Chapter II: Part 2

There are many plants and trees of economic value, in addition to their production of honey, which may be utilized in one portion or another of the United States in the manner indicated. Adaptability to climate and soil, the periods of honey dearth to be filled in, markets for the crop produced, etc., must all come in to influence the choice. The following list includes the more important plants of economic value in this country which are good honey and pollen yielders. Most of those named are adapted to a considerable portion of the Union. Except in the case of plants restricted to the South, the dates given are applicable, in the main, to middle latitudes.

ECONOMIC PLANTS AND TREES FOR CULTIVATION FOR HONEY AND POLLEN.

=Filbert bushes=, useful for wind-breaks and for their nuts, yield pollen in February and March.

=Rape= can be grown successfully in the North for pasturage, for green manuring, or for seed, and when permitted to blossom yields considerable pollen and honey. Winter varieties are sown late in the summer or early in the autumn, and blossom in April or May following. This early yield forms an excellent stimulus to brood rearing. Summer or bird rape, grown chiefly for its seed, blossoms about a month after sowing. It does best during the cooler months of the growing season.

=Russian or hairy vetch= is a hardy leguminous plant of great value for forage and use in green manuring. The blossoms appear early in the season, and, where there is any lack in early pollen, especially in northern and cool regions, this vetch will be found of great value to the bees.

=Fruit blossoms=--apricot, peach, pear, plum, cherry, apple, currant, and gooseberry--yield pollen and honey in abundance during April or May; strawberry and blackberry are sometimes visited freely by bees, but are generally far less important than the others mentioned. Colonies that have wintered well often gather during apple bloom 12 to 15 pounds of surplus honey of fine quality. The raspberry secretes a large amount of nectar of superb quality, and coming in May or June, thus later than the other fruit blossoms and when the colonies are stronger and the weather is more settled, full advantage can nearly always be taken of this yield. Grape and persimmon blossom also in June; the latter is an excellent source. In subtropical portions of the country orange and lemon trees yield fine honey in March and April, and the cultivation of the banana has added a profuse honey yielder which puts forth successive blossoms all through the summer months.

=Locust=, =tulip tree= ("poplar," or whitewood), and =horse-chestnut=, useful for shade, ornament, and timber, are all fine honey producers in May. The locust yields light-colored, clear honey of fine quality, the others amber-colored honey of good body and fair flavor.

=Clovers.=--Crimson, blossoming in April or May, yields fine, light-colored honey; white, alsike, and mammoth or medium, blossoming in May, June, and July, give honey of excellent quality and rich yellow color.

=Mustard= grown for seed flowers from June to August. The honey is somewhat acrid and crystallizes soon, yet the plant, where abundant, is of much importance to the bees and the bee keeper in case other forage is scant at the time.

=Asparagus= blossoms are much visited by bees in June and July.

=Esparcet=, or =sainfoin=, yields in May and June fine honey, almost as clear as spring water. It is a perennial leguminous plant, rather hardy, an excellent forage crop, and particularly valuable for milch cows. It succeeds best on a limestone soil or when lime is used as a fertilizer, and is itself an excellent green manure for soils deficient in nitrogen and phosphoric acid.

=Sulla, or sulla clover=, a perennial plant, closely related to esparcet or sainfoin, succeeds, like the latter, best upon limestone soil or when fertilized with lime. It yields a splendid quality of honey from beautiful pink blossoms, which continue during May and June. The plant is an excellent soil fertilizer and of great value in connection with the feeding of stock, particularly dairy animals. It is, however, much less hardy than esparcet, and success with it can therefore hardly be looked for above the latitude of North Carolina and Arkansas. When the qualities and requirements of this plant were brought by the writer to the notice of a prominent scientific agriculturist of the South, this gentleman suggested as very probable that the black belt of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas would be well adapted to it, the lands of this region being exceedingly strong in lime. In portions of southern Europe sulla clover is a most important forage crop for farm stock as well as for honey bees.

=Serradella= is an annual leguminous plant which will grow on sandy land, and which yields, besides good forage, clear honey of good quality in June and July.

=Chestnut=, valuable for timber, ornament, shade, and nuts, yields honey and pollen in June or July.

=Linden=, =sourwood=, and =catalpa=, fine shade, ornamental, and timber trees, yield great quantities of first quality honey in June and July.

