Beginner's bee book

Front matter

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New Yurk State College of Agriculture

Preface

In writing this book the author has answered such questions as are put to him in the hundreds of letters that come to his desk from every part of our own country and from many foreign lands. There is a constantly increasing interest in beekeeping. Men and women in large numbers are looking to beekeeping as a possible source of livelihood, while others find an interesting diversion from routine duties with a few colonies of bees. The novice wants a book that covers the fundamental without going too much into detail regarding the various systems of honey production. This book is designed to meet such a need, and does not pretend to cover the whole field of beekeeping. The business is too complicated to make possible anything more than a casual introduction in a book of this size. Those who desire to make a more extended study, will find “ Productive 5

6 PREFACE

Beekeeping,” by the same author, or some similar book, of assistance in pursuing the subject further.

It has been the author’s aim to set down only such facts as will be of practical value to the beginning beekeeper in producing and marketing honey. The author has had practical experience in the commercial production of honey. His work as State Apiarist of Iowa and as Associate Editor of The American Bee Journal, has given him opportunity to visit many of the most extensive beekeepers in the United States and Canada, and to observe the various systems of honey production which are profitably followed. Nothing is included here which it is not believed will stand the test of general usage under a variety of conditions.

Frank C. PELLETT.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE I Attractions or BEEKEEPING eT RMacwiec clown eal x BS etpatnm ase 11 TI OutLook ror BEEKEEPING..............0.0.00000.0005 17 TI Tue Honty Bre Faminy...............0..00.0.0.000. 25 IV Necessary EQUIPMENT... ........... 0000 e cece ee 46 V Hives ano Hive Parts...........000..0 cece cee eee 61 VI Pasture FOR BEES........0.. 00600 c cc eenene 70

XI Gertine THE Honey To MaRKET..................... 183

XII Enemies anp Diseases or BEES.............-...-- 149 XIII Winter PREPARATION............6.00 000 e eee eee eens 154 XIV Review or tHe Season’s WoRK...........--.+0--55- 160

Chapter II Outlook For Beekeeping

THE outlook for beekeeping was never bet~- ter than it is now. Greater prosperity for an agricultural specialty has always come with its general development over a large scope of country. This has been notably true of the dairy industry which formerly returned but a small part of the revenue that it does to-day.

Beekeeping as a business is very new, so new in fact that many people do not yet realize that beekeeping offers an opportunity as an exclusive occupation. It is only within the past half century that honey production has become commercially possible and but a very few years have passed since the first agricultural college established beekeeping as a regular part of its curriculum. Within the recent months many 2 17 more agricultural colleges have added this subject to their regular work.

The total output of the apiaries of the entire country probably does not amount to more than a pound or two of honey per capita for the population of the country, while many times the amount of sugar is consumed by the public. This fact should offer assurance that there is no immediate danger of over-production if the beekeepers use good business methods in the development of markets.

Foop VaLuE or Honry.—In a recent bulletin by the Food and Dairy Department of Iowa, it has been shown that for actual food value, honey is one of the cheapest of foods. While with most foods, a large part of the bulk is waste which adds neither fuel to warm the body nor rebuilds dead tissue, the bees have removed most of the waste from honey, so that it is nearly all consumed within the body. When its actual food and fuel value is considered, it is

OUTLOOK FOR BEEKEEPING 19 shown to be a low-priced product, rather than a luxury as it is generally regarded. The following table shows the comparative value of several common commodities at pre-war prices as shown by the bulletin above mentioned.

At average prices:

Honey;,'7 ounces 2. sce esecsweseewe 7 cents Milk 1 quan’ noc.) eas eee oe 10 cents Cream cheese, 5.6 ounces .......... 9 cents Bes) VO see cet eacice ean ten a oe ae tek ace 25 cents Round beefsteak, 12 ounces ........ 15 cents Boneless codfish, 15 ounces ...... 20 cents OREMBES AS aigeiina ean aside cae ee alee 20 cents Walnuts, 814 ounces ............. 13 cents

It will be noticed that for actual food and fuel value, honey is the cheapest food in the list. The table is designed to show a quantity of each article exactly equal in such value to any one of the others shown. Prices have since greatly changed.

If the beekeepers will use diligence in laying these facts before the public there will shortly be no lack of demand for the product of the hive. Most people like honey, but for some reason its use has been neglected by many, who have substituted the cheaper corn syrups so widely advertised. When it is considered that these low-priced substitutes are low in sweetening value and also injurious to the digestive system, it will only require that the public be informed of the facts to restore honey to its former popularity as a food product.

