Bee-Keeping

BEE-KEEPING. Though bee-keeping is known to have existed from the most ancient times, it may be said that during the last 5o years almost everything connected with bee craft has been revolutionized; nor has this revolution been confined to any country, but remarkable progress has been made in all coun tries where commercial bee-keeping is carried on. In no branch of the craft has more progress been made than in that of queen rearing. In both Europe and America queen-rearing apiaries are plentiful, and in England some bee-keepers include queen rearing on the latest scientific systems, as well as breeding by selection and cross-breeding from such races as appear most suited to the exceptional climatic conditions, as a part of their business. The consumption of honey as an article of food has also largely in creased of late years; and the value of bee-keeping as an occupa tion has now been recognized by the British Government as worthy of encouragement, by the promotion of technical education in the craft and by providing funds for research. The value of the bee, moreover, to the fruit grower and the gardener is beyond dispute, and the fruit growing districts are known to be greatly benefited by the colonies of bees established in their midst.

Bee-keepers' Associations.

The British Bee-Keepers' Asso ciation (instituted in 1874) has been untiring in its efforts to raise the standard of efficiency among those who are desirous of quali fying as experts and teachers of bee-keeping on modern methods.

This body had for its first president the distinguished naturalist Sir John Lubbock (Lord Avebury). Subsequently the Baroness Burdett-Coutts accepted the office in the year 1878, and was re elected annually until her death in 1906. Other societies of bee-keepers were established throughout the English counties, with the object of securing co-operation in promoting the sale of honey, and showing the most modern methods of producing it in its most attractive form at exhi bitions held for the purpose. Many of these county societies are affiliated with a central asso ciation, paying an affiliation fee yearly, and employ qualified men who visit members in spring and autumn for the purpose of exam ining hives and giving advice on bee management to those needing it. Another advantage of mem bership is the use of a "county label" for affixing to each section of honey in comb, or jar of ex tracted honey, offered for sale by members. These labels are num bered consecutively, and thus afford a guarantee of the genu ineness and quality of the honey, the label enabling purchasers to trace the producer if needed. The British Bee-Keepers' Asso ciation is an entirely philan thropic body. The Scottish Bee-Keepers' Association and the Apis Club are other important bodies, which, independently of the British Bee-Keepers' Association, exercise a wide influence. There are also many equally beneficial societies, framed on different lines, existing in Germany, France, Russia, Switzerland, the United States, Canada and most of the British colonies.

The Bee-appliance Trade.

As a natural consequence of this , activity, the trade in bee-appliance making has assumed enormous proportions. In the United States extensive factories have been established, using electric-power machinery of the most modern type devoted entirely to the manufacture of apiarian requisites, and millions of the small wooden boxes used for holding comb honey are made and exported. The most generally approved form of this box is made from a strip of wood in. thick, i i in. wide, and of such length that when folded by joining the mortised and tenoned ends (see fig. i) it forms the section or box, meas uring 4 1" X ii". The gross weight is usually less than 16 ounces, although this type of box is sometimes called a "1-pound section." Generally regulations require that the sections be marked with their net weight. The V-shaped groove (cut across and partly through the wood; see inset, fig. i) shows the joint when in the Hat, and the same joint when closed is shown immediately below it. The section boxes used in the United Kingdom are made in the United States or Canada from the timber known as basswood, no native wood being suitable for the purpose.

Development of the Movable-comb Hive.

The dome shaped straw skep of our forefathers, though it has now largely disappeared save from the more remote parts of the country, may be regarded as the traditional bee-hive of all time. A swarm of bees hived in a straw skep will furnish their home with waxen combs admirably adapted to their requirements. Fig. 2 shows a straw skep in section, and illustrates the admirable way in which the bees furnish their dwelling. The vertical section displays the lower portion of the combs devoted to brood-rearing, the higher combs being reserved for honey, and between the brood and food is stored the pollen required for mixing with honey in feeding the larvae. The horizontal section demonstrates the bee's ingenuity in economizing space, showing how the outer combs are used exclusively for stores. The straw skep had, how ever, the irredeemable fault that it was not open for handling and inspection and both comb and honey were irremovable with out the destruction of the hive. The gradual development of the movable-comb hive of to-day may be said to have first appeared in 1789, when the distinguished Swiss naturalist and bee-keeper, Francois Huber, was led to con struct the leaf-hive bearing his name after experimenting with a single comb glass sided observa tory hive recommended by Reau mur. Huber decided to have a series of wooden frames made, measuring 12 in. square, each of rather more than the ordinary width allowed for brood-combs.