=Cotton.=--In the South cotton blossoms, appearing as they do in succession during the whole summer, often yield considerable honey. It would appear, however, that when the plants are very rank in growth the blossoms--being correspondingly large--are too deep for the bees to reach the nectar.

=Chicory=, raised for salad and for its roots, is, whenever permitted to blossom, eagerly visited for honey in July and August.

=Sweet, medicinal, and pot herbs=, such as marjoram, savory, lavender, catnip, balm, sage, thyme, etc., when allowed to blossom, nearly all yield honey in June, July, or August. Where fields of them are grown for the seed the honey yield may be considerable from this source.

=Alfalfa= furnishes in the West a large amount of very fine honey during June and July. Its importance there as a forage crop is well known, but how far eastward its cultivation may be profitably extended is still a question, and even should it prove of value in the East as a forage plant, its honey-producing qualities there would be still uncertain.

=Parsnips=, when left for seed, blossom freely from June to August, inclusive, and are much frequented by honey bees.

=Peppermint=, raised for its foliage, from which oil is distilled, is most frequently cut before the bees derive much benefit from it, but whenever allowed to blossom it is eagerly sought after by them, and yields honey freely during July and August.

=Bokhara=, or =sweet clover=, is in some sections of the country considered a valuable forage crop. Animals can be taught to like it, and it is very valuable as a restorer of exhausted lime soils, while in regions lacking in bee pasturage during the summer months it is a very important addition. It withstands drought remarkably well and yields a large quantity of fine honey.

=Cucumber=, =squash=, =pumpkin=, and =melon= blossoms furnish honey and some pollen to the bees in July and August.

=Eucalypti=, valuable for their timber and as ornaments to lawn and roadside, are quick-growing trees adapted to the southern portions of the United States. They yield much honey between July and October.

The =carob tree=, whose cultivation has been commenced in the Southwest, is an excellent honey yielder in late summer. It is an ornamental tree and gives, in addition to honey, another valuable product--the carob bean of commerce.

=Sacaline=, a forage and ornamental plant of recent introduction, is a great favorite with bees. It blossoms profusely during August, is a hardy perennial, and thrives in wet and also fairly in dry situations, withstanding the ordinary summer drought of the Eastern States because of its deeply penetrating roots.

=Buckwheat= is an important honey and pollen producer. Its blossoms appear about four weeks after the seed is sown, hence it may be made to fill in a summer dearth of honey plants.

HOW TO OBTAIN SURPLUS HONEY AND WAX.

Good wintering, followed by careful conservation of the natural warmth of the colony, the presence of a prolific queen--preferably a young one--with abundant stores for brood rearing, are, together with the prevention, in so far as possible, of swarming, the prime conditions necessary to bring a colony of bees to the chief honey flow in shape to enable it to take full advantage of the harvest. In addition it is only necessary to adjust the surplus honey receptacles in time, making the space given proportionate to the strength of the colony, and, while continuing to prevent as far as possible the issuance of swarms, to remove the accumulated honey fast enough to give abundant storage room.

EXTRACTED HONEY.

To secure extracted honey, the requisite number of combs may be in one long hive, or in stories one above another. Preference is most generally given to the latter plan. The brood apartment is made in this case to hold eight to twelve Langstroth frames, and a second, and sometimes a third or even a fourth story, may be added temporarily. These added stories may be for full-depth frames, or, for convenience in handling and in order to be able to control more closely the amount of space given, they may be half the usual depth, and but one of the half-depth stories added at a time. If numerous sets of combs are at hand, or if it is desirable to have others built, additional stories are put on as fast as the combs already occupied by the bees are filled. Before removing the filled combs time should be allowed the bees to ripen and cap the honey; hence enough combs are necessary to give the bees storage room while they are capping others, the honey in combs that are quite or nearly sealed over may be considered sufficiently ripened to be removed from the hive.

It should also be taken promptly, in order to keep the various grades or kinds separate. However, when the combs of a given super are completely filled and sealed it may be marked and left on the hive if more convenient to be extracted later.

