignity to her royal person. She makes
this piping with some vocal instrument, not well
understood. Her wings vibrate tremulously while
she is piping, but she can pipe quite as vociferously
after her wings have been entirely cut off.

After she has made good her title to empire, the
queen thinks about marriage; some warm day she
will run out of the hive to see how the world looks,
and especially to determine beyond doubt upon just
what point of the universe her own hive is situated.
The first flight of the queen bee is very pretty to see.
She makes many graceful circles about, and plays in
the sunshine as if she were thoroughly enjoying
herself. When she finally leaves the hive to find a
prince, she makes several little detours, always
coming back so that she can commit to memory,
beyond peradventure, the home place, and then off
she goes in the sunshine to find her lover. Unfor-
tunately she is not discriminating in the matter of

THE IiNHABITANTS OF THE HIVE 33

love, and any sort of a prince, however lowly, is
acceptable. Thus does many a fine, highly bred
queen return to her hive, to bestow upon her progeny
the undesirable traits of some low-bred drone. This
is one reason why it is so difficult to keep an apiary
of pure blood; and these mesalliances of queens are
a source of much tribulation to the bee-keeper.
She returns from her wedding journey with a part of
the reproductive organs of her mate in her possession,
often still visible, but soon after withdrawn into her
body. With the sperm cells now under her control,
she will fertilise the eggs of perhaps a million workers,
more or less, which she may mother during her life
of three or four years.

Biologists have of late achieved the miraculous
in being able to stimulate the unfertilised eggs of sea-
urchins and starfish, so that they w^ill develop. The
queen bee is able to do this with her own eggs.
^Vhen the time comes for drones to be developed,
she lays unfertilised eggs, which, unfailingly, produce
the drones. If our poor human queens possessed
this power of producing male heirs at will, much
trouble would have been saved to many of them and,
to some of them, their heads. However, the perfect
socialists do most things better than we.

As soon as the queen returns from her honeymoon,
which is usually taken from eight to ten days from
the time she issues, she acts decidedly like a business
person. She runs about on the comb, pokes her head
into a cell to see if it is all ready, and then, turning
about, thrusts her abdomen in and neatly glues an

34 HOW TO KEEP BEES

egg fast to the bottom. When the honey season is
at its height, she works with great rapidity; some-
times she lays at the rate of six eggs per minute, often
laying three thousand or twice her own weight of
eggs per day. She is a wise queen, however, and
has in mind the dangers of overpopulation. "WTien
there is much honey brought in, and the swarming
season is at hand, she enlarges her empire rapidly;
but when there is little honey, she keeps the amount
of brood down to what can be cared for. ^Miether
this question of limiting the population is decided
by the queen, or whether she simply acts in response
to the food given her by the workers, is a question
not yet settled. However this may be, it is certain
that INIalthusian doctrines are rigorously and suc-
cessfully practised by the perfect socialists of the
hive.

Sometimes when the honey flow is very great an
intoxication of work seems to possess the colony.
The bees, coming in from the field, will drop the
honey anywhere, and the queen, agitated by the
general spirit of the hive, will drop her eggs every-
where; and the poor, overworked, bee housekeepers
have to pick up the honey and store it in the cells,
and pick up the eggs and glue them fast to the cell-
bottoms.

THE DRONE (Plates V, VI, VII)

Of all the denizens of the hive the lot of the drones
is the least enviable- . That one may surely fulfil the
destiny as king father, many are born, only to be

THE INHABITANTS OF THE HIVE 35

slain when the honey harvest runs low, and mean-
while they are denied all interests in the business
of the colony except that of pensioners upon its
bounty. And he, the fortunate one, who lives his
life to its fullest measure and becomes queen consort
must in the end lose his life for love and die, heart-
lessly abandoned by her whom he sought and won.

In appearance the drone differs much from the
queen and the worker; he is broad, and the rear end
of his body is so blunt that it looks almost as if it had
been cut off with shears. He is made for a life of
idleness; his hind legs bear no pollen baskets, so he
could not fetch and carry if he would; his tongue
is so short that he must needs eat from honey stored
in a cell or be fed by his sisters, since he could not
possibly extract nectar from a deep flower; nor is
there any occasion that he should hang suspended
weary hours for the secretion of wax, since he has
no wax glands. His special accomplishment is his
buzz, which is of extraordinary calibre and sonor-
ousness. So fierce and loud is this, the song he sings
when on the wing, that the novice feels inclined to
retreat before him. But this music is undoubtedly
meant to attract a queen to his vicinity, and is by no
means a sound of menace; he is a burly, good-
natured fellow, who is obliged to express himself
in this rather coarse song. The term "good
natured" is applied to him, not because we are
certain that his temper is sweet, but because he has
no means of expressing ill temper should he experi-
ence it, since niggard nature has given him no sting.

36 HOW TO KEEP BEES

He is always a clumsy chap, as awkward as his
queen is graceful; but he can scramble out of the
way with astonishing celerity when a murderously
inclined sister attacks him. The time when he shows
his princely qualities is when he is flying, for his
wings are large and strong and carry him easily
several miles if he needs to travel so far to win his
lady. In his physical makeup he is a fine example
of a purely feminine product; for the drone is a very
perfect creature, even if he is reared from an unim-
pregnated egg. His magnificent compound eyes
almost completely encircle his head, nearly meeting
at the top, and thus crowding his simple eyes down
into his ''forehead." And such eyes as these mean
something surely, for they are developed that he
may be better able to see his heart's desire from afar.
He also has marvellous antennae, the nine distal
joints of which are completely pitted with smelling
organs. The reason for this is that his queen has a
fragrance all her owti, sweeter to him than the attar
of roses, and thus he is equipped, as Cheshire has
proven, wath thirty-seven thousand eight hundred
nostrils, in order to detect the perfume of her royal
person at a distance. (Plate VH, G.)

The life-history of the drone after he hatches from
his unfertilised egg is much like that of other bees,
except that for him is provided a cell larger than that
of the worker; he hatches from the egg about three
days after it is laid, and during the week following he
is carefully attended by the nurses w^ho feed him on
the rich chyle food at first; after four days they give

THE INHABITANTS OF THE HIVE 37

him some undigested pollen, a food not granted to
the larvae of the workers. At the end of a week his
cell is sealed over with a cap that looks more like the
crown of a derby hat than a cap, so spherical is it.
Cheshire has shown that this cap is an especially
fine example of engineering, being girdered by six
struts of wax, the apex of the dome being not a sky-
light exactly, but rather a ventilator for the admission
of air. (Plate VIII.)

It has been a question of much dispute whether the
workers inspire the queen to drone-raising through
building drone comb, or whether she takes the
initiative in the matter. Certain it is the bees seem
to love to build drone comb, perhaps because it is
more easily constructed and requires less wax. It
is also a fact that the queen prefers the worker cells,
and in the spring or fall when there is little honey
coming in, the queen will voluntarily pass drone
comb, leaving it empty, and lay eggs in the worker
cells, so she evidently knows her own mind. Some-
times when reduced to dire extremity the queen will
lay worker eggs in the drone cells, but she does not
do this unless the openings of the cells have been
previously constricted by the bees. Sometimes also
when the conditions are abnormal the queen will lay
drone eggs in the worker cells and from these will
be developed runty drones, which seem of little
account. However, such conditions as these are
very unusual. ,

When the drone is twenty-four days from the egg
he cuts a circular lid out of the cap of his cell, and

38 HOW TO KEEP BEES

crawls out into a hazardous world. After a fortnight
or so of moving about the combs and eating his fill
he goes out of the hive and tries his wings. This
he does on some pleasant day, about noon or a little
after. As soon as he is sure of himself, he makes
his flight longer, and the length of his journeys may
only be guessed at. When he meets the queen they
unite at once in the air, and after this they fall to the
ground and she frees herself by tearing off and hold-
ing within herself the generative appendages of her
dying consort.

In every hive are developed thousands of these
princes royal, who are maintained at the expense of
the colony until the dawn of that fatal day when the
honey crop runs short; and then an unhappy ex-
perience lies before these useless brothers of the
reigning house. Then their sisters chase them
out of the hive apparently attempting to sting
them, and, changed to furies, bite off their
wings and harry them until they give up, great
helpless creatures that they are, and fulfil their
final destiny, which is to die for the sake of the
colony.

Even the drone eggs, larvae, and pupae are not
exempt on this appointed day of execution, but are
ruthlessly killed, and their remains thrust forth
from the hive. If conditions should change and
more honey be made, a reprieve to the unhappy
drone may be granted, for the length of his life is
measured by the food supply. Any time during the
summer when the bee-keeper finds the workers

THE INHABITANTS OF THE HIVE 39

attacking the drones he may be very sure it means
that the honey crop is exhausted.

Our pity is usually much more excited for the
fate of the drone than for that of the busy worker,
which dies from overwork at the end of a few weeks ;
and this is undoubtedly because the death of the
worker seems voluntary, while the drones are mani-
festly murdered. Once we witnessed the slaughter
of the drones in an observation hive, the entrance of
which was too contracted to allow the bodies of the
drones to pass. For several days the bloody-minded
workers spent their energies in tearing their wretched
victims limb from limb, and carrying them out in
sections. Below a small crevice at the bottom of the
hive we found a row of disjointed legs, wings and
antennae from the mutilated drones, while the heads
and broken bodies were thrown out of the front of
the hive.

THE WORKERS. (Plate V, VI. VII.)

It is interesting to note that in the socialistic bee-
community the work is carried on by unsexed
females. It evidently has not been a part of the
true economy of the perfect socialism to unite mother-
hood and business life in one individual; therefore, a
division of labour takes place. The queen mother
is developed into a highly efficient egg-laying ma-
chine, while all her worker sisters remain undeveloped
sexually, and thus have time and energy to devote
themselves to bringing up the young, keeping the
house, getting the food, and administering the affairs

40 HOW TO KEEP BEES

of the body politic. Little wonder is it that the brain
of the worker bee is much larger than that of the
queen or drone, for she needs must exercise her
mental powers far more than either. She is obliged
also to pass through certain industrial stages in her
development as a worker before she attains the full
height of citizenship.

The life-history of a worker is usually as follows:
The cell in which she is developed is the smallest of
the comb, such as is ordinarily used for storing
honey. She is not merely a fatherless creation, like
the big drone, but hatches from an impregnated
egg during the fourth day after it is laid by the queen
mother. She is supplied with royal jelly, presum-
ably the same as that which nourishes the queen
larva, for about three days; afterward she is fed
honey and digested pollen. This food is placed
in the bottom of the cell, and the young larva floats
in it and absorbs it through the body walls as well as
through the mouth, which a little later she opens up
pleadingly that it may be filled by the nurse bees.
She grows like other infantile insects by shedding
her skeleton skin as fast as she outgrows it; she does
this with thoroughness, for she sheds the lining of
the mouth, the gullet, the larger intestines and the
tracheal tubes as well as the outside, this being a
very thorough change of clothes, indeed; she does
this about six times. Soon after she hatches she
querls up in the cell, floating in her food, and at the
end of four days' feeding she is a very fat, contented
youngster. Six days from the hatching the nurse

THE INHABITANTS OF THE HIVE 41

bees place over the cell, a cap which is made of wax
and pollen, and admits the air freely. Then the
young bee in the solitude of her own cell eats all the
food that has been provided, spins about herself a
cocoon of finest silk, which she weaves from a gland
which opens in her lip; this is a very, very delicate
cocoon, which remains in the cell as a lining, but so
delicate is it that not until years have elapsed do the
brood cells become contracted by these many silk
wrappings of bees which have been developed in
them. When the worker sheds for the last time her
skeleton, she sheds the lining of the » stomach and
alimentary canal and all its contents, and changes
to a pupa, which is a state of utter quiescence and
during which wonderful changes take place in her
anatomy. These changes which occur in the pupa
are almost like new creation, for the legs, wings, an-
tennae, and all of the other organs of the adult bee
are developed from what was within the body of the
footless, white grub.

Twenty-one days from the date of the laying of
the egg, twelve days after the cell is capped, the
worker bee sheds her pupa skin, pushes it behind
her to the bottom of the cell, cuts a lid in the cap of
her cell and pushes her way out, very likely after
some friendly nurse has given her a little food to
"stay her stomach." As she crawls out, she is a
silvery-gray bee, as damp as if she had been out in
a fog; no one hastens to greet her, or pays her the
slightest attention, which is quite different from the
case with the young ant, which is always fussed over

42 HOW TO KEEP BEES

and patted and petted by the nurses for some time
after it emerges from the pupa skin. But the
worker bee has to pat herself, and so she gives her
face a rubbing, stretches and tries to straighten out
her draggled clothing, and walks around trying to
get acquainted as best she can with her sisters, who
are too intent upon work to notice her. The first
twenty-four hours of her life as a bee are spent
orienting herself; but on the second day she learns
to put her head down into the cells of unsealed
honey and drink her fill. This is not a selfish and
thoughtless act, for almost immediately she enters
on her first duty, that of bee-nurse; and she must eat
pollen and honey and digest them in order to make
chyle for the bee brood, which she soon learns to
care for most solicitously. It may be her lot to
supply royal jelly to a queen cell and thus become
a lady-in-waiting. In any event she very soon learns
to be useful in many ways; she helps to build comb,
and works very hard at capping the cells of the young
bees when they are ready to pupate. She also helps
to clean house if necessary, carefully removing all
of the dirt and refuse at the bottom of the hive and
dumping it out of the front door. During the extreme
heat of the summer she must exert herself tremen-
dously by fanning with her wings so that a draft may
be set up in the hive for the sake of the bees as well
as to ripen the honey in the uncapped cells. During
very hot weather, when the bees hang out, some of
these young workers may be seen fanning "for dear
life" on the outside of the hive. Having more zeal

THE INHABITANTS OF THE HIVE 43

than wit, they dance a Httle gUde back and forth,
and fan as if they thought they were really accom-
plishing something.

The young worker usually takes her first flight
when she has had her wings for about a week; she
runs out on the threshold of the hive on some pleasant
afternoon, and may be easily recognised, as she is
callowness incarnate. She runs around a little,
giving the impression of holding on with all her six
feet as if scared, and then she lifts herself gingerly
to see whether she truly can use her wings; then she
circles around in great joy and learns to know well
the place where her hive stands. About a week later
she goes out into the wide world to seek her fortune
and is likely to come back with a little load of pollen
on her legs. When she comes back thus laden
she buzzes around before alighting, and then rushes
into the hive excited and delighted with her achieve-
ment, and as Mr. Root says so graphically, ** tries her
best to show off." Soon after, she becomes a staid
worker and plays her part in the economy of the hive
by bringing in honey, pollen, and propolis, secreting
wax if need be, ready to defend her colony at the cost
of her life, and so courageous that she as readily
attacks a man as a mouse. Later it may fall to her
lot to become executioner of her brother drones, or to
devote herself to the queen and help lead out the
swarm; or, by some mysterious election of the hive,
she may be sent as a scout to find a proper home
for her queen and her colony after they have
swarmed. She is at the height of her powers and

44 HOW TO KEEP BEES

usefulness when about a month old, and at that time
she will do any of the duties of the hive which she
deems necessary, even to helping the young bees in
the housework. She still has all her fur and her
wings are as yet whole; but if there is much to do she
is untiring and unremitting in her labours and, with
never a thought of self, wears herself out. Her old
age is evident by the loss of the fuzz, which was the
pride of her youth, and the segments of her body
become bald and shiny. Then her hard-worked
wings begin to fray at the edges until there comes a
day when, out on her quest for food for the colony,
the broken wings and tired muscles refuse to sup-
port her, and she falls into the grass and dies; even
then her last thought is not for self, but for the
precious load which she struggles to carry home.
Better thus for her to die in the field than to faint
in the hive, for then do her vigorous sisters seize
her and thrust her forth, and she falls into the refuse
heap in front of the home, which she has so eagerly
wasted her life to sustain. There is no gratitude
and no pensioning in the bee-world; death and
oblivion are meted mercilessly to the most ardent
workers when they fail, for thus, and thus only, can
the colony be kept strong. The individual is nothing
in the perfect socialism, and the colony is everything;
the treatment is Spartan, with none of the weakness
which makes us keep alive the hopelessly insane,
the idiotic, and the criminal.

THE INHABITANTS OF THE HIVE 45

THE LAYING WORKER

When the colony is queenless, worker bees may
develop the ability to lay eggs. As they have never
mated, they lay unfertilised eggs, which develop into
drones, and thus stock the hive with these royal
cumberers of the commune. It is interesting to note
the difference in prejudices that obtain in the hive
and in human society. In the latter we regard it
as scandalous when the female, avoiding the duties
of motherhood, goes abroad gathering honey and
pollen at her own sweet will; but in bee society it is
not merely a scandal, but a misfortune, when the
worker bee has ambitions to be a mother. The lay-
ing worker is a bee gone wrong and a menace to the
colony. At the same time she is a nuisance to the
bee-keeper and great may be his tribulation before
he is rid of her. As might be expected, she does not
do her work well; she usually does not lay her eggs
in regular order, as does the queen, but scatters
them here and there and everywhere, and is quite
likely to fasten them to the sides of the cells, instead
of to the bottom. She lays her eggs sometimes
several together in worker as well as in drone cells.

As a laying worker looks like any other worker,
it is useless to try to find her. However, her presence
may be detected by the irregular appearance of the
brood, and especially by the high drone caps on the
worker cells and, finally, by a superabundance of
drones. To meet this diflSculty, an ounce of preven-
tion is worth several pounds of cure, and great care

46 HOW TO KEEP BEES

should be taken to prevent colonies from becoming
queenless. In case, through carelessness, a colony
is thus victimised it will usually refuse to accept a
queen, though sometimes it may be induced to accept
a capped queen cell. If this is not successful, the
combs, with the bees adhering, should be removed
to an empty hive nearby, placing a frame of brood
containing a queen cell, if possible, and a frame or
two of foundation in the old hive. The workers,
coming back from the field, will enter their hive and
the moved comb will soon be deserted by all except
the laying worker; she, with her characteristic
fatuity, will remain on the deserted combs, laying
eggs until she dies of exhaustion. A surer remedy
than this, but a more troublesome one, is to unite
this colony with another, or to scatter the combs
from the victimised hive, bees and all, among other
colonies of the apiary; meanwhile giving the depleted
hive a frame or two of good brood, with a queen cell,
if possible, so that the bees that return to it will
find normal conditions. What happens to the lay-
ing worker when she finds herself in a colony with
a queen, we do not know. Probably, if she persists
in laying eggs, she is killed ; possibly she forsakes her
evil ways, and returns to the straight and narrow
path of respectable citizenship.

We do not understand why laying workers are
developed. Some have claimed that too much royal
jelly was given them when larvae; and some, that after
a colony is queenless, the jelly is fed to workers and
thus develops them so they are able to lay eggs.

THE INHABITANTS OF THE HIVE 47

They appear among the Cyprian and Syrian bees
more frequently than among the ItaKans.

RACES OF DOMESTIC BEES

Several races of the honey bee have been de-
veloped in different countries. Some of these have
been imported into the United States, and many
experiments have been made to determine their
relative values.

There were no native honey bees in North America
north of Mexico, and the black or German bees
were the first to be brought to this country by the
pioneers. The wild bees which stock the woods of
our country to-day are chiefly black bees, the descend-
ants of swarms which have escaped from apiaries.
For many years the black or German race was the
only kind in general use here. Within recent years
the eastern races of bees, Cyprians, Holy-Lands, or
Syrians, and also the Egyptians and Carniolans and
Italians have been introduced. Of all these, only the
Italians have come into universal favour.

The Italians are the classic bees which were dis-
cussed by Aristotle, and sung about by Virgil, who
describes their bodies as ''shining like drops of
sparkling gold." The Italian worker has five yellow
bands that mark the front portions of the five seg-
ments of the abdomen which lie next to the thorax;
the two posterior bands are made by yellow hairs
and are therefore likely to disappear as the bee gets
old and bald. But the three front ones are made
not only by yellow hairs, but also by the yellowish

48 HOW TO KEEP BEES

transparency of the front part of each of the three
anterior segments, or body-rings. As the segments
of the abdomen telescope, more or less, these three
yellow rings may not always be visible. Mr. Root's
test is to feed the bee with honey until the abdo-
men is distended and place her on a window pane.
If three distinct translucent bands can be seen, the
insect is a pure Italian. If only two bands are evident,
she is a hybrid.

In comparison with the Italians the black bees are
inferior in many particulars. Their only superiority
is that their honey in the comb is a trifle whiter, and
they are more easily shaken from the frames than are
the Italians, and thus are sometimes preferred by the
man who works for extracted honey. Their points
of inferiority are their nervousness and irritability,
their tendency to rob, their inability to cope with
the bee-moth, and the difficulty with which the
queen may be found.

The Italians are far more "civilised" than are
the black bees, and seem willing to credit the operator
with good intentions; they can defend themselves
better from pests, their queens are more prolific and,
on the whole, they are more industrious than the
blacks, and having longer tongues than the blacks,
they can get nectar from a wider range of flowers.

The hybrids are the result of crossing the Italians
and the blacks. They are likely to be excellent
honey-gatherers, but unfortunately they usually
inherit the irritability of the blacks, which they
express with the strength and energy inherited from

THE INHABITANTS OF THE HIVE 49

the Italians. Therefore, they are not looked upon
with favour. These unwelcome hybrids are likely
to appear in any apiary, for, however pure the
Italian queen, she is likely to mate with a black
drone in almost any locality.

CHAPTER V
THE INDUSTRIES OF THE HIVE

THE SECRETION OF WAX

Very little do we know of the mysterious process
of wax-making. The interior of the bee is a chemical
laboratory where no visitors are allowed ; at best we
have been obliged to stand outside and guess at the
formulas used within. We know that honey enters
largely into the composition of wax, and that the
bees when secreting wax usually have pollen in their
stomachs, although Huber and Cook have both
demonstrated that bees make successful comb when
deprived of pollen, and when fed on sugar syrup
instead of honey.' But to make this experiment of
much value the bees must needs have been deprived
of pollen all of their lives instead of a few days. It
seems to be generally conceded that nitrogenous food
is needed for the best product of wax-manufacture,
though nitrogen does not enter into the composition
of the wax itself.

It is variously estimated that it requires from ten
to twenty pounds of honey to produce one of wax;
so it is apparent to even the novice in bee-keeping
that wax is a very expensive product. One of the

50

Photograph by Broivn Brothers
PLATE VII r. DRONE CELLS IN A COMB OF HONEY
Honey capped over; drone cells bulged out; upper cells partly filled with honey but
not capped over.

THE INDUSTRIES OF THE HIVE 51

results of the process of wax-making is the ehmination
of oxygen from the honey. There is of weight eight
times as much oxygen in honey as of hydrogen and
carbon combined; while in wax there is at least
sixteen times as much carbon and hydrogen as of
oxygen. Though wax is a fatty substance, yet it
is not the animal fat of bees, as is so often asserted;
it is a product especially developed for a far different
purpose than is the fat of animals. The bees are
much superior to us in this respect, since they manu-
facture from their own bodies the building materials
for their homes.

The special apparatus for the secretion of wax is
very interesting to the student skilled in microscopic
investigation. The outward or visible portion of
this apparatus consists of four pairs of little mem-
branous plates on the under side of the abdomen;
these are not visible unless the body is torn apart and
dissected, because they are on the front portions of
the second, third, fourth and fifth abdominal seg-
ments, and each is covered by the rear portion of the
segment just in front of it. Immediately within
each of these wax plates is a gland which secretes
the wax in liquid form, and it passes through the
membrane by a kind of osmosis, considerably more
mysterious than is that most mysterious process
ordinarily. As the wax passes through the mem-
brane it hardens and is pushed backward behind the
segment which covers it and protects the wax plate,
and appears as a pearly scale on the abdomen of the
bee. (Plate VI.)

52 HOW TO KEEP BEES

The wax glands, when studied by the histologists,
are found to consist each of a specialised area of the
layer of cells that form the active living part of the
body-wall of the insect. When active these cells are
much thicker than the corresponding cells in other
parts of the body-wall; but if examined during the
winter, they do not differ greatly in appearance
from other cells of the hypodermis. (Plate XXV,
Fig. 5.)

When wax is needed, a certain number of self-
elected citizens gorge with honey and hang up in
chains or curtains, each bee clinging by her front
feet to the hind feet of the one above her, like Japan-
ese acrobats; and there they remain, sometimes for
two days, until the wax scales appear pushed out
from every pocket. It is not hard to understand
that, since much honey is needed for the manufacture
of wax, a bee after filling with the raw material
would produce much more wax by keeping quiet
than by using any of the gorged honey for energy in
moving about and working. But the necessity of
*' holding hands" while this work goes on must ever
remain to us another occult evidence of the close rela-
tions of the citizens in the bee commune. (Plate X.)

While most of the wax is produced from these
quiescent suspended individuals, yet any bee-keeper
who is observant has discovered that at the height
of the honey season many of the workers coming in
laden from the fields will have wax scales protruding
from some or all of the pockets. We once captured
one of our bees, working on a white clover blossom,

THE INDUSTRIES OF THE HIVE 53

which had six of these wax scales ornamenting her
abdomen, and which proved her a bee of resource,
since she was able to work and make wax at the same
time. However, there is a choice about the wax-
making. It is no willy-nilly production caused by
gorging with honey, for it is never made except when
the colony needs more comb.

THE COMB-MAKING (Plate IX.)

It is often stated that after the wax is secreted
and pushed through the wax pockets the scales are
removed by the wax shears on the hind legs of the
producers, and are passed forward to the front claws,
and then thrust into the mouth; here the wax is
warmed and perhaps chewed with saliva and made
malleable, thus somewhat changing the chemical
composition and fitting it to be moulded into comb.
But there is a hiatus in our knowledge just at this
point as to whether the bees which secrete the
wax take it off and make comb, or whether other
workers harvest wax-scales from the suspended
individuals and mould them into shape; or whether
perhaps the scales fall from the suspended "curtain"
to the bottom of the hive and there are gathered by
the ever-busy young workers. Professor Kellogg,
who studied bees in an observation hive, is inclined
to think that all of these methods are used, while
Mr. A. I. Root describes the process graphically thus :

If a bee is obliged to carry one of these wax scales but
a short distance she takes it in her mandibles, and looks as
businessHke with it thus as a carpenter with a board on

54 HOW TO KEEP BEES

his shoulder. If she has to carry it from the bottom of the
honey-box she takes it in a way I cannot explain better
than to say she slips it under her chin; when thus equipped
you would never know she was encumbered with anything,
unless it chanced to slip out, when she will dexterously tuck
it back with one of her forefeet.

Honey-comb has been the delight of mathema-
ticians from the earliest ages. The plan on which it
is built, if perfectly carried out, would be the incar-
nate perfection of strength and space for holding
fluid contents. This fact so delighted the earlier
mathematicians that they set to measuring the
angles of the cells and their pyramidal bases, with
truly wonderful results. But with the later methods
of exact measurement it has been demonstrated
that the cells are rarely perfect in construction; and
that the angles, as well as the faces of the rhombs on
which they are built, vary. Because of this there
have been developed doubters and pessimists who
declare that honey-comb is the result of chance;
and that cells, crowded together, must, from the
nature of things, become six-sided; and that bees
are not mathematically wise. With this conclusion
we do not agree in the least, although we admit that
the fortuitously six-sided cell may have been a step
in the education of the bee-artisans. But we would
ask the pessimists to explain why, if all is chance, the
bees build so perfectly the central part of the comb
which forms the bases of the cells. This central
part is built first and is fashioned of rhombs, which
are made into alternating three-sided pyramids.
Who dare assert that reasonably perfect, alternating

THE INDUSTRIES OF THE HIVE 55

rhombic pyramids are fortuitous! The fact that the
combs are rarely perfect in construction proves
naught against the mathematical prowess of the
bees; it simply proves that the bees are a practical
race, and not bigoted, and are therefore unwilling to
sacrifice everything for the sake of precision. The
construction of their waxen cells is for economic
purposes rather than for proving mathematical
formulae. Honey-comb shows how economy of
room, building materials and mathematical theories
may coincide, and shows also that the bees have
taken advantage of the fact. Some of the savants
have asserted that the rectangle or the equilateral
triangle would have been quite as efficient as working
plans for constructing cells for storing honey. But
probably the bees, originally, made their cells to
fit their brood and would not thus build a cell which
would surround a larva with unfilled corners. The
hexagonal cell was better fitted for their needs, so
they developed it.

After a piece of the central portion of comb has
been constructed the bees begin, usually, at the
centre and pull out the sides of the cells from the
foundation. Experiments in coloured foundation
shows that this may, if thick, be pulled almost to the
margin of the cell. This is why bees so readily
utilise machine-made foundation; they pull out the
edges of these pressed combs and thus save them-
selves much labour in wax-making. The worker-
cells are a little more than one-fifth of an inch in diam-
eter, and a little less than one-half an inch deep; the

56 HOW TO KEEP BEES

drone-cells are a little more than one-fourth an inch
in diameter and a little more than a half-inch in
depth. It is interesting to see the comb which has
in it both worker- and drone-cells, and note how the
transition is made; the two sizes are harmonised by
a row or two of cells that are irregular. Honey is
stored in both drone- and worker-cells, usually in
the latter; although our bees seem to have a fondness
for making drone-cells for storage. ^Nhen the bees
begin to cap a cell, they commence at the outside
and work toward the centre. There is not a prettier
piece of engineering anywhere than the cap of a
honey-cell, with six little girders extending from the
angles of the cell and holding the flat cap at the
centre. Honey is capped with wax, but brood is
capped with a mixture of wax and pollen, which
admits air. Though the cell-walls may be thinner
than .0018 of an inch, comb is wonderfully strong,
and may w^eigh one-twentieth or less than the weight
of the honey stored within it.

An interesting fact about the manufacture of comb
is that no one bee constructs a cell and no one bosses
the job. A bee will come along with a little wax
and put it in place at the side of a cell, and then
will run off and do something else; another bee
passing sees this bit of unfinished work, gives it
a few pinches and polishes it a little, and then
does something else. Several bees may thus lend
a mandible before the cell is perfected. Any bit
of comb-building seems to be the result of a con-
sensus of public opinion and not of individual skill

THE INDUSTRIES OF THE HIVE 57

and enterprise. There is a oneness in bee enterprises
which harmonises capital and labour, and which
precludes strikes and lockouts.

THE PRODUCTION OF HONEY

In trying to fathom the mysteries of honey-produc-
tion, scientists have dissected the bee with greatest
care; but they have usually been obliged to guess at
the uses of such organs as they could not understand
by analogy. To-day, after all the excellent work of
investigators, the process and formulae of honey-
making remain unrevealed.