These frames were numbered consecutively i to 12, and hinged together as shown in fig. 3. In this way the twelve frames of comb could be opened for inspection like a book, while when closed the bees clustered together as in an ordinary hive. When closed, the ten frames together with the two outside ones (fitted with squares of glass for inspection), which represent the covers of the book, were tied together with a couple of stout strings. In a subsequent form of the same hive Huber was enabled (with the help of very long thumb-screws at each side to raise up any frame between two sheets of glass which confined the bees and allowed him to study the process of comb-building as well as in any hive we know of to-day. It must be admitted that Huber's hive was defective in many respects ; but it remained the only movable-comb hive till 1838, when Dr. Dzierzon (whose theory of parthenogenesis has made his name famous) devised a box-hive with a loose top-bar on which the bees built their combs, and a movable side or door, by means of which the combs could be lifted out for inspection. This improvement was at once appreciated, and in the year 1852 Baron Berlepsch added side-bars and a bottom-bar, thus completing the movable frame of comb. About the same time the Rev. L. L. Langstroth was experimenting on the same lines in America, and in 1852 his important invention was made known, giving to the world of bee keepers a movable frame which in its most important details is not likely to be excelled. We refer to the respective distances left between the side-bars and hive walls on each side, a in., and between the lower edge of the bottom-bars and the floor-board, in. Langstroth, in his measurements, hit upon the happy mean which keeps bees from propolizing or fastening the frames to the hive body by filling the space with comb which rendered the frame immovable. In addition to these benefits, Langstroth's frame and hive possessed the enormous advantage over Dzierzon's of being manipulated from above, so that any single frame of comb could be raised for inspection without disturbing the others. Langstroth's space-measurements have remained unaltered, not withstanding the many improvements in hive-making and in the various sizes of frames since introduced and used in different parts of the world.

Standard Hives.

In the British Isles only one size of frame is acknowledged by the great majority of bee-keepers, viz., the British Bee-keepers' Association "Standard" (fig. 4).

This frame, the outside measure ment of which is 14 by 82 in., was the outcome of deliberations ex tending over a considerable time on the part of a committee of well-known bee-keepers, specially appointed in 1882 to consider the matter. In this way, whatever type or form of hive is used, the frames are interchangeable. The typical hive of America is the improved Langstroth (fig. 5), which has no other covering for the frame tops but a flat roof board allowing 4 in. space between the roof and top-bars for bees to pass from comb to comb. Consequently on the roof being raised the bees can take wing. This feature finds no favour with British bee-keepers, nevertheless the "improved Langstroth" is practically the universal standard in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. In the colder parts of America bee keepers find it necessary to provide underground cellars, into which the bees are carried in the fall of each year, remaining there till work begins in the following spring. One of the best known hives in England is the W.B.C. hive, devised in 1890 by the late W. Broughton Carr. Figs. 6 and 7 explain its construction and, as will be seen, it is equally suitable when working for comb or for extracted honey. The outer cases of some modern hives are made tapering, wider at the bottom than at the top, so there is no need for the outside plinth to cover the joint. The out side plinth is a source of trouble, as wet penetrates between it and the case, causing the wood to rot. A narrow plinth inside the tapering covers prevents the upper one dropping too far down and becoming wedged fast on the one immediately under neath it.

Honey Extractors.

Regarding the method of extracting honey it cannot be said that up to 1923 the honey extractor differed very much from the original machine (fig. 8) invented by Major Hruschka, an officer in the Italian army. Hruschka's extractor, first brought to public notice in 1865, made use of the principle of centrifugal force for throwing the liquid honey out of the comb cells, thus increasing the output without damaging the combs, and in a fraction of the time previously occupied in the draining, heating and squeezing process. At the same time the combs were preserved for refilling by the bees, in lieu of melting them down for wax. Since that time changes of more or less value have been introduced to meet present-day require ments. A simple form of machine for extracting honey by cen trifugal force was brought to notice in England in 1875, and was soon improved upon. T. W. Cowan, who was experimenting in the same direction in England, invented in the same year a machine called the "Rapid," in which the combs were reversed without removal of the cages (fig.