The cells are uncapped by means of a sharp knife, made especially for this purpose (fig. 9), and the combs are then made to revolve rapidly in the honey extractor (fig. 10). The centrifugal force exerted on the honey throws it out, leaving the comb cells uninjured, or so slightly injured that they are wholly repaired within an hour or so after the return of the comb to the hive. The chief advantages of this method of harvesting over that of crushing the combs are at once apparent when it is known that each pound of comb saved represents several pounds of honey (consumed in its construction), and may, with care be used over almost indefinitely in securing surplus honey. Furthermore, extracted honey is of much finer quality than that obtained by crushing the combs and straining out the liquid part, since it is free from crushed bees, larvæ, pollen or "bee bread," etc., which not only render strained honey dark and strong in flavor, but also make it liable to fermentation and souring.

The extracted honey is run into open buckets or tanks and left, covered with cheese cloth, to stand a week or so in a dry, warm room not frequented by ants. It should be skimmed each day until perfectly clear, and is then ready to be put into cans or barrels for marketing, or to be stored in a dry place. Square tin cans, each made to hold 60 pounds of extracted honey, are sold by dealers in apiarian supplies. This style of package is a convenient one to transport, and is also acceptable to dealers. Wooden shipping cases are usually constructed so as to hold two of these cans. Barrels and kegs may be used, especially for the cheaper grades of honey used chiefly in the manufacture of other articles. They should be dry, made of well-seasoned, sound wood, and the hoops driven tight and secured, as well-ripened honey readily absorbs moisture from wood, causing shrinkage and leakage. They should also be coated inside with bees-wax or paraffin. This is easily done by warming the barrels and then pouring in a gallon or two of hot wax or paraffin, and, after having driven in the bungs tightly, rolling the barrels about a few times and turning them on end. The work should be done quickly and the liquid not adhering to the inner surfaces poured out at once, in order to leave but a thin coating inside.

The surplus combs are to be removed at the close of the season and hung an inch or so apart on racks placed in a dry, airy room, where no artificial heat is felt. Mice, if permitted to reach them, will do considerable damage by gnawing away the cells containing pollen or those in which bees have been bred, and which therefore contain larval and pupal skins. Moth larvæ are not likely to trouble them until the following spring, but upon the appearance of milder weather their ravages will begin, and if the combs can not be placed under the care of the bees at once they must be fumigated with burning sulphur or with bisulphide of carbon.

COMB HONEY.

The main difference to be observed in preparing colonies for the production of comb honey, instead of extracted, is in the adjustment of the brood apartment at the time the supers are added. After the colony has been bred up to the greatest possible strength, the brood apartment should be so regulated in size, when the honey flow begins and the supers are added, as to crowd many of the bees out and into the supers placed above.

On each hive a super is placed (fig. 11) holding 24 to 48 sections, each section supplied with a strip or a full sheet of very thin foundation. It is best not to give too much space at once, as considerable warmth is necessary to enable the bees to draw out foundation or to build comb. A single set of sections is usually sufficient at a time. When the honey is designed for home use or for a local market, half-depth frames are sometimes used, the same as those often used above the brood nests when colonies are run for extracted honey, but for the general market pound sections (fig. 12) are better adapted.

It is the practice of many to have nice white comb partially drawn out before the main honey flow begins, or even the season before, feeding the colonies, if necessary, to secure this; and, when the honey yield begins, to supply sets of sections with these combs having cells deep enough for the bees to begin storing in as soon as any honey is collected. Earlier work in the sections is thus secured, and this, as is well known, is an important point in the prevention of swarming. Mr. Samuel Simmins, of England, has long contended for this use of partially drawn combs, and though it forms a feature of his system for the prevention of swarming it has been too often overlooked. Comb foundation is now manufactured with extra thin septum or base and with the beginnings of the cells marked out by somewhat thicker walls which the bees immediately thin down, using the extra wax in deepening the cells. This is not artificial comb, but a thin sheet of wax having the bases of the cells outlined on it. Complete artificial combs have never been used in a commercial way, although there exists a widespread belief to this effect, which is founded on extravagant claims that have appeared from time to time in newspaper articles.

