Mysteries of Bee-keeping Explained Part 28

When a good-sized family is put in a hive containing fifteen or twenty pounds of honey, and near half full of clean new comb, they are about as sure to fill up and cast a swarm, as another that is full and has wintered a swarm.

CAUSE OF THEIR SUPERIOR THRIFT.

One cause of superior thrift may be found in the circ.u.mstance, that all moth eggs and worms are frozen to death, and the bees are not troubled with a single worm before June. No young bees have to be removed to work them out. Nearly every young bee that is fed and sealed up, comes forth perfect, and of course makes a vast difference in the increase.

SWARMS PARTLY FILLED PAY BETTER THAN TO CUT OUT THE HONEY.

Any person wis.h.i.+ng to increase his stocks to the utmost, will find this plan of saving all part-filled hives, of much more advantage than to break it out for sale. Suppose you have an old stock that needs pruning, and have neglected it, or it has refused to swarm, and give you a chance without destroying too much brood. You can let it be, and put on the boxes; perhaps get twenty-five pounds of cap honey; and then winter the bees as described, and in the spring transfer them to the new combs. Again, if there is no stocks to be transferred in the spring, keep them till the swarming season. If a swarm put into an empty hive would just fill it, the same swarm put into one containing fifteen pounds of honey, it seems plain, would make that number of pounds in boxes. The advantage is, in the comparative value of box or cap honey over that stored in the hive; the difference being from thirty to a hundred per cent.

ADVANTAGES IN TRANSFERRING.

I would now like to show the advantages I derived in transferring the twenty swarms before mentioned. We will suppose that each family, from the first of October till April, consumed twenty pounds of honey. That in the centre combs, where there is most bee-bread, &c., is eaten first; if any is left, it is at the top and outside. If I had attempted to take out and strain this twenty pounds in the fall, it would have been so mixed with dead brood, and bee-bread, that I probably should have rejected most of it. The remainder, when strained, might have been five pounds, not more. The market price for it is about ten cents per pound; amount fifty cents. We will say the new hive kept through the winter to receive the bees in the spring contained fifteen pounds; this would also have averaged about ten cents per pound, amounting to $1.50.

All that a stock of this kind costs me appears to be just $2.00, and worth at least $5.00. The advantage in changing twenty would be $60.00.

The labor of transferring will offset against the trouble of straining, preparing, and the expense of getting the honey to market.

ANOTHER METHOD OF UNITING TWO FAMILIES.

I have occasionally adopted yet another method of making a good stock from two poor ones, which the reader may prefer. When all your old stocks have been reinforced that need it, and you still have some swarms with too few bees and too little honey for safety as they are, two or more can be united. The fact, which has been thoroughly tested, that two families of bees, when united and wintered in one hive, will consume but little, if any more, than each of them would separately, is a very important principle in this matter. If each family should have fifteen pounds of honey, they would consume it all, and probably starve at last, after eating thirty pounds. But if the contents of both were in one hive, it would be amply sufficient, and some to spare in the spring.

UNITING COMB AND HONEY AS WELL AS BEES.

The process of uniting them is simple. Smoke both the stocks or swarms thoroughly, and turn them over. Choose the one with the straightest combs, or the one nearest full, to receive the contents of the other; trim off the points of the combs to make them square across, and this one is ready; remove the sticks from the other, and with your tools take out the combs with the bees on as before directed, one at a time, and carefully set them on the edges of the other; if the shape will admit it, let the edges match; if not, let them cross. Small bits of wood or rolls of paper will be needed between them, to preserve the right distance. When both hives are of one size, the transferred combs will exactly fit, if you are careful to place them as they were before.

You will now want to know, "what is to prevent these combs from falling out when the hive is turned over?" This hive is to remain bottom up in some dark place for some time, or till spring. (See method of wintering bees.) The bees will immediately join these combs fast; the hive being inverted, the honey in these combs will be consumed first; and when the hive is again set out in spring, it will be a rare occurrence for any pieces to drop out. Should any pieces project beyond the bottom of the hive, they may be trimmed off even after they are fastened, any time before setting out. An additional cross-stick may pa.s.s under the bottom of the combs, to a.s.sist in holding them, if you desire. You will probably never discover any difference in the subsequent prosperity in consequence of the joining or crossing of the combs in the middle. I have had them in this way, when they were among the most prosperous of my stocks. As this operation is to be put off till November, it will be an advantage in another way; that is, families of the same apiary can be united, and will mostly forget the old location by spring, and no difficulty arise by returning to the old stand, etc.