The nectar, when taken from the flowers by the
bees, is received in a special reservoir, called the
honey-stomach. It is supposed that the secretion
from the glands in the head and thorax is added
to the nectar as it is swallowed, and induces the
chemical action which, in the honey-stomach, changes
the cane-sugar to the more digestible grape-sugar,
and brings about the other changes that finally result
in the production of honey. The chemical composi-
tion of honey varies, perhaps for two reasons: It
may be more perfectly digested sometimes than at
others; and the nectar of different flowers may vary
chemically. However, all honey contains water,
glucose, a small amount each of albumenoids, mineral
matter, essential oils and formic acid. While most
of the chemical changes take place in the honey-
stomach of the bee, yet the honey is made perfect by
ripening in the cells; these are left uncapped for a
period of time and the current of air, always in action

58 HOW TO KEEP BEES

in the hive, evaporates the water and thus thickens
the honey.

Ignorant people beheve that honey is regurgitated
from the true stomach of the bee, which is far from
true. The honey-stomach is simply a reservoir in
which the honey is made and then stored until the
bee can empty it into a cell. Her true stomach lies
behind the honey-stomach and connects with it by
a mouth that can be opened or closed at will ; when
she wishes to eat some honey, she opens the stomach
mouth and takes in what she needs. The chyle
which she manufactures in her true stomach to feed
the young bees, when regurgitated, does not pass
through the honey-stomach; instead, the mouth of
the real stomach is pushed up through the centre of
the honey-reservoir until it connects directly with the
sesophagus. (Plate XXVI, Fig. 7 p.)

When an ancient Roman was asked on his hun-
dredth birthday how he had preserved his vigour,
physically and mentally, he answered laconically,
Inerius melle, exterius olea — "Inside with honey, out-
side with oil." He spoke wisely, for honey is un-
doubtedly the most healthful of sweets, because it is
so largely composed of the predigested grape-sugar.

It is hard for us to realise that, until comparatively
recently, honey was the only sweet in general use.
Cane-sugar was not commonly eaten in Europe
until the seventeenth century, and previous to that
time honey held sway as the sweetening medium of
all foods. The amount of honey produced in the
United States now is estimated to be more than

THE INDUSTRIES OF THE HIVE 59

125,000,000 pounds per year, which shows that it has
retained its vahie as a food, though it must compete
with cheaper cane- and beet-sugars. It still remains
the most wholesome and digestible of all the forms
of sugar, and should be used even more generally
than it is at present.

THE MAKING OF BEE-BREAD

Flower wisdom is scarcely appreciated by those
who deem all wisdom the product of consciousness;
but if wisdom may be attained through the ex-
periences of living and overcoming difficulties, then
there must be such a thing as flower wisdom. Other-
wise there would not have been such a prodigal
production of pollen that a tithe could be spared for
the bees, to induce them to become common carriers
of the flower world. Many blossoms which do not
secrete nectar pay their taxes in pollen, the bread-
stuff of the bees, while others pay in both com-
modities.

A bee when gathering pollen for food collects it
with her tongue and forelegs, mixing it, perhaps,
with nectar or saliva so it will hold together. It is
cleaned off the tongue and front legs by the middle
and hind legs, and by them packed in the pollen
baskets on the tarsi of the hindlegs, and moulded
there into great golden balls. Little wonder that
the ancient Greeks, noticing bees thus laden, and
consequently flying low, declared that the bees of
Hymettus tied pebbles on their legs to weigh them
down. (Plate VII, A, B.)

60 HOW TO KEEP BEES

"\Mien the bee arrives at the hive she selects, usu-
ally, a worker-cell and, backing up to it, thrusts in
her legs and scrapes off the pollen by a dexterous
movement like that made by a cook scraping dough
off her hands. The bee bringing the pollen con-
siders her duty done in furnishing the flour, and
leaves the bread-making to one of her younger sis-
ters, who is devoting the day to domestic duties.
Needless to say, bee-bread is unleavened ; it is made
by the very simple process of packing the pollen
firmly into the cell, the utensil employed being the
head of the bread-maker, which she uses cheerfully
as a mallet for this purpose.

Bee-bread is necessary as a food for young bees
and admirably supplements honey in its composition,
being rich in albumenoids and nitrogen. To our
taste it is rather bitter and disagreeable, as those of
us can attest who ate comb-honey from the hives of
old, before movable frames and supers were generally
used. However, under the new regime, it is rarely
placed in the sections of the supers, but sensibly
stored in the brood-combs, near where it is used,
and thus seldom appears upon the table.

THE PROPOLIS, OR BEE-GLUE

Though bees are most successful manufacturing
chemists, yet they are not above using ready-made
substances if they find such to their liking. Thus,
propolis is not produced by bees, but is gathered by
them from various sources, and is used as a cement
and a varnish. Certain trees and smaller plants

THE INDUSTRIES OF THE HIVE 61

protect their buds in winter by resinous coats; and
it was quite like the adaptable bee to find use for this
resin in her own domicile.

The elder Huber, whose observations of a century
ago have been verified, discovered the source of
propolis; he planted poplars in pots and placed
them near the hives, and the bees were seen in the
act of collecting the resin from the buds. They
have been observed by others, working on the buds
of the horse-chestnut, birch, willow, alder, and even
the balsam fir. However, the bees have no preju-
dices in favour of any kind of resin, anything will
do so long as it answers the purpose; hence they visit
shops where furniture is being finished and appro-
priate the varnish without saying "please." And
Darwin mentions the fact that bees collected a cement
of wax and turpentine, used to cover trees from which
the bark has been removed. If any old hives or
fixtures with propolis on them be left around the
apiary, the bees make all haste to save every particle
of the precious stuff.

One of the oldest superstitions about bees is that
they will gather on the coffin of their dead master;
and authenticated instances of the kind are on record.
But this beautiful tradition is made empty of senti-
ment by the assertion that the bees assemble there
not to mourn their dead master, but to gather the
varnish from the coffin. Some iconoclasts ascribe
to this the origin of "telling the bees" when some
member of the family dies; but we believe this
beautiful custom originated before varnished coffins

62 HOW TO KEEP BEES

were in use, and was the natural outgrowth of the
close relations of bees and the home for many cen-
turies.

The bee collects the propolis by cutting it off with
her mandibles and packing it in her pollen baskets;
and when she arrives at the hive, she never attempts
to unload it herself, evidently deeming it safer to let
the sister, whose business it is at the moment to stop
cracks and crevices, take it from her legs and apply
it at once.

There are various uses in the hive for the bee-glue:
It is used as a filler to make smooth the rough places
of the hive; it holds the combs in place; it calks
every crack; it may serve as a sarcophagus for any-
intruder too large to be pitched out : snails and slugs
have been found thus encased; it is applied as a
varnish to the cells of the honey-comb if they remain
unused for a time; and it is especially useful as a
window shade. A nature-study teacher of our
acquaintance established an observation hive in her
school-room, which had an uncovered pane of glass
set in one side so that the pupils might observe the
interesting life of the hive. To her dismay the bees
straightway hung a curtain of propolis over the win-
dow and so shut out intrusive eyes.

One of the chief uses of propolis is to try the tem-
per of the bee-keeper. If there is the least crack
between hive and super, or cover, the two are glued
together so that nothing but a knife and much muscu-
lar force can loosen them. Cover blankets are stuck
fast; the frames are welded to their places by it,

otogriph by Verne Morton

PLATE XI. HIVING BEES
Cutting down the swarm.

THE INDUSTRIES OF THE HIVE G3

and it plasters into immobility all the modern appli-
ances of the hive which man invented to be movable;
and section-boxes are so stained with it that they
have to be scraped before being sent to market.
Above all, it gets on the hands of the operator, so
that the digits of each act as one, or not at all, and
everything touched sticks to them as if they were
magnets; it also daubs the clothing, and if profane
men were ever bee-keepers, it would incite them
to wicked remarks. However, alcohol, applied to
hands and clothing, solves the difficulty by dissolving
the propolis; and a bottle of it is a most necessary
adjunct to the equipment of the apiary. Benzine,
gasoline, ether, and chloroform are as efficacious
as alcohol, but not so pleasant to use. Boiling lye
will clean clothes and apparatus that have become
clogged with bee-glue.

CHAPTER VI
THE SWARMING OF BEES

WHY BEES SWARM

In case of most of the higher animals, including
man, the species are spread over the face of the earth
through the simple plan of "marrying off" the
younger individuals, and allowing them "to set up
for themselves." As there is no individualism, no
indulging in love or hatred for each other among the
perfect socialists, this plan is manifestly not at all
adapted to provide for the increase of social insects
where the colony acts as an individual. The bee
plan is as follows : When a colony gets large enough
and strong enough it divides into two. As the
Amoeba, the simplest of animal organisms, divides
the individual in order to multiply its numbers, so
the bee-colony as an organism divides and mul-
tiplies. It is interesting that the method of increase
characteristic of the lowest order of animals should
repeat itself among beings so highly organised
physically, when the individuals merge into a social
unit. This analogy might well give the social
philosophers an opportunity for some real thinking.

Much discussion has found place in human annals
64

THE SWARMING OF BEES 65

as to whether the queen or the workers take the
initiative in this hegira of the bees, and much evidence
is advanced on both sides of the question. But it is
a profitless discussion for us to indulge in; the more
we study bees, the more firmly we are convinced that
we know little of the forces which govern the bee
body politic. We only know that at certain seasons
of the year when the successful colony has plenty of
brood and honey, the old queen and many of the old
and experienced citizens, go away from the hive and
form a new colony elsewhere, leaving the young
queen and the younger bees in possession of the
homestead, thus reversing the human custom. While
in the air, or when clustered, the swarm looks
sufficiently large to be composed of the whole colony,
yet the swarms are smaller than they look, for rarely
more than 20,000 bees go away with the old queen.

WHEN BEES SWARM

The swarms usually come off in June in a climate
like that of New York State. Some strong colonies
may swarm in May if the season is early, thus making
us glad; for the old verse, **A swarm of bees in May
is worth a load of hay," is based upon practical
experience.

The when and the immediate why of the swarming
of bees are closely connected. There are several
conditions which conduce to swarming: the presence
of young queens ready to issue from the cells; the
crowding of the hive with brood, bees, and honey;
the presence of too many drones; the extreme heat

66 HOW TO KEEP BEES

of an overcrowded hive on a hot day; this latter is a
most cogent reason, and it is well for the bee-keeper
to shade his hives to prevent this. The swarms are
likely to issue between 9 a. m. and 2 p. m., although
enough swarms come off at unseemly hours to make
any rule valueless except as a prophecy. (Plate XL)

HOW TO HIVE A SWARM

"The bees are swarming!" These are magical
words, which arouse every member of that family
whose pride is a few hives in the garden. It is a
cry that starts the sluggish blood, and sends a quiver
of excitement up and down the spinal column while
one rushes to the scene of action. How gracefully
that moving mass of black particles undulates in the
air, as if it were a drifting cloud instead of a self-
willed, one-minded colony of socialists! How the
heart rises and sinks inversely to this rise and fall,
and how hopeless it seems when the swarm lifts
itself superbly over all surrounding obstacles, and
disappears above the tree tops! No one who has
had this experience will wonder at the ancient cus-
tom which obtains even now in the country districts
on such occasions of beating tin pans, ringing bells,
and shouting "whoa" at the top of the lungs. All
of this racket had its inception in the needs of the
bee-keeper to adequately express his feelings at this
crisis. If the bees ever stopped and settled because
of this din, it was probably from sheer amazement
at witnessing such folly on the part of human beings;
this explanation would hold, perhaps, if bees ever

THE SWARMING OF BEES C7

evinced any interest in human beings, except when
they obstruct the bee-path. However, most of our
ancient customs were founded in utiKty, and it is not
likely that this traditional pandemonium would have
been practised for centuries without some reason.
Mr. Root, who thinks before he speaks, suggests that
the swarm follows the queen and the scouts through
listening to their song, that of the queen being easily
distinguished from the hum of the workers when on
the wing; and that it is quite possible, therefore,
that the noise, if loud enough to drown the voice of
the queen, would cause confusion on the part of the
flying bees and a consequent settling. But from
what we remember of our own early experience, we
are convinced that the bees were less confused by
the noise than were the people engaged in making it.

The next most widely practised of the ancient
methods is that of throwing dirt on the swarm to
stop it; this certainly is eflScacious if there happens
to be enough loose earth at hand. However, throw-
ing dirt is a reactionary performance in the physical
as well as the moral sense; and usually the bee-
keeper who throws dirt at a soaring swarm must
needs stop soon to get the motes out of his own eyes
before he is able to see where the swarm has alighted.

In these enlightened days everyone who has a
cherry tree or an apple tree, a currant bush or a
potato patch, is sure to have a fountain pump of
some sort; and never is this instrument a greater
boon than when it throws a fine spray upon an
absconding swarm of bees. It brings them to a stop

68 HOW TO KEEP BEEb^

very soon; it may injure the feelings of the bees, but
it certainly does not injure them physically, as it
simply impairs their power of flight by wetting the
wings. Even after a swarm has settled, a little
sprinkle of water will keep it clustered safely until
the hive is made ready to receive it.

It is highly desirable that the swarm should clus-
ter on the tip of a branch not far from the ground;
for then the process of hiving is comparatively sim-
ple. My personal plan has been to place a sheet,
kept for the purpose, on the ground near the cluster-
ing swarm; place on this a covered hive filled with
frames containing brood foundations. Lift the
front edge of the hive about an inch by putting
blocks under the two corners; then cut the branch
above the cluster, and taking it in hand shake the
bees off in front of the hive and placidly watch them
hive themselves with true bee celerity. This use of
the sheet is a habit formed in childhood, and I persist
in it, though my partner derides the practice. He
shakes the bees down on the board on which the hive
is standing; or he takes the top off the hive, and
shakes the bees down among the frames in the most
summary fashion. But I think the sheet makes a
softer mattress for the little citizens to fall upon, and
certainly they find their way from it more easily into
the hive. I am a conservative person, and like to do
things as I always have done them before — a conser-
vatism that is by no means dangerous in our apiary
where the senior partner is given to new ways and
many inventions.

THE SWARMING OF BEES 69

If the bees alight high in a tree, then our methods
have been to get at them by climbing the tree, or
attaining the branch by the use of a ladder. How-
ever, I doubt if there was ever a fruit found on any
tree that needs quite so much care in the picking as
does this; and it is decidedly a ticklish performance
to clamber down a tree holding gingerly a branch
laden with a swarm of bees in one hand and clutch-
ing at supporting branches with the other. Some-
times the bees are not accommodating enough to
alight on the end of a branch that may be cut off.
They may even go so far as to cluster on the large
branch itself; then there is nothing to do but to
brush them off in a box with a bee brush, a per-
formance which they object to; or to dip them off
with a tin dipper, or to jar them into a basket, and
then to dump them out in front of the hive. The
most embarrassing situation of all is when the swarm
clusters on a tree trunk. Squaring the circle is not
a much more difficult feat mathematically than to
brush all the bees into a square box from this cylin-
drical position. It is usually necessary to bring the
smoker to help in elucidating this problem; for,
paradoxical as it may seem, smoke properly applied
clears up many a situation in the bee business.

If only one were able to find the queen in the clus-
tering swarm and secure her by placing her in the
hive, the work would be easy, for the other bees
would soon follow. But to hunt for the queen in
the clustering swarm is, for most of us, quite like
hunting for the traditional needle in the haystack;

70 HOW TO KEEP BEES

and while we are hunting we are wasting precious
time, as the swarm may make up its collective mind
to remove from our vicinity its component atoms.
In shaking, or dipping, or brushing the bees into the
hive, we should remember to deal with them as
gently as the situation and mental perturbation will
permit.

Sometimes the bees seem to feel defrauded at hav-
ing a house chosen for them, and insist upon swarm-
ing out of their new quarters within a day or two
after they are placed in possession. Thus it is a
wise precaution to give the hives of the newly
swarmed attention for two or three days, lest they
indulge in this sort of perversity. If the bees seem
unsettled and unhappy, and hang around home
instead of going into the fields to work, it is advisable
to place in the middle of the hive a frame of unsealed
brood taken from some other colony. A bee's
motherly instinct may always be depended upon,
since caring for the young is a shining civic virtue
as well as a domestic duty among the bee people.
When there are helpless larvse to care for, the bees
willingly forego every personal inclination to pack
up and move, and cheerfully proceed to give the
youngsters every attention.

DECOY HIVES

When the self-appointed scouts of a bee colony
start out house-hunting for the swarm which is about
to issue, they evidently examine the premises care-
fully; if they find a house for rent in the immediate

THE SWARMING OF BEES 71

neighbourhood, they are likely to go no farther in
their quest. Thus it is the practice of many bee
keepers to place about the apiary hives empty, except
for brood-frames filled with foundation, hoping
thus to entice the swarms to take possession, and save
all trouble. Mr. Root goes so far as to advise that
such hives be fastened in the lower forks of trees in
the neighbourhood of the apiary, and thus provide
a most expedient bee tree. A decoy hive should not
contain more than three brood-frames, as other
frames may be added when the bees move in. The
reason for this is that the sheets of wax foundation,
when sufficiently close together for the convenience
of the bees, prove also entirely convenient for the
occupancy of the bee moth; and one ought to be
particular about one's tenants when renting houses
in the apiary.

Mr. West's device for saving swarms is the most
alluring of any about which we have read. Since
the clipped queen cannot fly, she expresses the as-
piration within her breast by climbing anything at
hand, like a blade of grass or a shrub. Mr. West
observing this, drives a bare, forked branch into the
ground a few inches in front of the hive, having
cleaned the ground between it and the hive of all
obstacles. This branch having a few twigs upon it,
is leaned away from the hive entrance. The queen
promptly climbs this tree, like Zaccheus, and the
swarm clusters around her and remains there con-
veniently at hand for hiving.

72 HOW TO KEEP BEES

MAXIMS FOR HIVING BEES

Clip the old queen's wings.

Go through the hives every ten days to destroy
queen cells.

As the swarming season approaches, have hives
ready with foundation in brood-frames, and hive-
stands ready to receive them.

Keep a serene spirit while hiving bees.

The hive in which the colony is placed should be
kept cool and not heated from standing in the sun;
it should be shaded, as the swarm will not enter a hot
hive.

If the bees refuse to accept a hive, give them a
frame of unsealed brood to reconcile them.

CHAPTER VII

HOW TO KEEP FROM KEEPING TOO MANY
BEES

THE PROBLEM

"Aye, there's the rub!" For the beginner who
wishes to keep a few bees, this is the most difficult
problem to solve on the bee-keeper's slate, and it
must finally be solved by each according to his own
capacity and method.

We confess frankly that we were once driven out
of the bee business because we were too successful.
Caring for fifteen or twenty hives was a delightful
avocation. We kept our colonies strong, for we
wished to make comb-honey ; consequently, splendid
swarms came off, and we had the fatal gift of seeing
them when they came and of hiving them successfully.
Thus our avocation began to intrench upon our
vocation in a most alarming manner. While we
enjoyed taking care of our bees, we were nevertheless
following the vocation which we had chosen, and
which we liked best; and the time came when we
were obliged to decide whether we would leave our
regular business and become bee-keepers, or abjure
bee-keeping and attend to our regular business.

73

74 HOW TO KEEP BEES

We gave away what swarms we could and we sold
some; but selling bees is a business quite as much as
caring for them, so that was not practicable. Philo-
sophically, we argued that since we had enough bees
we would let the swarms that came off abscond and
bid them God-speed; but here we reckoned without
properly considering the amount of human nature
which had fallen to our share. Although we knew
that every swarm in our apiary above twenty would
be an embarrassment and a tribulation, w^e could
never rest content not to hive a swarm when it
issued; and the more unattainable the place where it
clustered and the less we wanted the bees, the more
determined we were to secure that special swarm.

Such inconsistency brought its own punishment,
and our only resource was to sell out; and for many
years the spot in our garden which our apiary once
occupied was never viewed without a sense of loneli-
ness and longing for its busy little tenants. During
these years we thought it over and finally came
around to the right frame of mind, and firmly con-
cluded to keep bees for our owm honey and our own
happiness. We limited our ambitions to ten
hives; and last summer when our best-tested Italian
queen took us unawares and departed with a large
and enthusiastic following, we did not mourn ; all we
did was to venture to hope that the young queen left
in the hive had mated with one of our own handsome
drones, and not with a mad black prince from one
of Mr. Coggshall's take-care-of-itself apiaries in our
neighbourhood. As soon as our new brood made us

KEEPING TOO MANY BEES 75

sure that our queen had made no mesalliance we
were entirely content.

Our lack of success in preventing swarming when
trying to produce comb-honey was a source of great
chagrin to us until we read that so eminent a bee-
keeper as Mr. Hutchinson declared that *' there is
no way of preventing first swarms profitable to the
comb-honey producer," and then our feelings were
salved. The following are in brief a few of the
more successful ways practised to prevent increase:

By clipping the queen's wings. — Almost all bee-
keepers practise this now, whatever their method of
preventing increase or securing it. A queen with
clipped wings is necessarily a "stay-at-home body,"
and the swarm will not leave without her. However,
when depending upon this method it is very important
to guard against the hatching of new queens, and
this can only be done by closely scrutinising the brood-
comb to discover and destroy the queen cells. The
brood-frames should be examined in each hive about
once a week during the months of June and July, if
this method is to succeed. Many a time have we sat
smilingly by and watched a swarm come out of the
hive with great pomp and circumstance, only to sneak
back when it was discovered that her majesty was
unfit for travel.

By the use of a queen-trap. — This is a device used
by some instead of clipping the wings of the queen.
It is a box of perforated zinc placed over the entrance
of the hive, the slots in it large enough to allow the
workers to pass in and out, and small enough to hold

76 HOW TO KEEP BEES

back the queen and drones. Although this method
saves time, yet comparatively few recommend it.
The cost of the trap is one objection; but the greater
objection seems to be that it inconveniences the
workers when returning from the fields; and is,
therefore, likely to affect the amount of honey stored,
since much time is lost and some annoyance occa-
sioned to the bees by being obliged to squeeze through ;
it also scrapes the pollen off their legs. (Plate XVI.)

By giving-room. — Supposing that our queen is
clipped or confined, which is the first step, the next
is to give plenty of room in the brood-chamber.
Lack of room for brood and honey is one of the
most potent reasons for inducing swarming. So
the first thing to do after the disappointed swarm
comes back to the hive is to tier up the supers. It is
also well to remove from the hive a frame or two of
brood which may be put in the hive of some weaker
colony; in place of the removed frame is substituted
another containing a starter of foundation; and the
would-be swarm, finding that there is plenty to do, is
content to remain at home for a time.

By extracting honey. — ^It will often pacify a colony
to take the frames from the brood-chamber and
extract the honey from them. This may be done
when the brood is present, if care is taken not to
run the separator so rapidly as to throw out the
larvae, a performance quite as distasteful to the young
bees as to the consumer. However, this should not
be practised unless much honey is coming in, as
otherwise the brood may be starved.

KEEPING TOO MANY BEES 77

By using large hives. — ^Many bee-keepers of high
standing have practically solved the swarming
problem by using large hives. The Dadants,
well known on two continents as successful apiarists,
use" the large Quinby hives in their own apiaries, and
have introduced them into France and Switzerland.
The Dadant-Quinby hive has about the capacity
of a twelve-frame Langstroth. The frames are both
deep and large, measuring 18^ by 11 J inches, and so
give the queen plenty of room. The Dadants have
no trouble with swarming, as only enough swarms
come off to make good the winter losses in their
apiaries.

There are three reasons why we have not used
these large hives: first, they are too heavy to handle
well, being altogether too productive of backaches.
Second, they are necessarily much more expensive,
as wider pieces of perfect lumber are used in the
making. Third, and most important to us of all, we
find it difiicult to produce comb-honey in a large
hive ; when the bees have so much room in the brood-
chamber, they discover no reason for carrying honey
up into the supers. If we made extracted honey, as
do the Dadants and the European apiarists, we would
certainly use the larger hives, simply to be rid of this
nuisance of constant swarming. The colonies grow
to be so much stronger in the larger hives that they
are much better able to withstand the vicissitudes of
winter than are smaller colonies, which is a great
advantage.

By the brushing or shaking-out method. — ^When th?

78 HOW TO KEEP BEES

bees at the beginning of the honey-flow seem to be
getting ready to swarm, the hive is moved to one
side of the stand and on the exact site is placed
another just Hke it, which contains frames set with
foundation starters. As gently as possible the bees
are shaken or brushed from the frames of the old
hive upon the threshold of the new, great care being
taken to include the queen. The supers from the
old hive are then placed upon the new hive with a
queen-excluder between. The old hive may stand
beside the new one until the brood has emerged,
when all of the inhabitants of the old tenement are
shaken in front of the new habitation. This shaking
of a colony into a new hive so surprises and confounds
the bees that they get the impression that they have
already swarmed, and go to work with all diligence
in their new quarters. The partly filled supers
from the old hive encourage them mightily in the
ways of well-doing.

By dividing swarms. — ^This method we have
practised with quite satisfactory results. The
troublous question is just when to divide. If we
divide too soon we weaken the colonies, and decrease
the honey harvest. If we wait until too late, the bees
do the dividing themselves. The process is as fol-
lows : The queen's wings are clipped before the new
queen is to emerge, and she is placed in a new hive
furnished with brood-frames containing foundation-
starters; enough of the bees are taken to the hive
with her to start a good colony, and the deed is done.
However, the fact remains that in this way the number

KEEPING TOO MANY BEES 79

of colonies is increased as much as if the swarm had
come off naturally.

By removing the queen. — Some apiarists remove
the queen during the honey-harvest and cut out all
the queen cells. They give the queen a nucleus if
they wish more brood; meanwhile the colony will
not swarm without her. Whether queenless bees
are as easy in their minds and, therefore, as ready
and enthusiastic in the task of gathering honey, is a
mooted question. Bees, like people, work to the
best advantage when they have fewest worries.
One difficulty with this method is that before we are
aware of it a queen may be reared despite our careful
and onorous labours in hunting for queen cells.
Another difficulty with this practice is the encourage-
ment of the egg-laying workers, which is a most
demoralising influence to introduce into a hive.

AFTER-SWARMS

An after-swarm is one that is led by a virgin queen
and may come off within sixteen days after the first
natural swarm departs; usually it occurs within a
week. Most bee-keepers consider the after-swarm
as a manifestation of ''pure cussedness" on the part
of a colony; but it is only a poorly adjusted method
practised by the bees for getting rid of superffuous
princesses. After the old queen decamps with her
followers, there are usually several queens ready
to emerge from their cells; the ordinary story, as
told in books, is that the first queen that emerges
hastens to slay her yet helpless sisters, or battles with

80 HOW TO KEEP BEES

them singly until but one queen is left in the hive;
and this actually does occur often. However, there
are differences between bee-colonies, as there are
between individual people, and every young queen
does not seem blood-thirsty; or perhaps in some
instances the citizens restrain her from carrying out
her murderous intent, and try to get rid of her by
sending her forth with as many followers as can well
be spared from the parent colony. Other queens
may issue, and if this charitable instinct still persists,
another and still another swarm may be sent out.
This misguided kindness to young queens is as
demoralising to the colony as unwise giving of alms
is in the human world, and finally a swarm may be
sent ofiF so small that a teacup would hold it. Of
course, this means certain death to all of its members.
Finally the limit of endurance is reached, and with
the last possible swarm are sent out all the young
queens left in the hive save the one retained as queen
mother. Whether the workers send out these bur-
densome members of royalty as a measure of good
riddance, or whether in their excitement they fail
to guard the queen cells and so let them out and
they voluntarily join the procession, is not as yet
surely ascertained. One of the formalities of the
after-swarm is that before it occurs the queen sounds
her pibroch, a tune which probably excites her
listening subjects to rash departure. The bee-
keeper gets to know this sound very well, and when
he hears it, he knows that an after-swarm will issue
very soon unless he does something immediately to

KEEPING TOO MANY BEES 81

prevent it. One thing particularly exasperating
about the after-swarm is that the virgin queen, being
lighter bodied and lighter minded than the old
queen, may take the occasion of swarming to get
married, and go on her wedding journey; and thus
is likely to lead her followers a mad chase and leave
her proprietor so far in the rear that he loses the
swarm entirely.

For the real reason of after-swarming we must
look upon the colony as an individual; and as nature
is wasteful in the production of individuals, these
weak after-swarms are analogous to the weaklings
among animals or plants, which must be sacrificed
for some inscrutable reason on the altar of the
preservation of the species.

PREVENTION OF AFTER-SWARMS

Mr. Hutchinson practises the following method:
When the first swarm comes off he places it in a new
hive like the old one, and puts the new hive on the
exact site of the old one, while the latter is moved
away just a little and faces in a different direction
than before. The new hive has four or five frames
with foundation starters, and on it is placed the super
with partially filled sections from the old hive, with
a queen-excluding board between the two; thus the
new swarm, having no brood ready, will store in
the supers until the brood-comb is built. Most of
the bees from the old hive, returning from the field,
will enter the new hive because the entrance to the
old hive is turned away. The old hive is then turned

82 HOW TO KEEP BEES

a little each clay, until its entrance, which should be
contracted, is parallel to the entrance of the new-
hive, and very close to it. If, on the seventh day
after the first swarm issued, the old hive be removed
to some new location, its numbers will have been so
depleted that there will be no attempt to send off
after-swarms.

HOW TO UNITE COLONIES

If two colonies are weak late in the season, it is
often best to unite them. This may be done by
moving the hives nearer to each other, a little each
day, until they are side by side. The queen of one
colony is killed, the best frames from each hive are
alternated with each other in one hive, and the
bees shaken into this; the other hive removed, and
the one remaining placed midway between where
the two stood. Sweetened water flavoured with
peppermint may be sprayed over both colonies just
before uniting, so that they will all be scented alike.
The above is the method advised by Professor Cook.

CHAPTER VIII
THE HIVE, AND HOW TO HANDLE IT

THE BROOD-CHAMBER

The essential parts of a hive are the following:
A bottom-board, the first story, or brood-chamber,
containing frames for the support of the combs, and
a cover. When extracted honey is to be produced,
a second story like the first may be placed between it
and the cover; when it is desired to have the surplus
honey stored in section-boxes, one or more shallow
stories containing the section-boxes are placed above
the brood-chamber; these shallow stories are known
as the supers.

Formerly the brood-chamber was a mere cubiform
box with two horizontal cross-pieces passing through
the centre at right angles to each other for the sup-
port of the combs. Sometimes the bee-keeper
furnished the bees with a hive made from a section of
a hollow log, with a board nailed over one end for
a cover, or the hollow log was placed in a horizontal
position. Such a hive was known as a "bee-gum,"
probably because it was often made from the trunk
of a gum tree; but the bee-gums with which we were
familiar in our childhood were made from hollow
basswood logs.