If the brood apartment has been much contracted when the supers were added, the queen may go into the sections and deposit eggs unless prevented by the insertion of a queen excluder (fig. 13). This, merely a sheet of zinc with perforations which permit workers, but not the queen, to pass, is placed between the brood apartment and the supers. The great inconvenience of having brood in some of the sections is thereby prevented. When the honey in the sections has been nearly capped over, the super may be lifted up and another added between it and the brood apartment. Or, should the strength of the colony not be sufficient, or the harvest not abundant enough to warrant the giving of so much space, the sections which are completely finished may be removed and the partly finished ones used as "bait sections" to encourage work in another set of sections on this hive or in new supers elsewhere. The objections to the removal of sections one by one, and brushing the bees from them, are (1) the time it takes, and (2) the danger that the bees when disturbed, and especially if smoked, will bite open the capping and begin the removal of the honey, thus injuring the appearance of the completed sections.

A recent valuable invention, the bee escape (fig. 3), the use of which is explained on pages 15 and 16, when placed between the super and the brood nest, permits the bees then above the escape to go down into the brood apartment, but does not permit their reentering the super. If inserted twelve to twenty-four hours before the sections are to be removed, the latter will be found free from bees at the time of removal, provided all brood has been kept out of the supers.

=Grading and shipping comb honey.=--Before marketing the honey it should be carefully graded, and all propolis ("bee-glue"), if there be any, scraped from the edges of the sections. In grading for the city markets the following rules are, in the main, observed. They were adopted by the North American Bee-Keepers' Association at its twenty-third annual convention, held in Washington, D. C, in December, 1892, and are copied from the official report of that meeting:

=Fancy.=--All sections to be well filled; combs straight, of even
thickness, and firmly attached to all four sides; both wood and comb
unsoiled by travel stain or otherwise; all cells sealed except the row
of cells next to the wood.

=No. 1.=--All sections well filled, but with combs crooked or
uneven, detached at the bottom, or with but few cells unsealed; both
wood and comb unsoiled by travel stain or otherwise.

In addition to the above, honey is to be classified, according to
color, into light, amber, and dark. For instance, there will be "fancy
light," "fancy amber," and "fancy dark," "No. 1 light," "No. 1 amber,"
and "No. 1 dark."

The sections, after grading and scraping, are to be placed in clean shipping cases having glass in one or both ends (fig. 14). Several of these may be placed in a single crate for shipment. To prevent breaking down of the combs it is best to put straw in the bottom of the crate for the shipping cases to rest on, and the crates should be so placed as to keep the combs in a perpendicular position. The crates are also likely to be kept right side up if convenient handles are attached to the sides--preferably strips with the ends projecting beyond the corners. Care in handling will generally be given if the glass in the shipping cases shows.

Owing to the appearance of statements of a sensational character to the effect that complete honey combs are manufactured by machinery and filled with sweets lower in price than honey (glucose, cane sugar, or mixtures of these), then sealed over and sold in the market as genuine honey, a strong suspicion exists regarding the comb honey commonly offered for sale. Wide circulation has been given to these wild stories by sensational newspaper writers, and even monthly periodicals, usually far more discriminating and accurate, have repeated them. Some writers have even tried to locate the "comb honey factories" in given cities, but investigation has always shown that the locations were mythical. The forfeit of $1,000 which a reputable firm has had standing for fifteen years past for a pound of manufactured comb honey of a nature to deceive the buyer still remains unclaimed.

The National Bee-Keepers' Association, at its annual convention held in St. Louis in 1904, offered also a like forfeit of $1,000 for satisfactory proof of the existence of such a thing as manufactured comb honey. But no claimant has come forward, notwithstanding the $2,000 which awaits his proof. The fact is, there is no truth in the "yarn," and no one has thus far shown the thing possible. The comb honey in the markets is pure and wholesome--a healthful and nourishing sweet, easier to digest than cane sugar or any of the sirups so commonly sold. It is worth a place on the tables of all who can afford to use it.

PRODUCTION OF WAX.

No method has yet been brought forward which will enable one, at the present relative prices of honey and wax, to turn the whole working force of the bees, or even the greater part of it, into the production of wax instead of honey; in fact, the small amount of wax produced incidentally in apiaries managed for extracted or for section honey is usually turned into honey the following season; that is, it is made into comb foundation, which is then employed in the same hives to increase their yield of marketable honey. It is even the case that in most apiaries managed on approved modern methods more pounds of foundation are employed than wax produced; hence less progressive bee keepers--those who adhere to the use of box hives and who can not therefore utilize comb foundation--are called upon for their wax product. As each pound of wax represents several pounds of honey, all cappings removed when preparing combs for the extractor, all scrapings and trimmings and bits of drone comb, are to be saved and rendered into wax. This is best done in the solar wax-extractor (fig. 15), the essential parts of which are a metal tank with wire-cloth strainer and a glass cover, the latter generally made double. The bottom of the metal tank is strewn with pieces of comb, the glass cover adjusted, and the whole exposed to the direct rays of the sun. A superior quality of wax filters through the strainer.