9). The frame-cases (wired on both sides) are hung at the angles of a revolving ring of iron, and the reversing process is so simple and effective that the "Cowan" reversible frame has been adopted in most of the best machines both in Great Britain and in America. The latest form of honey extractor works on a different system. Centrifugal force is still employed, but the combs are arranged radially, the bottom bar of the frames being near the centre, and the top bar at the circumference of the cylinder, so that when in position they are at right angles to that in the "Cowan" type. By this arrangement the honey is extracted from both sides of the comb at one operation. The combs do not need reversing, and a greater number can be extracted at one time without increasing the size of the cylinder. For large apiaries where power is available, these extractors may be made to carry up to 45 combs.

Comb Foundation.

Next in importance for bee-keepers is the enormous advance made in late years in manufacturing the impressed wax sheets known as "comb foundation," aptly so named, because upon it the bees build the cells wherein they store their food. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the evolution from the crude idea, which first took form in the endeavour to compel bees to build straight combs in a given direction by of fering them a guiding line of wax along the under side of each top bar of the frame in which the combs were to be built. In Mehring, a German, made use of wooden moulds for casting sheets of wax impressed with the natural hexagonal form of the bee-cell. Afterwards plates cast from metal were employed. Fig. 10 shows a portion of one of these metal plates with worker-cells of natural size, i.e. five cells to the inch. Thus Mehring is justly claimed as the originator of comb foundation, though not until nearly 20 years later was any prominence given to it, when Samuel Wagner, founder and editor of the American Bee Journal, warmly advocated it in his paper. Mr. Wagner first conceived the idea of adding slightly raised side walls to the hexagonal outlines of the cells, by means of which the bees are supplied with the material for building out one half or more of the complete cell walls or sides. A. I. Root, of Medina, O., suggested the substitution of embossed rollers in lieu of flat plates, in order to increase the output of foundation and lessen its cost to the bee-keeper, and mainly through the inventive genius of a skilled machinist (A. Washburn) the A. I. Root Co.

constructed a roller press (fig. i 1) for producing foundation in sheets. The first roller press was imported into Great Britain by William Raitt, a Scottish bee-keeper of repute in Perthshire, N.B. In all roller machines used at that time the plain sheets of wax were first made by repeated dippings of damped boards in molten wax until the sheet was of suitable thickness for the purpose. The prepared sheets were then passed through the rollers and after being cut out and trimmed were ready for use. Owing to the enormous demand for comb foundation at that time various de vices were tried with the view of securing (I) more rapid pro duction, and (2) a foundation thin enough to be used in surplus chambers when working for comb-honey intended for table use. Foremost among the able men who experimented in this latter direction was E. B. Weed, a skilful American machinist, who succeeded in devising and perfecting special rollers and dies, by the use of which foundation was produced with a midrib so thin as to compare favourably with natural comb built by the bees, and in the end Weed, acting in concert with A. I. Root, devised and perfected machinery for manufacturing foundation by what is known as the "Weed" process. By this process "dipping" is abolished, and in its latest form sheets of wax of any length are produced, passed between engraved rollers 6 in. in diameter cut to given lengths, trimmed, counted and paper-tissued ready for packing, at a rate of speed previously undreamt of.

Practical Management of Bees.

The honey-bee stands pre eminent among insects as the most serviceable to mankind. In gathering pollen and honey for the hive it is also fertilizing the flowers, by means of the pollen which it carries from one flower to another. Nothing seems to be lost, the very wax from which the insect builds its combs is valuable to mankind in many ways, and is regarded to-day no less than in the past ages as an im portant commercial product. In dealing with the practical side of apiculture, however, it will not be necessary to do more than mention the salient points to be considered by those desirous of acquiring more complete knowl edge of the subject. Authorita tive text-books specially written for the guidance of bee-keepers are numerous and cheap, and on no account should anyone en gage in an attempt to manage bees on modern lines without a careful perusal of one or more of these. So much of the natural history of the honey-bee as is necessary for elucidating the practical aspects of bee-keeping is comprised in the sections on life of the insect, its mission, and the means whereby to utilize to the utmost the brief period during which it labours before being worn out with toil.

