Part 1

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PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE W T FALCONER MANFG CO

VOL. II. MARCH, 1892. NO. 3.

Hints to Beginners in Bee Culture.

BY H. M. DEWITT.

This is the month that we should begin to feed and build up our bees, especially our weak colonies, and to get them ready for the honey harvest. Commence by giving them one half pint thin sugar syrup each day; do not feed them in the daytime, feed them at night and they will have all the feed taken down before the next morning. This will start them to rearing brood rapidly and by the time the honey harvest arrives they will be strong and overflowing with bees ready for it. Make but a limited number of swarms and make them strong and early. Late natural swarms should be returned to the parent hive, about twenty-four hours after hiving them. The colonies that work freely on red clover should be used as breeders in preference to others as the tongues of these bees are evidently longer.

The old queen always goes with the first swarm unless she is unable to fly. When making artificial swarms raise your queens and drones from the best colonies. A queenless colony will raise queens at once if it has larvae less than three days old and these queens will hatch within 10 to 12 days. If you give your bees a good supply of empty combs before the beginning of the honey crop and keep them at work they will rarely swarm. But if they once find themselves crowded and get the swarming fever, nothing will keep them from swarming. The honey harvest lasts but a few weeks, so you must be ready for it. “Make hay while the sun shines.” When hiving a swarm give them a hive full of worker comb, or comb foundation if possible, or else give them narrow stripes for guides, but do not give them a hive partly filled with comb, as they would be sure to build a great deal of drone comb in the remaining space.

BEE DIARRHEA, FOUL BROOD, ETC.

Bee diarrhea in the latter part of winter and early spring is a malady that effects some apiaries. The bees discharge their excrements over the hives and combs, producing a dark appearance and offensive odor. The cause is either fermented honey, improper food, long confinement, or too warm and poorly ventilated quarters. Give them good capped honey and a cleansing flight. If too cold for this out-of-doors take them into a warm room, make a box, with the front and top made of wire cloth, or mosquito netting, adjust it to the entrance, so that the bees must enter it on leaving the hive. This will usually prove an effectual remedy.

FOUL BROOD.

Foul brood is the rotting of brood in a hive; the caps of the sealed brood appear indented and shriveled and the larvae and young bees in unsealed cells become putrid, emitting a disgusting stench or smell. When the disease has a firm hold, even though it may be possible to cure it, I would advise the total destruction by fire of the bees, combs, frames and hives, with everything which might harbor the disease. In its primary stages it can be cured in this way: With an atomizer spray the hives, bees, brood, honey and combs with a solution of salicylic acid, borax and rain water, repeated on the sixth day. Remove the diseased brood from the hive and give them capped honey, if not too far advanced this may give relief.

There is another plan, which is as follows: Take a clean new hive with new, clean frames, fill it with comb foundation, take and run all the bees out of the diseased hive into the clean one, do this in the evening and as soon as the bees are all in close the entrance with wire cloth, keep them confined for forty-eight hours until they have consumed all the honey in their sacks in building comb. At the end of forty-eight hours open the entrance and let them fly if they wish, feed them a little sugar syrup every night for about a week, and if the honey season is over, or, if this is done during a dearth of honey you should feed them regularly so as not to let them starve. I had the disease in my apiary the past season and this is the plan I used to cure it. My bees are as healthy now as as if they had never had it.

_Sunny Side, Md._

[The instructions which friend Dewitt gives in the first part of the foregoing article will apply this month only to the more southern localities. Here in the North the hives in many places are still covered with snow and the bees should not be disturbed until spring has unmistakably arrived.--ED.]

New Inventions.

BY JOHN F. GATES.