The establishment of courses in beekeeping in so many agricultural colleges will tend to popularize its use, since its merits will be investigated and made known by the domestic science departments as well as apiculturalists.

BEEKEEPING A SPECIALTY.— Beekeeping is becoming more and more a specialty. While there are still thousands of professional people who keep a few bees as a diversion, the bees under the apple tree on the general farm are becoming fewer every year. The spread of disease is largely responsible for this condition. While it is not difficult for the well-trained bee-

OUTLOOK FOR BEEKEEPING 21 keeper to deal with bee diseases, bees that receive no attention, other than to give them a super for surplus in the spring and to remove it in the fall, sooner or later fall victims to adverse conditions.

While beekeeping is not difficult, bees can never be profitable without intelligent attention. ‘Those who are devoting their attention to bee culture are receiving as large returns as those who follow other agricultural specialties and the work is no more trying nor is the risk any greater.

In few localities are there bees enough to gather the nectar in the fields, most of which now goes to waste. While good bee pasture is not plentiful in an occasional limited locality, there are many places where commercial orchardists are offering some inducement for beekeepers to locate within reach of their orchards, because of the better fruit crops that will result from the increased number of insects among the blossoms. There are untold hundreds of good locations that will support profitable apiaries in any one of several of the northern states and perhaps as good openings in many of the southern states. In only a few states has beekeeping been commercially specialized, although the development bids fair to be much more rapid in the very near future.

PossisLE DrveLOpMENT.—There are men of limited observation who are breaking into print with a warning against a possible overproduction of honey. Their arguments are very weak, and it is safe to say that the present output might be doubled two or three times over before there would be any danger of overproduction. As an example of the possibilities of market development, it is only necessary to point to the growth of the -orange business during the past few years. Concerning the growth of that industry Mr. R. C. Gano, in the American Bee Journal, writes as follows:

OUTLOOK FOR BEEKEEPING 23

EXPERIENCE OF OrANGE GROWERS

Back in 1895 the orange situation was much what the honey situation is to-day. Though at that time our national population was over 65,000,000, nearly two-thirds of what it is today, the California citrus growers found it difficult to sell at a fair profit an orange crop which was one-ninth the size of the crop they sell at a good profit to-day. These figures are absolutely authentic. The California citrus production in 1895 was less than 5000 carloads whereas the normal crop to-day is 45,000 carloads. The orange crop has increased 900 per cent., while the population has increased 50 per cent., and this indicates what is an actual fact, namely, that the people of the United States eat to-day seven or eight times as many oranges in a year as they did in 1895. What has changed their habits, in this regard? Nothing more nor less than advertising.

In 1895 they not only sold fewer oranges per capita, but they received a smaller profit per box.

In 1895 orange growers were every year afraid of over-production.

About that time the California Fruit Growers’ Exchange was formed, because the growers realized that something would have to be done to develop a future for their business. To say that it began working miracles right from the start would hardly be an exaggeration. It studied the science of selling, and soon had the marketing end of the industry on a business basis. It began putting agents in the various market centres, and when a carload was ready for shipment it knew from its agents where to send it to get a good price. Fear of over-production soon became a thing of the past.

During the first five years of the Exchange’s operation the citrus crop increased 255 per cent., from 1900 to 1905 it increased 71.7 per cent., from 1905 to 1910 it increased 10.9 per cent., and from 1910 to 1914 it increased 48.5 per cent. Two hundred million dollars is now invested in this industry in California.

The development of the markets can be expected to keep pace with the growth in production, at least until such a time as the amount of honey produced equals the output of many minor articles of food not in general demand. When we consider the enormous development of which the beekeeping industry is capable, there is certainly no need of being alarmed about over-doing it, while still much less than one per cent. of the available honey harvest is being gathered. To the author’s way of thinking there is no better opportunity for the man of limited means in the whole agricultural field than is offered by beekeeping.