The Bee Colony.

A prosperous bee colony managed on mod ern lines will in the height of summer consist of three kinds of bees : a queen or mother-bee, up to 200 drones, and from 8o,000 to 1oo,Doo workers (fig. 12). With regard to sex, the queen is a fully-developed female, the drones are males and the workers may be termed partially developed females. The relative impor tance of the three kinds of bees differs greatly in degree and in somewhat curious fashion. For instance, the queen (or "king," as it was termed by our forefathers) is of paramount importance at certain seasons, her death or disablement during the period when the male element is absent meaning extinction of the whole colony. Fecundation would under such conditions be impossible, and with out this the eggs of a resultant queen will produce nothing but drones. During the summer season, however (from May to July), when drones are abundant, the loss of a queen is of less moment, as the workers can by building a special "queen" cell around any worker egg, or by the special feeding of a worker larva not more than three days old, produce a fully developed queen ca pable of fulfilling all the maternal functions of a mother-bee and laying about 1,200 eggs per day. The highest recorded number of eggs laid by a queen is about 1,800. Under normal conditions the queen bee will live for three, four or sometimes five years, but queens are usually superseded after their second season has ex pired and egg-production gradually decreases. The illustration given in fig. 13 shows the various cells (natural size) built for (and occupied by) queens, drones and workers; also the larvae or grubs in the various stages of transformation from egg to per fect insect, with the latter biting their way out of sealed cells. It also shows sealed honey and pollen in cells, etc.

Drones and Workers.

Drones (or male bees) are more or less numerous in hives according to the skill of the bee-keeper in limiting their production. The modern bee-keeper, therefore, allows only so much drone comb in the hive as will produce a suf ficient number of drones to en sure queen-mating. The action of the bees themselves makes this point clear, for so long as honey is being gathered in plenty drones are tolerated, but no sooner does the honey harvest show signs of being over than they are mer cilessly killed and cast out of the hive by the workers. It is on the aptly named worker-bee that the entire labour of the colony devolves. The worker-bees are incapable of egg-production and can therefore take no part in the perpetuation of their species.

Their mission is work. Collec tively they are the rulers on whom the colony depends for the wonderful condition of law and order which has made the bee-community a model of good govern ment. The period of a worker-bee's existence is not measured by numbering its days but simply by wear and tear ; after six or seven weeks of strenuous toil, such as the bee undergoes in summer time, the little creature's labour is ended by a natural death. On the other hand, worker-bees reared in the autumn will be able to take their share in the labour of the hive in the early spring, when the young bees are being bred to take their places as they die off, this being the most critical period in the colony's existence; hence the value to the apiarist of bees in the autumn.

Swarming.

The increasing warmth of each recurring spring finds the bee active. The earliest nectar and pollen are sought out from far and near and have an immediate effect upon the mother bee of the colony. She begins egg-laying at once and brood-rearing proceeds at an ever-increasing rate as each week passes, until the hive is brimming over with bees in time for the first honey flow. If there is no cell-room either for storing the food constantly being brought in, or for the thousands of eggs which a prolific queen will produce daily unless help comes from without, an exodus is now prepared for, and what is known as "swarming" takes place. It would be difficult to imagine any thing more exciting to a beginner in bee keeping than the sight of his first swarm.

The bees run in frantic haste from the hive like a living stream, filling the air. Among them the queen of the colony will in due course have taken her place, bound like her children for a new home. In a short time they begin to form a solid cluster usually on the branch of a tree or bush, with the queen in the centre. When this stage of swarming is reached the bee-keeper has but to take his hiving box, hold it under the swarm, and shake (or where the conditions do not allow, quickly but gently and firmly brush) the bees into it, preparatory to transferring them into a movable comb hive prepared for their reception. The process of hiving a swarm is very simple, but the apiarist would do well to prepare himself beforehand by carefully reading the directions in his text book. To the modern bee-keeper the issue of a swarm from a hive means a great reduction in the amount of honey obtained from that colony owing to the loss in number for a swarm from a mod ern hive will usually contain 20,000 or more bees. His aim is, therefore, to prevent natural swarming as much as possible, gen erally by affording additional room beforehand in the hive and by special manipulations of the colony.