83

84 HOW TO KEEP BEES

To-day in every well-regulated apiary the brood-
chamber is furnished with the movable hanging
frames for the support of the combs, which were
invented by Langstroth a half-century ago, or by
some modification of these frames. It was the
invention of these frames that made the science of
modern bee-keeping possible. A large part of the
manipulations of the hive is dependent upon the
ability to remove the combs from the hive sep-
arately. Two of these frames, one empty and one
containing a sheet of foundation, are shown in
Plate XII. These are of one of the newer styles,
known as the Hoffman self-spacing frames. In these
frames the upper part of the end-bars are wide, so
that, when the frames are in contact, there is room
for a bee- way between the combs; the lower part of
the end-bars are narrower, so that the bees can pass
freely around the ends of the frames.

In the old days, and at present in some apiaries
where home-made frames are used, the spacing
between the frames has to be done by eye or rather by
finger; the thickness of the tip of the finger between
two frames being necessary to afford a bee-way.
But with the new frames in the market to-day this is
done away with, as they are arranged to space them-
selves, thus relieving the novice of much anxiety and
some embarrassment in deciding whether his finger
is as thick as that of the average apiarist. Also
in these newer frames a little staple at each end of the
top sets each frame exactly right in relation to the
ends of the hive.

HIVE, AND HOW TO HANDLE IT 85

Before the frame is placed in the brood-chamber
it is to be supplied with a sheet of comb-foundation;
this insures the building of the comb in the desired
position, so the frames can be removed from the hive.
Bees do not naturally make their combs straight,
but curve them so that they are less likely to be
broken. It is necessary, therefore, in order to
get straight combs to confine the operations of the
bees within set bounds; this is done by putting a
sheet of foundation in each frame.

One of the attractions of bee-keeping is that much
of the material we work with is pleasing, and some
artistically beautiful. A sheet of foundation-comb
made of the most delicate wax, frescoed on either
side with rhomb insets in hexagonal pattern, is a joy
to the artistic eye. It is absolutely necessary that
the foundation should be put into the frame in such
a manner that it will not sag or bulge when it is built
out into the comb and filled with the heavy honey or
brood. To keep these large sheets from bulging and
breaking they are held in place by fine wire which
is strung back and forth across the frame, passing
through holes made with a small awl in the end-bars.
These holes should be about two inches apart, the
upper one one inch from the top bar, and the lower
one something less than an inch from the bottom
bar, making four wires in the I.angstroth frame.
After these holes are made, put a small tack at one
end near the lower hole, twist the wire around it, then
thread the wire back and forth, making four wires
parallel with the top and bottom bars, and fasten

86 HOW TO KEEP BEES

the wire with a tack; care should be taken not to
draw the wire too tightly; simply draw up the slack.

The sheets of foundation as sold by the dealers are
a little smaller than the space in the frame, so that
when they are fastened to the top bar a bee-space is
left between the sheet and the bottom and end bars.
See Plate XII.

The sheet of foundation is fastened to the top bar
of an ordinary frame by means of a Van Deusen
wax-tube fastener, which is simply a hollow tube that
may be dipped in and filled with the hot wax which
issues through a small hole at the sharp, bent end of
the tube; as the point is drawn along where the
foundation and frame meet it leaves a stream of hot
wax that seals the two together. However, the most
satisfactory way is to get brood-frames, like the
Hoffman, which have two grooves in the top bar.
Set the foundation in the groove at the centre, and
introduce a strip of wood which is wedge-shaped in
cross-section, thin edge first, into the adjoining
groove, driving it or pressing it in hard so that it
pushes the thin partition over, and wedges the
foundation firmly in place. These strips for wedging
come with the frames.

After the foundation is fastened to the top bar the
frame and foundation are laid, wire side up, on a
board just the size of the piece of foundation so that
it will slip inside the frame. This board is kept wet
to prevent the wax from sticking to it. Then we use
the spur wire-embedder, which is like the tracing-
wheel used by dressmakers, except that the teeth

HIVE, AND HOW TO HANDLE IT 87

are spread apart alternately so that they pass astride
the wire and press it down into the foundation ; to do
this successfully, the foundation should be warm;
working near a lamp or in a warm room will suffice.
Embedding the wires by heating them with elec-
tricity instead of using the spur-embedder is a com-
mon practice in large apiaries where electricity is
available, or where it pays to buy a battery with
proper attachments. This outfit with the dry cells
costs about five dollars, and is a paying investment
when the apiary is large. (Plate III.)

THE SUPER

The super is that part of the hive that is placed
above the brood-chamber and is designed to receive
the surplus honey, either comb or extracted.

When extracted honey is produced the super may
resemble the brood-chamber described above, or it
may not be so high, fitted to receive a frame little
more than half as deep as the standard Langstroth
frame used in the brood-chamber.

When comb-honey is produced, the super is only
about half as high as the brood-chamber. For this
reason a hive consisting of a brood-chamber and one
super for comb-honey is termed a one-and-a-half-
story hive. (Plate XV.)

A complete super fitted for comb-honey consists
of the following parts: (1) The outer wall, which
is of the same length and width as the brood-
chamber and of the right height to hold the style of
section-boxes used; on the lower side of each end a

88 HOW TO KEEP BEES

tin strip is fastened to support the fixtures that it is to
contain; (2) the section-boxes; these are the wooden
frames containing the comb-honey when it is placed
on the market; each holds about one pound of honey;
four of these are shown in the Plate XIV; (3) the
section-holder; this is a rack fitted to hold and
support one row of section-boxes, as shown in
Plate XIV; when in place in the super, it rests on the
strips of tin mentioned above; (4) the fence; this is
a device placed between the rows of section-boxes
to keep the bees from building the comb beyond the
edges of the section-boxes; the style used with the
plain or no-beeway section is shown in Plate III;
the vertical cleats on this fence provide for a bee-
space between it and the section-boxes, so that the
bees can build out the comb even with the edge
of the section-box; (5) the super springs; these are
three flat springs, fastened to the inner face of one
side-wall in such a way that they press the fences and
the section-boxes closely together. (Plate XII.)

There are several types of supers in use that differ,
in certain details, from the one described above.
In some, the rows of section-boxes and fences are
pressed together by thumb-screws which pass
through one side-wall of the super. Many bee-
keepers still use section-boxes with beeways, that is,
boxes having the top and bottom narrower than the
two sides. When such boxes are used, the fences
lack the vertical slats, or posts; in fact, a simple strip
of tin may serve as a fence.

Most of the section-boxes in use now are made of

HIVE, AND HOW TO HANDLE IT 89

a single piece, which is dovetailed at the ends and
has three transverse V-shaped grooves cut in one
side so that it can be bent into shape, as shown in
Plate II. These flat bass wood sections afford very
pretty material with which to work. The novice,
in putting them together, almost always bends them
with grooves outside at the corners, instead of
inside, and then wonders why they are askew, and
break. We wet the sections where they are grooved
before we begin working with them. This may be
done by brushing each individual flat with warm
water, which is a very tedious process ; but it is better
to take a handful of them as they lie, the grooves
all in a line, set them on edge and pour a little water
from a pitcher on the grooves. This w^ets many at a
time with little trouble. To set up a section, it
should be taken in the hands, grooves up, bend the
ends upward evenly, fastening the dovetailed edges
together gently. Haste and jerkiness are as disas-
trous in handling sections as in handling bees.

The foundation for the comb-sections is much
lighter in weight than that intended for the brood-
frames. Some apiarists fill the entire section with
this foundation, except for the bee-spaces at the bot-
tom and at the sides. But we never do this, unless
we are obliged to do it to coax the bees to use the
supers ; for it is not so satisfactory as to use a narrow
strip for a guide at the top of the section, as a starter
to show the bees where to build the comb. We cut
these strips about an inch deep and almost as wide
as the section, and, with the Daisy fastener, fix each

90 HOW TO KEEP BEES

strip at just the middle line of the upper bar of the
section. The objection to filling a section with a com-
plete sheet is, first, the expense of the foundation; and,
secondly, that it is likely to give a tough central por-
tion or " fish-bone " to the comb-honey. (Plate XIV.)

HOW TO PREPARE THE SUPER

If they are not ordered set up ready for use, the
supers come in flat pieces with dovetailed ends, and
putting them together is a pleasing occupation,
after one has learned how. The best way to learn
how is to carefully observe a super already properly
set up; for, though the directions for putting these
together are as plain as may be, yet a person may err
therein and yet not be a fool. Unless one has
learned, or can learn, to drive a nail, one had best
not undertake bee-keeping, for the bee-keeper must
become a carpenter to be successful; it adds much
to the interest of the occupation to make all sorts of
things for one's own bees. The principle on which
the super is built is that it may hold the sections
tightly in place, and not allow them to drop through.
Therefore, at the bottom of the super, along each
narrower end, is a tin strip to support the ends of the
section-holders; to keep the ends of the section-
holders even a wedge-shaped strip of wood is nailed
across the end of the super, thick edge .down and
flush with the bottom edge, resting against the tin
strips. We use the Hetherington super-springs,
one at each end and one at the middle of one side
of the super; the trick of putting these in is to set

(a) Two self-spacing frames; one of them fitted with a sheet of foundation.

(/') An emp:y super, showing the springs and the wedge-shaped
piece at ihe end.

{c) The Doolittle divifion-board feeder
PLATE XII

HIVE, AND HOW TO HANDLE IT 91

them opposite the posts of the fence, one at either
endpost, and one at the middle post, else the spring
will be of no use. Driving in the sharp end of this
spring successfully requires a little practice. The
super is now ready to be filled. (Plate XII.)

First place a fence in the super on the side opposite
the spring; then a section-holder filled with four
starters, always remembering that these foundations-
starters should be at the top of the section. Then
place another fence and another section-holder. The
eight-frame super will hold six of these rows, with
fences between and one on each side. Putting in
the last fence is the final test of whether the springs
are in the right place, for, if they are right and press
against the posts of the fence, it will be very hard
to push in this last fence; when it is in, the sections
are all held snugly in place. (Plates III, XV.)

Where the super is placed on the hive, it should
closely fit the top of the brood-chamber, with no
cracks between. If the hive has a flat cover, which
leaves only a bee-space above the sections, the cover
may be placed immediately above the super, with
nothing between. With covers like the telescope
cover, a super-cover is needed. This may be a
quilt or a piece of enamelled cloth; but we prefer a
super-cover made of a thin board, bound on the
ends to prevent warping, which is now on the market.

HOW TO HANDLE THE BEES

It is generally believed, and for good reasons,
apparently, that bees like some people and despise

92 HOW TO KEEP BEES

others, who are just as good, so far as we can detect.
This apparent capriciousness has been explained
in many ways. Some hold that the bees have a
fine sense of smell, and thus distinguish us by odours
rather than by sight; and in this case their ire is
aroused because they do not like the perfume
exhaled by the obnoxious person. Others claim
that it depends upon the movements; if one
moves nervously and quickly, he is much more
subject to attacks. It is certainly true that if a bee,
which is buzzing threateningly, is struck at, she
becomes more enraged and is more certain to sting,
but this is because she recognises an aggressive foe
because of the act. However, the senior partner
in our apiary is an exceedingly active and nervous
man, and I have seen him move with all haste and
energy while working with bees, and though he
seldom uses bee-veil or gloves, he is rarely stung.
Our bees seem to be acquainted with him, and
accept his rapid movements as one of the common-
places of bee existence. It is well for anyone who
wishes to work with bees to spend some time in the
bee-yard just watching the little citizens coming and
going, and listening to the peculiarly soothing hum
which always fills the air around the hives. It is
sympathy with the bees more than actions that
finally results in handling them without harm.

HOW TO OPEN THE HIVE

First of all, fire up the smoker. The way to do
this properly is to place some easily ignited material

HIVE, AND HOW TO HANDLE IT 93

in the bottom of the fire-chamber, touch a match to
it, and crowd in above it material which will make
plenty of smoke, and will not burn too rapidly;
give a puff or two with the bellows to be sure that
the fire is started. We have used excelsior in our
smoker because it was near at hand, but it is not a
perfect or lasting fuel. Fine chips, especially
planer shavings, old rags, greasy cotton waste, and
even pine needles are used. Anything is desirable
that will make a smudge and will not burn out too
quickly; for when we are working with the bees we
have little time or inclination to stop and "putter"
with the smoker; and we cannot afford to have the
smoke give out at the critical moment when we most
need its protecting incense. A minimum amount
of fire with the maximum amount of smoke is the
desirable quality in the smoker. If the fire gets too
hot the blasts will burn the bees, which is an outrage,
and which is never permitted by a civilised individ-
ual. The Cornell smoker has a hook attached to
the bellows, so it may be hung on the edge of the
open hive to be at hand in time of need. If it be-
comes too hot, we lay it flat on the ground so as to
stop the draft. Each time after the smoker is used
it should be emptied, otherwise it is likely to start
a conflagration. We have an ash pail near the
apiary in which we always empty the smoker on our
way back to the bee-room. Mr. Root speaks of
never using the smoker until it is needed; when his
bees trouble him, he gently pats them on the back
with a little grass to get them out of his way as he

94 HOW TO KEEP BEES

lifts up the frames. And we never can admire Mr.
Root enough for dealing thus gently with his bee-
people. But we would not advise the novice to
try this, as a person has to be on very intimate terms
with bees to be able to pat them on the back with
grass and impunity. However, this is an ideal to
work toward. The nervous beginner almost in-
variably uses too much smoke, and this makes his
little dependents unhappy. The breathing of
smoke is hardly a pleasant experience for us, and it
seems to be still more distressing to the bees. We
remember once how, in the enthusiasm of our novi-
tiate, we inadvertantly smoked the bee-man in-
stead of the bees in our misguided efforts to help,
and the result was a blueness of the atmos-
phere which rendered more smoke superfluous.
Every beginner ought to get at least one head-
ache from the fumes of the smoker to teach him
charity and care.

There are several reasons why the hive must be
opened, aside from the fun one derives from the
experience. First, the brood needs to be examined
occasionally to see that it is all right, and in the fall
the brood-comb must be examined to see that there
is enough honey stored within it to winter the bees.
Second, during the swarming season to find and
remove the queen-cells. Third, to hunt for the
queen to be sure she is present and active, or per-
. chance to find her and clip her wings. Fourth, to
take off supers filled with honey. A warm day
should be selected for opening the hive for whatever

HIVE, AND HOW TO HANDLE IT 95

reason, and the middle of the day is the best time
for the work.

Send two or three puffs of smoke in at the entrance
to drive back the frightened sentinels who keep care-
ful watch of the portals of the hive. Then lift one
edge of the cover of the hive a little and send two or
three puffs in the crack; then lift off the cover and
set it down beside you; then lift the quilt or super-
cover at one edge, and give two or three puffs of
smoke beneath it to drive the bees down among the
frames, always remembering that under ordinary
circumstances a very little smoke is necessary to
frighten and subdue the bees. In fact the same
rule applies to smoking bees as to smoking tobacco;
if one is moderate in its use, the least harm will
result.

HOW TO EXAMINE THE BROOD-CHAMBER. (Plate VIII.)

Stand at one side of the hive, and not in front of it.
Hang the smoker on the side of the hive, so as to
have it within reach. Mr. Root advises sitting on
the cover of the hive set on edge while you examine
the brood-frame. This will do for a well-poised
person, but we prefer a little stool, which we can
carry easily from hive to hive, as we wish something
that we can sit on calmly as the situation requires.
Commence at one side and loosen the outside section
with a knife, or what is better, an old screw-driver.
Take the frame by the projecting ends, and lift it up
so that you may examine it on one side, then twirl it
half-way over to examine it on the other. It requires

96 HOW TO KEEP BEES

some experience to placidly lift out a frame, covered
with what at first sight looks like a dark, boiling,
viscous fluid, fit only for a witch's cauldron, but
which soon to the startled eye resolves itself into bee
particles. If the brood must be examined or queen
cells found, then it becomes necessary to get rid of
this seething, enveloping bee-mass, which is done in
a manner that seems like nothing less than tempting
Providence. The brood-frame is seized firmly in
the operator's hands, and held about waist high in
front of the hive, then let to drop, hands and all,
swiftly to within about six inches of the doorstep of
the hive, then suddenly jerked back again; the bees
being heavy and receiving the downward impetus,
keep right on as a man keeps on when his bicycle
stops suddenly in a rut — ^with this difference that the
bees land safely at the entrance of the hive, into
which they scamper as soon as their dazed wits will
allow. One would naturally think that the bees
would attack the active agent of this indignity, but
while bees are ever ready to fight recognised enemies,
they have evolved no plan of action which is equal
to a cataclysm, except to get under cover as soon as
possible. Thus being shaken from their founda-
tions is to them what an earthquake is to us, and the
attitude of Riley's boy is theirs.

"Where's a boy a-goin* an' what's he goin' to do,
An' how's he goin' to do it, when the wodd bu'sts through ?"

Thus it is that among the first accomplishments
of the apiarist is the one that enables him skilfulljr

HIVE, AND HOW TO HANDLE IT 97

and with dispatch, and without harming the indi-
viduals to shake the surprised Httle mob off the frame
or out of the boxes, to a place where its members
may recover shelter and equanimity as expe-
ditiously as possible.

After the comb is freed from the bees, it requires
some experience with honey-comb topography to
see at a glance just the condition of the brood.
There may be cells that look empty until a ray of
light reveals at the bottom a glistening egg; and
there may be cells with a little milky substance at the
bottom in which the young larva is floating; or in
some cells the bee grubs may be distinctly seen if
they are four or five days old. If the cells are
capped, it may puzzle the novice to know what lies
behind that closed waxen door. If the cells con-
tain honey, the substance of which the cap is made
is whiter than that which covers the brood. In case
of worker-brood the cap is depressed slightly below
the plane of the comb, which is not the case if the
cells contain honey. The large size of the drone
cells distinguishes them readily from the cells of the
workers. Often honey is stored in drone cells, for
the bees seem to like to make these larger cells, and
for good reason, since they give greater storage
capacity for the amount of w^ax used. However,
the drone cells which contain brood are covered
with dark, dirty, yellow caps which are quite convex,
looking like kopjes on the comb plain. At the
height of the honey season there should be plenty
of brood, and later the cells in the brood-frames

98 HOW TO KEEP BEES

should be filled with honey. The cells containing
bee-bread are not capped, as this staff of bee life is
packed so hard that it does not need to be covered.
All honey remains uncapped until it is properly
evaporated and ripened. (Plate VIII.)

After one frame has been thus examined, it should
be leaned up against the side of the hive so as to give
space to lift out the next frame without crushing the
bees.

HOW TO FIND THE QUEEN CELL

Fortunately for us, this is quite prominent, being
a veritable oriel in shape. However, there may be
other excrescences of the comb which somewhat
resemble a queen cell ; sometimes the queen cell may
be more or less embedded and so escape observation.
The bee-keeper who is cocksure that he can find all
the queen cells in his hives has to be most experienced,
and even then cocksureness may come to grief.
But this unglazed oriel window in which the queen
develops is usually quite noticeable, and is ordi-
narily decorated with a small, hexagonal pattern
in relief. We have often wondered if this was
done for the sake of decoration, or because the
bees are so in the habit of fashioning wax into
hexagonal patterns that they do it involuntarily.
For the person who rashly asserts that honey-
comb is the result of fortuitous force and pres-
sure, this queen cell with its hexagonal frescoes
is a poser. (Plate V.)

To cut out the queen cell a sharp, pointed knife

HIVE, AND HOW TO HANDLE IT 99

is necessary, in order to injure the comb beneath the
cell as little as possible.

HOW TO FIND THE QUEEN

If we simply need assurance that the queen is
present and active, the discovery of eggs or young
larvae in the cells is sufficient evidence of her presence,
and saves the tiresome search for her majesty. But
if we wish to find her, she is usually present on the
middle frame of the hive. It is not safe to pull out
this middle frame from the narrow place which it
occupies for fear of hurting the queen and crushing
the other bees ; so it is best always to take out an end
frame, first looking at it carefully to make sure she
is not upon it; then shake off the bees and set it
beside the hive, and move the other frames along
in the space thus made until we are able to remove
the middle frame with ease. It requires some ex-
perience to ferret out the queen from the bee-mob
which seethes over the comb. The burly, big, blunt-
ended drones are much more readily detected.
However, after a little training in the devious ways
of royalty one becomes expert in seeing that long,
graceful, pointed body extending far back of the
wings which characterises the queen. If the bees
are not too much disturbed, she is likely to be sur-
rounded by a rosette of workers, all with their faces
toward her, for even in the court of the hive etiquette
does not permit that the ladies-in-waiting turn their
backs to the queen. If for any reason the queen is
to be lifted out, she should be seized by the wings or

100 HOW TO KEEP BEES

thorax or imprisoned in a queen trap, but never
under any circumstances should she be seized by
the abdomen. (Plate XVI, Queen trap.)

CLIPPING THE queen's WINGS

This does not mean cutting off all four of the
wings, but that the wings on one side should be
clipped, leaving stubs not more than an eighth of an
inch long. Various devices have been invented to
aid clumsy hands in cutting off the royal petticoats.
One, the ]\Ionette queen-clipping device, is a little
cone-shaped cage made of wire laid in spirals. She
goes into this cage head first and the door is shut
behind her. Then the scissors are slipped between
the spirals at the proper point and the deed is done.
Another simple device is a bit of section-board
whittled in the shape of a tiny bootjack with a rubber
band stretched rather tightly across the prongs.
The forks are placed across the queen so that the
rubber presses against the thorax, thus pinning her
fast to the comb while she is barbered. The only
skill needed in this device is in fixing the tension of
the rubber band so that it will be sufficient to hold
her majesty fast, and yet not stiff enough to hurt her.
Our invariable plan is as follows: After the queen
is discovered, we hold the brood frame in one hand,
pick up her royal highness in the other most gently,
then still more gently set the frame down, leaning
it against the liive; then, holding her royal person
firmly but carefully in our owm unworthy thumb and
fingers, clip her wings with presuming scissors; then.

HIVE, AND HOW TO HANDLE IT 101

putting the scissors down as we pick up the frame,
and put her back as nearly as possible on the spot
where we found her. We always use the sharp-
pointed embroidery scissors for this delicate opera-
tion.

HOW TO TAKE OFF HONEY IN SUPERS

Lift the hive cover and quilt with a slight intro-
duction of smoke, then lift off completely. Smoke
from above for a moment, being very careful not to
burn the bees, always remembering that smoke is
meant to scare and not to punish. Then loosen the
super with a screw-driver if the bees have fastened
it down with bee glue, lift it and place it on a bottom-
board near at hand. Put on an unfilled super if it
is needed and cover the hive. Lift the honey-
sections out of the super, brushing off the adhering
bees with a bee-brush, so that they will fall on the
doorstep of the hive, and place each section as it is
cleaned in a basket or box in which it is to be carried
to the store-room. This is our usual way of pro-
cedure when our apiary is small, and we do this
work during spare moments which are not predict-
able the night before. However, there is one best
way to do this work, and that is to put on a Porter
bee-escape the night before the super is to be re-
moved. Wise from experience, we advise beginners
to study this device and become imbued with a knowl-
edge of its workings to the extent of being able to
tell which is the upper and which the under side, lest
disastrous results ensue and all of the bees escape

102 HOW TO KEEP BEES

into the super instead of out of it. If the bee-escape
is placed on the night before, there will be no
bees in the super when it is removed next day. To
introduce a bee-escape one does not need to lift off
the super; simply lift it up at one side, send a little
smoke into the crack, push in the bee-escape, and
then set it straight upon the hive and the super
straight upon it. (Plates III, XVIII.)

The novice might conclude that a good plan would
be simply to set off the super near the hive, and let
the bees find their own way back to their brood and
kindred. But bee-nature has to be reckoned with
in this instance, and the bees, conscious that the
honey is their own, are likely to uncap the cells and
carry the honey into the hive; or worse still, the bees
from othe'^ hives will be attracted to these open
stores and will begin to rob. And in the bee courts
of equity, when bees begin to rob, then the ''devil is
to pay."

There have been various bee-tents devised under
which the supers are placed after being removed
from the hive. These tents are arranged with a
little hole at the top by which the bees may escape,
but may not return. Doctor Miller invented a sim-
ple plan of piling several supers filled with honey on
top of each other, leaving no crevices between them;
over these was spread a cloth with a hole in the
middle, over which was placed a wire cone with a
hole in the top large enough to let a bee pass out.
Thus the bees from all of the sections escaped, one
by one, and robbing was avoided. However, the

HIVE, AND HOW TO HANDLE IT 103

bee-escapes introduced between the super and the
hives are used to-day by most enterprising bee-men.

OBSERVATION-HIVES (Frontispiece)

Anyone who has worked long with bees, cannot
fail to become filled with curiosity concerning the
way their work is carried on in the mysterious dark-
ness of the hive; to such a person, the observation-
hive is a source of perennial delight, as well as of
interesting and useful knowledge.

Observation-hives have been used by bee-keepers
from the time of Huber to the present, and naturally
many forms of them have been devised. The type
in most common use now is a small hive, containing
one, two or three frames, and furnished with glass
sides, through which the bees can be observed. The
glass sides are covered with a door or curtain, except
when observations are being made; for, if not, the
bees will cover the glass with a coat of propolis, ren-
dering it opaque.

It is somewhat difficult to keep a colony in good
condition upon a single frame; and if two or more
frames are used side by side the observer is unable
to see what goes on between the frames. Professor
Kellogg, of Stanford University, has devised a per-
fectly satisfactory two-frame observation-hive for his
laboratory. It consists of a glass-sided box, large
enough to hold two Langstroth frames, one above
the other; as both sides of the comb are exposed,
any individual bee may be kept constantly in

104 HOW TO KEEP BEES

sight while she is working. The passage which
leads from the hive to the opening in the window
has a glass top, so the actions of the bees as they
enter the hive may be watched. A hood of thick
black cloth is pulled down over the hive when the
observations are finished. Similar observation hives
may be purchased of dealers in apiarists' supplies.
Such an observation-hive would be of great value
to the enterprising bee-keeper, as it would be the
means of helping him to understand conditions
which were puzzling, and thus aid him in dealing
with crises that are sure to occur. The advantage
of this hive over any other is that frames from any
hive may be kept under closest observation. But if
the hive were a means of interest merely, it would
still be worth while, for the bee-keeper cannot know
too much about the ways of bees, supposing all he
knows is true.

MAXIMS FOR OPENING THE HIVE

Have the smoker ready to give forth a good volume
of smoke.

Use the smoker to scare the bees rather than to
punish them.

E/o not stand in front of the hive lest the bees
passing out and in take umbrage.

Be careful not to drop any implements with which
you are working; take hold of all things firmly.

Move steadily, and not nervously.

Do not run if frightened, for the bees understand
what running away means as well as you do.

HIVE, AND HOW TO HANDLE IT 105

If the bees attack you, move slowly away, smoking
them off as you go.

If a bee annoys you by her threatening attitude
for some time, kill her ruthlessly.

If stung by a bee, rub off the sting, instead of
pulling it out with the nails of the thumb and fore-
finger and thus forcing more venom into the
wound.

Ammonia applied to the wound made by a bee-
sting will usually afford immediate relief.

CHAPTER IX
DETAILS CONCERNING HONEY

HOW TO MAKE COMB-HONEY

Every bee-keeper who sends to the market honey
in the comb enfolded in an attractive carton, or with
the section neatly glazed, has produced a work of
art; for comb-honey as now marketed is an aesthetic
production, and the bee-keeper is an artist as much
as if he had painted a picture or had fashioned a
jewel. To most people who have an apiary as a
pleasurable adjunct to life in the country, the pro-
duction of comb-honey is most attractive, while the
production of extracted honey does not appeal to
them at all. Just the word ''honey" calls to the
mind of most people a vision of amber sweetness
set in white-walled, waxen cells.

The production of comb-honey is attended by
more difficulties than is the production of extracted
honey. The reason for this is largely because the
bees work more readily in cells already made from
which the honey has been extracted, than they do in
sections where they must undertake all of the expense
and labour of producing wax for the comb. More
than this, honey may be extracted from the comb
106

(c) One empty section-holder, and one filled with section-boxes, in which

are foundation-starters; two of these have been added to by the bees.

PLATE XIV

DETAILS CONCERNING HONEY 107

of the brood-chambers, a harvest which is lost to the
producer of comb-honey.

For the production of comb-honey it is necessary
that the colony winter in excellent condition and
develop much well-fed brood early in the season,
so that there shall be a great number of active young
workers in the hive just before the chief honey-
harvest of the summer begins. In New York State
we have two large honey harvests, that of the bass-
wood in July and the buckwheat in August, so our
colonies are made strong and ready by the last of
June. In order to have the bees ready to work, the
swarming fever must be subdued or controlled before
this period of honey-flow. The colonies are carefully
watched early in the season, and if after the first
pollen-gathering occurs there is no honey coming in,
the bees are fed so that the brood may be developed.
We rarely have to feed at this season of the year as
the fruit bloom gives our bees plenty of honey for
rearing their brood, and we never expect any sur-
plus before the basswood season.

The supers are put on when there is plenty of
brood and plenty of honey to feed to it in the hive;
and under such conditions our bees, though Italians,
usually push up into the sections at once. We
prepare the sections with mere strips of wax found-
ation for starters. (Plate XIV.)

Supers thus equipped put on at this time and under
such conditions seem to take away all desire to
swarm on the part of the bees, if the queen cells have
been previously removed.

108 HOW TO KEEP BEES

If the brood-chambers are crowded when the super
is put on, the queen may go up into it and start
brood. This rarely occurs with us, but in case it
does a queen-excluding honey-board may be intro-
duced between the super and the brood-chamber.
Sometimes a colony seems unwilling to go into the
super after it has been added, and the bees will hang
on the outside of the hive and threaten to swarm,
and through doubt and vacillation lose two or three
of the precious days of the basswood harvest.

The usual reason why the bees will not go into
the super is that they are not sufficiently crowded
below; if they have room they prefer to store their
honey in the brood cells rather than carry it to the
upper story.

If a colony is strong and has plenty of brood and
honey and is still obstinate, men of experience
advise the taking of a frame of sections from a colony
which is storing in the supers and putting bees and
all in the midst of the unused super of the reluctant
colony. We have never tried this because we were
never obliged to. It sounds very practical and
sensible, and it is practised by Mr. Root, and that
is sufficient recommendation.

Our way of coaxing the bees into a super which
they have sedulously ignored is to place in it some
of the imperfect sections, which are not worth much
in the market and which contain some capped
honey and many empty cells. One section-holder
filled in this way seems to encourage the reluctant
colony to climb and to store as rapidly as possible.

DETAILS CONCERNING HONEY 109

In large apiaries the following plan is followed:
First, put on a super of shallow extracting frames
from which the honey has been removed; as these
cells are all ready, the bees are likely to go to work
in them at once; and after they are working well
raise the super, and put in one below it filled with
sections containing starters, and all will be well.
In dealing with this phase of bee-keeping it is well
to remember that full sheets of foundation in the
sections are more attractive to the bees than starters ;
and that sections containing comb already made are
still more pleasing, and if some of these made cells
contain honey, their attractiveness is doubled. One
condition should be observed in putting on a super
in the summer: it should be shaded in some way;
if it is in the direct rays of the sun, the heat is likely
to keep the bees out of it. However, later in the
season bees may be induced to work in the super
by placing over it a cushion so that it will be warm.