Another method is to inclose the cappings or combs to be rendered in a coarse sack and weight this down in a tin boiler partly filled with rain water or soft spring water and boil slowly until little or no more wax can be pressed out of the material in the sack. Melting in an iron receptacle makes the wax dark colored. A special utensil made of tin, for use as a wax-extractor (fig. 16) over boiling water, can also be had. The bits of comb are placed in this, in an inside can having fine perforations, through which the steam from below enters and melts out the wax, which drips from a spout into another receptacle partly filled with water, from the surface of which the cake of wax may be removed when cold.

THE WINTERING OF BEES.

How to bring bees successfully through the winter in the colder portions of the United States is a problem which gives anxiety to all who are about to attempt it for the first time in those sections, and even many who have kept bees for years still find it their greatest difficulty. It may happen occasionally that a queen, apparently young and vigorous in the autumn, will die during the winter, when a young one can not be reared, and as a result the colony will dwindle away. Such losses are, however, rare, and, aside from the possible results of fire, flood, or violent storms, are about the only ones which can not be avoided by careful attention to right methods in wintering. Insufficient or poor winter stores, hives faulty in construction, lack of protection from cold and dampness, too much or too little ventilation, too great a proportion of old bees or too great a proportion of young ones, overmanipulation late in the season, etc., are the most important and most easily detected causes of loss in wintering bees. In some instances colonies supposed to have been placed in the same condition under which others have wintered well become diseased and die or dwindle away without prominent signs of disease. It is evident, however, that some condition existed in one case which was not present in the other, or that, in spite of some unfavorable condition, the favorable ones combined, in the first instance, to render the wintering successful.

In the South wintering in the open air on the summer stands is the only method followed, while in the colder portions of the country, although with proper precautions bees may be wintered successfully in the open air, many prefer to house them in special repositories built with double walls, or to place them in darkened cellars, or in clamps. Indoor wintering should be confined to regions where there are several weeks, at least, of continued severe weather. When all conditions are right, consumption of honey will be less indoors and loss of bee life less than with the methods usually practiced in outdoor wintering. Under proper conditions, however, especially when abundant protection has been given, colonies out of doors will consume no more food nor meet with greater losses in numbers than those wintered under favorable conditions indoors. In wintering indoors certain essential conditions are, in a measure, beyond the control of the bee keeper, hence must be left to chance, and certain other conditions and emergencies liable to arise, though easily understood and met by the man of experience in this direction, are yet very likely to be overlooked by the novice or to be puzzling and disastrous to him. For these reasons it is safer for him to keep closer to the natural method at first and try outdoor wintering.

In wintering out of doors the conditions within the control of the bee keeper are more readily perceived and easier to meet, and though the original work of preparation for good wintering out of doors is greater per colony, yet the work during the winter itself and the following spring is likely to be less; moreover, the feeling of greater security, as well as the greater certainty of finding the colonies in good condition to begin gathering in the spring, are points well worthy of consideration. In other words, indoor wintering should be left to such experienced bee keepers as may prefer it and are located in cold climates, while novices, wherever located, should first endeavor to meet the requirements of successful outdoor wintering; that is, to prepare the colonies so that Nature, whatever her mood as regards the weather, will bring her tiny charges safely through the perils and vicissitudes of the winter months.

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.