Bee-forage.

The main consideration in establishing an apiary is to secure a favourable location, where honey of good market able quality may be gathered from the bee-forage growing around without any planting on the part of the bee-keeper himself. The bee-keeper's object is to utilize to the utmost the brief space of a worker-bee's life in summer by adopting the best methods for building up stocks to full strength before the honey-gathering time begins. In the United Kingdom there is a difference of several weeks in the honey season between north and south. The weather is naturally more precarious in autumn than earlier in the year, and chances of success proportionately smaller for northern bee men, but this disadvantage is to a great extent compensated for by the heather season in the north, which extends well into Sep tember. With regard to the British bee-keeper located in the south, the early fruit crop is what concerns him most, and he may se cure surplus honey from the fruit bloom ; in fact in the fruit growing districts the flowers of the fruit trees may be the only source from which the bees are able to store surplus honey. But the main honey crop of both north and south is gathered from the various trifoliums, among which the white Dutch or common clover (Trifolium repens) is acknowledged to be the most impor tant honey-producing plant wherever it grows.

Bee undertaking the management of a modern apiary, the bee-keeper should possess a certain amount of aptitude for the pursuit, and must acquire the ability to handle bees judiciously and well under all imaginable conditions. When alarmed, bees instinctively begin to fill their honey-sacs with food from the nearest store-cells and when so provided they are more amenable to interference. The bee-keeper, making use of this fact, blows a little smoke from smouldering fuel into the hive by means' of an appliance known as a bee-smoker, alarms the bees and is thus able to manipulate the frames of comb with ease. The "Bingham" type of smoker (fig. 14) is the one most generally used. No other protection is needed beyond a bee-veil of fine black net, slipped over a wide-brimmed straw hat to protect the face from stings when working among bees. As the great majority of apiaries owned by British bee-keepers are situated in close proximity to neighbours, quietness and the exercise of care when manipulating are essential. The bee-keeper should carefully select the particular type of hive most suited to his means and require ments. This point settled, uniformity is secured, and all loose parts of the hives being interchangeable time will be saved during the busy season. Beginning with not too many stocks, and adopt ing the wise adage "make haste slowly" the knowledge gained will enable him to select such appliances as are suited to his needs.

Bee-keeping for Profit.—As a rule, it may be said that the man content to start with an apiary of moderate size may realize a fair profit. At the same time it is but fair to say that bee-culture in the United Kingdom, if limited to honey-production alone, is not always safe for entire reliance to be placed on it for obtaining a liveli hood, but combined with fruit growing, poultry keeping, etc., it will usually give a fair profit. The main honey-gathering time lasts only about six or seven weeks. As the season advances and the flowers yield nec tar more freely, the combs in the brood chamber become crowded with bees, and the cells that should be available for brood rearing are filled with honey unless ade quate room is provided. In a short time the congestion may become so acute that in the evening, when all the foraging bees have returned, the hive will not accommo date them, and there is no choice under such poor management, but for a large proportion, including a number of drones and the old queen, to emigrate or "swarm." Preparations for this will have been made by the bees beforehand, a young queen having been reared in readiness to take the place of the old one, and she will leave her cradle soon after the swarm has gone. When the bee keeper notices the hive showing signs of overcrowding, and before the bees have commenced preparations for swarming, he gives them room for expansion by super adding what are termed "supers," that is additional layers or working compartments above fitted with either sections or frames of comb with comb founda tion or drawn combs. Some bee-keepers place a queen excluder over the brood chamber, which is said to lessen the chances of undesired swarms, but this actually tends to increase swarming. A queen excluder is a piece of apparatus in which are oblong perforations of such a width that the worker-bees can just pass through but the queen is unable to do so ; therefore no brood can be reared in those combs to which she has not access and from which the surplus honey is taken.