TIERING UP

If the honey is coming in at a good rate, and the
bees are working well, when the sections in the super
are something more than half full, lift it up and place
another containing sections with starters beneath
it. The reason for this is that the bees would not
naturally go into the empty super if it were placed
on top until the other was completely filled. But
with this plan they continue working in the super,
even though it be on top, and meanwhile find it
"handy" to fill the intervening sections. If the

no HOW TO KEEP BEES

honey-flow is great, even another super may be
placed next the hive and below the other two. How-
ever, in our practice we rarely put on more than two,
usually taking off the top one when we need to inter-
polate another. This process is called "storifying"
in the English books, which is a most graphic term
and should be introduced into our nomenclature.

TAKING OFF SECTIONS. (Plate XX.)

In taking off the sections we do not need to wait
for the completion of every one in the super. The
outside rows are rarely perfect, and we usually put
these unfinished sections back on some other hive
to be finished.

These unfinished sections, if not too empty, serve
very well to sweeten the daily bread of the home
table. If sent to the market they bring low prices,
and the bee-keeper who is working for comb-honey
should plan to have as few of them as possible. While
the honey left long in the super has a much finer
flavour than that which is removed early, yet care
should be taken not to leave the sections on
the hive so long that the comb becomes soiled.
It is an interesting fact that honey ripened in
the hive gains special richness, as if it were
somehow imbued with the spirit of the little
socialists that make it.

Toward the end of the season it is best not to tier
up, but to place an empty super on top. The bees
will not use it unless necessary, but will devote their
energies to the sections below. The great danger

PLATE XVII. • IX

Photo_^rnph by

APPLE-BLOSSOM TIME'

DETAILS CONCERNING HONEY 111

to be avoided in tiering up is a surplus of partly
filled sections, and the way we avoid this is not to
interpolate a super until the one on the hive is at
least three-fourths filled.

STAINED SECTIONS

A regular part of bee exercise consists of prom-
enading up and down and across the sealed honey;
the bee has not as yet, unfortunately, attained the
fastidiousness which leads her to wipe any of her
six feet carefully before entering her domicile, con-
sequently the sections of honey thus walked over
may be stained and unmarketable. There is no
remedy for this except to look after the supers care-
fully, and take out the sections before they are
soiled.

Some sections may look dirty because old wax is
used in making the caps. If such is the case, and
it is simply yellow, the wax may be bleached by
standing it in the sun or by subjecting it to sulphur
fumes. Some apiarists have special rooms and
others tight boxes for the sulphur bleaching. Only
two things are necessary to accomplish this success-
fully; first, that the room or box be tight; second,
that the sulphur placed in an iron dish be heated
so that the fumes are strong and all-pervading. Some
say that the sulphur should be heated so that if a
match be touched to it it will flame. The combs
need not be subjected to such fumes more than
a half-hour to become as white as they can
be bleached.

112 HOW TO KEEP BEES

SCRAPING THE SECTIONS

In preparing comb-honey for the market, it is
necessary to first scrape the propolis from the
sections so as to leave the wood white and beautiful.
To do this the section should be set square on and
in line with the edge of a table, and below should be
a pan to receive the scrapings. Hold the section
firmly in one hand and scrape the side that is in line
with the edge of the table with a downward stroke
of the knife; a case-knife is best for this. To scrape
the wood clean and not in any way injure the honey,
and to do the work rapidly, measure the skill attained
in this business. In scraping the sections it is best
to have four of the shipping-boxes at hand, so that
the honey may be graded and placed in its proper
class as it is cleaned.

GRADING COMB-HONEY

First, as to the way the sections are filled, or in
other words, as to the bee technique. There are
three grades — ^Fancy, No. 1, and No. 2. In the
fancy grade almost every cell is well filled, and the
comb has the surface evenly built and well capped.
No. 1 has an even surface and is well filled, but may
not be so perfect in the corners as is the fancy.
No. 2 must be at least three-fourths full. Anything
below No. 2 is called chunk honey if sold in the
comb, but it is more profitable to extract honey from
all sections that range below No. 2.

Second, as to the colour of honey: It is graded

DETAILS CONCERNING HONEY 113

as white, amber, buckwheat and dark, and these
need no explanation. Thus honey is Hsted perhaps
as "fancy white," or "fancy buckwheat''; in each
case it is the best of its kind.

SHIPPING-CASES

These should be ordered rather than made, as a
good-looking shipping-case adds materially to the
value of the honey. These cases come in different
sizes, and have one side made of glass so that the
handlers may see that the contents are fragile, and
therefore may possibly be persuaded to deal with
them gently; the cases come in flats and are easily
put together. For anything that looks so well put
up as honey sealed in its perfect cells, it has a most
amazing capacity for leaking. Once, in the enthu-
siasm of girlhood and inexperience, I carried some
honey carefully packed in a box in my trunk, hoping
to give a friend a treat. Needless to say that honey
was "linked sweetness long drawn out," by the time
I arrived at my destination; and all the clothes that
I carried in my trunk were literally "too sweet for
any use."

Shipping comb-honey to market is likely to be a
disastrous performance at best, since it is almost
impossible to guard against careless handling. Some
ship in glass-covered sections which protect the
comb, and make a very attractive appearing pro-
duct.

Shipping the sections in cartons is winning its way
now for fancy grades. A carton is a pasteboard

114 HOW TO KEEP BEES

box which may be bought in flats with the shipper's
name printed upon it. While these cartons may be
bought in almost any style, from perfectly plain to
those highly ornamented, and provided with tape
handles, yet we believe there is a chance for personal
initiative in this particular field. An artistic design
in pretty colours, individual and unique, would
certainly prove a special attraction for selling honey
in cartons. The great advantage gained from the
use of the carton is that the honey reaches the con-
sumer in a neat package without further handling,
and may be carried like a box of bonbons. When
cartons are used the shipping case should be a size
larger than for the plain sections.

MARKETING COMB-HONEY

There are two ways of marketing honey open to
most bee-keepers. First and best, the local market.
If the honey can be placed in the hands of the grocer
directly from the bee-keeper, certain advantages
accrue. The comb is not broken by much careless
handling, and it reaches the market in good shape.
Though the price may be somewhat lower perhaps
than the highest quoted prices, yet it is reliable, and
there is no discount for breakage in shipping, and
for differences of opinion in grading. It is certainly
far more satisfactory for all concerned to place
comb-honey on the home market; this is usually
practicable for all except the greater apiarists. We
know one man who has about forty hives, and who
lives in a town of about three hundred inhabitants;

DETAILS CONCERNING HONEY 115

though he produces a reasonable amount of honey
he very inadequately supplies the demand for it in
this little village, and he receives city prices.

The second and least desirable method of mar-
keting comb-honey is to ship it to a commission
merchant. If this is done, it is well to select a mid-
dleman in whom we have absolute confidence, or
we are likely soon to become pessimistic regarding
his honesty; so frequently is the price of honey
reduced on account of breakage and leaking and
other accidents which this very frail delicacy is heir
to, that we rarely realise the prices quoted in the
newspapers. If a good middleman can be found,
then our advice is to stick to him, and send him the
very best product possible, fairly graded and in the
most attractive form, hoping that he may be able to
do for us what we should do for ourselves, and that
is, work up a special market.

STORING COMB-HONEY

It is far better to market comb-honey the year
it is made. However, if it is to be stored, it must
be placed in a room that has a constant temperature
above 60° F. It is best to fumigate the sections if
there is any danger from the bee-moth, for this little
rascal will destroy a great amount of comb-honey in
a very short time. (See " Bee-Moth.")

CANDIED COMB-HONEY

Some kinds of honey will granulate much sooner
than others. The longer the honey is left in the hive

116 HOW TO KEEP BEES

and the more perfectly it is ripened, the less liable
it is to granulate. Extracted honey will candy
much sooner than honey left in the comb. We have
kept comb-honey more than a year without crystals
appearing in it. The only way to prevent comb-
honey from candying is to keep it in a temperature
that does not fall below 60 degrees. After honey
is candied in the comb, nothing can be done with
it except to sell it at a lower price, or keep it to feed
back to the bees. The latter is probably the most
profitable way to dispose of it. Some people like
comb-honey after it is granulated and the home-
table may use a certain amount of it.

MAXIMS FOR PRODUCING COMB-HONEY

Keep the colonies strong.

The bees should be kept warm and well fed in the
spring.

The bees must have wintered well.

The colony must have brood and plenty of honey in
the brood-chambers at the beginning of the honey
season.

Never let the honey in sections or supers be
exposed in the apiary to incite robbery.

Keep the sections in a room in w^hich the tem-
perature never falls below 60°.

Fumigate the sections before they are stored if
you are troubled with bee-moth.

Send the honey to market in as attractive form
as possible. Make your product individual in ap-
pearance, and strive to create for it a special market.

CHAPTER X
EXTRACTED HONEY

HOW TO PRODUCE IT

It is certainly fortunate for bee-keepers that
centrifugal force is one of the unalterable laws of
the physical world. However, this force might never
have been of any use to the apiarist had it not been
for a certain Major Francesco de Hruschka of
Venice, who is a most interesting figure in the history
of bee-keeping. Next in importance to the inven-
tion of the movable frames by the venerable Lang-
stroth was the invention of the honey-extractor. We
have a picture of Major Hruschka in our minds
as not only a brave man of war as indicated by his
military rank, but also as a happy man of peace,
who loved his hives with their little citizens, and
who also possessed notable domestic virtues and
loved the companionship of his children and was
interested in their doings. For it was when his
little son accompanied him to his apiary and, having
a comb full of honey set up in a basket, began whirl-
ing it boy-like by the rope attached to the handle,
that the Major discovered the honey was being
thrown out of the comb by this action. Instead of
spanking the boy as most fathers would have done,
117

118 HOW TO KEEP BEES

the thoughtful INIajor cogitated on the fact that such
a simple motion should have emptied the comb of
honey, and he straightway proceeded to invent the
first honey-extractor. This was in 1865; up to that
time the liquid honey was extracted by a method
which we remember well. The comb was crushed,
and with it too often, alas! the dead bees, larvse
and any dirt whatsoever that happened to be present;
this mixture was suspended in a cloth bag, over a
tub or vat in a warm room; and the honey, carrying
with it much of the debris, slowly dripped out reeking
with an aroma and a flavour quite unknown in these
regenerate days, and forming a product that may
well be spared from the world's marts.

Since 1S65, many honey-extractors have been
invented in America, and almost all of them which
have survived the test of use are satisfactory. The
perfection of the invention is an automatically
reversible machine with ball bearings, highly geared
in order to attain the maximum of steadiness and
rapidity with the appliance of a minimum of power.

The principle of construction underlying all of the
best extractors is a cylindrical can containing wire
pockets in which the combs are set on edge, and
which are revolved by being geared to a crank at the
top of the can. There is room for more or less
honey below the wire pockets, and at the bottom of
the can is a faucet or honey gate, through which
the extracted honey may be drawn off into a pail or
vat.

The extractor is a very excellent adjunct to any

EXTRACTED HONEY 119

apiary, however small, even if comb-honey is the
chief product, for it saves much honey that other-
wise would be wasted. When the apiary consists of
less than forty hives of bees, one of the small non-
reversible extractors may be used. These weigh
less and cost less ; but every frame of comb has to be
taken out after the honey has been extracted on one
side and reversed and put back in order to clear the
honey from the other side. Though the automatic
reversible machine costs more and is heavier, it is
far more satisfactory on the whole, if there is much
honey to be extracted.

EXTRACTING-FRAMES

The frames used for extracting honey are in form
similar to those which hold the brood, except they
may not be so deep. However, most bee-keepers
use both supers containing the shallow extracting-
frames, and also those filled with frames of the full
depth. The bees will go into the shallow frames
more readily than into the deeper ones, as they are
better able to keep the small chambers warm. But
if the colony is very strong and the harvest good, the
deeper frames are acceptable to the bees and save
the time of the bee-keeper. (Plate XVIII.)

WHEN TO EXTRACT HONEY

Some producers practice extracting the honey
before it is capped, so as to save the trouble and
expense of uncapping. There is one danger attend-
ing this method : the green, unripened honey is thus

120 HOW TO KEEP BEES

often extracted, and it is the most insipid of sweets.
Honey needs to ripen slowly in a warm temperature
in order to be palatable. Some, like Quinby, advo-
cate the ripening of honey in vats or evaporators
after it has been extracted. But it is the consensus
of opinion that honey to be of perfect flavour needs
to ripen in the warm, bee-odour-laden atmosphere
of the hive. The bees ordinarily leave the honey
uncapped for some time as it thus ripens more
readily. Therefore, those who produce an espe-
cially fine quality of extracted honey usually begin
to tier up as soon as the super is fairly filled and
before the honey is capped. The bees have ample
room to go on storing honey in the interpolated
super, and do not bother to cap the honey already
stored above. Thus these supers, three or four or as
many as practicable, are left on the hive until the
end of the honey harvest, and thus the honey attains
its proper ripeness and flavour.

There a.e others who claim that honey is never
properly ripened until capped, and therefore practice
tiering after the cells of comb are at least partly
covered.

UNCAPPING. (Plate XIX.)

There are various knives invented for this process,
the Bingham uncapping-knife being the favourite.
It is used thus: The frame containing the honey
standing on one end and leaning over a receptacle
for the caps is held with the left hand, the knife in
the right hand begins at the bottom of the comb

EXTRACTED HONEY 121

and running backward and forward as it is moved
upward shears off very neatly the covering of the
cells. The knife must be very sharp, and skill in
cutting is shown in just the merest film of wax which
is removed. A pan of hot water should be at hand
on an oil stove perhaps ; every time a sheet of capping
is removed, the knife needs to be scraped on a stick,
which will not dull it; and quite often it should be
dipped in the hot water to clean it. If there is
much uncapping to be done, it is best to have two
knives, keeping one in the pan; for cleanliness and
heat are quite as potent factors as is sharpness in
making the uncapping knife effective.

There are on the market uncapping-cans, the
Dadant being the most popular. It is a double can
with an arrangement on top convenient for holding
the end of the frame on a pivot and with wooden
cross-pieces on which the knife may be wiped. Below
there is a wire screen for holding the cappings, with
a space in the bottom of the can for the honey which
drains off, and which is always of the most excellent
and delicious quality. Of course, the cappings are
saved to be made into beeswax.

CARE OF EXTRACTED HONEY

Honey, whether in the comb or out, will crystallise
when subjected to low temperature or when left
standing for a long time. However, extracted honey
crystallises much more readily than that which is
in combs; and this crystallisation is one of the
problems of putting up and marketing extracted

122 HOW TO KEEP BEES

honey. To prevent it extracted honey should be
evaporated until it is thick, sealed while hot in air-
tight cans, and kept in a room the temperature of
which never falls below 65° F. It should be kept
in tin or galvanised iron cans, rather than in wood.
Some people seem to have been successful in using
wooden vessels for holding the honey after having
given them a coating of wax; but the way honey gets
through small places is more proverbial among bee-
keepers than is the ability of the stingy man to do
the same; even when a tub or pan seems water-tight
the honey will triumphantly work its passage
through.

In order to preserve extracted honey in packages
it must be canned or bottled, and the air entirely
excluded. There are two methods of accomplish-
ing this : First, the honey is heated in bulk, and run
off into hot cans or bottles. Second, the honey is
put in the bottles first and then heated; in both
cases the honey is heated by hot water. Perhaps the
easier method is to heat it in bulk, and if there is not
at hand a double boiler, one can be improvised by
using a wash-boiler in which pails containing the
honey may be set. In any case the honey and the
water surrounding it should be of the temperature of
the room to begin with; then a slow, steady fire is
needed to bring the temperature of the water up to
160° F. Mr. Root advises the use of a gasoline
stove for this purpose as the heat may thus be care-
fully regulated, and it is very important that the
process be a slow one. After the temperature of the

Taking off upper story of hive containing rombs fcexiractncr. The bees have

II e I r m '\erl f cm the su .ers by tlie lee-esrap see'i nt tho liglit.

Photographs by Verne Morton

Extracting-room showing extractor, strainer, uncapping can, bee-escape,

smoker, uncapping knife, gloves, funnel, supers and sections, extractor pocket

containing extracted sections, partly filled sections as yet uncnpped, extracting

frame with comb, etc.

PLATE XVIII

EXTRACTED HONEY 123

honey reaches 160° F. it may be poured into freshly
scalded cans or bottles and sealed, air-tight. If
bottles are used, the corks should have paraffine
poured over them so as to make sure of excluding
the air.

PACKAGES FOR EXTRACTED HONEY. (Plate XXI.)

Mason fruit jars are extensively used for this as
they are practical, cheap and useful afterward. The
No. 25 honey-jar, somewhat resembling the Mason
can, is made purposely for putting up honey, and is
attractive in appearance. The Muth bottles are
made in four sizes for extracted honey; the largest
holding two pounds, and the smallest a quarter
of a pound. These bottles are decorated with a
design of an old straw skep, and bear the prophetic
inscription "pure honey" moulded into the glass.
Jelly-glasses are often used and paraffined paper is
placed over the honey, just as it is placed over jelly
to exclude the air before the tin cover is put on.
Glass packages are by all means the most attractive
for extracted honey in small quantities. However,
tin pails of various sizes are in use, and may be ser-
viceable for a cheap and inferior grade of honey,
which is thus made ready for the consumer who is
willing to buy "aside unseen." But a fine quality
of honey rejoices in the light of day and in the
scrutiny of eyes which may look at it first critically
and then longingly.

The most practical packages for shipping honey
in quantity are the large, square cans in common use

124 HOW TO KEEP BEES

which hold sixty pounds each. These are convenient
for shipping and for measuring and are safe from
breakage.

The advantages of extracted honey over that of
comb-honey are: Almost double the honey may be
produced, because the bees having no comb to build,
devote their energies to storing honey; and also the
honey from the brood-combs may be extracted; it is
more easily and safely handled and shipped; it is
more easily produced, since the bees work more
readily in the emptied cells of the extracted combs
than in sections where they are obliged to build new
cells ; swarming is more easily controlled, because the
bees more readily accept the enlargement of their
quarters when the supers contain fully made comb,
also larger hives may be used.

The disadvantages are: It is more ''mussy" and
requires special apparatus; and unless great care
is given, the bees will be starved through this con-
venient way of pilfering their stores.

MAXIMS FOR THE PRODUCER OF EXTRACTED HONEY

Use glass or tin, rather than wood, for honey
receptacles.

Be careful not to expose the honey as you take it
out of the supers, lest the bees begin robbing.

Honey should be canned while hot, and kept from
the air.

Heating honey to a higher temperature than 160°
destroys its flavour.

EXTRACTED HONEY 125

Cooling honey to a temperature below 60° pro-
duces granulation.

Work in a warm room.

Have a label of your own, with some unique and
individual design, which, when placed on the pack-
age, will render it attractive.

CHAPTER XI
POINTS ABOUT BEESWAX

HOW TO MAICE IT

Beeswax is a unique product; the little socialists
of the hive have formed a trust for its manufacture,
which for many and good reasons has never been
infringed upon. The special value of beeswax is
that it retains its cohesiveness and ductibility, under
both higher and lower temperatures, than do other
kinds of wax. It has a specific gravity of 960-972,
and melts at 143-145° F.

Beeswax has been in demand in the world since
ancient times, being put to many and diverse uses.
Now, however, the making of foundation-comb is
the most important of these uses and most affects
the beeswax market of to-day. Countless thousands
of sheets of wax-foundation are manufactured
yearly in America. When foimdation was first
used it was thought that it might be adulterated
safely with parafiine, but it was soon found that
beeswax thus adulterated, when subjected to the
heat of the hive in summer, would invariably bulge,
buckle and sag. We know an apiarist who lost
money, honey, bees and temper through trying to use
this kind of foundation, which did not stand firm.
126

Extracted honey in pnils— candied

Photographs by Verne Morton
Extracted honey in glass jars ready for market.
PLATE XX [

POINTS ABOUT BEESWAX 127

THE PRIMITIVE METHOD

The process of making wax from honey-comb
may be primitive and yet quite successful. Well do
we remember the method as practised in the days
of our early youth in the kitchen of the old farm-
house, usually a comfortable and altogether delight-
ful room. Its yellow-painted floor seemed to have
caught the sunshine streaming in through white-
curtained windows and held it there for us to tread
upon. The chintz-covered settee and Boston rockers,
and a few widths of bright rag carpet, made one end
a cozy sitting-room. At the opposite end the cup-
boards, their shelves covered with elaborately scal-
loped newspapers, and beset with orderly dishes and
tinware, bespoke the kitchen. Midway between
stood the heavy cherry drop-leaf table which revealed
the dining-room; in the midst of this Protean apart-
ment stood the cook-stove, polished so that it would
put to shame the rosewood case of a piano, bearing
on its top the pink-copper tea-kettle singing gayly
after its daily bath of cleansing buttermilk, and
holding within the roaring fire which ever seemed
the spirit and soul of the place. The neatness that
held sway in this kitchen was the perfect sort that
conduces to comfort, and not to misery. Only
at certain periods was this delectable room given
over to discomfort and untidiness; these included
"wash-days," the days following the yearly sacrificial
rite of butchering and the days when beeswax
was made.

128 HOW TO KEEP BEES

We were wont to make beeswax as follows: The
broken combs were packed in a muslin bag which
was weighted by a sinker and hung in the wash-
boiler by tying the bag to the poker, which was
placed crosswise the top. By this contrivance the
bag was completely surrounded by water, which
filled the boiler, and yet did not touch the bottom,
and so there was no danger of burning; the cloth
acted as a strainer and the bag was pressed occa-
sionally; this act being judiciously performed by
means of the tongs, which had previously been
cleaned. After the wax had boiled out the boiler
was taken off and the whole contents cooled, after
which the wax was taken from the top in pieces and
remelted in a dish set on the back side of the stove
so as not to burn, then poured into oiled bread-tins,
and thus caked for the market. Some of it was
clarified for special use thus: It was allowed to
simmer on the back of the stove for some hours in
water to which vinegar had been added, and then
was dipped off into scalloped patty-tins and a neat
little loop of cord inserted at one side. These cakes
when cooled had a long though scarified existence
ensconced in work-baskets with spools of thread,
for wax thus cleaned and prepared made very
pretty little gifts for lady-friends. But the ex-
perience of rendering wax was never complete
without spilling some of it on the stove, which
spread with fearful rapidity and smoked with
stifling smoke; because of the certainty of this
accident we always made the beeswax in the late

POINTS ABOUT BEESWAX 129

fall, lest our bees regarding the pungent smoke as a
direct invitation should come visiting in embarrassing
numbers.

Sundry old pieces of rag carpet were spread on the
floor around the stove to keep the yellow paint intact
from the wax, which was so hard to clean off. We
had no benzine in those days, and our only resort
was boiling hot water, which cleaned off the paint as
well as the wax.

One privilege that was always granted to us
children on this day was that of having "our fingers
made.'' As the wax was cooling the finger was
dipped in it, and the film was cooled while the finger
was held very still; then the film was slipped off,
a crucial point in the process, and used as a mould
into which was poured the cooling wax; and presto!
there was the finger as natural as life to every crease
and wrinkle, but with a death-like pallor that
rendered the row of fingers thus made a fascinatingly
gruesome collection, as if they had been chopped off
with a hatchet.

This old process of rendering wax in the wash-
boiler is still practised where apiaries are small.
Mr. Root advises the following modification:
Sticks are placed crosswise the bottom of the boiler
on which the bag is placed; the bag is packed very
full of wax by pressing the comb into balls with the
hands before it is put in. Water is added and the
whole is placed upon the stove and brought slowly
to a boil, then a board that acts as a follower on the
bag is placed on top with a heavy weight upon it;

130 HOW TO KEEP BEES

this acts as a press and decreases the bulk in the
bag, leaving the wax floating on the surface.

THE SOLAR WAX-EXTRACTOR

There are many modern and up-to-date methods
advised for extracting wax. The most common is
through the use of the Solar wax-extractor, which
was invented for extracting honey in California,
where the sun can be depended upon to do its work
unflinchingly day after day. There was more than
myth in the story of Icarus who fastened his wings
on with wax, and then dared to face the sun. The
ancients e\adently knew that no other substance of
the sort is so susceptible to the sun's rays. I
shall never forget my amazement at the efficiency of
the first Solar extractor that I ever saw; it was home-
made and there was naught in its appearance to
indicate its power. The comb was hard and black-
ened and full of dirt, while the wax that oozed out
and hardened below was as shining and yellow as if
the sun itself had exhaled it. A Solar extractor
ought to be in every apiary where twenty colonies or
more are kept, and into this every fragment of comb
should be put instead of storing it to become in-
fested by the bee moth, or leaving it around to
incite the bees to robbing. The fragments thus are
saved and without any expense or trouble are made
into a beautiful product for the market.

There are several of these Solar extractors made
and sold by dealers. The Doolittle, the Rauchfuss
and the Boardman are the three commonly used.

POINTS ABOUT BEESWAX 131

The Doolittle is small and all right for a small apiary.
The Rauchfuss has a clever arrangement by which
the wax in flowing out overflows from one pan to
another and thus cleanses itself automatically. The
Boardman is especially adapted for large apiaries,
and is on rockers so that it may be tilted to face the
sun. The general plan of the Solar wax-extractor
is as follows : It consists of a shallow box lined with
sheet-iron on which is a frame for holding the comb
with a strainer below it, and a place where the wax
thus extracted is received. The box has a tight-
fitting glass cover, and all the woodwork on the box
is painted black so as to absorb all the heat possible.
The box is tilted so as to get the direct rays of the
sun, and it is important that the cover be of one pane
of glass, or several panes matched without cross
sash, as such sash interferes with the rays of the sun.
Here in the East this extractor works excellently
during the summer months. If the wax does not
look clean as it comes from the extractor, it may be
put through again. The only difficulty with the
Solar extractor is that here in the East it works only
in the summer time, and that it does not extract all
the wax from the refuse which bears the graphic and
euphonious name of "slumgum."

THE SWISS WAX-EXTRACTOR

There are many patent wax-extractors which are
run by the heat of a stove. The best of these utilise
steam for heating the wax, though some of them use
hot water in a sort of a modification of the old wash-

132 HOW TO KEEP BEES

boiler method. The best of these machines for a
small apiary is the Swiss extractor, which may be
set over a kettle of hot water, like an ordinary vege-
table steamer, which it resembles. The comb is
placed in a wire basket, which has a cone-shaped
bottom, over which the wax flows down as it melts
and drains off through a spout into a pan in
which it is to be caked. This machine costs only
three or four dollars and is simple and excellent;
though it takes but comparatively little comb at a
time, it keeps up a continual performance and
there is no danger whatever of burning the wax.
The basket may be replenished from time to time, and
a large amount of wax may be extracted in a day
while other work is being performed in the room.
Mr. Root has an improved Swiss extractor and so
has iNIr. D. A. Jones, and both of them are most
satisfactory. Mr. Jones's machine is the larger and
may be used as an uncapping can as well; the cap-
pings when taken off falling directly into the ex-
tractor.

THE WAX-PRESS

Wax is such a precious product in these days of
the manufacture of foundation-comb that every
particle of it should be saved. This is quite im-
possible with any of the extractors; as the slumgum
always holds much wax, to extract which a wax-press
is needed. All wax-presses are necessarily rather
expensive machines when bought, and not very
easily manufactured at home. In some of them the

POINTS ABOUT BEESWAX 133

comb is melted by steam and in some by hot water;
in others the heated wax is dipped from a kettle of
hot water and poured into the press.

The German steam wax-press is in general use in
America, Mr. Root having an improvement on it.
It is a strongly built can, at the bottom of which is a
place for water, and above it an arrangement to
receive the wax drippings. A basket of perforated
metal holds the comb and occupies the larger and
upper part of the can ; a follower worked by a screw
presses down upon the heated comb and forces the
wax down and out through a spigot. This machine
weighs sixty pounds and costs fourteen dollars, and
if the apiary contains more than forty hives of
bees, such a wax-press will pay for itself soon with
the wax which would otherwise be lost.

We have seen one home-made press constructed
from a half barrel worked by the machinery of a
cheese-press. The follower was cleated on the under
side, and the barrel was filled with boiling water;
the wax as it was pressed out was run off by a spout
at the top. Another which was used successfully
was simply a box with cleated bottom and a cleated
follower into which the hot wax was poured and
pressed out most successfully. One of the wax
presses used by many is called the Hatch-Gemmill
press, which is run on the principle of dipping the
hot wax off hot water and squeezing it through the
press.

134 HOW TO KEEP BEES

REFINING WAX WITH SULPHURIC ACID

On a small scale this may be done in an agate
or porcelain-lined kettle. Mr, Root even advises
on occasion th^ use of a large iron kettle. The
kettle is filled half full of water, 100 parts to one part
acid, and is brought nearly to the boiling point over
a slow fire; the wax is then added and is kept hot
for a little time after it is melted, and then the fire is
allowed to die down; as soon as it is cool enough so
that the dirt has settled, the wax is dipped off, great
care being taken not to stir up the settlings. If an
iron kettle is used it should afterward be thoroughly
washed with boiling water, and rubbed with fresh
lard or some other unsalted grease to stop the action
of the acid upon it. Beeswax may be bleached by
exposing it in thin sheets to the sunlight.

ADULTERATED BEESWAX

Dishonest dealers have attempted to adulterate
beeswax with several substances; tallow, paraffine
and cerasin being more commonly used. Tallow
or other greasy adulterants may be detected by the
smell ; and because the cakes of wax containing them
feel and look greasy. But parafiine and cerasin are
not so easily detected by the eye or feel. The
specific gravity test is the one used by dealers. A
piece of wax known to be pure is placed in a jar of
water, and enough alcohol is added so that the wax
will just settle to the bottom. Then a piece of the
suspected wax is placed in the jar, and if it contains

POINTS ABOUT BEESWAX 135

either paraflSne or cerasin it will still float. Another
test but not so exact is made by chewing the wax; if
it is pure it will be brittle and break as it is chewed,
but adulterated wax is cohesive like gum.

MAXIMS FOR BEESWAX MAKING

The wax-market is always good, and the wise bee-
keeper saves every scrap of this precious material.

Do not be mussy when making beeswax, or it
will take longer to clean up than to make the wax.

Do not use galvanised iron vessels for boiling wax
as the quality is thus injured.

Clean wax off with hot water or benzine.

CHAPTER Xlf
FEEDING BEES

WHEN TO FEED

At least twice during the season bees are likely to
need more food than they can get in the fields, if
the bee-keeper is to do a profitable business. Once
early in the spring when for some reason the nectar
supply fails, and it is desirable to stimulate the rear-
ing of brood; again, late in the season when the colony
has not enough honey for winter use. When the
cupidity of the bee-keeper leads him to extract
too much honey, then must he forsooth open his
pocketbook and buy expensive sugar to feed back
to those whom he has robbed. However, bees
should be watched closely; they may need feeding at
any time, for it is hard to predict when the honey
or pollen harvest may fail in a given locality.