Whatever method be followed in wintering, certain conditions regarding the colony itself are plainly essential: First, it should have a good queen; second, a fair-sized cluster of healthy bees, neither too old nor too young; third, a plentiful supply of good food. The first of these conditions may be counted as fulfilled if the queen at the head of the colony is not more than two years old, is still active, and has always kept her colony populous; yet a younger queen--even one of the current season's rearing, and thus but a few weeks or months old--is if raised under favorable conditions, much to be preferred. The second point is met if brood rearing has been continued without serious interruption during the latter part of the summer and the cluster of bees occupies, on a cool day in autumn, six to eight or more spaces between the combs, or forms a compact cluster 8 or 10 inches in diameter. Young bees, if not weir protected by older ones, succumb readily to the cold, while quite old bees die early in the spring, and others, which emerged late in the summer or autumn preceding, are needed to replace them. The third essential--good food--is secured if the hive is liberally supplied with well-ripened honey from any source whatever, or with fairly thick sirup, made from white cane sugar, which was fed early enough to enable the bees to seal it over before they ceased flying. The sirup is prepared by dissolving 3 pounds of granulated sugar in 1 quart of boiling water and adding to this 1 pound of pure extracted honey. Twenty to 26 pounds for outdoor wintering in the South, up to 30 or 40 pounds in the North, when wintered outside with but slight protection--or, if wintered indoors, about 20 pounds--may be considered a fair supply of winter food. A smaller amount should not be trusted except in case much greater protection be furnished against the effects of severe weather than is usually given. A greater amount of stores will do no harm if properly arranged over and about the center of the cluster, or, in case the combs are narrow, wholly above the cluster. In many instances it will be a benefit by equalizing in a measure the temperature in the hive, as well as by giving to the bees greater confidence in extending the brood nest in early spring.

INDOOR WINTERING.

A dry, dark cellar or special repository built in a sidehill or with double, filled walls, like those of an ice house, may be utilized for wintering bees in extremely cold climates. It should be so built that a temperature of 42° to 45° F. (the air being fairly dry in the cellar) can be maintained during the greater part of the winter. To this end it should be well drained, furnished with adjustable ventilators, and covered all over with earth, except the entrance, where close-fitting doors, preferably three of them, should open in succession, so as to separate the main room from the outside by a double entry way. The colonies, supplied with good queens, plenty of bees, 20 to 25 pounds of stores each, and with chaff cushions placed over the frames, are carried in shortly before snow and severe freezing weather come.

Any repository which is damp or one whose temperature falls below freezing or remains long below 38° F. is not a suitable place in which to winter bees. When in repositories, the bees have no opportunity for a cleansing flight, nor do they, when the temperature rises outside, always warm up sufficiently to enable the cluster to move from combs from which the stores have been exhausted to full ones; hence in a cold repository they may possibly starve with plenty of food in the hive. As a rule, colonies would be better off out of doors on their summer stands than in such places.

OUTDOOR WINTERING.

Cold and dampness are the great winter enemies of bee life. A single bee can withstand very little cold, but a good cluster, if all other conditions are favorable, can defy the most rigorous winters of our coldest States. But if not thoroughly dry, even a moderate degree of cold is always injurious, if not absolutely fatal. Dampness in winter is therefore the most dangerous element with which the bee keeper has to contend. The matter would, of course, be quite simple if only that dampness which might come from the outside were to be considered, but when the air of the hive, somewhat warmed by the bees and more or less charged with the moisture of respiration, comes in contact with hive walls or comb surfaces made cold by outside air, condensation takes place, and the moisture trickles over the cold surfaces and cluster of bees, saturating the air about them or even drenching them, unless by forming a very compact cluster they are able to prevent it from penetrating, or by greater activity to raise the temperature sufficiently to evaporate the surplus moisture, or at least that portion near them. But this greater activity is, of course, at the expense of muscular power and requires the consumption of nitrogenous as well as carbonaceous food. Increased cold or its long continuance greatly aggravates conditions.

Nature has provided that the accumulation of waste products in the body of the bee during its winter confinement should be small under normal conditions, but unusual consumption of food, especially of a highly nitrogenous nature like pollen, necessitates a cleansing flight, or diarrheal difficulties ensue, combs and hives are soiled, the air of the hive becomes polluted, and at last the individual bees become too weak to generate proper warmth or drive off the surplus moisture which then invades the cluster and brings death to the colony; or, what is more frequently the case, a cold snap destroys the last remnant of the colony, which has been reduced by constant loss of bees impelled by disease to leave the cluster or even to venture out for a cleansing flight when snows and great cold prevail.