Diseases of Bees.—It is quite natural that bees living in col onies should be subject to diseases, and only since the introduction of movable-comb hives has it been possible to learn something about these ailments. One of the most serious troubles with which the bee-keeper has to contend are the two diseases commonly known as foul brood, so called because of the young brood dying and rotting in the cells. This abnormal condition has been known from the earliest ages. Schirach mentioned and described one disease in 1769, and was the first to give it the name of "foul brood." Still later, in 1874, Dr. Cohn, after the most exhaustive experiments and bacteriological research, realized that the disease was caused by a bacillus, and later the name Bacillus pluton was given to it. Cheyne and Cheshire declared that the European foul brood was caused by the Bacillus alvei, but this is now known to be the result of the B. pluton. The best available information in dicates that B. alvei is a non-pathogenic organism. Lochhead asserts that B. pluton may be a morphological form of B. alvei. Even though this is proved to be true, B. alvei, known to Cheyne and Cheshire, could not have caused any disease, for in its usual form it has repeatedly been fed to healthy colonies and produces no disease whatever. In the typical alvei form it is strictly a decay producing organism. Another distinct disease is that known as the American foul brood which is caused by Bacillus larvae, described by White. The illustration (fig. z 5) shows a portion of comb affected with one of these diseases. The sealed cells are dark-coloured and sunken, pierced with irregular holes, and the larvae are found in all stages from the crescent-shaped healthy condition to that in which the dead larvae are seen lying at the bottom of the cells, flaccid and shapeless. The remains begin to decompose, change to buff colour, afterwards turning brown ; in American foul brood the mass becomes sticky and ropy in char acter, making its removal impossible by the bees. In course of time it dries up, leaving nothing but a brown scale adhering to the bottom side of the cell. In the case of American foul brood the larvae die after the cells are sealed over ; a strong characteristic and offensive odour is developed in some phases of the disease, noticeable at times some distance away from the hive. These two forms of foul brood, European and American, have long been known.

When healthy the brood of bees lies in the combs in compact masses, the larvae being plump, of a pearly whiteness, and when quite young curled up on their sides at the base of the cells. When first attacked by European foul brood the larva moves uneasily, assumes an irregular position in the cell, and finally becomes loose and flabby, an appearance which plainly indicates death. When the disease attacks the larvae before they are sealed over B. pluton is present. Various other microbes also present in large numbers are not believed to be pathogenic or disease-pro ducing in character. It is therefore seen that a number of micro organisms play an important part in the same disease. The danger of contagion lies in the wonderful vitality of the spores of B. larvae and their great resistance to heat and cold. Dr. Maassen records a case where he had no difficulty in obtaining cultures from spores removed from combs after being kept dry for 20 years.

The adult bee is also liable to several minor diseases, including Acarine disease, Nosema disease and dysentery. In all these diseases the symptoms that may be seen by the bee-keeper are similar in many respects, though dissection of the bee and an examination under a microscope usually afford the only certain means of determining from which disease it is suffering, and also of detecting disease in its early stages. The principal outward symptoms are the habit of crawling in place of flying, dislocated wings and distended abdomens. Diseased bees on leaving the hive are unable to fly, and an attempt to take flight from the hive entrance results in the bee falling to the ground where it crawls about, making its way when pos sible to the top of stems of grass, etc., in an endeavour to obtain an elevated position from which it may make another attempt to fly. In bad cases, especially of Acarine disease, the ground may be so covered with crawling bees that it is impossible to put the foot down without crushing a number of them. Towards eve ning they tend to collect in clus ters, and perish from exposure during the night. When crawling occurs the disease is in an ad vanced stage. Dysentery man ifests itself also by the soiling of the combs, and the inside of the hive, a thing which never occurs when the bees are in good health. Dysentery is most likely to break out when the bees have been confined to the hive for pro longed periods during the winter, especially if the food stored in the combs is unsuitable, or has fermented. It may be guarded against by making certain that the food stored for winter use is all sealed over in the early autumn, the hives are well ventilated, the bees warmly covered, and kept dry.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Root,

The A. B. C. and X. Y. Z. of Bee-Kcepinr; , Bibliography.-Root, The A. B. C. and X. Y. Z. of Bee-Kcepinr; , Cheshire, Bees and Bee-Keeping; Cowan, The British Bre-Keeper's