When food is given the bees in the spring, it is
largely for the sake of stimulating them to extra
activity; and thus develop large, strong colonies
ready for work as soon as the harvest occurs. The
brood-chambers should be closely watched in the
early spring and if there is not sufficient food for the
brood present, it should be provided. In the fall
the hive should be examined by the middle of Sep-

136

FEEDING BEES 137

tember or the first of October. A colony of ordinary
size ought to have at least thirty pounds of capped
honey. The ordinary Langstroth frame, when
filled on both sides, contains about five pounds cf
honey; therefore, there should be an equivalent of
six filled frames in each hive. If the swarm lacks this
amount, an estimate should be made of how much
more it needs, and this amount should be fed.

Bees are usually fed upon honey or syrup made
from the best granulated sugar, although some
have claimed that the best grade of coffee-sugars
make a good syrup; but the consensus of opinion is
in favour of the granulated. The syrup is made
in two ways: First, by heat. Melt the granulated
sugar in its own weight or measure of water; it
should be heated slowly, and never reach a tempera-
ture higher than 180° F. lest it burn, for scorched
syrup fed in winter is as fatal to bees as so much
poison. The mixture should be stirred until the
sugar is entirely dissolved, then allowed to cool
slowly, and it is ready for use. If there are many
to feed, a wash-boiler is a 'very convenient utensil to
use, as it is easier to make a large quantity at a time.
Because of the danger of scorching a cold process has
been evolved. It consists of taking equal measures
of sugar and water; the latter should be boiling hot
and the two stirred together until the sugar is dis-
solved. This may be done in a churn or in the
honey extractor. In following this process it is
best to add the sugar a bowlful at a time, while
stirring the mixture industriously. The syrup

138 HOW TO KEEP BEES

should be thin when finished, as it is better to let
the bees attend to the ripening of it.

HOW TO FEED

There are two general plans for feeding bees. One
IS to place the syrup outside the hive, and the other
to place it within the hive. The first is much more
convenient for the apiarist, but unless the work be
done very carefully or in the evening, and the
syrup well guarded, the bees may become demoralised
and begin robbing. Feeding outside the hive can
be done only during warm weather. There are
several simple feeders in which the syrup is placed at
night, and taken away in the morning; but the method
most generally followed is to fill a INIason fruit can
with the syrup and place on it a perforated cover,
then invert it in a box in front of the hive; the
entrance to this box is so connected with the entrance
to the hive that robbing is impossible. The box
and cover are sold under the name of the Boardman
feeder. As there is very little air in the can, the
syrup oozes out very slowly through the perforated
cover, and the bees take it as fast as it comes. This
feeder is satisfactory in that we can tell at a glance
when it needs replenishing.

However, most apiarists follow the custom of
feeding within the hive, and strive to accomplish
this without loss of warmth in the brood-chambers,
and without disturbing or daubing the bees. Of
all the devices for feeding within the hive, the
division-board feeder is the most practical. It con-

FEEDING BEES 139

sists simply of a division board made to hold the
syrup, which is placed in the hive instead of a frame
Plate XII. There is a hole at the top so that it may
be refilled by simply pushing back the cover, and
pouring in the syrup from a pitcher. The only
objection to this feeder is its size, as it does not hold
more than two pounds of syrup, and if used for fall
feeding would need to be filled many times. This
feeder is especially useful for stimulating the bees in
the spring, and is also most practical in developing
nuclei. In a small apiary it is quite practical for all
purposes.

Of the larger inside feeders the Smith, the Heddon
and the Miller are generally used. These are alike
in one respect; they are flat boxes placed directly
above the frames and beneath the quilts. The
Heddon and the Miller each take a certain specified
number of pounds of syrup, so that when we use
them we can tell just how much we are feeding.
The Miller is especially convenient in this respect,
and has one advantage over the others in that the
entrance for the bees is directly above the centre of
the brood-chamber, so that the bees may enter it
easily without loss of heat. This fact renders it an
excellent feeder for cold weather. Some still use
the pepper-box feeder, which consists of a tin can
with perforated cover, inverted above the frame, but
this lifts the quilts and lets in the cold, and is awk-
ward to use; and as it does not hold very much it is
quite inconvenient to manage.

Some altruistic people take the frames of comb

140 HOW TO KEEP BEES

from which honey has been extracted and fill the
cells with syrup. This is done by laying the comb
flat and letting the syrup into it through a fine sieve,
or by using a force-pump with a spray nozzle. After
the frame is filled it is allowed to stand on edge until
the drain has ceased and then it is hung in the hive,
and presto ! the bees never know that they have been
robbed.

In the happy days, when we were getting our first
experience, we fed some colonies for the winter by
introducing chunk honey into the bottom of the hive^
and it worked like a charm, except that we were
obliged to lift the hive to put in the honey, and again
to remove the beautifully cleaned comb. One never
realises how beautiful empty honey-comb may be
unless he has had the privilege of examining a freshly
made comb or one which the bees have cleaned.
Bee-books advise putting in the chunk honey above
the brood-frames, using Hill's device above it so it
will not be crushed by the quilt. We have done this,
setting the comb in every direction, and our bees
ignored it in a most provoking way; but when they
found it at the bottom of the hive, they carried it up at
once. We never knew why our bees were so con-
trary in refusing to take the honey from above
because other people's bees seem to like it ad-
ministered in that way.

HOW AND WHEN TO FEED CANDY

If necessary to feed the bees in midwinter many
people use candy. This is made by boiling granu-

FEEDING BEES 141

lated sugar in a double boiler until it is brittle when
dropped in cold water. It is then taken off and
stirred and poured into flat dishes to harden, from
which it can be taken as a cake and placed on top of
the frame at the centre of the hive. Some pour the
candy into the wooden butter-trays and after it
hardens invert the tray over the middle of the brood-
nest. Some, instead of caking it thus, mould it in
a brood-frame by holding the frame flat on a table
or board covered with oil paper and pouring the
candy in; it thus hardens fast to the frame, and may
be put directly in the brood-nest. The famous
Good candy, so called because it was invented by
Mr. Good, although the excellence of the product
would have given it that name anyway, is made by
taking extracted honey, and heating it until it is
quite thin, but not allowed to boil, and mixing into it
confectioner's sugar until the spoon can no longer
stir it; then the mixture is taken out, and placed on a
board and more sugar kneaded into it until it is of
firm consistency. In hot weather more sugar is
needed than in the winter. In making this candy
skill is evinced in getting it as soft as possible, and
yet stiff enough so that it will not flow. Only the
best honey is used for this; and if the confectioner's
sugar seems impure, then granulated sugar should
be pounded in a mortar or rolled under a rolling-pin
until fine and used instead. The confectioner's
sugar may be tested by putting a little in a glass of
water and noting if there is a sediment.

142 HOW-TO KEEP BEES

FEEDING RYE FLOUR

This is given as a substitute for pollen, and is
often of great use in the spring when the flowers are
late in blossoming, or when severe rains wash the
pollen from the fruit bloom. Pollen or its equivalent
is absolutely necessary for rearing the brood. The
unbolted rye flour, or even oatmeal, or whole-wheat
flour may be used by the bees as a substitute with
perfect' success. The meal may be mixed with the
candy if it is desirable; but the usual way is to place
it in a trough or box that is shallow, press it down hard
so that it will be not more than an inch or two thick,
to prevent the bees from getting suffocated while
working in it. We must remember that the bee has
two rows of holes along each side of the body through
which it breathes, and thus could be suffocated
as easily in soft flour as in water. The box contain-
ing the meal is usually placed a few rods distant
from the apiary, and often some old combs with
honey in them are placed on top so as to attract the
bees to the box, and let them know that it contains
food for them. Most bee-keepers say that the box
needs to be placed in the sun or the bees ignore it.

FEEDING FOR HONEY

Some bee-keepers practise feeding all the colonies
early in the season so that the brood has plenty of
sugar-syrup stored near it when the honey season
opens; and since the brood-comb is full the bees
begin at once to store in the supers. Mr. Boardman

FEEDING BEES ^. 143

who invented the best entrance-feedei^actises this,
with the result of getting more honey #ian other bee-
keepers of his neighbourhood, who ^ do not feed at
this time. It is especially valuable ^p years when the
honey is scarce, for then the bees store all the honey
they gather in the supers. Howeve%''^here is one thing
to consider carefully in this feeding, and that is the
relative price of syrup and honey. If the market
is glutted and honey is plentiful and cheap, this sort
of feeding would better be practised cautiously;
but when honey is scarce and dear, it is certainly a
safe experiment.

FEEDING BACK

When the sections are not well filled in the late
season, it is the practice of some apiarists to feed
extracted honey in order to fill them. For this only
the best honey is used; it is mixed with water, ten
pounds of honey to one of water, and heated so that
it is a fluid and then poured in the larger kind of
feeders, and is put in at night, as the smell of the
heated honey particularly incites bees to robbing.
However, the flavour of honey which has been fed
back is inferior to that which is only once made, and
but a few apiarists practise feeding back successfully.

WATERING BEES

If there is no fresh water in the immediate vicinity
of the hives, special provision should be made to
secure it, as it is a highly desirable adjunct to a well-
regulated apiary. While there are times during the
season when the bees get most of the moisture they

144 HOW TO KEEP BEES

need from the nectar, there are other times when
they drink water eagerly. This is especially so in
the spring when they are gathering much pollen and
little water, and the weather is warm. Running water
is more desirable, and if the drip from a faucet flow
over a board, or on pebbles, it affords a nearly ideal
drinking place for the bees, since they can drink
freely and are in no danger of drowTiing. Some bee-
keepers invert a Mason jar filled with water, on a
board that has a few shallow^ groves, perhaps one-
eighth inch deep; the water flows out slowly owing
to atmospheric pressure; if a little salt be added to
the water the bees lap it up eagerly.

MAXIMS FOR FEEDING

Keep close watch of the bees during the entire
season, so as to know whether they need feeding or
not.

Feed only good honey or the best sugar.

Never feed scorched sugar in the winter, as it will
surely kill the bees.

Observe the practice of feeding at nightfall to
preclude robbing.

Never spill the syrup or honey around the yard
lest robbers be led on to black deeds.

Feed small amounts to stimulate a swarm or nu-
cleus. Bees are susceptible to small encouragements.

Be careful never to cool off the brood-chamber
when feeding in early spring or late fall.

See to it that the bees have water near by, especially
early in the season.

CHAPTER XIII
HOW TO WINTER BEES

IDEAL CONDITIONS

The wintering of bees in the northern latitudes is
usually attended with more or less loss. Although
we now think we know the conditions necessary
for perfect winterings it is only now and then
that they are attained. There are so many
unhappy and unpredictable circumstances and
vicissitudes, that one must needs be a true prophet
as well as a good bee-keepar to be sure that all
his swarms will successfully pass the period of snow
and cold.

The problem of wintering hinges as much on
protection from dampness as on protection from the
cold. We all know that double windows in a room
keep the frost off the panes. The reason for this
is that the dampness of the room is not allowed to
come in contact with the cold outside glass. So it is
with the bee-hive; if it is single walled the dampness
from the breath of the bees causes the frost to gather
on the walls of the hive, which later melts and wets
the bees so that they chill easily; the double-walled
hive is a guard against this condition.
145

146 HOW TO KEEP BEES

GETTING READY FOR WINTERING

First of all that watchward of the bee-keeper must
be fully realised, ''Keep the colonies strong." Most
men of experience do not attempt to winter a colony
that is not large enough to cover at least four of the
Langstroth brood-frames. If a colony is as small
as this, the division boards should be used to contract
the hive and make it as cosy and comfortable as pos-
sible. It is far safer to try to winter a colony that
covers six frames than one that covers only four;
the more the bees the warmer the hive, the less the
loss, and also the less missed are those that die. To
secure good swarms it is best to keep up the breeding
throughout the summer, which can be done by feed-
ing if the honey is scarce.

Next in importance to a strong colony is good
honey and plenty of it sealed in the combs, so that
wholesome food may help to sustain the bees during
this trying period. With a four-frame colony four
frames of sealed stores will be enough. A Lang-
stroth brood-frame should hold about five pounds
of honey if it is well filled. If the colony is larger,
then more honey must, of course, be given. We
never allow any of our colonies to begin winter
without at least thirty pounds of sealed honey, and
when a colony is very large we have given it
thirty-five pounds. This may seem wasteful extrav-
gance on our part, but the honey not used in the
winter is of use in the spring. It is necessary that
the honey be of good quality; the bee is such a neat

HOW TO WINTER BEES 147

housekeeper that she will suffer death rather than
let food pass through her alimentary canal when she
is dormant, and thus render unsanitary the bee-city,
a devotion to municipal sanitation which is hardly
found elsewhere in the annals of living beings. If
honey of poor quality is fed to the bees and they
hold within themselves such food, disaster is likely
to ensue. In preparing the hive for winter what is
known as the Hill's device, which is a series of curved
pieces of wood held in place by a strip of tin, is
placed above the frames to support the cushion so as
to allow the bees to readily climb over them. We
use a super cover in our chaff hives instead of the
HilFs device.

There are three ways of wintering bees in common
use. First in the chaff or double-walled hives left
in the open. Second, in tenement-hives. Third,
the hives are carried into cellars. The reprehensible
way of leaving bees out of doors in single-walled
hives with no protection during the winter is no
longer practised by civilised people.

OUTDOOR WINTERING

Many apiarists protect the hive by a box, several
inches larger than the hive in every diameter,
placed over the hive, the spaces between being packed
with chaff or dried leaves. A passage-way out k
always preserved so that the bees may fly out during
the early warm days, and free themselves from the
accumulated waste. This is a cheap way of securing
the advantages of a chaff hive. Such boxes are sold

148 HOW TO KEEP BEES

by the dealers, and many good words are said for
this method of wintering.

THE CHAFF HIVE

The chaff hive is probably the most perfect of all
of the devices for out-of-door wintering when con-
venience and the saving of work as well as success
are taken into consideration. The chaff hive is
a double-walled hive with wall spaces packed with
chaff. It is a certain guard against extremes and
sudden changes of temperature, as it remains cool in
the hot and warm in the cold weather.

The chaff for packing should be fine. That from
timothy hay, oats or wheat is commonly used; saw-
dust and planer shavings and dried leaves closely
packed are also often resorted to. The packing
should be below as well as on the sides of the hive.
A cushion made of burlap and filled with chaff is
put above a Hill's device or super cover, as this is
the most convenient method of packing the hive
on top. The bees should be thoroughly established
and have their stores ready as early as October 1st.
It is claimed by the admirers of the chaff hive that
they prevent spring dwindling by keeping the bees
warm in the early spring ; and also that they keep the
hive cool enough so that the brood is not developed
in the combs until the proper time for it.

The chaff hives are sufficiently warm to preserve
bees during ordinary winters, but neither they nor
any other out-door device were entirely successful
during the long, protracted cold of the winter of

HOW TO WINTER BEES 149

1903-04 when many bee-keepers in the Northern
States lost 40 per cent, of their bees. It might be
wise when such a winter occurs to give some tem-
porary protection to the hives, Hke covering them
with boughs of evergreen or building a close wind-
break. The entrance to a chaff hive should always
be contracted in winter to keep out cold and mice.

THE TENEMENT HIVE

This is a box made for holding from two to ten
hives, and which we have used with perfect success.
Our favourite tenement-hive was arranged for six
hives in two stories. The bottom was packed well
with dry leaves or chaff, and three hives were set
somewhat near each other. Entrances were boxed
back, affording a front hall for each hive-entrance.
After three hives were thus set in and packed with
chaff on every side and between, a shelf was put across
and on this were set three more hives which were
likewise packed. The entrances to the upper
row were on the same side as those to the lower ix)w,
and the cover of the box sloped back from the front
of the hives and was hinged along its highest edge;
thus when we wished to examine the hives we lifted
the cover and examined the bees from the back side
instead of standing directly in front of the entrance.
Our losses were rare and small while using these
tenements. The advantage of the tenement over the
chaff hive is that it is cheaper, and that several
colonies packed together help to keep each other
warm.

150 HOW TO KEEP BEES

WINTERING IN CELLARS

The way we always wintered bees in the old days
was by placing them in a cellar which was used for
vegetables and was ill-ventilated and damp. We
well remember that in the spring the cellar windows
were covered with arrested prisoners; we do not
recollect that we lost many colonies, but if we did not,
it was owing to the ways of inscrutable Providence
rather than our own understanding of the needs of
the bees. Probably most of the bees in the Northern
climates are wintered in cellars ; and because they are
wintered in all sorts of cellars with varying degrees
of dampness the mortality among them is likely to be
great. A cellar fit for wintering bees should be
cemented on the floor and sides, made mouse and rat
tight, and should be well drained, well ventilated and
so arranged that the temperature may be kept in
the neighbourhood of 45° F. In such a cellar the
hives lifted off the bottom boards should be placed
four or five inches apart on two scantlings laid on
the floor. In the next tier the middle of a hive
should bridge the opening between the lower hives
on which it rests. This arrangement gives plenty
of ventilation to the hive from below, and it is very
important that the air be introduced below rather
than above. The cellar should be kept dark, and if
the weather is warm and the bees seem uneasy it
should be ventilated at night by opening the windows,
which, by the way, should have wire screens to keep
out intruders. Some leave the bottom boards out

HOW TO WINTER BEES 151

on the summer stands, each board bearing the same
number as the hive which rests upon it, and thus in
the spring it is easy to find the home of each colony;
but if the bees are brought into the cellar without the
bottom boards on the hive they are quite likely to
fly out more or less. Usually, therefore, they are
brought in on the bottom boards, and these are piled
in some convenient place until needed in the spring.
In this case it is advisable to have a map made of the
apiary, and the hives and their places numbered on
the map, and thus each hive may be returned to its
old stand in the spring.

If bees are wintered in the ordinary house-cellar it
is far better to partition off the part used for the bees
from that used for vegetables, and much pains should
be taken to keep the air good and the cellar well
ventilated.

Special bee-cellars are in vogue in some large
apiaries. The cellar is sometimes made beneath the
bee-house, and sometimes it is a structure by itself.
Of all such cellars, the Bingham seems to us the
cheapest, and surely quite as practical as the others.
It is built like a square cistern, twelve feet square at
the bottom, sixteen feet at the top and six feet deep ;
it is cemented at the bottom and on the sides, and
the ceiling is flush with the level of the ground.
Over this is built a gable roof, the eaves extending
down to a drain on either side so that all the water
is carried off. The ventilation is secured through
a pipe extending from the cellar ceiling to the top of
the roof. The floor over the cellar is tight and

152 HOW TO KEEP BEES

covered with sawdust; access to the cellar stairs is
gained through a trap door. Such a cellar as this
should be built on a dry knoll. Mr. Bingham has
wintered successfully ninety colonies in this house;
and it will hold nearly twice as many.

The bees may come out of the hives and die in
great numbers when they are wintered in a cellar.
If any such seem distended and swollen they have
probably died of dysentery, and the matter should
be looked into immediately. However, many of the
bees that die in winter are likely to be the old ones
which are not vigorous enough to stand the strain of
the cold. The cellar floor should be swept several
times during the winter and all the dead bees re-
moved so they shall not pollute the atmosphere.
The cellar should always be dark, but the bees can
be easily examined with a lamp, or what is better, a
bull's-eye lantern.

The carrying of hives into the cellar is an onerous
task when the apiary is large. The entrance to the
hive should be closed the night before so as to be
sure the whole family is moved. The hives should
be carried with as little perturbance to the occupants
as may be; several methods of carrying the hives
easily and quietly have been invented. Mr. Root
uses a wire bent like a V with the wooden piece of a
common pail bale at the angle. The prongs of the
V are bent at right angles into hooks which hook
under the bottom board; two men carry the hive, one
on each side, each with a carrier just described.
Mr, INIiller has a simple rope carrier that slips under

HOW TO WINTER BEES 153

the cleated ends of the hive. Mr. Boardman has a
delightful device, which is a carrier in the shape cf a
push-cart with two wheels. A board just large enough
to set the hive upon with rope handles at either side
serves admirably.

WHEN TO PUT BEES IN THE CELLAR

This should be done as soon as steady cold weather
comes on. In this northern climate the colonies
should be ready in October, for the appointed time
for putting them in the cellar is likely to occur
between the first and fifteenth of November. If put
in too soon and the weather is warm they become
uneasy; they should be put in during a dry day so
that the hives will not be dampened by rain or fog.

T\^EN TO TAKE BEES OUT OF THE CELLAR

This is decided somewhat by the bees themselves;
if they awaken and push out and try to escape in
great numbers, it is a sign that they had best be put
out as soon as it can be safely done. Mr. Root makes
the practice of putting his bees out of the cellar in the
middle of a warm day in midwinter, so that they
may have a cleansing flight, and then puts them
back in the cellar that night; which shows that a
merciful man is good to his bees. However, some
other bee-keepers think that this taking them out in
midwinter is fraught with danger.

In a climate like that of New York it is hardly safe
to take the hives from the cellar before the last
of April or the first of May. The general rule is to

154 HOW TO KEEP BEES

wait until there is a prevalent temperature of 70°, and
the willow, the alder, and the soft maples are in
blossom, so that the bees may gather pollen as soon
as they are put out. The glowing banners of the red
maple blossoms give signal to most of the bee-
keepers in the northern climate that it is time that
the bees were on the wing.

sprii;g dwindling

The cause of this is attributed to various conditions
by various bee-keepers. The evidence of it is shown
by the listlessness of the swarm, and by the dying of
the bees. Whatever the reason, all apiarists agree
it is more common during cold, backward springs,
and that it is less prevalent when the bees are put out
in warm, sunny locations. The only remedies sug-
gested are that the brood-chambers be contracted so
that the bees can easily keep the comb warm, and
that plenty of good syrup and rye flour and water
be given to the bees if they are unable to get food
from the flowers. INIany apiarists have tried the
joining of two colonies when this dwindling appears,
hoping thus to get enough bees in a hive to keep it
warm, but they all agree that this does not help the
matter.

MAXIMS FOR WINTERING

Keep the colonies strong. Be sure that a good-
sized swarm has at least thirty pounds of sealed
stores.

Pollen should not be left in the comb for winter use.

Phntosrraph hy M. V. S'-nsrer/nnd

PLATE XXII. WIXr.lR QUARTERS IN CHAFF HIVES

Photograph by Verne Morton
PLATE XXIII. PLUM BLOSSOMS
The fruit-bloom is a great aid to the bees while rearing their brood.

HOW TO WINTER BEES 155

Be sure that the honey is of good quahty, and not
made from decayed fruit or honey-dew.

Give the hive ventilation from below.

If wintered out of doors, give the bees a chance
to fly. ^

If wintered in cellars, do not put too many bees
in a cellar. If you have space for fifty colonies, do not
try to winter more than thirty in it.

In cellars take off the bottom boards and arrange
the hives so that the bees will get plenty of ventilation
from below.

Have a thermometer in the cellar and keep watch
of it. This 'should not show more than ten degrees
of variation. If the temperature rises to 55°, open
the windows at night.

Keep the cellar dark and the air sweet.

Sweep the dead bees off the cellar floor several
times during the winter.

Contract the brood-chamber in the fall, and again,
if necessary, when the hives are set out in the
spring, until there is only comb enough so that the
bees can cover it well.

See that the bees have plenty of food and good
water near by when set out in the spring.

CHAPTER XIV

REARING AND INTRODUCING QUEENS

QUEEN-REARING

In a small apiary there is little need for the special
rearing of queens ; the natural increase may safely be
depended upon to supply all the colonies which lose
their queens or which have unprofitable ones. 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; with a toothpick tear down the partitions
between three worker cells which contain eggs or
larvse less than two days old and destroy two of the
eggs or larvse; repeat the operation in several places.
Place the frame back in the hive, being very sure
that there is sufficient space between it and its
neighbouring frame, so that good queen cells may
be built. If there is a scarcity of honey, feed the
bees. The cleverness of bees is clearly proven by
the readiness with which they take a hint, and they
156

QUEENS 157

almost invariably build queen cells upon the comb
thus treated.

This method we have found perfectly satisfactory,
but for those who rear queens for sale, other very
interesting practices have been invented. The
greatest of these was devised by Mr. Doolittle, one
of the foremost queen-breeders in America. He makes
artificial queen cells by dipping a small, smoothly
rounded stick in warm wax repeatedly, thus making
a little cup, thin at the edge and thick at the bottom.
Rows of these little cups are placed on a bar the thick-
ness of a brood-frame and fastened there with hot
wax. In each cup is introduced a bit of royal jelly
and a very young larva. The bar is then inserted
horizontally into a frame of brood-comb, part of
the latter being cut away to give room for the future
cells, which project down from the bar. In such
a royal nursery, he develops his queens for the mar-
ket.

INTRODUCING QUEENS

Though royalty in the hive is of quite another
feather than in human society, yet there is quite as
much ado when it comes to installations in one as
in the other. While a bee-colony is absolutely
devoted to its own queen, it may seriously object
to a queen thrust upon it by some outside power.
And thus it happens that the introduction of a new
queen into a hive is fraught with danger to her
majesty as well as to the pocket-book of the bee-
keeper.

158 HOW TO KEEP BEES

BALLING THE QUEEN

"Balling" in the hive is an indignity that may well
have suggested to other societies the method of
black-balling unwelcome seeket-s after honours. The
bees ball an unwelcome queen by gathering around
her in a compact mass, remaining there until the
unfortunate usurper is smothered or starved, or both.
As if to live up to their mathematical reputation,
this ball is quite spherical because each bee is an
animated atom of centripetal force scrambling and
pushing toward the centre. This method of smoth-
ering royalty is regarded as an evidence of the
worker's reluctance to sting a fertile queen. But
observations are recorded which state that the bees
on the outside of the ball seem fiercely trying to
sting, and that the individuals nearest the queen
ofttimes share her fate because of this venomous
attitude of their sisters. WTiether this use of the
sting by the outsiders is for the purpose of fighting
their way tow^ard the centre, or whether they are
mad with a desire to kill the queen, is by no means
a settled question. However, if they were bent upon
stinging her to death, she would scarcely be alive
after having been balled for some time; while it is a
matter of common experience that by breaking up
the ball and driving off the murderers, the queen
may be saved. Sometimes the bees will ball a
queen for a time, then voluntarily release her and
accept her.

There are two ways generally followed for dis-

QUEENS 159

solving this lump of excited regicides and saving
the queen. One is to drop the ball in a shallow
bowl of water. This baptism seems to cool the hot
blood and the bees swim off, trying to preserve their
own lives. The other is to smoke the ball until it
dissolves into individual bees, so anxious to get breath
for themselves that they forget to shut off the breath
of the obnoxious queen. There is a danger attend-
ing the latter method, for unless the smoking be
done carefully and without blowing hot air on the
bees, they will become infuriated by the heat and
surely sting the queen; as they evidently regard her,
and rightly, as the cause of their suft'ering.

WHEN TO INTRODUCE A QUEEN

The colony should have been queenless long
enough to realise the danger of the situation, but
not long enough to have done much toward build-
ing queen cells and developing larval queens; in
the latter case they prefer a queen of their own
dynasty and object to any other. Thus, if a
queen is to be superseded she should be removed
and, about two days later, the new one should
be introduced.

It requires experience to know certainly that a
colony has become queenless, for often, when there
is no brood or eggs in the cells there is a virgin queen,
which eludes the eye, as she does not appear very
differently from the workers; a colony with virgin
queens of its own cannot be induced to accept an
introduced queen.

IGO HOW TO KEEP BEES

Mr. Root tests a colony which he suspects is
queenless in the following clever way: He takes a
cage containing a laying queen and holds it over the
frames so that it touches them and the bees may thus
get the scent. If the bees have no queen they express
their pleasure at this godsend in a very pretty
manner by a joyful fluttering of the wings, which
conveys the idea of happiness to even our dull
senses. To such a colony, the queen may be given
with no formalities.

HOW TO INTRODUCE A QUEEN

The colony should be made good-natured by
having plenty of food. If there is scarcity of honey,
the bees should be fed for a day or so, great care
being taken not to start other colonies to robbing
by exposing the syrup. The queen is then intro-
duced in a queen-cage, which should be placed be-
tween the brood-combs. This should be done as
carefully as possible without disturbing the bees.
At the end of forty-eight hours an examination should
be made, and if the bees are balling the cage, she
should be left twenty-four hours longer. When the
bees gather around the cage in normal numbers she
may be entrusted to them without fear.

QUEEN-CAGES

First of these are the shipping-cages, and it is a
thrilling moment when one takes a package from
the mail, labelled "Queen Bee, Deliver Quick."
And it is still more exciting when the cover slides

QUEENS 161

around, revealing her gracious majesty with a few
attendants, safe beneath the wire screen; for no bee-
dealer would be so heartless or foolish as to send a
queen on a journey without a few ladies-in-waiting
to give her companionship and care.

The cage in which a queen is shipped is always
tagged or labelled with directions for introducing
the queen, which, if followed implicitly, almost
always insures success.

The plan of a queen-cage is a cell made of wire
screen with twelve to fifteen meshes to the square
inch, large enough to allow the bees to thrust in
their antennae and thus get acquainted with their
proposed sovereign, but not large enough to permit
a sting to be effectively thrust through. The cell,
itself, is large enough so that the prisoner will not
suffocate if the cage is balled. At one end of the
cage is an opening into which is pressed a cork of
candy, over which is tacked a piece of pasteboard,
through which is a central line of perforations. At
first the bees are wild to get at the queen, and in-
cidentally in their attack they get a taste of the
candy through the holes in the pasteboard. This
distracts their attention, and they work indus-
triously at biting away the pasteboard to get at the
candy. And by the time they have worked their
way through the delectable door, their attitude to-
wards the prisoner is naturally sweetened, and
usually they accept her at once. The '' Good candy"
is used for this purpose, for the queen is also sus-
tained on this confection during her incarceration,

162 HOW TO KEEP BEES

and unless a moist candy is used, she will suffer for
lack of water.

Home-made cages are usually employed in intro-
ducing queens from the home apiary. These are of
various forms and devices, the INIiller being a favour-
ite. His materials are as follows: One block of
wood 3 X IJ X I in.; two blocks of wood 1 x 7-16 x |
in.; two pieces of tin 1 in. square; two pieces of fine
wire 9 in. long; one piece of wire-cloth 4 J x 3 J in.;
four wire nails h in. long. (Plate V.)

The illustration shows how the material is used.
The space between the two small blocks of wood,
held in place by the pieces of tin forms a door for
the candy. The large piece of wood serves as a plug
at the other end of the cage, which may be removed,
and the cage set down over the queen, thus capturing
her without handling her. When a queen is placed
in a cage she should always be allowed to chmb up
into it. It is not natural for her to climb down.