Chapter III The Honey Bee Family

Wiru all the multitude of species of insects, man has been able to adapt very few to his own immediate needs. Hundreds of insects render an indirect service, such as the pollenation of blossoms, and a few have been used for food, as John ate locusts in the wilderness. Because of the social habit whereby thousands of bees live together in a single community and lay up a common store of honey, man has been able to provide them with a suitable home, in the hive, and so to manipulate the combs which they build as to greatly increase the amount of honey stored and to profit thereby. By the prevention of swarming at the time when the honey harvest is at its best, by reducing the number of non-producing drones which the colony is per- 25 mitted to raise and by improving the strain by selecting queens from the most vigorous stock, it is possible to secure several times the amount of surplus that could be taken from bees in the old-fashioned box hive or gum, managed on the let-alone plan.

Other insects, such as ants, termites, etc., have formed communitites and live from a common store. However, none of the others are of direct service to man as is the bee. For centuries their habits have been studied and much still remains to be learned concerning them. The life of the hive centers in the queen, which is the mother of the

Tue Bee FamIty.

colony and upon whose vigor the prosperity of the hive depends. Should she die, and the bees be unable to replace her, the colony would soon perish. While the workers are also females, the sexual organs are undeveloped and they could not supply the place of the queen mother.

In queenless colonies laying workers often ap-

THE HONEY BEE FAMILY QT pear, but since they have never been mated, their offspring are all drones and the life of the community is not thereby prolonged. A prosperous hive contains many thousands of workers whose purpose in life is the gathering of the food supply, building of the combs, protection of the store, cleaning the hive and other labor necessary to the comfort of the inmates. The drones are males, but do not share in any productive work for the community. They are dependent upon their industrious sisters for their entire support and are tolerated, apparently, because of necessity for the perpetuation of the species. Late in fall when conditions no longer favor the gathering of honey, and when brood rearing has greatly diminished, or in seasons of scarcity, they are driven from the hive to perish.

In common with other insects, bees pass through four stages in completing their development. Strangely enough, different periods of time are necessary for the growth of the different sexes and even of the queen and worker. First the eggs are laid by the queen mother, who lays hundreds and even thousands daily during the height of the season. Worker eggs are laid in the same kind of cells in which the honey is stored. Drone eggs are laid in similar cells somewhat larger in size, while eggs which are to produce queens are laid in specially built cells shaped like an inverted thimble and which have little depressions giving them something of the appearance of peanuts. At times only worker eggs will be laid for days at a time. When the colony gets very strong, and the hive is getting crowded, eggs will be laid in drone cells also, and queen cells may be built in preparation for swarming.

Three days are required for the eggs to hatch, all the eggs being alike in this respect. For the first three days all the larve are apparently treated alike, being fed on royal jelly, a milky white substance furnished in abundance by the nurse bees. When the eggs hatch the little larve are very delicate, white in color, and show few external organs. By close examination the beekeeper can see them floating in the royal jelly so freely supplied. The queen larve are fed with this rich food throughout the entire larval period and complete the larval development in about a half day less time than is required for the workers. Any worker egg may be made to develop into a queen if the egg or newly hatched larva is transferred to a queen cell where it is fed on the richer food and has the larger cell in which to develop. Beekeepers take advantage of this fact. to rear queens from good stock in large numbers. The worker and drone larve are only fed royal jelly during the first three days of their growth and then are weaned and fed on coarser food. Six days are required for the development of the worker larve and a few hours longer for the drones. During the earlier stages of their development the little larva remain curled up in the bottoms of the cells, but when they complete their growth they stretch out lengthwise in the cells and spin very delicate cocoons and the cells are sealed over with wax.

The bee now enters upon the third stage of its life, that of the pupa. During this stage it takes no food and remains in absolute quiet. In something less than eight days the queens will complete the transformation, only sixteen days being required from the time the egg is laid until the mature queen is ready to leave her royal cell. The workers require twelve days for this stage and drones fifteen days. Twenty-one days is the time required for worker bees to develop from the egg and twenty-four days for the drone. It will be seen that it takes eight more days for the male bee to develop than for the perfect female, and three days more than for the worker or modified female.

The normal food of the bee is honey and pollen, both of which are gathered from flowers. Water is essential, especially during brood rearing and the bees seek it eagerly in early spring. In time of scarcity bees will take fruit juices or other sweets, but when there is plenty of nectar in the fields they pay little attention to anything else. At such times even honey may be exposed in the open air for days without attracting the bees.

Nectar.—Since the bees are known to be very useful in distributing the pollen among the flowers it seems that nectar is secreted for the purpose of attracting the bees and other insects and thus insuring proper fertilization of the bloom. When first gathered by the bees it is very thin and watery, but a change of composition, called inversion, takes place in the honey sac of the bee, in which it is carried to the hive. After being placed in the cells it is evaporated and thickened and finally sealed. If honey is taken from the hive too soon it is thin and will sour. The process of evaporation and thickening which takes place in the hive is called ripening. Usually honey that is well sealed is sufficiently well ripened for use, but honey from some flowers requires a good deal of time before it will reach the best condition.