WHEN FEEDING SHOULD BE DONE FOR STOCK HIVES.

In some sections of country the _honey_ is more frequently wanting than bees, or comb, and some seasons in this; in such cases, it will be found an advantage to feed, until enough is stored for winter. This should be done in September or October. But if they lack comb as well as honey, and you wish to try feeding, (which I seldom do lately,) it should be done if possible in warm weather, as they cannot work combs to advantage in the cold. While feeding bees, it requires a great deal of caution to prevent others from scenting the honey, and their contentions about it. The safest place is on the top of the hive, with a good cap over; but they will not work quite as fast, especially if the weather is cool. The next best place is under the bottom in the manner described in Chapter IX.

Setting out honey to feed all at once, I condemn wholly. These disadvantages attend it: strong stocks that do not need an ounce, will get two or three pounds, while those weaker ones, needing it more, will not get one. Nearly every stock, in a short time, will be fighting.

Probably the first bee that comes home with a load, will inform a number of its fellows that a treasure is close at hand. A number will sally out immediately, without waiting for particular directions for finding it; and mistaking other hives for the place, alight there, are seized and probably dispatched. As soon as the honey given them is gone, the tumult is greatly increased, and great numbers are destroyed.

If any of your neighbors near you have bees, you must expect to divide with them.

If the honey to be fed is in the comb, and your hives are not full, and they are to be wintered in the house, bottom up, it may be done at any time through the winter, merely by laying pieces with honey on those in the hive. The bees readily remove the contents into their own combs; when empty, remove them and put in more until they have a full supply.

They will join such pieces of comb to their own; yet there will be no harm in breaking them loose. The princ.i.p.al objection to feeding in this way, will be found in the tendency to make them uneasy and disposed to leave the hive, when we want them as quiet as possible, A thin muslin cloth, or other means, will be necessary to confine them to the hive.

I have now given directions to avoid killing any family of bees worth saving, if we choose.

When such as need feeding have been fed, and all weak families made strong by additions, etc., but little more fall work is needed in the apiary. It is only when you have weak stocks, unfit to winter, that it is necessary to be on the lookout every warm day to prevent pillage.

CHAPTER XXII.

WINTERING BEES.

There is almost as much diversity of opinion with respect to wintering bees as in the construction of hives, and about as difficult to reconcile.

DIFFERENT METHODS HAVE BEEN ADOPTED.

One will tell you to keep them warm, another to keep them cold; to keep them in the sun, out of the sun, bury them in the ground, put them in the cellar, the chamber, wood-house, and other places, and no places at all; that is, to let them remain as they are, without any attention.

Here are plans enough to drive the inexperienced into despair. Yet I have no doubt but that bees have been sometimes successfully wintered by all these contradictory methods. That some of these methods are superior to others, needs no argument to ill.u.s.trate. But what method _is best_, is our province to inquire. Let us endeavor to examine the subject without prejudice to bias our judgment.

THE IDEA OF BEES NOT FREEZING HAS LED TO ERRORS IN PRACTICE.

By close observation we shall probably discover that the a.s.sertion so often repeated, that bees have never frozen except when without honey, has led to an erroneous practice.

APPEARANCE OF BEES IN COLD WEATHER.

We will first endeavor to examine the condition of a stock left to nature, without any care, and see if it affords any hints for our guidance, when to a.s.sist and protect with artificial means.

Warmth being the first requisite, a family of bees at the approach of cold weather crowd together in a globular form, into a compa.s.s corresponding to the degree of cold; when at zero it is much less than at thirty above. Those on the outside of this cl.u.s.ter are somewhat stiffened with cold; while those inside are as brisk and lively as in summer. In severe weather every possible s.p.a.ce within their circle is occupied; even each cell not containing pollen or honey will hold a bee. Suppose this cl.u.s.ter is sufficiently compact for mutual warmth, with the mercury at 40, and a sudden change brings it down to zero, in a few hours, this body of bees, like most other things, speedily contracts by the cold. The bees on the outside, being already chilled, a portion of them that does not keep up with the shrinking ma.s.s, is left exposed at a distance from their fellows, and receive but little benefit of the warmth generated there; they part with their vitality, and are lost.