THE NUCLEUS METHOD

This method of introducing very valuable queens
is said by experts to be absolutely safe. It is accom-
plished by making a nucleus of two or three frames
cf brood, which is sealed and some of it just breaking
through the cell caps. Not an adult bee is permitted
to remain, and there should be as few uncapped
larvae as possible, since such will starve. The
queen is placed on these combs and the young bees,
as they issue innocent of men's scheming, accept
her as their legitimate mother, and a colony is sooo

QUEENS 163

built up. A nucleus hive of this sort must be placed
in a warm room, unless it is hot weather, as there are
no bees to warm the brood. Care must also be
taken to put a wire screen over the entrance of the
hive for a day or two to prevent the queen from
escaping if she becomes uneasy midst such a dreary
waste of adolescence.

MAXIMS FOR INTRODUCING QUEENS

Be sure the colony is queenless before attempting
to introduce a queen.

Be sure the bees have not progressed far in rearing
young queens.

Be careful not to anger or disturb the bees by
smoke or hot blast or otherwise when placing the
queen in the hive.

If honey is scarce, feed the colony before trying
to introduce the queen.

Place the cage containing the queen on the frames
near the centre of the brood-chamber, wire cloth
below her, so that the cage rests on the bars of the
frames.

Do not disturb the colony for forty-eight hours
after introducing the queen-cage.

Be careful not to allow the queen to escape by
flight when liberating her.

Remember, a queen crawls up instead of down.

After queens are two or three years old they
should be replaced by young queens.

CHAPTER XV
ROBBING IN THE APIARY

A CAUSE OF DEMORALISATION

The moral law seems to be as potent among the
bees as among men, and if the law be broken there
is a moral penalty attached. Nothing demon-
strates this more fully than robbing in the apiaries,
for as soon as it begins utter demoralisation ensues.
All legitimate work is stopped, and all the energies
of the bees are devoted to ill-gotten gain and in
fighting with each other, or attacking anything or
anybody that comes near them. One of the signs
of this demoralisation is that robbing makes the bees
very cross. The experienced bee-keeper can detect
robbing by the angry humming which prevades the
apiary, which is a sound as different from the
ordinary contented hum of the working bee as mar-
tial music is from a pastoral symphony.

WHY BEES ROB

Bees rob for the very human and natural reason
that the stores gathered by the hard work of others
are coveted and are more easily stolen than earned by
labour. When dealing with bees we must always
remember that the interest of the individual centres
164

ROBBING IN THE APIARY 165

in its own colony, and that it has neither love nor
devotion to any other colony, nor to bees in general;
indeed, quite otherwise. Endowed with an instinct
almost fiendish, bees seem to understand when
another colony is weak or discouraged, and, there-
fore, offers a legitimate field for plunder. Strong
colonies are seldom robbed, as they are able to drive
out and kill the thieves; but the weak colony is a
constant temptation to ill doing, and should be
carefully watched and guarded.

WHEN BEES ROB

This occurs usually when there is little honey to
be found in the field. Satan provides mischief for
the idle six feet and four wings quite as efficiently
as for hands. At the end of the honey-harvest there
may be a general temptation throughout the apiary
to break open vaults of precious stores belonging to
others, and escape with the contents. At the close
of the honey season strong colonies usually have
plenty of sentinels to guard the entrance and look
after suspicious strangers. Never at any time should
honey-comb be left open around the apiary, for
it always leads to robbing. It seems to suggest
to the bees that honey gathered is a much more
desirable product than that worked for in the fields.

Sometimes when preserving or pickling is going on
in the house the bees start to rob the kitchen; and
while they may be deterred by screened windows,
yet the smell of the sweets may so excite them to
desires for forbidden wealth that they seem to become

166 HOW TO KEEP BEES

discontented with the grind of daily toil, and so
begin robbing their neighbours.

HOW THE ROBBING IS DONE

The robber, unless she be hardened by success,
alights on the threshold of the hive which contains
coveted stores with an air that is decidedly apolo-
getic, having the general appearance of a prospecting
dog with his tail apprehensively between his legs.
She shows her guilty conscience by dodging back if
she meets one of the legitimate owners coming out
of the hive; she is thus trying the skill and prowess of
the sentinels, for if by assuming bravado she can pass
the sentinels she is usually safe ; then she has nothing
to do but to fill with honey and to run the gauntlet
of the sentinels again, for perchance some of them
may stop her and ask her why she is going out of the
hive filled with honey, a proceeding altogether
reprehensible in the bee world. If she succeeds in
carrying back to her own hive the honey thus
stolen, she creates great excitement there and soon
she leads back a mob to pillage; and the air is full
of bees bent on wickedness. Mr. Root describes
graphically the successful robber thus: *'A bee
that has stolen a load is generally very plump and
full, and as it comes out has a hurried and guilty
look; besides it is almost always wiping its mouth
like a man who has just come out of a beer shop.
Most of all it finds it a little difficult to take wing as
bees ordinarily do because of its weight." As a
consequence a robber bee borne down w^ith its load

ROBBING IN THE APIARY 167

of sweetness is likely to crawl up the hive a little way
so as to have the advantage of a high place to "jump
from'^ as it takes wing. The virtuous worker comes
out of the hive slim and depleted of her load and
flies off leisurely to the field, while the robber comes
out stuffed full and furtively climbs up the side of the
hive in order to be able to be off.

We usually detect robbing in our apiary by the
fighting which we observe about the entrance; when
we see a pair of workers rolling over and over with
each other in the grass near the hive we know that
one of them is a robber, but as we do not know
which one we are obliged to apply the test meted to
the knights of old, and believe that the one who
survives is in the right. However, we take measures
at once to defend this hive. Also if we discover the
bees to be particularly cross some day, we look about
to see what has aroused their ire, and nine times out
of ten find that robbing is the cause of their ill
temper.

HOW TO STOP ROBBING

Contract the entrance to the hive being robbed.
To do this we place blocks in front of it, leaving only
enough space so that one or two bees can pass in at
a time. The robbers having to enter in single file
attract the attention of the suspicious sentinels and
are either driven back or killed at once. It is unsafe
to close the entrance entirely, unless it is done with a
wire screen, for the bees within will smother unless
the air is admitted through the entrance. It is

168 HOW TO KEEP BEES

always well to keep the entrance of the hive which
contains a weak colony or a nucleus somewhat con-
tracted as a measure of insurance. If contracting
the entrance does not stop robbing, Mr. Root advises
strewing long grass about the entrance which he wets
thoroughly. The robbers are too wary to try to rob
after they have wet their "feathers" in passing
through this grass; for thus handicapped they could
hardly escape from their enraged victims; while the
robbers already within the hive after having thus to
crawl out will hasten home to get their clothes dry.
Mr. Doolittle uses a common sheet which he places
over the hive that is being robbed, while Mr. Miller
places over the victimised hive a bee tent of mosquito
netting, which has a hole in the top which permits
the robbers to escape.

A bee tent is a most useful adjunct to the apiary;
there are many times when it may be used, but it
is especially useful in preventing robbing. It is
simply a tent made of mosquito netting large enough
to be set over the hive and the operator. When
opening the hives at midday the tent is used to pre-
vent the robbers from attacking the exposed stores.

Mr. Root advises working at nightfall when bees
are cross or given to robbing; but most bee-keepers
declare that the bees will crawl all over one at night,
and are no more to be gotten rid of than a porous
plaster, at which Mr. Root promptly responds,
''Do not stand near the lamp.'*

Enterprising men exchange places of the robbers
and victims, which produces a confusion that restores

ROBBING IN THE APIARY 169

quiet. The robbers come back to the weak colony
laden with its own stores and join it and help fight
off intruders; while a strong colony of robbers is
quite capable of defending itself.

Another clever trick practised in Europe is to place
some disagreeable, strong-smelling substance on the
bottom board of the hive that is being robbed;
wormwood, musk, carbolised paper, are used for
this. The odour disconcerts the robber unless she
is lost to all sense of bee decency; and if she does steal
honey from such a hive and returns home her doom
is sealed; for although in the bee world the way of
the transgressor is not always hard, the way of the
citizen that smells differently from her sisters leads
to her murder and sudden death.

If a robber colony has almost completed its
nefarious work, some people believe that it is best to
let it make a clean job, and thus become satisfied
there is no more plunder to be had, else the robbers
will hunt other hives for depredation. The bee
memory seems to be very good, and if the robbers
have not cleaned up all the honey which they
remember is there, they hunt for it elsewhere. We
could never bring ourselves to a frame of mind to
pen^Jt this calmly, though it seems like sensible
advice. Robbing makes us so indignant that we
refuse to allow the spoils to the victor.

Bees are certainly very clever, and they are able
to learn. The old and successful robber soon
reasons it out that where the bee-keeper with a
smoker belches forth annoying fumes, there are to

170 HOW TO KEEP BEES

be found open hives ready for robbing; such bees
will follow the operator from hive to hive, taking their
tithe from the helpless colonies. For such robbers as
these a way to appease them is a device for letting
them rob where they can do little damage. Unsal-
able comb partly filled is put in hives or supers
piled up. These are ventilated by having a wire
screen above, the cover lifted, and the entrance
contracted so that only one bee can pass in and out at
a time. This keeps the robbers busy and happy
and out of the way, and the process is called "slow
robbing.*'

Some apiarists remove the robbed colony to a cellar
for a day or two until it can recover its communal
courage.

BORROWING

When a colony is queenless, or for some reason has
no brood, it often allows the robbers to come and go
at will, as if it had found Ufe worthless anyhow, and
that there was no use in struggling. It seems
possessed of the sort of pessimism which leads to
stoic recklessness. This can usually be stopped by
giving the plundered colony a queen and brood; as
soon as the bees find they have something worth
while to live for and fight for they are mightily
heartened and offer a brave defence.

WHAT BECOMES OP THE ROBBED COLONY

Some of the bees are adaptable, and when they
lose courage in defending their own stores they
turn about and help carry these stores to the hive of

ROBBING IN THE APIARY 171

the robbers, which they join, thus swearing allegiance
to a new flag. Others, more loyal, will cling to the old
empty comb, cluster there, hopeless and despairing
until they die of starvation.

MAXIMS TO PREVENT ROBBING

Be sure that the bees are robbing, before applying
remedies.

Keep the colonies strong.

Keep watch of the hives in early spring and late
fall when there is no honey coming in.

Leave no honey or loose comb open around the
apiary under any circumstances.

If bees are determined to rob when the hives are
opened by the operator, it is best to work under a
bee tent or after nightfall.

Robbing demoralises the whole apiary. If the
bees are cross, look out for robbers.

Be very careful in uncapping not to let the bees
get a taste of the chyle food, as that makes them very
cross and wild to rob.

Keep Italians.

Do not let the colony become queenless, as a queen-
less colony is legitimate prey for many depredators.

CHAPTER XVI

THE ENEMIES AND DISEASES OF BEES

THE BEE-MOTH XGallena melloneUa)

This miserable little pest is classic in its devasta-
tions as it is mentioned by the old writers, Aristotle
paying to it bitter tribute. It belongs to a family
of secretive moths which fold their dull wings
closely about the body, and thus look more hke bits
of sticks than like insects. They are called the
snout moths (Pyralidce) because the palpi extend out
in front of the head in a highly ornamental and
striking manner.

The bee-moth is a most insidious creature, hiding
in cracks, and, when it flies, darting about with
almost inconceivable swiftness. It is only by such
means that it eludes the watchful bees. Professor
Kellogg observes that the moth simply works against
time when it rushes into a hive by laying its eggs
rapidly, dodging about with the utmost rapidity to
leave as many progeny as possible before the bees
can get hold of her and tear her asunder, a fate which
surely awaits her. So it seems that even a parasite
may be brave and go to certain death in fulfilling its
destiny. Mr. Cook says that the moth will lay eggs
while her head and thorax are being dissected, which
172

ENEMIES AND DISEASES OF BEES 173

shows that even after death she is efficient for mis-
chief in the hive.

The eggs are small and white and are put into
crevices. From such an egg there hatches a cater-
pillar which spins about itself a silken tube, wherein
it lives and in some mysterious way is protected from
the bees. It may be that these tubes are of such
texture that the bees cannot sting through them; or
they may simply be sufficiently thick to protect their
inmate from bee observation. The caterpillar lives
upon the wax and young bees, and also upon the bee
bread; it is a voracious eater, and tunnels through
the comb, destroying everything in its path. Those
who have had experience with it say that by holding
an infested comb to the ear, the noise made by the
industrious jaws of the caterpillar can be distinctly
heard. Its presence can be detected by the filth and
the debris on the bottom board of the hive and also
by the silken tubes on the comb. 'VSTien the cater-
pillars destroy the bee larvae, the bees take out the
remains and dump them in front of the hive, thus
gaining among the ignorant, a reputation for infanti-
cide which they little deserve.

In favourable locations the growth of these moths
from egg to adult may require six weeks; the cater-
pillar when about an inch in length changes to a
pupa, in a very thick, protecting cocoon of tough
silk. The silk made by these caterpillars is of a most
excellent quality; there is in the Cornell University
Museum a filmy but strong silken handkerchief
made by bee-moths passing and repassing over a flat

174 HOW TO KEEP BEES

board; it was made quite involuntarily as the eater-
pillars spin wherever they go. The bee-moth is
especially destructive to stored comb if it is piled
close together.

REMEDY

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, intro-
duce it into the centre of an Italian colony, being
sure that the little wretches will find there the fate
they deserve. But to us this seems rather an im-
position upon a self-respecting colony of bees.

The use of plain, simple, well-made hives is a
protection from the bee-moth, as such hives do not
afford hiding-places for moths and eggs.

Before comb is stored it should be put in a closed
box out of doors, and a saucer of carbon bisulphide
placed on top of the comb and left for a day. The
deadly gas of this poison is heavier than the air and
so falls instead of rising. Care should be taken not
to breathe the fumes more than is necessary and
hence the work should be done in the open air.
Another reason for this is that the gas is inflammable,
and hence no fire should be allowed near it. There

ENEMIES AND DISEASES OF BEES 175

is another reason why the work should be done in
the open and that is because of the sickening stench
of the gas. Comb thus treated should be stored in a
perfectly tight receptacle, or else be set an inch or so
apart on shelves. The bee-moth caterpillar does
not seem to like to work in combs that are not set
as closely together, as they are in the hives.

If combs infested with the bee-moth are subjected
to a temperature of 10° F. the moth is usually ex-
terminated. However, the pest normally passes the
winter in the pupa state, and seems to be able to
survive in hives left out of doors, wherever the bees
can survive. It should be remembered that the bee-
moth works only during the summer from May until
October, and remains quiescent during the winter.
As a matter of fact the modern up-to-date bee-
keeper has almost no trouble with the bee-moth.
It is a special enemy of the heedless and careless man
who neglects his hives, and thus may well deserve
to have his bees exterminated.

If a colony is attacked by the bee-moth, the hive
should be thoroughly cleaned; new good comb
should be introduced and only enough so that the
bees can cover it. The infested comb should be
fumigated with carbon bisulphide, and after the
moths are killed it may be given to a strong colony
to clean out and use.

THE INDIAN-MEAL MOTH {Plodia interpunctella)

The Indian-meal moth sometimes forsakes its
bins of grain and meal and devastates the honey-

176 HOW TO KEEP BEES

comb. It does not measure more than one-eighth
of an inch across its wings, and its caterpillar is
almost too small to be noticed, unless it occurs in
great numbers. It sometimes attacks the honey-
comb in the North, and in the South it is often a
great nuisance. The only remedy for this very
small pest is to change the bees to smaller hives, and
expose the infested comb to the fumes of carbon bi-
sulphide.

BEE-MOTH MAXIMS

The shiftless bee-keeper is the one who complains
of the wax-worm.

Keep Italian bees.

Keep the colonies strong.

Do not leave more comb in the hive than the bees
are able to cover.

Use well-made hives with no crevices.

If you see a web upon the comb, hunt out the
caterpillar and kill it at once.

If bee-moths get into the honey store-room, close
the room and fumigate it with brimstone or carbon
bisulphide.

FOUL BROOD

This is an infectious bacterial disease, and its
presence in the apiary may be attended by serious
results. When it first appeared in America, large
apiaries were completely destroyed. In 1874, Pro-
fessor Cohn discovered the organism which causes
the disease, and which bears the name of Bacillus
alvei. This microbe attacks the immature larvae

ENEMIES AND DISEASES OF BEES 177

and they die in the cells. It always attacks, to a
lesser extent, the adult bee; but these leave the hive
to die and are not such a dangerous source of in-
fection as are the decaying larvae. Infected honey
is the medium by which the disease is ordinarily
spread from hive to hive. Undoubtedly robbing is to
a great extent responsible for its prevalence.

HOW TO DETECT FOUL BROOD

The brood appears in irregular patches and it
does not all hatch; the caps to the brood cells may
be sunken and broken at the centre, the holes being
irregular, instead of the neat circular perforations
which may be found above the healthy larvae.
The sure test of the presence of the disease is found
in the dead body of the larva, which is dark and
discoloured; and if a toothpick or pin be thrust into
it and then drawn back, the body contents will adhere
to it in a stringy mass, to the extent of a half or even
an entire inch, as if it were mucous or glue; later the
bodies of the larvae dry and appear as black scales in
the cell bottoms. Another evidence of the presence
of the disease is a peculiarly disagreeable odour
which permeates the hive, which Mr. Root likens to
that of a glue pot.

Remedies. — ^These have been worked out by
many bee-keepers, notably by Mr. William McEvoy,
inspector of bees in Ontario, Canada. His remedy
is as follows: When there is a good honey flow
so the bees will not suffer, all the comb is taken from
the infected colony and frames with foundation-

178 HOW TO KEEP BEES

starters are given instead. Having no young to
feed, the bees use all the infected honey in their
stomachs for making comb. At the end of the
fourth day all this comb is removed and new-
frames with foundation are substituted, and the
deed is done.

Mr. Root's practice is to remove the hive from its
stand about dark, to prevent robbing, and put
another just like it in its place which contains
frames filled with foundation. The bees are shaken
from the infected hive into the new one. Here they
are shut in without food for three or four days, thus
being compelled to use all the honey in their honey
sacs. Then they are fed and the disease does not
appear again in colonies thus treated. Mr. Root
burns all the infected comb and frames and dis-
infects the hives with hot water before they are
used again; other apiarists of experience support
Mr. Root in this matter. Fumigating the hives with
burning brimstone would perhaps be an easier or a
surer way of disinfecting the hives.

Many apiarists who do a large business do not
destroy the infected comb, but render it in a steam
wax press. They also thin the infected honey and
boil it for two hours, adding to it a little salicylic
acid, and use it to feed back to the bees. But this
would hardly pay, unless great care were taken, as
one drop of the infected honey would start the
disease anew.

Some have tried medicated syrup as a remedy.
It is true that syrup made with salicylic acid or beta-

ENEMIES AND DISEASES OF BEES 179

naphthol will retard the disease, but most bee-keepers
believe that it is not a sure remedy.

BLACK BROOD

This appeared in New York so frequently that it
was called the New York bee-disease. It was
differentiated from foul brood by Dr. Wm. R.
Howard, of Texas, who found the bacillus and
described it. The chief way of telling it from foul
brood is that the contents of the body of the dead
larva is jelly-like, instead of gluey. However, Dr.
Veranus Moore and Dr. G. Franklin White, of the
New York Veterinary College at Cornell University,
worked upon this disease for some time and, in
1903, reported that the bacillus of this disease is
alvei and identical with that discovered and dis-
scribed by Cohn as the cause of foul brood.

PICKLED BROOD

This disease of the brood differs from the others
in that the body-contents of the dead larva are
watery and that no peculiar stench in the hive
emanates from them. Neither is it so contagious as
foul brood, though it may seriously cripple an apiary,
if not checked. The remedy for foul brood is applied
with success to colonies suffering from this disease.

DIARRHOEA

This disease is part of the difficulty of wintering.
It is induced by the bees' habit of retaining waste
matter in the body until they can fly out of the hive,

180 HOW TO KEEP BEES

for thus they preserve the cleanliness of their home.
The first symptom of the disease is the soiling of the
hive entrance with brownish excrement; the bees are
also likely to die in great numbers, their bodies
being much swollen.

The cause of the disease is attributed to cold and
dampness, and poor food. If, in the fall, the bees
store honey made from the juices of rotting fruit or
cider refuse, or from honey-dew excreted by plant
lice, they are very likely to perish by feeding upon it
during the winter. But even with good honey bees
wintered in cold, damp hives are liable to contract
the disease.

PREVENTION

Give the bees plenty of good food for winter. If
the honey they have gathered in August is extracted,
feed them syrup from the best of sugar. In winter
keep the hives in proper temperature, with sufficient
good air and ventilation. After the disease once
appears, there is no remedy, except warm weather,
which will promptly bring relief.

CHAPTER XVII
THE ANATOMY OF THE HONEY-BEE

A DETAILED discussioii of the anatomy of the
honey-bee does not fall within the scope of this book;
for such a discussion, special works on insect anatomy
must be consulted. But there are certain of the
more general features of the structure of the bee
which the bee-keeper should know; and a discussion
of these, merits a place even in an elementary book
on bee-keeping.

In treating of insect anatomy it is customary to
divide the subject into two parts: first, external
anatomy, which treats of the structure of the body-
wall; and, second, internal anatomy, which treats
of the parts found inside the body- wall.

I. EXTERNAL ANATOMY

The body-wall. — ^Insects differ fundamentally from
man and other backboned animals. With us, the
muscles and other soft parts are supported by an
internal skeleton; with the insects the body-wall, that
part which corresponds to our skin, is hard and
serves as a skeleton. In some respects this is a better
arrangement than that which obtains with us, for
the skeleton of an insect serves as an armour to
protect the body as well as a support for the soft
parts.

181

182 HOW TO KEEP BEES

This arrangement of parts holds with the append-
ages of the body of an insect as well as with the body
itself; the legs, mouth-parts and antennae are all
tubular organs, having a firm outer skeleton support-
ing the inner parts.

Movement of the body and its appendages is
provided for by narrow, flexible, zone-like areas in
the skeleton which encircle the body and the ap-
pendages, at frequent intervals. This segmented
condition of the body is easily seen in the hind part
or abdomen, which appears to consist of a series of
rings.

The microscopic structure of the body-wall is
comparatively simple. There is an inner cellular
part which consists of a single layer of cells: this is
the hypodermis (Plate XXV, 2, h) ; and the outer or
hard part: this is the cuticle (Plate XXV, 2, c).

The hypodermis is the active living part; it pro-
duces the cuticle, which receives additions from
it constantly during the life of the insect. On
this account, when a section of the cuticle is
examined with a microscope it presents a layered
appearance.

Moulting of the cuticle. — ^From time to time during
the growth of the insect the outer layers of the
cuticle are shed; this is known as moulting. After
a moult, the inner layers of the cuticle, which have
now become the outer layers, but w^hich are still
soft, stretch to accommodate the increased size of
the body, and then soon become hard. This moult-
ing, or shedding of the skin, takes place about six

ANATOMY OF THE HONEY-BEE 183

times during the development of the bee. Several
moults occur during the larval life: one when the
larva changes to a pupa, and the last one when the
pupa changes to the adult or winged form, just
before leaving the cell in which it has been de-
veloped.

The head. — The segments of which the body of an
insect is composed are grouped into three regions:
the head, the thorax, and the abdomen.

The head is the first of the three regions. It is
formed of several segments grown together so as to
from a compact box. It bears the eyes, the antennae,
and the mouth-parts.

The eyes are of two kinds, which are distinguished
as the compound eyes and the simple eyes.

The compound eyes are two in number, one on
each side of the head; they are the organs commonly
recognised as the eyes. They are called compound
eyes because each consists of a great number of little
eyes closely pressed together. If a compound eye
be examined with a microscope, it will be seen to
present the appearance of a honey-comb, being
composed of a great number of six-sided elements;
each of these is a separate eye.

In addition to the compound eyes, the bee has
three simple eyes, or ocelli, as they are termed.
They are situated on the upper part of the head
between the compound eyes.

The antennae are two slender, many-jointed
organs projecting from the front part of the head.
Their use has not been fully elucidated. They

184 HOW TO KEEP BEES

are doubtless sense organs; and it is believed that
certain microscopic pits, which occur in great num-
bers in their cuticle, are the organs of smell. It is
possible, also, that the antennae function as organs
of touch, certain hairs with which they are furnished
being the tactile organs.

The mouth-parts are very complicated. They con-
sist of an upper lip, a lower lip, and two pairs of
jaws between the lips.

The upper lip is known at the lahrum. It is a flap-
like projection situated above, or in front of, the
other mouth-parts (Plate XXV, u).

The first pair of jaws, those situated nearest the
labrum, are the mandibles (Plate XXV, 3, md).
Each mandible consists of a single hard piece.
They are the biting organs. Certain wild bees,
distantly related to the honey-bee, dig holes in wood
with their mandibles for nests for their brood. The
honey-bee uses its mandibles as tools for the manipu-
lation of wax and propolis, and as weapons in its
combats.

The second pair of jaws, which are situated
between the mandibles and the lower lip, are the
maxillae (Plate XXV, 3, mx). Each maxilla is a long
blade. The maxillse, combined with the lower lip,
constitute what, in popular language, is kno^NTi as
the tongue, the organ by means of which the food is
conveyed to the mouth, or the nectar extracted from
a flower.

The lower lip, or labium (Plate XXV, 3, /), is the
long central part of the so-called tongue; it bears on

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PLATE XXIV. SUMAC IN BLOSSOM AND BLOSSOM
OF MOUNTAIN MAPLE
The Sumac is an excellent honey-producer.

rig, 5

PLATE XXV. Fig. i. — Vertical longitudinal section of the body of a larva
of an insect ; s, body-wall or skeleton ; w, muscles ; n, alimentary canal ; A,
heart ; «, nervous system ; r, reproductive organs. Fig. 2. — Section of the
body-wall; f, cuticle ; /i, hypodermis ; z", trichogen or hair-formingcell. Fig. 3
— Head of a bee and its appendages; a. antenna ; c, clypens ; ?<, upper lip or
labrum; vi, mandible; t/i.r. maxilla; A lower lip or labium ; /, labial palpus.
Fig. 4. — Glands of a honey-bee (after Girard); /, supracerebral glands ; 2. post-
cerebral glands; j thoracic glands. Fig. 5. — The wax-plates (after Cheshire).

ANATOMY OF THE HONEY-BEE 185

each side a long appendage; these are the labial
j>al'pi (Plate XXV, 3, p).

The thorax. — The thorax is the central region of
the body. It consists of three body-segments,
which are grown together so compactly in the adult
insect that it is difficult to distinguish them. The
thorax bears the organs of locomotion, the wings and
the legs.

There are two pairs of wings; but the two wings of
each side are so closely united that they appear as one.
The union is accomplished by a row of hooks on the
front edge of the hind wing, which fasten into a
fold in the hind edge of the fore wing. The wings
are strengthened by a framework of heavy lines,
which extend in various but definite directions.
Between these lines the wing is a thin membrane.

There are three pairs of legs, a pair borne by each
of the three body-segments of which the thorax is
composed.

Each leg consists of nine segments and a pair of
claws at the tip of the last segment. The first two
segments, the coxa and the trochanter, are short;
then follow the two principal segments, the femur, or
thigh, and the tibia, or shank; the five remaining
segments constitute the tarsus or foot. A striking
peculiarity in the tarsi of bees is that the first seg-
ment differs greatly in form from the other segments
and is much larger, approaching the tibia in size.
This enlarged tarsal segment has received the special
name of metatarsus.

The legs serve several functions besides that of

186 HOW TO KEEP BEES

locomotion. Thus, on each fore leg there is an
organ for cleaning the antennae. The antenna
cleaner consists of a circular notch near the base of
the metatarsus, which is furnished with teeth like a
comb (Plate VII, F, a), and a spur projecting back
from the tibia in such a way as to close this notch
when the leg is bent. The antenna to be cleaned is
drawn through this notch and thus the dirt is
combed from it.

On the middle legs there is a strong spur at the
distal end of the tibia which is used in loosing the
pellets of pollen brought to the hive on the hind legs.

The third pair of legs are furnished with three
organs which deserve mention here. First : the wax
pincers. Both the tibia and the metatarsus are wide;
the joint uniting them is at one edge, hence by alter-
nately bending and straightening the leg at this
joint, the space between the two segments (Plate VII,
B, wp) is opened and shut like pincers. This organ
is used to loosen from the abdomen the scales of
wax. Second : the pollen-combs. These are several
comb-like series of spines, borne on the inner surface
of the metatarsus (Plate VII, B, pc). When a bee
visits a flower the pollen is gathered by the tongue and
fore legs and some of it becomes entangled among the
hairs on the thorax. It is then combed from these
parts by means of the pollen-combs and transferred
to the pollen-baskets. Third : the pollen-basket.
There is a pollen-basket on the outer surface of the
tibia of each hind leg. It consists of a fringe of
hairs, surrounding a smooth, concave area which

ANATOMY OF THE HONEY-BEE 187

occupies the greater part of the outer face of this
segment of the leg. In it the pollen is packed when
combed from the hairs, and transported to the hive.
The abdomen. — The abdomen is the last of the
three regions of the body. It consists of a series of
comparatively simple, overlapping segments, without
conspicuous appendages.

II. INTERNAL ANATOMY

Relative position of the internal organs, — ^As has
been shown in the preceding pages, the body-wall
serves as a skeleton, being hard and giving support
to the other organs of the body, which are con-
tained within it.

The accompanying diagram (Plate XXV, 1), which
represents a vertical longitudinal section of the body
of the larva of an insect, will enable the reader to
gain an idea of the relative positions of some of the
more important organs. The parts shown in the
diagram are the follow^ing: The body-wall or skele-
ton {s); this is made up of a series of overlapping
segments; that part of it which is between the seg-
ments is thinner, and is not hardened, this remaining
flexible and allowing for the movements of the body.
Just within the body-wall, and attached to it, are
represented a few of the muscles (m) ; it will be seen
that these muscles are so arranged that the contrac-
tion of those on the lower side of the body would bend
it down, while the contraction of those on the oppo-
site side would act in the opposite direction. The
alimentary canal (a) occupies the centre of the body

188 HOW TO KEEP BEES

and extends from one end to the other. The heart
(h) is a tube open at both ends, and lying between
the alimentary canal and the muscles of the back.

The central part of the nervous system (n) is a
series of small masses of nervous matter, connected
by two longitudinal chords; one of these masses,
the brain, lies above the alimentary canal; the others
are situated, one in each segment, between the
alimentary canal and the ventral wall of the body;
the two chords connecting these masses, or ganglia,
pass one on each side of the oesophagus to the brain.
The reproductive organs (r) lie in the cavity of the
abdomen and open near the hind end of the body.
The respiratory organs are omitted from this dia-
gram for the sake of simplicity.