Pollen, often called bee-bread, is used in large quantities as food for the young bees. A mixture of pollen and honey furnishes food for the worker larve after they are three days old.

Both queens and drones when in the hive are fed by the workers. Aside from pollen and nectar the bees also gather another substance, called propolis. This is used as a glue to close up the cracks on the approach of winter, to fasten down the cover, or other similar use. The beekeeper finds it difficult to remove the propolis from his hands after a few hours’ work in the apiary on a warm day.

When the worker emerges from her cell she does not go at once to the field, but remains within the hive for several days. At first she is as downy as a little chick and probably does nothing for a day or two. Soon, however, she begins her work as a nurse to the larve, which is probably her first duty. She shortly takes hold wherever a task needs attention, whether it be to feed the queen or drones, clean the hive, build combs, guard the entrance to the hive, or fanning to keep up a circulation of air, or any of the many duties necessary to care for such a large family.

After a few days the young workers will take short flights outside the hive, thus becoming familiar with surrounding conditions. At first they fly back and forth in front of the hive, never going more than a few feet from the entrance. With several hundred workers taking their first flights on a warm day, there is an appearance of great activity and the novice may be deceived into thinking that there is 3 much honey coming to the hive or that strange bees are robbing them. The distance of the flight is gradually lengthened until the worker becomes so familiar with the hive and its surroundings that it is no longer necessary for her to make note of her situation. She will then fly directly to the field and return to the exact place where the hive stood, even though it has been removed before she left. It thus becomes necessary to use great care in moving the hive to either make the distance so great that everything will be strange and the bees will make note of the change or else move it but a very short distance each day so that they will be able to find it after they return to the former position.

After the worker is two or three weeks old she will begin her trips to the field in search of honey or pollen and will continue the outside work as long as she lives.

In summer when the harvest is on, the worker bee lives but a short time, probably not much more than six weeks. If the harvest is over before she emerges from her cell she may * live for six months and help to begin the next season’s garnering.

Tue Swarm.—When the warm days come in spring the population of the hive will increase very rapidly. Apparently there is no settled rule that governs swarming. It is the natural method of increase, and as soon as a colony becomes strong, preparations for a division of the household may be made. In late May or early June, in a favorable season, the hive will be getting crowded. Thousands of workers will be gathering honey and caring for the multitudes of young bees that are daily hatching. By this time drones will be getting numerous and an examination may disclose from one to a dozen or more queen cells. The box hive beekeepers of our grandfathers’ day would say that the bees will swarm, when they begin to lay out in large clusters outside the hive. Practical beekeepers of the present day furnish the bees with sufficient room in which to work, and thus guard against such loafing. Under such conditions there was nothing for the bees to do but to swarm, since there was not room for them all in the hive, and, with honey abundant in the fields, the instinct to gather it was too strong to permit them to spend a summer in idleness.

When the beekeeper finds a number of queen cells in the hive at this season of the year he knows that the bees are preparing to swarm and makes plans accordingly. The bees will build queen cells also, when the queen is growing old and beginning to fail. This is done to insure a young queen to replace the feeble mother and is called “ supercedure.” When the old queen is replaced during the honey flow the bees are very likely to swarm anyway, even though there is an abundance of room in the hive.

The swarm may issue at any time after the queen cells are sealed, though it often delays until the young queens are ready to emerge. Everything will apparently be going on as usual, when, suddenly, the bees begin to pour out of the hive like mad. They fairly tumble over each other in their haste to reach the open air, where they begin circling about with a loud buzzing. 'The queen may be among the first to leave the hive or she may be near the last. While her going is necessary, and unless she does go the bees soon return to the hive, there is no more attention paid to her going, as far as can be seen, than to that of any other bee. After circling about for a short time the swarm usually clusters on a limb of a tree, or in some other convenient place. The place which proves most convenient for the bees is often most inconvenient for the beekeeper when there are large trees about.

The time was when there was a great beating of pans and other noise-making implements when the bees swarmed. The idea was that the noise would cause the bees to cluster. Beekeepers know now that ninety-nine times out of one hundred they will cluster anyway without so much fuss, and the hundredth time they will leave without ceremony in spite of the noise. Clustering is a normal part of the swarming and is as much to be expected as any other natural impulse.