HOW PART OF THE SWARM IS FROZEN.

A good family will form a ball or circle about eight inches in diameter, generally about equal every way, and must occupy the s.p.a.ces between four or five combs. As combs must separate them into divisions, the two outer ones are smallest, and most exposed of any; these are often found frozen to death in severe weather. Should evidence be wanting from other sources to show that bees will freeze to death, the above would seem to furnish it. It is said, "that in Poland bees are wintered in a semi-torpid state, in consequence of the extreme cold."

We must either doubt the correctness of this relation, or suppose the bee of that country a different insect from ours--a kind of semi-wasp, that will live through the winter, and eat little or nothing. The reader can have no difficulty in deciding which is the most probable, whether _bees are bees_ throughout the world, endowed with the same faculties and instincts, or that the facts as they are, are not precisely given, especially when we see what our own apiarians tell us about their never freezing.

Here I might use strong language in contradiction; but as I am aware that such a course is not always the most convincing, I prefer the test of close observation. If bees will freeze, it is important to know it, and in what circ.u.mstances.

HOW A SMALL FAMILY MAY ALL FREEZE.

Suppose a quart of bees were put in a box or hive where all the cells were filled and lengthened out with honey; the s.p.a.ces between the combs would be about one-fourth of an inch--only room for one thickness of bees to spread through. The combs would perhaps be one and a half or two inches thick. All the warmth that could be generated then, would be by one course or layer of bees, an inch and a half apart. Although every bee would have food in abundance without changing its position, the first turn of severe weather would probably destroy the whole.

This, it may be said, "is an unnatural situation." I will admit that it is; the case was only supposed for ill.u.s.tration. I know that their winter quarters are among the brood combs, where the hatching of the brood leaves most of the cells empty; and the s.p.a.ce between the combs is half an inch; a wise and beautiful arrangement; as ten times the number of bees can pack themselves within a circle of six inches, as can in the other case; and in consequence the same number of bees can secure much more animal heat, and endure the cold much better; but a _small_ family, even here, will often be found frozen, as well as starving.

FROST AND ICE SOMETIMES SMOTHER BEES.

Besides freezing, there are other facts to be observed in stocks which stand in the cold. If we examine the interior of a hive containing a medium-sized swarm, on the first severely cold morning, except in the immediate vicinity of the bees, we shall find the combs and sides of the hive covered with a white frost. In the middle of the day, or as soon as the temperature is slightly raised, this begins to melt,--first next to the bees, then at the sides. A succession of cold nights will prevent the evaporation of this moisture; and this process of freezing and thawing, at the end of a week or two, will form icicles sometimes as large as a man's finger, attached to the combs and the sides of the hive. When the bottom of the hive is close to the floor, it forms a sealing around the edges, perfectly air-tight, and your bees are smothered. I have frequently heard bee-keepers say in these cases, "The storm blew in, and formed ice all round the bottom, and froze my bees to death." Others that have had their bees in a cold room, finding them thus, "could not see how the water and ice could get there any way; were quite sure it was not there when carried in," &c. Probably they never dreamed of its being accounted for philosophically, and to a.n.a.lyze anything pertaining to bees would be rather small business. But what way can it be accounted for?

FROST AND ICE IN A HIVE ACCOUNTED FOR.

Physiologists tell us "that innumerable pores in the cuticle of the human body are continually throwing off waste or worn out matter; that every exhalation of air carries with it a portion of water from the system, in warm weather unperceived, but will be condensed into particles large enough to be seen in a cold atmosphere." Now, if a.n.a.logy be allowed here, we will say the bee throws of waste matter and water in the same way. Its food being liquid, nearly all will be exhaled--in moderate weather it will pa.s.s off, but in the cold it is condensed--the particles lodge on the combs in form of frost, and acc.u.mulate as long as the weather is very severe, a portion melting in the day, and freezing again at night.