The respiratory system. — The most striking pecu-
liarity in the structure of insects is the form of
their organs for breathing, for they do not breathe
through the mouth as we do. If an insect be care-
fully examined, there can be found along the sides
of the body, a series of openings; these are the
openings through which the air passes into the respir-
atory system, and are termed spiracles. The spir-
acles of the honey-bee are small, and are not easily
found by one not trained to look for such things;
but if the reader will examine the sides of one of our
larger caterpillars, he will have no trouble in seeing
them. Typically, there is a pair of spiracles, one
on each side of the body, in each of the body-seg-
ments, but they are lacking in the head and in some
of the other segments. The spiracles lead into a sys-

ANATOMY OF THE HONEY-BEE 189

tern of air tubes, termed tracheae, which carry the air
to all parts of the body. When the body of an insect
is opened, the tracheae appear as silvery threads, on
account of the contained air. In the adult honey-
bee certain of the tracheae are greatly expanded so
as to form large air sacs. (Plate XXVI 6, 2).

The glands, — Those glands found in the body of
the honey bee that are of most interest to the prac-
tical bee-keeper are the following:

In the larva there is a pair of long, tubular glands,
which secrete the silk of which the cocoon is made.
These glands open through a common duct, which
has its outlet near the mouth.

In the adult worker bee there are four pairs of
glands opening into the mouth, which have been
much discussed by students of this subject. These
glands are designated both by number and by
name as follows: System I. or supracerebral
glands; system II. or postcerebral glands; system
III. or thoracic glands; and system IV. or
mandibulary glands.

The supracerebral glands or system I. (Plate XXV,
Fig. 4, 1) are situated in the head above the brain.
They open by two openings in the floor of the mouth
cavity, one on each side.

The postcerebral glands or system II. (Plate XXV,
Fig. 4, 2) are situated in the head behind the brain;
their outlets unite into a common duct which opens
on the middle line of the anterior end of the oeso-
phagus at the base of the tongue.

The thoracic glands or system III. (Plate XXV,

190 HOW TO KEEP BEES

Fig. 4, 3) are situated in the thorax; their outlets
unite into a common duct, which joins the ducts
from the postcerebral glands, the two systems of
glands opening through a common opening.

The mandibulary glands or system IV. are two
small glands one on each side opening at the base
of the mandible.

There has been much discussion regarding the
function of these different glands; and even now any
statement of conclusions must be regarded as pro-
visional.

The supracerebral glands are large in nurse bees
and shrunken in the old bees that no longer nurse
the brood; they are normally found only in the
workers. It is therefore believed that they secrete
the milky food, commonly called royal jelly, which
is fed to all larvse during the first days of their
development, to the queen larvae throughout their
development, and to the adult queen during the egg-
laying period. The food fed worker and drone larvae
during the latter part of their development is pro-
duced in the chyle-stomach of the nurse bees, and
is semi-digested food.

The other systems of glands enumerated above
produce the saliva, which is supposed to perform
a great variety of functions. " It helps the digestion ;
it changes the chemical condition of the nectar har-
vested from the flowers; it helps to knead the scales
of wax of which the combs are built, and perhaps
the propolis with which the hives are varnished. It
is used also to dilute the honey when too thick, to

ANATOMY OF THE HONEY-BEE 191

moisten the pollen grains, to wash the hairs when
daubed with honey, etc."

The wax-glands are found only in the worker.
There are four pairs of them. They are situated
on the ventral wall of the second, third, fourth and
fifth abdominal segments, and on that part of the
segment which is overlapped by the preceding seg-
ment. Each gland is simply a disc-like area of the
hypodermis, the cells of which take nourishment from
the blood and transform it into wax. The cuticle
covering each gland is smooth and delicate, and is
known as a wax-plate. The wax exudes through
these plates and accumulates, forming little scales.
(Plate VI, X, also Plate XXV, Fig. 5.)

The alimentary canal. — The form of the alimentary
canal of the adult honey-bee is shown in Plate XXVI.
The following parts can easily be recognised: the
oesophagus, a slender tube, beginning at the mouth
and extending through the head and thorax to the
base of the abdomen. Here there is a sac-like
enlargement of the canal, which is termed the honey-
stomach; it is in this that the nectar accumulates as
it is collected by the bee, and is carried to the hive.
Behind the honey-stomach lies the true stomach,
the chief digestive organ. Closely applied to the
true stomach are several small tubes, which open
into it; which are known as the Malpighian tubes;
they were named after one of the early anatomists
who described them; they are the urinary organs.
Next to the true stomach is the small intestine; and
behind this, the large intestine.

192 HOW TO KEEP BEES

The reprodiictive organs. — ^The internal repro-
ductive organs are situated in the abdomen; there is
a set on each side, but the two sets open by a common
duct, whose outlet is at the hind end of the body.

The reproductive organs of the female are shown on
Plate XXVI (a), Fig. 1. There are two ovaries (o),
one on each side of the body. Each ovary consists of
a large number of parallel egg-tubes, within which
the eggs are developed. The egg-tubes of each ovary
open into an oviduct (od). The two oviducts unite
and form a single tube on the middle line of the body;
this is the vagina; the vagina leads to the external
opening of the system. Communicating with the
vagina, there is a sac-like pouch, the spermatheca,
which is the reservoir for the seminal fluid; this is
filled at the time of pairing, and the spermatozoa may
remain alive in it for several years.

Each egg- tube produces many eggs. As the eggs
increase in size, they pass towards the oviduct.
When the egg is fully developed a shell is formed
about it. This shell has a minute opening through
it at one end; this is the micropyle. At the time the
egg is laid a spermatozoon may pass from the sper-
matheca, where thousands of them are stored, into
the egg through the micropyle, and thus the egg is
fertilised.

With most animals, the egg must be fertilised
in order that it may develop. But with bees, both
fertilised and unfertilised eggs develop, the former
into females, that is, workers or queens, the latter
into males, that is, drones.

Fig. I

PLATE XXVI. («.■) The reproductive organs of the honey-bee. (From
Leuckart, slightly modified.) Fig. i. — Reproductive organs of a queen; 0,0,
ovaries ; od, oviduct ; s, spermatheca ; g, gland ; /, poison sac connected with
the sting. Fig. 2. — Reproductive organs of a drone ; I, t, testes ; v, vas deferens ;
s, s, seminal sacs ; m, m, mucous glands ; ed, ejaculatory duct ; b, pouch or bulb.
The bulb and the following parts are everted through the outer opening at the
time of pairing.

Fig^t

PLATE XXVI. ((5.) Fig. i.— The internal anatomy of the honey-bee (after
Cheshire), o, oesophagus . hs, honey sac ; /, stomach-mouth ; cs, true stomach
or chyle-stomach ; w, malpighian tubes ; si, small intestine ; li, large intestine,
A, heart or dorsal vessel ; «, central nervous system ; /, supracerebral glands ;
2, postcerebral glands ; j, thoracic glands. The respiratory system and the
reproductive organs are not shown in this figure (after Cheshire). Fig. 2. —
The respiratory svstem of ihe honey-bee. s, s, s, spiracles ; a, enlarged trachea
or air sac (.adap ed from Leuckart).

Courtesy of Ginii &• Company
PLATE XXVII. AN OLD-FASHIONED APIARY

ANATOMY OF THE HONEY-BEE 193

Closely associated with the reproductive organs
of the female is the sting; this is a barbed dart con-
nected with a poison gland, whose use is well known.

In the abdomen of the male there is a pair of
organs, the testes, in which the spermatozoa are deve-
loped. These correspond in position to the ovaries
of the female, but are much smaller. From each
testis there extends a tube corresponding to the
oviduct, this is the vas deferens. The two vasa
defer entia unite and form the single ejaculator duct.
Each vas deferens is enlarged just before it joins
the ejaculatory duct, forming a reservoir for the
accumulation of spermatozoa; these reservoirs are
termed the seminal sacs. Appended to each seminal
sac there is a large glandular sac, which adds mucus
to the seminal fluid. Near the outer end of the
ejaculatory duct there is a pouchlike enlargement
into which the spermatozoa pass. Here they are
massed into a compact body, known as the sper-
matophore, which is transferred to the female at the
time of pairing. The terminal part of the repro-
ductive organs of the male, the intermittent organ,
has several appendages, which are firmly grasped
in the opening of the reproductive organs of the
female and are torn from the male when the two
pairing individuals separate. This causes the death
of the male. The male has no sting. (Plate XXVI,
Fig. 2.)

CHAPTER XVIII
INTERRELATION OF BEES AND PLANTS

HONEY-FLOWERS

The facts revealed by science are not always
beautiful, however interesting they may be. But
the discovery of the interrelation of flowers and
insects, that partnership which has existed so long
that it has modified both partners, seems to belong
to the realm of art or poetry rather than to that of
science. Since plants must needs spend their lives
where they are developed from seeds, they may not
roam abroad like animals to seek their mates. But
this is a difficulty which they readily overcome,
through sending their messages by the uneasy,
flying insects; and of all these messengers, the bee
is surely the flowers' favourite. Its fuzzy body,
admirably adapted to be a pollen brush, its swift
wings and its sedulous attention to business, all tend
to make it the most important of the flower-partners.
Thus, especially for the bee, have thousands of
flower species developed nectar, in pockets placed
cunningly to entice her to take upon herself a pollen
load. And for countless ages the flowers have
painted their petals various hues and shed on the
atmosphere their perfume, to advertise to the bee-
world that they had pollen and nectar to spare.
194

BEES AND PLANTS 195

This partnership has naturally modified the in-
sects less than the flowers, as the latter were obliged
to develop innumerable devices for winning attention
from their messengers ; naturally also the insects have
been more largely modified in their mouth-parts
and appliances for carrying pollen, than in other
directions. Their habits have also been modified in
a measure, and the bee has in some mysterious way
been persuaded to work on one kind of blossom at a
time. The poetic reproach that the bee is a heart-
less rover, rifling the lily of sweets only to desert her
for the rose, is as unjust as it is untrue. Repeatedly
have we watched a bee at work in a bed of pinks.
Though clover and other blossoms were near by,
she passed methodically from pink to pink, and
naught tempted her to fickleness. That the bees
use pollen for bread, is a part of the bargain; for
the flowers grow it in plenty for both themselves and
their partners.

Each species of "honey-plant" has developed its
own special device for securing the services of bees
to carry its pollen; and no study is more interesting
than the unravelling of these flower secrets. Even
the novice may do this by asking the flower these
three questions: *' Where is your nectar?" "Where
is your pollen?" "What is the path the bees must
follow to get to the nectar?" For ready and
accurate answers to such questions, the flowers are
not to be surpassed ; and if there is any doubtful point,
the bees are ready to help elucidate it. There are
so many flowers that have become the special part-

196 HOW TO KEEP BEES

ners of the bees that it is not within the scope of this
book to make an adequate list. Some of the more
important are the flowers of trees, and some of farm
crops; some bloom in gardens and some are mere
weeds.

TREES

Fruit trees, when in blossom, give much pollen
and honey at a time when these are greatly needed
by the bees for rearing brood.

Peach, pear, apricot, plum and especially apple
trees, when in bloom are encompassed about with
the happy chorus of busy and grateful bees; and no
other creatures can so successfully vocalise blissful
contentment as they. Many careful experiments
have proved beyond doubt that the help of bees is
necessary for securing the pollenation requisite to pro-
duce good crops of fruit. The wise and successful
fruit-grower recognises this fact and, mindful of his
true interests, does not spray his fruit trees with
poisons while they are in blossom, lest he thereby
kill his friends, the bees. Moreover, to use arsenical
sprays, at such a time, is injurious to the petals and
the fruit-producing organs of the flow^ers; and it is
also too early to spray successfully against the
codlin moth. In many states, legislation forbids
the spraying of poisons during fruit-tree bloom,
because it is a useless and wanton destruction of the
bees.

Some time since great injustice was done the bees
through the accusation that they punctured the ripe

BEES AND PLANTS 197

fruit for the sake of the juices. This was the special
complaint of grape-growers. Investigations have
proved that bees never puncture the rind of ripe
fruit, although they sometimes are tempted to sip
the oozing juices, after the rind is broken through
some other agency.

Even before the fruit-bloom the willows offer a
feast to break the fast of the hungry swarms. Half
the winter the pussy-willow stands waiting in her
furs to be ready with her grist of pollen, so that the
bees may make bread during the first warm days of
spring. The willows burned their bridges behind
them eons ago and depend almost entirely upon the
bees for fertilisation, since they are dioecious. Some
apiarists have claimed that their bees get no
nectar from certain species of willow; but this could
hardly be so if trees of both sexes were present in a
locality; for the staminate flowers offer pollen and
the pistillate flowers give nectar to induce the bees
to fetch and carry for them.

The maples are not much behind the willows in
offering the bees food after their winter fast. The
bloom of the red maple is regarded by most bee-
keepers as permission from Spring to bring out the
bee-hives from the cellar and tenements. All our
common species of maple are very much visited by
the bees.

The locusts often yield large crops of honey,
although they vary with the seasons in this respect.
Honey-locust, when in bloom, is covered with bees.

The tulip tree is one of the most beautiful of our

198 HOW TO KEEP BEES

ornamental trees and it gives a great amount of
dark, rich honey. In New York it blossoms in May
and June and, like the locusts, is a great help to the
bees after the fruit-bloom is over. This is a common
tree in the woods of the South and is not rare in
Northern forests. It should be planted even more
generally than it is at present, for the sake of the
bees.

The basswood, of all honey-producing trees, is
the most important and most beloved by the bees.
It blooms in July and only for a brief season; there-
fore, it is important that the colonies be strong and
able to make the most of these few precious days of
harvest. Basswood honey has a strong flavour
when first gathered. But after it is ripened and
sealed it has a delightful flavour. The way our
forests have been stripped of basswood during the
past twenty-five years is nothing less than heart-
rending to the bee-keeper; for to him this tree ranks
next to the white clover in importance. Mr. Root
had a single colony take forty-three pounds of honey
in three days from basswood, and Mr. Doolittle had
a colony take sixty pounds in the same period.
The tree is beautifulp and might well be ,used for
shade along roadsides and also in ornamental plant-
ing. It grows rapidly; young trees, transplanted
from the woodland, blossom in five or six years
thereafter. No bee-keeper should allow the bass-
wood to be cut on his premises; and he should grow
as many young trees as possible.

Other honey-producing trees of note are the sour-

Thorn-apple blossoms.

Wild crab-apple blossoms.
PLATE XXVm

Photographs by Ralph IV. Curtis

PLATE XXIX. BUCKWHEAT IN BLOSSOM

BEES AND PLANTS 199

wood {Oxydendrum arhoreum) of the South, the
guajilla of Texas, the cabbage palmetto of Florida,
and the eucalyptus of California.

The flowers of sumac often yield much nectar
and are sedulously worked by the bees. This
picturesque shrub is not properly appreciated because
it is so common. Its foliage is beautiful in the
summer and is brilliant in the fall. Its blossoms,
as well as its fruit, conduce to make it an interesting
and ornamental shrub for planting.

HONEY PLANTS WHICH YIELD OTHER VALUABLE
CROPS

To raise plants solely for the sake of the honey
they produce has not proved a financial success so far
in America. Mr. Root estimates that it would
require 500 acres covered with plants blooming in
succession to keep 100 colonies of bees busy; and,
at present, most land here is worth too much to be
put to such use. It is doubtful if artificial pasturage
will ever prove a paying investment in agricultural
sections.

However, many apiarists devote some land to
honey-gardens, and such a garden may be a beau-
tiful and interesting place, for many of the honey-
plants are ornamental. Also, many apiarists have
introduced certain honey-weeds on waste land in
the vicinity of their apiaries with excellent results.

Fortunately, many plants very valuable to the
agriculturist and horticulturist are the best honey-
producers; and if a farmer has only twenty colonies

200 HOW TO KEEP BEES

of bees, it will pay him to reap one crop from his
land and let his bees reap another.

Of all such plants the clovers are the most impor-
tant. Not only do they make the best of forage and
hay, but they also help to fertilise and aerate the
soil, and should be a factor in every crop rotation.
Clovers and other legumes have upon their roots
nodules filled with bacteria, which are underground
partners of the plant. These bacteria fix the free
nitrogen of' the air and leave it in the soil available
for plant food. Red clover is not so great a source
of honey as are the other clovers, since its corolla
tubes are so long that usually it is only worked by
bumblebees. But the long-tongued Italians are able
to get considerable honey from red clover at times.

Crimson clover grew as a weed for a long time in
America before it became an important factor in
horticulture. It is an annual and its home is in
southern Europe. It thrives best in loose, sandy
soils and is of great value as a cover crop for orchards.
It is a good honey-plant.

Alsike is a perennial and grows in low meadows,
from Nova Scotia to Idaho. Its blossoms look like
that of the white clover, except that they are larger
and are tinged with pink. This is a valuable clover
for pasturage, and also for hay, and it stands next
to the white clover as a honey-plant.

The white clover is the very best plant for pro-
ducing honey in the United States east of the Rocky
Mountains, and the flavour of its honey is famous
the world over. While in hard soil, the white clover

BEES AND PLANTS 201

lasts only two or three years, it is perennial on rich,
moist lands. It is a cosmopolitan plant and may be
found in almost all regions of the temperate zones.
It is an ideal plant for pastures and should be estab-
lished everywhere on land not under the plow. It
shows well its partnership with the bee by turning
down its flowerets as soon as they are fertilised, and
leaving those in need of pollen still erect. We have
seen a head of white clover with a single floweret,
erect and white, calling to the bees, while all of its
sister flowerets were deflected and brown.

Among the medics we find the veteran of all
clovers, the alfalfa, which has been under cultivation
for twenty centuries, and came to America with the
Spanish invasion. It was established in California
in 1854, and has worked its way eastward. But
it is only recently that it has been practicable to
grow it in the East. This has been made possible
by the discovery that it will grow on soil inoculated
with its root bacteria. Alfalfa is a true perennial and
may be cut for hay three times a season, and is of
highest value as fodder or forage. It is a superb
honey-plant, furnishing great quantities of light-
coloured and excellent honey. It will support more
bees to the acre than any other plant known. For
artificial pasturage it is the most promising of all
honey-plants.

Buckwheat is, in many localities, doubly profitable
as a grain and as a honey-plant ; especially is it so in
middle and western New York, where the hills in
autumn are made brilliant with great fields of the

202 HOW TO KEEP BEES

wine-red stubble. Buckwheat is usually sown late
in the season, often on ground where oats have al-
ready been grown earlier in the year. It blossoms
in August and even in September, and furnishes a
wealth of nectar when there is little to be found else-
where. The honey made from buckwheat is dark,
reddish brown and brings a lower price in most
markets than do the lighter-coloured varieties.
Though it is strong in flavour, it is preferred by
many, and on our table it alternates with basswood
and clover. It has always seemed poetic justice
that the plant which produces buckwheat cakes
should produce the honey to eat with them. The
following are the good points of buckwheat as a
crop: It is profitable, the grain always brings a
good price; it grows well on poor soil; it is one of the
best agencies for ridding a field of weeds. There is
a certain gameness about buckwheat which we have
always admired and which was thus characterised
by a farmer of our acquaintance: ** Buckwheat is a
gritty plant ; if it can get its head above ground it will
blossom. I have seen it, during dry seasons, blossom
when its stalks were so short that the bees had to get
down on their hands and knees to gather the honey. ^'
While this may be putting the case rather strongly,
yet it expresses well the habits of the plant.

Black mustard, rape and turnips all furnish nectar
for excellent honey. The seed of mustard and rape
brings a good price, and the root of the turnip is
always valuable.

The blossoms of the red raspberry yield a delicious

BEES AND PLANTS 203

honey, and the grower of small fruits may well add
bees to his farm as a source of profit.

GARDEN FLOWERS

Most of the blooms in flower gardens, as well as
vegetable gardens, are worked by the bees. Mignon-
ette is a valuable honey-plant, as it blossoms for a
long time. Marjoram, thyme and sage give rich,
spicy honey. The sunflower is also a good honey-
plant.

WILD FLOWERS AND WEEDS

We shall never forget our profound amazement
when we saw, for the first time, in a narrow valley
of the Mojave Desert a great city of white bee-hives.
Nothing in that desolate landscape could we discern
that bore the slightest resemblance to a honey-plant.
The gray sage-brush which grew everywhere looked
to us about as promising for honey-production as so
much slag from a furnace; and yet this sage-brush
of the desert gives the bees the best of pasturage.
The bloom begins down in the valley and climbs the
mountain side slowly, thus giving bloom for a long
period.

There are two species of sage that yield honey, the
white and the black, or button sage. They are
allied to the mints, which are generally good honey-
plants. We learned to care much for the spicy
sage-honey. A professor of Greek, who was for
some time in the American school at Athens, tells
us that the sage-honey is very similar in flavour to

204 HOW TO KEEP BEES

the famous honey of Hymettus, which is made from
thyme.

The horse-mint is a very important honey-plant
of the lower Mississippi Valley and of Texas. Its
corolla tubes are so long that only the Italians and
other long-tongued bees can get its honey. Catnip,
motherwort and gill-over-the-ground and gall-berry
all furnish an abundance of nectar.

The blue thistle emigrated to Virginia in colonial
times, and now covers with a heavenly blue thousands
of acres of the desolate, uncultivated, red Virginia
soil. It is a great boon to the bees of the region, as
its blossoms creep slowly up its stalks, thus affording
nectar for many weeks. It is related to borage,
which is another good honey-plant.

Spider flower {Cleome fungens), the Rocky Moun-
tain bee-plant {Cleome integrijoUa), and figwort
(Scrojularia venalis) have all been planted by bee-
keepers in their honey-gardens, because they give
such a great amount of honey per plant.

During September and early October the bees
work busily on the various species of goldenrod and
asters, and gather from them a considerable amount
of honey, which is rich in colour and taste. The
two common species of Impaiiens also give the bees
good fall pasturage.

Fireweed (Epilobium angiistijoUum) comes wher-
ever forests have been cleared and burned off. It
blooms late and yields a fine quality of honey. The
unlovely Spanish needle (Coreopsis) also gives much
honey. The milkweed yields good honey, yet it

BEES AND PLANTS 205

overdoes the matter by loading the feet of the bee
with its pollen sacs, until the poor messenger dies of
exhaustion under the burden of its message, or dies
a prisoner in the blossom.

The cheerful and ubiquitous dandelion has this
much in its favour, that it is beloved by the bees and
often gives them honey and pollen at a time in the
spring when they need it for brood-rearing.

Of all the weeds which will pay the apiarist to
establish in waste places, the most profitable are the
mellilots, or sweet clovers, of which there are two
species, the white and the yellow. These are most
beneficent weeds, for they carry nitrogen to the soil
like other clovers, and they are easily exterminated
by cultivation, so they are not to be feared.

Sweet clover in blossom fills the atmosphere of the
country road with perfume, for it is almost every-
where a roadside weed; and, as might be expected,
it is most attractive to the bees. While the honey
made from it is rather strong in flavour, yet it is of
good colour, and sells well. Wlien it is mixed with
the honey from other flowers, it adds much to the
excellence of the flavour.

CHAPTER XIX
BEE-KEEPERS AND BEE-KEEPING

Most business occupations lead to rivalry and all
the selfish emotions incident to competition; not
so is bee-keeping; quite the opposite, indeed, as
there is a freemasonry that holds bee-keepers to-
gether and renders their attitude toward each other
friendly and helpful. Bee-keeping is everyrv^here a
bond of brotherhood and a sign of congenial tastes.
One night at a dinner-party the gentleman on my
right was a stranger, known to me only by reputation
as a lawyer of high standing and great erudition.
He was reserved and silent, and evidently bored by
the trivialities of table-talk. Some one incidentally
spoke of our bees, when the face of my neighbour
became illumined with interest, and he said, ''I am
sure that by becoming a lawyer I spoiled a good bee-
keeper. I have never found anything else so inter-
esting as bee-keeping;" and thus was swept away
the curtain of cold conventionalism which had hung
between us, and we began, from that moment, to be
friends.

Nowhere is this brotherly interest more noticeable

than in the bee-books and the bee-journals. The

former bear evidence, on every page, of kindness and

courtesy to all ; while the latter are like friendly cor-

206

BEE-KEEPERS AND BEE-KEEPING 20?

respondence published, wherein John Smith of
Maine explains his views on the bee business to
Timothy Jones of Oregon, and incidentally sends
his kindest regards to the family.

I never take into my hands that delightful book,
"A B C of Bee Culture," without turning to the
biographies of noted bee-keepers, and looking again
at the faces there depicted, noting the noble forehead
of Huber; the keen, scholarly face of Dzierzon; the
judicial countenance of Friend Quinby and the
beautiful expression of the venerable Langstroth.
And thus on, page by page, and getting, by the way,
a friendly greeting from the kindly eyes of Professor
Cook, that most excellent of good teachers; and
finally deriving sincere satisfaction from a long look
at the keen, humorous face of Mr. A. I. Root himself.
These leaders in apiculture are men with whom one
is proud to be associated. And the fact that there
are, in the United States, 300,000 persons engaged in
bee-keeping, makes one hopeful that our republican
institutions are to be guarded by intelligent citizen-
ship.

It is interesting to note that knowledge of bees has
been given to the world by men who have attained
the high peaks of scientific fame. Such knowledge
began with Aristotle and Pliny in ancient times, and
received no additions during the uncertain Dark
Ages. It began anew with Swammerdam, in the
seventeenth century, was augmented by Linnseus,
De Geer, Reaumur, Bonnet, Lyonnet, Fabricius,
Latreille, Lamarck, and finally reached a climax in

208 HOW TO KEEP BEES

the study of the habits of the bee by the blind Huber,
who was born in Geneva in 1750. His observations
made with his own brain, but with the eyes of his
wife, niece and servant, form a classic in bee-
literature. In 1811 there were born, a continent
apart, two great bee-keepers: Langstroth in Phila-
delphia, and Dzierzon in Silesia. Both were clergy-
men, but were also true scientists, and both invented
means by which the combs could be moved and
examined. Langstroth carried his invention farther,
and in 1852 devised the movable frame which revolu-
tionised bee-keeping.

Up to this time the business of the bee-man was
largely guess-work. He did not know anything
about the condition of his bees in the hive, for
he had no way of penetrating that dark chamber.
The ways of reaping the honey-harvest were devious ;
at best the combs were torn from the hives with
little regard for the rights and lives of the bees.
Finally, there was devised the truly infernal plan of
killing the bees with the fumes of burning brimstone,
before taking their treasure; this method undoubtedly
originating in the turgid theology of the times.

However, about the time of Langstroth, someone,
or perhaps many, had discovered that bees stored
their honey in the upper part of the hive; and the old
box-hive had a few auger-holes in the top, over
which was inverted a box, which the bees usually
filled, and thus saved themselves from the brimstone
pit. We remember well the delight in our family
when we used, for the first time, such boxes with glass

BEE-KEEPERS AND BEE-KEEPING 209

sides; and as we saw they were being filled with
combs, we rejoiced that we need not "take up*' any
more swarms, as the suffocation by sulphur fumes
was termed.

When, to the invention of the box super, was
added the greater invention of Langstroth, and
finally thereunto was added the invention of the
honey-extractor, bee-keeping became a science,
instead of a haphazard avocation.

Bee-keeping in America has since then passed
through many phases and survived many experi-
ments. Our bee-keepers have been wide awake and
willing to try all things and hold fast to the good.
Once, having read of the floating apiaries of the Nile,
which follow the flower bloom along the banks, an
enthusiast tried the same scheme on the Mississippi
River, starting at the southern part early in the
season and coming north abreast of the spring;
but too many bees were left behind to make this
profitable. Another enterprising gentleman took
his bees south winters, but the cost of transportation
took away the profits. Now, however, another plan
for gaining pasturage is proving most successful;
i. e.y the establishment of out-apiaries. As seventy-
five or a hundred colonies will usually take all the
nectar of a given locality, the bee-keeper places his
surplus colonies in other apiaries far enough distant,
so there is good pasturage for all. Mr. A. L. Cogg-
shall has about 3,000 colonies in out-apiaries in cen-
tral New York.

The up-to-date bee-keeper is not merely an

210 HOW TO KEEP BEES

operator in his apiary, but a co-operator with his
bees, and we firmly believe that the bees are being
educated by the partnership, as well as the bee-
keeper. Bees certainly do learn by experience, as
is well instanced by some Cyprians, which, in their
native home, build columns of wax and propolis at
the hive-entrance to keep out the large death's-
head moth which preys upon them. After living
in this country for two years, the bees discovered
that there were none of these moths about, and so
ceased building these bars. The readiness with
which our bees use the comb-foundation and fit
their combs to the frames and follow the hint given by
the starters in the sections, all point to their adapta-
bility; and however others may regard the matter, we
never take off a section filled with just one pound of
pearly comb and amber honey that we do not pay
tribute to the bee intelligence which placed it there,
and regard the little artisans as true partners in our
enterprise. And we never doubt that in the future
this co-operation and co-education of bees and bee-
keepers will result in a perfection of honey-produc-
tion as yet undreamed.

Photograph by Ralph IV. Cui-tis

PLATE XXX. BOX-ELDER

Staminate and pistillate flowers. This and the other maples and the willows give
the bees pasturage in early Spring.

CHAPTER XX
BEE-HUNTING

The mere mention of these words always brings
to us memories of high hills, wound about by
picturesque roads, bordered by rail fences, from the
corners of which the goldenrod still flung its banners
to the breeze, though September and, mayhap,
frosts had come. Beyond the fences were knolly
pastures, cropped close except where the mullein,
the thistle and the immortelle vaunted their immunity
from the attacks of grazing herds; and still beyond
were upland meadows, green with second-crop
clover; and crowning all were forests beginning to
glow with autumnal hues. Forth into such roads,
pastures, meadows and woodlands were we wont to
fare of a sunny morning, to hunt bees with our
father, whose woodcraft was not the empty accom-
plishment of the man of this generation, but was
attained on those same hills of western New York
when he was a pioneer boy, and the deer and the
wolves roamed those forests, and the beavers built
their dams in the valley.

Our equipment for hunting was a bottle of diluted

honey; a box with a sliding glass cover, containing

pieces of empty comb; and a sharp stake, four feet

high, topped with a cross-piece on which to set the

211

212 HOW TO KEEP BEES

box. 'WTien we were far enough afield, some un-
wary bee was lifted from its goldenrod revel and
imprisoned in the box, where one of the empty
combs had been filled from the bottle for her special
delectation. Like a worthy bee, she began to fill
at once; meanwhile, the stake was pushed into the
ground and the box placed upon it, the cover re-
moved, and we all retired for a little distance to
watch. WTien the bee finally lifted herself and our
honey into the air, we gave her closest attention. To
make sure of the exact position of her bonanza, she
always arose in a spiral, each circle being larger than
the one before, and finally turned the spiral in a
certain direction. When she suddenly darted away
with almost the speed of a bullet, it was always the
eyes of our father, blue as the sky against which the
bee was outlined, that detected her direction; for
young eyes, however keen, counted little against
trained eyes in this competition.