The question has been asked “Are we drifting from our moorings.” I used to think that we should not, but if all bee-keepers anchored to one idea there would be no improvements. While it is safe to our own pockets to be conservative, yet no class has done more to advance the interests of the bee-keepers than those who experiment, and seem not to be satisfied with their present condition. Had the inventors of the Monitor been contented with wooden war ships our great American Republic would have been divided. Had we all been content with stage coaches where would our railroads have been? Had Edison preferred to sit at his telegraph instrument we should now be without his master ideas. This onward impelling force in Americans has sought out so many good things in the last fifty years that I have not space to tell them. Some rejoice in real improvements. Well, we can’t grind out out a grist of real improvements to order. We have many discouragements and losses before we succeed in turning out one. Many of these inventions must be tested by bee-keepers before a true verdict can be given, and we should all be willing to lend a hand to be one of the great jury in the discussion of these cases as they are brought before us by our leaders; the inventors. Yet while the tester goes hand and hand with the inventor, each watching the others movements, each helping the other to discover and rectify mistakes. It is too true that many good inventions have been swamped and for years laid dormant when they might have been in use, simply for the lack of wisdom to guide us to small experiments first. Yes, there seems to be too much rush, new things can’t be tested in a hurry. To change an average apiary all at once to some new mode of management, or new style of hive, even if the hives were given to us, would be unwise. But add the cost of hives and fixtures which the change involves with the loss which one is sure to meet with for a time under any new arrangement, and can we wonder that there is so little confidence placed in inventions or the inventors. Still had we gone more slowly, tested more carefully, and on a smaller scale and given ourselves more time to sum up the evidence, no doubt many times our verdict would bless instead of curse the inventor. No doubt there are inventors who abuse one’s confidence, but they too well have but little chance to deceive us if we go slow. We can change too much, and again too little. I am aware that I have missed some good opportunities by being a little too set in my ways, and I have had too little charity for improvements; medium ground is safe ground on which to stand. We should watch the signs of the times and not jump conclusions, nor bite at all that takes our fancy, nor kick at all that we despise, we ought always to review, draw conclusions and watch very closely what the mass of bee-keepers seem to favor, or decide upon. If we are good readers of indications we need never get left, and often can go across lots, thus reaching the head of the procession, but be sure we know the way across else better we had gone around.

_Ovid, Erie County, Pa._

What I Have Observed, Etc.

BY T. K. MASSIE.

(_Concluded._)

In the last article I promised to give some evidence confirming my conclusions, but before doing so I want to say a word in regard to “large vs. small hives.” In the discussion of the subject in the different bee journals from time to time, I neglected to note the size of the frame used by the advocates of a large hive, but I imagine they use a deeper frame than the “L,” and if so they are evidently right in advocating a large hive, for such a hive would be better proportioned, and would conform nearer to the natural requirements of the bees than a small hive with shallow frames.

In _Gleanings_ for July 15th, page 553, friend C. J. H. Gravenhurst, in speaking of “handling hives instead of frames,” hits on the same ideas given in these articles in regard to the winter problem. He tells us that the bees winter better in the straw skeps than they do in the movable frame hives, as made and used at present. This is because the bees in the skeps have their hives propolished overhead which prevents upward ventilation and keeps the bees dry. He also says he gets more honey with less labor and cost; then he shows how he sought to combine the skeps with the movable frame hive, advocating about the same advantages that I have given in these articles.

But the most clinching arguments in favor of doing away with the useless Hill device &c., is found in Ernest R. Root’s review of G. R. Pierce’s book, “The Winter Problem in Bee-Keeping,” which appeared in _Gleanings_ for December 16, ’91, page 952. Mr. Pierce says the pollen theory is not the cause of diarrhea; that diarrhea in bees is caused by cold and lack of stores, and is only intestinal catarrh.

Chaff cushions, or other porous material over a sealed cover are all right and serve a good purpose.

Mr. Pierce is a thorough advocate of protection and packing around the bees; but the cover must be sealed down that no heat can escape into the packing above. In the first of this series of articles I took this same position. I said “Therefore I have drawn the conclusion that a thin walled hive, protected by a movable winter case, and packed on all sides with a cushion made of felt and filled with some non-conducting material--one that will prevent all radiation of heat will be best”--and, in substance, that we could remove cases and packing on warm days and have our hives purified by the sun and air and protect our bees by wrapping them up with the warm cushions and prevent the radiation of heat at night. In the second article (See AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER, page 164) I said the “pollen” theory, and upward ventilation, cut no figure in the winter problem in my locality. Now if we place a thin board down solid on the top bars of our brood frames early enough in the fall for the bees to glue up the crevices and thus prevent all air currents from passing up through our hives, we again get even with our box hive brethren, and when we prevent all radiation of heat by placing a cushion on top of this board, the same as we do the sides. And further, in spring and early summer, when we give our bees just the ventilation required by raising this board, we are another long step ahead of them.

In the winter of 1891 I had The W. T. Falconer Manf’g.’ Co. make for me closed end frames with winter passages through the top bars, and boards to be sealed down for the purpose of carrying out my plan as given above.

“Ernest” tells us of his experiments in using thin boards and pieces of glass imbedded with white lead paste, as it was too cold for the bees to seal them down with propolis. Under the glass he placed a thermometer, which, when the weather outside in the wind was ten degrees above zero, registered 45 to 50, and “_the hive was perfectly dry inside_.” These are valuable experiments in the right line.