It is an easy, matter to hive the swarm by placing a hive in position and shaking the bees in front of it. They will usually go in without difficulty. If a small cluster remains on the outside, care should be used to see that the queen is not left behind, for otherwise the bees will not stay long inside the new home.

The first swarm to issue is called the prime swarm and there is no way to foretell its appearance without an examination of the interior of the hive. Since the colony is divided for the purpose of founding a new establishment, the bees will fill their sacs with honey so that they are prepared to begin building combs at once. The swarm may remain clustered for several hours, or even for a day or two, in rare cases. The beekeeper should be prepared to hive his swarm at once to prevent them from absconding, or leaving for parts unknown. It is evident that scouts are out in search of a new home. It often happens that bees will be seen about a suitable opening for several days, when suddenly a swarm will appear and take possession. Where swarms remain clustered for long periods, it is apparent that the scouts have not yet found a suitable habitation.

The parent queen will leave the hive with the new swarm, which also attracts most of the field bees. The first queen to emerge from the cell after the swarm has left will usually seek for other queen cells and at once kill her rivals, unless she is prevented from doing so by the bees. It often happens, however, that the bees have the swarming fever to such an extent that they are not satisfied with casting a prime swarm but will at once prepare for an afterswarm. In this case the queen is not permitted to injure the others still in the cells, but after a day or two a second swarm with this new queen will emerge. It often happens that several virgin queens will emerge and go with an after-swarm. Sometimes several after-swarms issue at brief intervals until the parent colony is reduced to a point where it is almost worthless.

Excessive swarming results disastrously to the dreams of a honey crop on the part of the beekeeper. Where natural swarming is permitted, steps should be taken to see that not more than one swarm is permitted to issue. The usual method is to place the new swarm on the old stand and to move the old hive some distance away. In this way the returning field bees will go with the new swarm and the old stock will be so badly reduced that excess queen cells will be destroyed, and the bees will thereafter attend to business. It is well, also, to open the hive and remove all queen cells but one, or if a virgin queen has already issued and is present in the hive to remove all remaining queen cells.

Ture Marine Fiicur.—When the young queen has been out of her cell from four to eight days she takes her mating flight. In the meantime she takes short flights outside the hive, apparently for the purpose of marking the location. When time for mating arrives she circles high in the air, pursued by drones that chance to be flying near at hand. The mating always takes place in the air, the act being fatal to the drone. One mating is sufficient for life, under normal conditions, and the queen returns to the hive to remain until such time as she shall leave with a swarm. If perchance the queen fails to become fertilized at the proper time, she disappears or becomes a drone layer. It has been proved beyond question that an unmated queen can produce male offspring. In fact, this is rather a common occurrence in the apiary. An unmated queen is worthless, however, since all her offspring will be drones, and unless she is replaced the colony will soon die. With a drone-laying queen, conditions in the hive are very similar to when there are fertile workers, as already mentioned. Since the drone is hatched from an unfertilized egg, he has no father. This is the case with several other insects, as is well known to naturalists. ACTIVITIES OF THE NEW CoLony.—As soon as the swarm is settled in the new quarters the bees will form a compact cluster for the purpose of secreting wax and building combs. The wax scales are exuded from between the segments of the abdomen. A high temperature seems to be necessary to enable the bees to produce the wax and several pounds of honey are digested for each pound of wax secreted. Within a few hours the wax scales will be plentiful and the bees will begin building the new combs. Since the queen will need worker cells for immediate use the first cells built will be all of the worker size. If the queen is prolific the bees may build the hive nearly full of worker cells, but ordinarily it will not be long until the bees have more comb built than she can occupy, so the bees begin to build drone cells, which are larger and apparently easier to construct. It often happens that a new swarm which is allowed to build the combs without interference will construct from one fourth to three-fourths of the combs of drone cells. Too much drone comb insures that the following season large numbers of drones will be reared and that the colony can never be very profitable. The drones not only require more food, because of their larger size, but they add nothing to the product of the hive and consume large quantities of stores after they have reached maturity. This condition is easily prevented by filling the frames with full sheets of foundation. Foundation is pure beeswax rolled very thin and impressed with the exact size and shape of worker combs. The bees are quick to avail themselves of this big start toward building their combs and a hive full of worker combs is the result.