Then there always followed a time of anxious
waiting for the return of the bee. Meanwhile we
stretched out on the dry sod in the sun and listened
to the chirping of the crickets, or the sweet notes of
the meadow larks and idly watched a hawk circle
on even pinions above our heads ; or we told stories
of other days of successful bee-hunting. If the bee
returned within fifteen minutes, all was well and we
were confident that the tree was distant not much
more than a mile. But if we had to wait a half hour
we usually caught other bees and started over again,
hoping to find some nearer colony. If our first

BEE-HUNTING 213

visitor came back soon, and especially if she was
followed by her anxious sisters, we were satisfied.
With several bees flying in the same direction, it was
always easy to get the ''line," which we marked by
some peculiar tree or other noticeable object in
the landscape. When several of our visitors were
eagerly filling themselves with honey, the cover was
shoved over them and they were carried for a distance
along the line and then liberated, and the line from
this new location ascertained. Thus were they
followed, up hill and down dale, and even through
woodlands; finally, we would come to a place in a
forest where we could follow the line no farther,
and then w^e took our first lesson in geometry by
getting a cross-line. This was done by carrying some
of the bees in the box for some rods to the right or
left; and when they were established there we knew
that at the apex of the angle made by the two inter-
secting lines stood the bee-tree.

The triumph which filled us when we finally dis-
covered that stream of black particles entering some
knothole or the broken top of a tree, made us breath-
less; and all the way home we tried to temper our
excitement so as to make the announcement of our
discovery with a nonchalance characteristic of in-
variably successful hunters.

However, we were by no means always successful.
Sometimes it would be too late in the day before
we established a line; and again a line would lead
us in a disgusting fashion to some unsuspected
apiary; and now and then in a woodland tangle

214 HOW TO KEEP BEES

we crossed and crisscrossed lines, nearly breaking
our necks gazing into tree-tops, all to no avail.
Then, too, even our victory might be tempered by
conditions. If the bee-tree were small, we judged
it contained little honey; if the tree were valuable, we
doubted if the owner would allow it to be cut. As a
matter of fact, we seldom cut a bee-tree; and when
we did, we wrested from it a combination of rotten
wood, bee-bread, crushed brood and bees that made
a potpourri which would prove disastrous to the
enfeebled stomachs of this generation. But, though
we rarely cut a bee-tree, bee-hunting lost none of its
fascination. For what could be more delightful
than long days spent in the autumn sunshine, en-
livened by an occupation vitally interesting that needs
must be lazily carried on! So we never gave it up
until the October frosts had killed all the flowers,
and the fumes of the honey-comb that we burned
failed to entice an enterprising bee from her winter
quarters to our box.

APPENDIX

BEE BOOKS

The bibliography of bee literature is extensive. Scientists
of all nations have contributed the results of their investi-
gations on bee anatomy and bee physiology, and have made
bee literature, as a whole, most profound and technical
reading. However, there are among these books many
that were written for popular audiences, and that deal with
the practical side of bee-keeping; of such we add a few
titles of those best known and of special excellence.

Benton, Frank. "The Honey Bee." Mr. Benton, who
is our national expert of the Department of Agriculture
at Washington, always writes practically, and has carried
on experiments with races of bees, which the private
bee-keeper could hardly afford to make. The enter-
prising bee-keeper should keep in close touch with Mr.
Benton's bulletins.

Cheshire, Frank R. Two volumes. This is one of the
finest works that has ever been published upon the
honey-bee and bee-keeping. It is delightfully written
and has many fine illustrations.

Cook, Professor Albert J. "The Bee-keeper's Guide
or Manual of the Apiary." This is the most extensive
of all the bee-keeping manuals written for American
bee-keepers. It deals with all phases of the subject
minutely, and new editions are published frequently
enough to keep the book up-to-date. Professor Cook
has a wide reputation as a most excellent teacher,
and bee-keeping is one of the subjects which he taught
for years in the Agricultural College of Michigan.

CowEN, T. W. "The Honey-bee, Its Natural History,
Anatomy and Physiology."

215

216 APFENDIX— Continued

CowEN, T. W. "Bee-Keeper's Guide Books." The first
of these Httle volumes is a clear and excellent account
of the anatomy of the bee. The second is a concise
and helpful book on the methods of bee-keeping as
practiced in England.

HuBER, Franz. "Nouvellea Observations sur les Abe-
illes," published in 1792. English translation in 1841.
This classic in bee literature is one of the most delightful
of all the bee books that have been written. It shows
the careful methods of this blind scientist who has
given us more of the understanding of the bee and its
life than any other investigator or writer.

Hutchinson, W. Z. "Advanced Bee Culture."

Hutchinson, W. Z. "Comb Honey." Mr. Hutchinson
is one of our most successful bee-keepers, and he writes
clearly and understandingly of his methods.

Langstroth, L. L. "The Hive and Honey-Bee." 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 success-
ful 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." Al-
though 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.

Maeterlinck, Maurice. "The Life of the Bee." This
exquisite piece of literature and social philosophy has
attracted much attention, and has introduced the
world at large to the wonderful life of the honey-bee
in such a poetic and dramatic manner, that most people
have regarded it as a work of fiction. Maeterlinck
is said to be a practical apiarist, and his book is based
upon the facts of bee life as he understood them at the
time the book was written. Though some of his facts
be questioned, yet probably his statements are no
more doubtful than would be those of almost any bee-
keeper should he try to write what he thinks he knows

APFEl<imX— Concluded 217

about bees. Maeterlinck is the Homer of the bees and,
therefore, he has a right to poetic hcense.

Miller, Dr. C. C. "Forty Years Among the Bees." This
is a simply told history of the experiences of a success-
ful bee man. It is a most honest and often a humorous
record of bee-keepers' successes and failures.

MoRLEY, Margaret. "The Bee People."

MoRLEY, Margaret. "The Honey-Makers." The fir^t
of these books is written charmingly and simply for
children and covers in an interesting manner the life
of the bee. "The Honey-Makers" gives a most
extended account of the relation of bees to men, giving
extensive quotations from Hindu, Egyptian, Greek and
Italian literatures and also a most interesting chapter on
the curious superstitions and customs regarding the
honey-bee.

QuiNBY, Moses. "Mysteries of Bee-Keeping," revised by
L. C. Root and now called, "Quinby's New Bee Book."
This is a simple, straightforward account of a practical
man's dealings with bees.

Root, A. I. "ABC of Bee Culture." The author may
be pardoned if she speaks with special enthusiasm of
this book, as Mr. Root was the special teacher that
helped the Comstock apiary achieve success. The
interesting and truly human way that Mr. Root refers
to bees is not only inspiring, but is also most practically
helpful. The "ABC of Bee Culture" is arranged
conveniently, encyclopedia fashion, so that the dis-
cussion of any subject in it may be readily found.
Every page of it is interesting, and is based upon the
actual experience of a man who is at once a keen observer,
a sympathetic friend to the bees, and a most successful
apiarist.

INDEX

ABC of Bee Culture, 207.
Abdomen, 187.

After-swarms led by virgin queen,
81.

prevention of, 81.

reason of and remedy for, 79, 81.
Alder, 154.
Alfalfa, 201.
Alighting board, 15.
Alimentary canal, 187, 191, Plates

XXV., XXVI.
Alley's queen and drone trap, 12.
Alsike, 200.
Anatomy, external, 181, Plate XXV.

internal, 187, Plate XXVI.
Antenna cleaner, 186, Plate VIL
Antennas, 183, Plate VII.
Ants, 27.
Apiaries, floating, 209.

out, 209.
Apiary, high fence for, in city, 23.

in village garden, 22.

location and arrangement of, 20.

mowing the, 23.

old-fashioned, Plate XXVII.

old orchard good place for, 20.

on city house tops, 22.

sheep in, 23.

windbreak for, 22.
Apparatus for extracting, Plate

xvm.

Apple, 196.

Apple blossoms, Plate XVll.

Apricot, 196.

Aristotle, 172, 207.

Artificial pasturage, 199.

Bacillus alveu 176.
Balling of queen, 32, 158.
Basswood, 198.

blossoms, frontispiece.
Bee, anatomy of, 18 1.

books, 206.

brush, Plate III.

Brush, Dixie, 19.

brush, use of, loi.

cellars, for wintering, the Bing-
ham, 151.

gloves, II, 17.

glue, its source, 60, 61.

glue made from varnish and
cement, 61.

glue, various uses of, 62.

house-keepers, 34.

how she gathers pollen, 59.

how she collects propolis, 62.

ingratitude, 44.

journals, 206.

moth, 172.

moth, development of, 173.

moth, how to detect, 173.

moth, maxims, 176.

moth, remedy for, 174.

tent, 102, 168.

tree, 214.

veil, II, 16.

worker, 59.

worker, brains of, 40.

worker — life and habits of, 42, 43,

worker, sex of, 39.
Bee-bread, 59.

as food, 60.

in cells, 98.

220

INJ^EK— Continued

Bee-escape, Plate III.

Porter, i8.

Porter, use of, loi.
Bee-gum, 83.
Bee-hunting, 211.
Bee-keepers, 206.

books written by, 9.

number of, 207.
Bee-keepers' supplies, catalogue

of, 10.
Bee-keeping, 206.

a beginner's order, 11.

as a regular business, 10.

attractive materials of, 85.

how to begin, 8.

too successful, 73.

worst way to begin, 10.
Bees, as a recreation, 5.

as socialists, 6.

a study in natural science, 6.

belong to the garden, 7.

control population, 34.

diseases of, 176.

enemies and diseases of, 172.

feeding of, 136.

German or black, 12, 47.

how they collect propolis, 60, 61.

how they secrete wax, 52.

how to handle them, 91.

how to keep from keeping too
many, 73.

how to manage when swarm-
ing, 66.

how to reconcile swarm to new
hive, 70.

how to unite colonies, 82.

how to winter, 145.

how to work with, 92.

hybrids, 48.

Italian, 12, 13.

Italian and black bees com-
pared, 48.

Italian, Mr. Root's test for, 48.

keep for sake of honey, 4.

keep for sake of money, 4.

legends and literature of, 3.

Bees — Continued

races of, 12.

races of domestic, 47.

reasons why one should keep, 3.

relations to plants, 194.

robbing, 164.

secreting wax, Plate X.

sense of smell, 92.

swarming of, 64.

telling the, 61.

watering, 143.

when they swarm, 65.

why they swarm, 64.

wild, 47.
Beeswax, adulterated, 126, 134.

clarified by vinegar, 128.

how to make it, 126.

its value, 126.

maxims for making, 135.

press, 132.

primitive method of rendering,

I2J.

refining of, 134.

rendered in wash boiler, 129.
Beeswax-extractors, 130.
Black brood, 179.
Blue thistle, 204.

Boardman wax extractor, 130, 131.
Body wall, 181, Plate XXV.
Bonnet, 207.
Borage, 204.
Bottom board, 83.
Box elder in blossom, Plate XXX.
Box hives, 83, 208.
Brain, 188, Plate XXV.
Brimstoning bees, 208.
Brood, black, 179.

foul, 176.

foundation, 17.

how to examine, 97.

pickled, 179.
Brood chamber, 83.

how to examine, 95.

size of, 14.
Brood frame, Langstroth, how
much honey it will hold, 146.

INDEX— Continued

221

Brood frames, examining of, Plate

xin.

how to lift out, 96.
Brushing or shaking-out method to

control swarming, 77,
Buckwheat, 201.

Buckwheat in blossom, Plate XXIX'.
Cabbage palmetto, 199.
Cages, queen, 160, 161.
Candy for feeding bees, how to
make, 141.

Good, 141, 161.
Cans for shipping extracted honey

in bulk, 123.
Carniolan bees, 47.
Carton for comb-honey, 106, 113.
Catnip, 204.
Cell of queen, 29.
Cellars for wintering bees, 150.
Cerasin, wax adulterant, 134.
Chaff hives, 11, 14.
Chaff hives for wintering, 148,

Plate XXn.
Chyle food, 36.

how regurgitated, 58.
City apiary, 22.
Cleome, 204.

Clipping wings of queen, 75.
Clover, 200.
Cogshall, 209.
Colonies, how to unite, 82.
Colony, queenless, 29.

queenless, Mr. Root's method
of testing, 159, 160.
Comb building, Plate IX.

built by many workers, 56.

drone, 37.

cell caps, construction of, 56.

foundation for brood chamber, 8 5.

how to tell honey from brood in
capped cells, 97.

made without pollen, 50.

making, described by A. I. Root,

53-
making, Prof. V. L. Kellogg's
observation of, 53.

mathematics of, 54.

placing in extractor, Plate XIX.

shape of, not fortuitous, 54.

strength of, 56.

uncapping of, Plate XIX.
Comb-honey and large hives, 77.

bee moth in, 174, 175.

candied, 115.

compared with extracted honey,
106, 124.

conditions for production of, 107.

grading of, 112.

how to keep, 116.

how to make, 106.

in 8-frame hive, 14.

marketing of, 114.

maxims for producers of, 116.

shipping of, 113.

storing of, 115.
Combs for extracting, Plate XVIII.
Cook, Prof. A. J., method of uniting
colonies, 82, 207.

observation on bee moth, 172.
Coreopsis, 204.
Comeil smoker, 11, 16.

how to use, 93.
Coxa, 185.

Crabapple blossoms, Plate XXVUI.
Crimson clover, 200.
Cuticle, 182, Plate XXV.
Cyprians, 47, 210.

Daisy foundation fastener, 11, 17.

Dandelion, 205.

De Geer, 207.

Details concerning honey, 106.

Development of worker, 40.

Diarrhoea, prevention of, 180.

Diseases of bees, 176.

Division board, -what it is, 13.

Division board feeder, Plate XU.

Dixie bee brush, 12.

Doolittle division board feeder, 12.

wax-extractor, 130, 131.
Drone, the, 34, Plate V.

appearance of, 35.

222

INBEX— Continued

Drone — Continued

ceU of, 37, Plate VHI.

cells, how capped, 97.

cells, size of, 56.

comb, 37.

death of, 35.

eggs in worker cells, 37,

flight of, 36.

food of, 36.

from unfertilised egg, 36.

head of, Plate VI.

leg of, Plate VTL

life-history of, 36.

killing of, 38, 39.

maturity of, 37.

physical characteristics of, 35, 36.

reproductive organs of, Plate
XXVI.

trap, 19, Plate XVI.

•wedding flight of, 38.
Drones, great number of, 38.

males, 27.
Dzierzon, 207, 208.

Egg, 192.

queen, 29.

tubes, 192, Plate XXVI.
Eggs, unfertilised, 33.
Egj'ptian bees, 47.
Enemies of bees, 172.
Entrance to hive, how to con-
tract, 167.
Epilohium angustijoUuniy 204.
Eucalyptus, 199.
Extracted honey and large hives, 77.

candied, 122, Plate XXI.

care of, 121.

compared with comb-honey, 106,
124.

drawing from extractor, Plate
XX.

hive for, 14.

how to bottle or can, 122.

how to produce it, 117.

in glass jars, Plate XXI.

maxims for the producers of, 124.

Extracted honey — Continued

packages for, 123.
Extracting room and apparatus,

Plate X\Tn.
Extractor, honey, invention of, 117.
Extractor, Solar wax, 130.
Extractor, wax, 130.
Eyes, compound, 183, Plate VI.

simple, 183, Plate VL

Fabricius, 207.
Feeder, Boardman, 138.

Division board, 138.

DooHttle, 19.

pepper-box, 139.
Feeders, Smith, Hedden, Miller,

139-
Feeding back, 143.

bees, 136.

candy, 140.

chunk honey, 140.

for honey, 142.

for winter, 137.

how to do it, 138.

how to feed inside the hive, 138.

how to feed outside the hive, 138.

in fall, 136.

in spring, 136.

maxims for, 144.

rye flour, 142.

syrup in combs, 140.

what to feed, 137.
Females of social insects, 27.
Fence, Plate HI.

between sections, 88.
Figwort, 204.
Fireweed, 204.
Flowers of the garden, 203.
Food of worker, 40.
Foul brood, 176, 179.

how to detect, 177.

remedy for, 177.
Foundation, brood, 17.

super, 11.

Foundation<omb, 126, Plate All.

for brood chamber, 85.

INDEX— Continued

223

Foundation-comb — Continued

for sections, how to cut, 89.

how to place in frame, 85, 86.

size of, 86.
Foundation-fastener, Daisy, 17.

Parker, i8.

-u- er, 17.

for extracted honey, 119.

foundation for, 84.
Frames, Hoffman brood, 86.

Hoffman self-spacing, 84.

Langstroth movable, 84.

self-spacing, Plate XII.

spacing of, 84.
Fruit, not punctured by bees, 196.
Fruit trees, 196, 197.

Gall-berry, 204.
Galleria mellonella, 172.
Garden flowers, 203.
German bees compared with Ital-
ians, 48.
German steam wax press, 133.
Gill-over-the-ground, 204.
Glands, 189.

Glands of honey bee, Plate XXV.
Goldenrod, 204.

Grapes, not punctured by bees, 197.
Guagilla, 199.

Hatch-Gemmill wax press, 133.
Head, 183, Plate XXV.
Heart, 188, Plate XXV.
Hetherington super springs, 90.
Hive, arrangement in apiary, 24.

cover, 15, 83.

the description of, 14.

entrance, how to contract, 167.

essential parts of, 83.

history of, 83.

how to get the cover off, 95.

how to handle it, 83.

how to ift out the brood frames,
96.

how to open, 92.

industries of, 50.

Hive — Continued

inhabitants of, 27.

Langstroth, 8-frame, I o-frame, 14.

maxims for opening, 104.

one and one-half story, Plate
XV.

the reasons why it must be
opened, 94.

telescope cover, 91.

tenement, for wintering, 149,

to change the location of, 25.
Hive-stand, 15, 24.
Hives, chaff, 14, 15.

chaff for wintering, 148, Plate

xxn.

Dadant-Quinby, size of, 77.

decoy, 70.

devices for carrying Into cellai,
152.

double-walled, 21.

double-walled, cover for, 22.

entrance toward south, 25.

how to group, 20, 25.

large, for extracted honey, 77.

large sizes limit swarming, 77,

observation, 103.

shade boards for, 21.

shaded by awning, 21.

shaded by thatched roof, 21.

shaded by trellis, 21.

well shaded, Plate IV.

where to put them, 20.
Hiving bees, Plate XI.

maxims for, 72.
Holy Land bees, 47.
Honey, the amount produced in the
United States, 58.

basswood. 198.

buckwheat, 202.

composition of, 57,

flowers, 194.

gardens, 199, 204.

healthful food, 58.

how produced, 57.

how to take off in supers, loi,

house, 25.

224

INBEX— Continued

Honey — Continued

not made in the true stomach of
the bee, 58.

of Hymettus, 204.

the only sweet of the ancients, 58.

plants, 199.

ripened in uncapped cells, 57.

ripening of, 120.

room, 25.

sage, 203.

uncapped, 120.

uncapping of, 120.

unripened for extracting, 119.

•weeds, 199.

when to extract, 119.

white clover, 200.
Honey-extractor, invention of, 117.

principles of construction of, 118.

use of, 119.
Honey-stomach, 57, 191, Plate

XXVI.
Horsemint, 204.
House top for apiary, 22.
How to clip the queen's wings, 100.

to examine frames of brood
chamber, 95.

to find the queen, 99.

to find the queen cells, 98.

to handle the bees, 91.

to introduce a queen, 160, 161.

to keep from keeping too many
bees, 73.

to make comb-honey, 106.

to open the hive, 92.

to produce extracted honey, 117.

to rear queens, 156.

to stop robbing, 167.

to take oflF honey in supers, loi.

to winter bees, 145.

to winter bees in cellars, 150.
Hruschka, Major Francesco de,
inventor of honey-extractor, 1 1 7.
Huber, 61, 103, 208.
Hutchinson, W. Z., method of

treating after-swarms, 81.
Hymettus, honey of, 204.

Hypodermis, 182, Plate XXV.

Indian meal moth, 175.
Industries of the hive, 50.
Inhabitants of the hive, 27.
Introducing the queen, 157,

by nucleus method, 162.
Interrelation of bees and plants,

194.
Intestine, 191, Plate XXVI.
Italian bees, 47, 204.
Italian worker, description of, 47,

Jars for extracted honey, 123.

Kellogg, Prof. V. L., 53, 103, 172.
Kitchen, how bees rob the, 165.

Labium, 184, Plate XXV.

Labrum, 184, Plate XXV.

Lamarck, 207.

Langstroth, 207, 208.

Latrielle, 207.

Laying worker, 45, 79.

Leg, 185.

Legs of honey bee, Plate VH.

Legumes, 200.

Linnaeus, 207.

Location of hive, to mark, 25.

Locust blossoms, Plate XXXI.

Locusts, 197,

Males of social insects, 27.
Malpighian tubes, i o i , Plate XXVI.
Malthusian practices of bees, 34.
Mandibles, 184, Plate XXV.
Manum swarm catcher, 12, 19,
Maple, mountain, Plate XXIV.
Maples, 154, 197.
Marjoram, 203.
Marketing comb honey, 114.
Mason's cans for extracted honeyi

123.
Maxilla;, 184, Plate XXV.
Maxims for beeswax making, 135.
for feeding, 144.

INDEX — Continued

225

Maxims — Continued

for hiving bees, 72.

for introducing queens, 163,

for opening the hive, 104.

for prevention of bee moth, 176.

for producers of comb honey, 116.

for the producer of extracted
honey, 124.

for wintering, 154.

to prevent robbing, 171.
McEvoy, WilUam, treatment of

foul brood, 177.
Medics, 201.
Mellilots, 205.
Metatarsus, 185.
Micro pyle, 192.
Milkweed, 204.
Miller, Dr., 102, 162.
Mignonette, 203.
Motherwort, 204.
Mouth parts, 184, Plate XXV.
Muscles, 187, Plate XXV.
Muth bottles for extracted honey,
123.

Nervous system, 188, Plate XXV.
Nucleus, method of introducing
queen, 162.
to begin with, 13.

Observation hives, 103, opposite

frontispiece.
Ocelli, 183, Plate VI.
(Esophagus, 191, Plate XXVI.
Out-apiaries, 209.
Ovaries, 192, Plate XXVI.
Oviduct, 192, Plate XXVI.
Oxydendrum arhoreunty 199.

Palpi, 185, Plate XXV.

ParafEsse, wax adulterant, 134.
Parker foundation fastener, 18.
Partnership of bees and plants, 195.
Peach, 196.
Pear, 196.
Pickled brood, 179,

Piping of queen, 31, 32.

Planting for honey impractical, 199

Pliny, 207.

Plodia inter punctelJoj 175.

Plum, 196.

Plum blossoms, Plate XXIII.

Points about beeswax, 126.

Poison glands, 193, Plate XXVI.

Pollen, 59.

fed to drone, 37.

how gathered, 59.

in cells, 98.

how placed in cell, 60.

made into bee bread, 60.
Pollen-baskets, 59, 186, Plate VII.
Pollen-comb, Plate VII.
Porter bee-escape, 12, 18.
Propolis, how collected, 62.

how to dissolve, 63.

its source, 60, 61.

made from varnish and cementi
61.

various uses of, 62.
Pussy willows, 197.

Queen, Plate V.
armour of, 30, 31.
balling of, 32, 158, 1 59.
cages, 160, i6i, Plate XVI.
cages, the Miller, 162.
capacity for egg laying, 28.
cell, 29, Plate V.
cell, how to find, 98.
cell, how to cut out, 98.
clipping wings of, 75.
development of, 28.
duels, 30, 31.
egg, 29.
excluder, 78.
first flight of, 32.
head of, Plate VI.
her attendants, 28.
how she lays eggs, 33, 34.
how to find, 99.
how to handle, 99.
how to introduce, 160.

226

INDEX — Continued

Queen — Continued

introducing by nucleus method,
162.

introducing cage, Plate V.

introducing of, 157.

issues from cell, 30.

larva, 30.

leg of, Plate VII.

maxims for introducing, 163.

mother of her subjects, 27,

piping of, 31, 32.

rearing, 156, 157.

removed to prevent swarming, 79.

reproductive organs of, 30, Plate
XXVI.

selection of, 27, 28.

surrounded by workers, 99.

tested, 14.

trap, 19, 75, Plate XIV.

virgin, leads after-swarms, 79,
80, 81.

weapons, 30, 31.

wedding flight of, 32.

when to introduce, 159.
Queen-clipping device, 100.
Queen-excluding honey-board, use

of, 108.
Queenless colony, 29.
Queens, development of new, 29.

females, 27.
Queen's wings, how to clip, 100.
Quinby, 207.

Rape, 202.

Rauchfuss wax-extractor, 130, 131

Rearing queens, 156.

Reaumur, 207.

Red clover, 200.

Red maple, 197.

Red raspberry, 202.

Reproductive organs, 191, Plate

XXVI.
Respiratory system, 188, Plate

XXVI.
Robbing, borrowing, 170.

fate of the robbed colony, 170.

Robbing — Continued

how it is done, 166.

how to detect, 167.

how to prevent, 102.

how to stop, 167, 168, 169.

maxims to prevent, 171.

the result of, 164.

slow, 170.

when it is likely to happeiij 165.

why, 164.
Rocky Mountain bee plant, 204.
Root, 207.

treatment of foul brood, 177.

views about smoking bees, 93.
Royal jelly, 29.
Rye flour for feeding, 142.

Sage, white, 203.

Sage, black or button, 203.

Scrojularia venalis, 204.

Section glazed for comb-honey, 106.

holder, Plate XTV.

holders, 88.

of honey, Plate XIV.
Section-boxes, 88, Plates 11., III.,
X[V.

no bee-way, 88.

with bee-ways, 88.
Sections, 11, 17.

fence between, 88.

foundation-comb for, 89.

how to put together, 89.

how to take off, no.

no bee-way, 16.

scraping of, 112.

stained, in.

unfinished, no.
Sense hairs, Plate VIE.
Sense organs, 183.
Sense pits, Plate VII.
Shade for hives, 21.
Sheep in apiary, 23.
Shipping-cases for comb-honey, 113.
Skeleton, 181, 187, Plate XXV.
Slumgum, 131.
Smell, organs of, 184.

INDEX — Continued

221

Smoking bees, should be done care-

fuUy, 93, 94.
Smoker, Corneil, 16, Plate II.

how to fill and use, 92, 93.
Social insects, 27.

increase of, 64.
Solar wax-extractor, 130, 131.
Sour wood, 198.
Spanish needle, 204.
Spraying fruit blossoms with ar-
senic, 196.
Spermatheca, 192, Plate XXVI.
Spermatozoa, 192.
Spider flower, 204.
Spiracles, 188, Plate XXVI.
Spring dwindling, 154.
Spur, Plate VII.
Spur wire embedder, 86.
Stained sections, in.
Sting, 193, Plate XXVI.
Stomach, 191. Plate XXVI.
Sumach blossoms, Plate XXIV.
Storifying, no.
Sunflower, 203.
Super, n.

boxes, 209.

cover, II, 91.

description of, 87.

filled with section boxes, Plate
XV.

for comb-honey, 87.

for extracted honey, 87.

foundation, 17.

how to entice bees into, 108.

how to prepare, 90.

how to prepare and place in
hive, 91.

partly filled, Plate HI.

parts of, 87.

ready to be filled, Plate XTE.

springs, 88, 90.
Supers, 15, 83.

different kinds of, 88.

how to take oflf when filled with
honey, 101.
Swammerdam, 207,

Swarm, how to hive, 66, 68.

how to manage in difficult places,
69.

how to reconcile to new hive, 70.

how to stop, 66.

$ize of 65.

throwing dirt at, 67.

use, fountain pump with, 67.

Mr. West's device for saving, 71.

when given off, 65.
Swarm-catcher, the Manum, 19.
Swarming, conditions that lead
to, 65.

control by brushing out method,
77.

control by extracting honey, 76.

control by giving room, 76.

control by removing queen, 79.

lessened by use of large hives, 77.

necessary to produce comb-
honey, 75.

of bees, 64.

owing to queen or workers, 65.
Swarms, dividing of, 78.
Sweet clover, 205.
Swiss wax extractor, 131.
Syrian, 47.

Syrup, for feeding bees how to
make, 137.

medicated for foul brood, 177.

Taking up bees, 208.

Tallow, wax adulterant, 134.

Tarsus, 185.

Telescope cover, 15.

Tenement hives for wintering, 149,

Tents for bee-keepers, 102.

Termites, 27.

Thorax, 185.

Thomapple blossoms, Plate

xxvin.

Thyme, 230.

Tibia, 185.

Tiering up, 108.

Tin pails for extracted honey, 123.

Tinned wire, 12.

228

INDEX— Continued

Tongue, 184, Plate XXV.
Tracheae, 189, Plate XXVI.
Trap for queen, 75.
Trap, queen and drone, 19.
Trees, 196.
Trochanter, 185.
Turnip, 202.

Uncapping, 120.

Uncapping cans, the Dadant, 121.
Uncapping knife, Bingham, 120.
Urinary organs, 191.

Vagina, 192.

Van Deusen wax -tube fastener,

12, 18, 86.
Varnish used as bee glue, 61.
Vas deferens, 193, Plate XXVI.
Veil, need for, 16.
Village garden for apiary, 22.

Wasps, 27.
Watering bees, 143.
Wax, amount of honey required to
make, 50.

bees hang in curtains to make, 52

bees secreting, Plate X.

the constituents of, 51.

how to make it, 126.

made in the fields, 52.

made when need for, 52.

press, 132, 133.

the secretion of, 50.

scales, 52.
Wax-extractors, 130.
Wax-glands, 52, 191, Plate XXVI.
Wax-pincers, 186, Plate VII.
Wax-plates, 51, Plates VI., XXV.
Wax-tube fastener, 18, Plate III.
Weeds, 203.
When to feed, 136.

When to introduce a queen, 159.
When to put bees into cellar, 153.
White clover, 200.
Wild flowers, 203.
Willow, 154, 197.
Wings, 185.

Wintering bees in single - walled
hives, 145.

diarrhoea, 179.

getting ready for, 146.

how much food needed for, 146.

in cellars, 150.

in chaff hives, 148, Plate XXII.

in hive boxes, 147.

in tenement hives, 149.

maxims for, 154.

out doors, 147.

poor honey for, 147.

spring dwindling, 154.

when to put bees in the cellar, 1 53

when to take bees out of cellar

153-

ways of, 147.
Wire embedded by heat, 87.
Wire embedder, 86, Plate III.
Wire, tinned, 18, 85.
Worker, 39, Plate V.

cell of, 37, 40, 55.

cocoon of, 41.

death of, 39.
Worker eggs, in drone cells, 37

head of, Plate VI.

laying, 45, 46.

leg of, Plate VII.

life and habits of, 42, 43.

life-history of, 40, 41.

maturity of, 41.

moulting of, 41.

old age and death of, 44.
Workers, labourers, 27.

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