My ideas, as it is plain to be seen, were given to the public before friend Pierce’s book made its appearance, and before “Ernest” tried any experiments on this plan.

On page 592 of _Gleanings_, L. Stachelhausen tells us that having found out the advantages of closed end frames, he will use no other. The closed end frames have only to be given a fair trial to prove their superiority over all hanging frames. All the “rattle traps and nuisances” I have mentioned in these articles will soon give way to something better and more simple.

Friend Lowry Johnson also is of my way of thinking, as his article in the AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER for December, ’91, page 182, will show. Also Brother Quigley of the _Missouri Bee-Keeper_, is advising his readers that a board sealed down on top of frames is better for wintering than cushions next to the bees. See his answer to a correspondent to his paper, page 144.

These articles end here, but I would like the opinion of the reader on the points taken in them.

_Concord Church, W. Va._

A Talk on Bee Hives--Fixed Races--Honey Crops, Etc.

BY S. L. WATKINS.

The production of honey is the principal object that a beginner has in view when he contemplates starting in the apiarian business. Of course, he generally buys a few box hives and does the transferring himself; which I think is a good idea, as he gains considerable knowledge of the inside of a bee-hive and of handling bees. Before he invests in bees, he generally buys and reads a couple of bee books and obtains a few catalogues of leading apiarian manufactures, to see what style of hive is best. If he is gifted with an average insight into the mystery of common things, he will quickly choose the hive and system that are most universally used, and will stick to that system, and nine chances in ten he will make a success of his bee business. If, however, he is gifted with a volatile nature, he will not be satisfied until he has eight or ten different style hives in his apiary at one time, and will spend all the money he makes in trying new apiarian fixtures, until he finally gives the bee business up in disgust. I do not mean to say that all new bee hives are useless--far from it; but generally speaking, there is a flood of new style bee hives on the market which are miraculously complicated and contain numerous paraphernalia in the way of wedges, glass doors, clasps, useless bee spaces and other ornaments not worthy of mention.

A hive that is too complicated will never come into general use. Competition in the honey business requires that we use the cheapest appliances, combined with the greatest excellences. Here in this state (California) where honey is so cheap, it would be folly to spend $8.00 for a bee-hive, because a $1.50 hive will answer every purpose equally as well, the hive does not make any difference in the amount of honey gathered, bees will store as much honey in a box hive as in any frame hive ever devised; the queen and race of bees make the difference in the amount of surplus gathered. The simplicity hive, with its various modifications, is the hive that gives the best satisfaction among advanced apiarists, and when used with the Hoffman frames it is hard to beat. To persons who contemplate starting out-apiaries, the Hoffman frame offers very superior advantages. My opinion is, that bee-keepers who keep out-apiaries, and who move bees considerably, will in time settle down to the fixed frame. I shall no doubt experiment considerably with fixed frames the next few seasons.

In Ventura county this state, the bee-keepers have adopted the Langstroth as the standard frame, and there is something like 1,600 hives in that county, which produce annually about $60,000 worth of honey. The one pound section is rapidly gaining favor with the progressive apiarists of this state, and are fast superseding the old Harbinson two pound section.

Our honey crop here last season was about one fourth of a crop. In the upper Sierras, at an elevation of 3,000 feet and upwards, there was a good crop. Some honey plants yielded well. In all extensively irrigated districts bees did pretty well because of the abundance of alfalfa grown. Reports from Antelope Valley state that in that section the honey crop was far better than usual, 200 to 400 lbs. to the colony for entire apiaries being the yield.

The Italian race of honey bees I have tried pretty extensively, and found them to be very good, but I like the Carinolans better. I think they are a fixed race; the Italians are not.

In an apiary composed of Italian and hybrids if a Carinolan queen be introduced and the Carinolans then be left to reproduce themselves naturally they will hold their own for hundreds of generations before their markings will begin to be eliminated. Place a colony of Carinolans in an isolated location, and allow natural breeding, and in ten years they will not deteriorate a single bit; but take a colony of Italians, and allow natural breeding and in a year or two we have nothing but common black, or very poor hybrid bees; thus proving conclusively that the Italians are not a fixed race.

_Grizzly Flats, Cal._

A Few Words to Beginners.

BY T. K. MASSIE.

As THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER is published in the interest of beginners, allow me to say to them that the first thing to be learned is the fact that no set rules can be given to suit everyone under all the varying conditions of climate, location, etc., and that everyone must use intelligence and make rules to suit his own individual case--must make a vigorous use of his own “think shop.” He must thoroughly acquaint himself with the flora of his location; he must know when the honey flow is likely to commence and end, and must manipulate his bees to suit that time. Friend Doolittle’s advice to manipulate our bees at the proper time cannot be too strongly impressed upon the minds of beginners. In my locality we have two honey flows each year. The early flow last season ended on the 24th day of July, the fall flow commenced on the 16th of September. There was a dearth from July 24th to September 16, of 53 days. A hive full of bees during these 53 days are not only of no use to me but a positive disadvantage. They are only consumers and not honey gatherers because there is no honey to be gathered. Reason would dictate to me that I must use every means in my power to build up my colonies as strong as possible from early in the spring to within 35 days of the end of the honey flow, or about the 19th of June, that about this time, certainly not later than June 25th, I must restrict my queen to as few frames as possible, so as to have but few bees during the 53 days of dearth. (I base my calculation upon the fact that 21 days are required for the egg to hatch and then the bee must be 14 days old before it becomes a forager.) Now I wish to say emphatically that every one whose location is similar to mine must practice restriction or his honey crop will be a failure every time. Again by the 16th of September. I want my hives as full of bees as possible ready for the fall flow. Then going back 35 days from September 16th takes me to August 12th, the day on which the eggs must be laid for the bees to have hatched out, ready for the beginning of the fall flow. But as the queens could not under any circumstances fill the hives full of eggs on the 12th day of August, (or any other one day for that matter,) reason would again tell me that I must remove the restrictions from my queens two or three weeks before, or, say July 24th to August 1st, and then stimulate brood rearing. If the beginner fails to follow this plan he will certainly get no surplus fall crop. We must also make sure that each colony contains a good prolific queen.

Brother Demaree’s “Practical hints in Bee Culture” on page 179, AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER, is timely and should be read and studied until perfectly familiar with every “hint” he has given. When he speaks of the bees “crowding the queen” being simply an effort on the part of nature to assist the bees by curtailing brood rearing during the honey flow he is certainly correct, yet, by restricting our queens as I have suggested above we accomplish the same end, provided the restriction is performed at the right time. When he speaks of giving his colonies, after swarming, a queen cell instead of a laying queen, as some “innocent bee men” had written him, he gives a “hint” that should be well and long remembered. By this plan he also assists the bees in curtailing brood rearing, when such brood would hatch out bees that would be consumers instead of honey gatherers.

His article on “Concentration of Forces” in _Bee-Keepers Guide_ for December, 1891, page 356, is worth the price of that paper for several years. “Concentration of forces” is his remedy against poor honey seasons. His plan of “concentrating forces” can be easily carried out in connection with the suggestions I have given. He says “not a swarm should be allowed to issue.” He accomplishes this by one single manipulation, which is simple and easy, and performed “just at the commencement of the honey season, and before any swarms issue.” All the colonies strong enough to cast swarms are treated on the following:

PLAN.

“All the combs containing brood are removed from the brood chamber, except one that contains but a small amount of unsealed brood and eggs. This is left in the brood chamber with the queen on it. If she is not found on it she must be hunted up and put upon this comb. The brood chamber is now filled out with empty combs and a queen excluder is placed on its top. The combs containing brood are adjusted in a super or hive body, and if they do not fill it, it is filled out with empty combs. It now goes on top of the brood chamber with the queen excluder between. We now have all the brood above the excluder, except what is in the comb with the queen on it below the excluder. You now have nothing to do but to “turn up” to suit the season. Treating all colonies in this way the season will have to be more than usually extended if there is a single swarm. Colonies treated in this way are the strongest colonies I ever handled, and I never seen a season so barren of nectar that they fail to fill the combs above the excluder by the time all the brood they contain are hatched out, and if the season is a good one they will surprise the natives and make you uneasy about the safety of your honey floor, like mine did me the past season, though the season was but an average one.”

Next month I will give my experiments with two colonies the past season managed on a plan similar to to Brother Demaree’s, as given above. Remember, beginner, that if you don’t manage your bees intelligently you had better never go into the business for you will have no “luck” and the business will be a failure with you; and you might as well try to raise corn without seed as to try to raise honey without a scientific work on bee culture and one or more of the many excellent bee journals.

_Concord Church, W. Va._

(_Concluded next month._)