The problem then is: _To retain the warmth generated by the bees, which is necessary to their well-being, and at the same time to prevent the accumulation of moisture in the hive._ A simple opening at the top of the hive would permit much of the moisture to pass off, but of course heat would escape with it and a draft would be produced. Absorbent material about the cluster creates, without free ventilation, damp surroundings, and again the temperature is lowered. It is only necessary, however, to surround the bees with sufficient material to protect them fully against the greatest cold likely to occur, and to take care also that this enveloping material is of such a nature and so disposed as to permit the free passage of the moisture which would otherwise collect in the interior of the hive, and to permit the escape into the surrounding atmosphere of such moisture as enters this material from within. This packing should also be fully protected from outside moisture.

South of Virginia, Kentucky, and Kansas single-walled hives may be employed in most localities with good success in outdoor wintering. On the approach of the cool or the rainy season a close-fitting quilt should be laid over the frames and several folded newspapers pressed down on this, or a cushion filled with dry chaff or some other soft material may be used instead of paper. The cover or roof should be absolutely rain-proof, yet between this cover and the cushion or papers should be several inches of space with free circulation of air. In order to permit this ventilation above the top packing, the cover should not rest upon the cap or upper story all of the way around, or if it does, an auger hole in each end, protected by wire-cloth against the entrance of mice, should give free passage to the air. In the more northern portion of the section referred to some further protection is advisable (fig. 17), and is really necessary in the mountainous parts of the same territory if the best results are to be obtained. Farther north, and especially in the cold Northwest, much greater protection becomes an absolute necessity. Quilts with newspapers or thin packing above do not alone suffice. The side walls of the hive may be made of pressed straw (fig. 18). These, with top packing, if kept dry outside, are excellent for outdoor wintering, even in climates so cold that ordinary wooden hives do not afford sufficient protection.

In the severest climates, however, still greater protection on all sides of the colony is needed, and packing with chaff or other soft material is decidedly the best plan. The thickness of this surrounding packing should be from 2 inches to 8 or 10 inches for single colonies, according to the severity of the climate, but if four or more colonies are grouped for the winter, so as to make the natural warmth generated mutually advantageous, somewhat less packing will be sufficient. A most important point is to have the soft warmth-retaining packing come in close contact with the edges of the combs, and above all _not to have a hive wall, either thick or thin, between this material and the bees_. A good plan is to construct an open framework or skeleton hive of laths, cover it with sacking, or, preferably, some less fuzzy cloth which the bees will not gnaw, and after placing it in an outer wooden case large enough every way to admit of the necessary packing about the colony, to fill in on all sides with some dry, porous material (fig. 19). If the frames are shallow, like the Langstroth, it is better to construct the inner case so as to place them on end, and thus give a deeper comb for the winter. Layers of newspapers may come next outside the cloth covering of the framework. Wheat chaff answers well to complete the packing. Wool is to be preferred, but is of course too expensive unless a waste product. Ground cork, waste flax, hemp, sawdust, etc., in fact, any fine porous material, if thoroughly dry, may be used.

A board passageway 3 or 4 inches wide and three-eighths of an inch high should connect this inner apartment and the flight hole of the outer case, thus affording an exit for the bees whenever the weather may permit them to fly. When these preparations have been completed, the hive is ready for the combs, which, with adhering bees, are taken from the summer hive and inserted in the winter hive. A quilt is then laid on the frames and the top packing put on. This, for convenience, may be held in a cloth-bottomed tray. It is quite important, as already mentioned, that air be allowed to circulate freely above the packing. The outside case must be quite rain-proof or else wholly protected from the rain by a roof.

All other necessary conditions having been complied with shortly after the gathering season closed, the combs may be lifted from the summer hives and placed in these specially arranged winter cases before cold weather wholly stops the bees from flying out. Thus prepared for the winter the colonies will need but slight attention from October until March, or, in the North, even later, and the losses will be limited to the small percentage of cases due to failure of apparently good queens.

THE RISK OF LOSS THROUGH DISEASE AND ENEMIES.

Winter losses through disease superinduced by unfavorable surroundings which it is within the power of the bee keeper to avoid have already been considered. But one other very serious disease has been widespread.

FOUL BROOD OR BACILLUS OF THE HIVE.

This is a highly contagious affection which, as it mainly affects the developing brood in the cells, is commonly known as "foul brood." It is due to a microbe (_Bacillus alvei_) whose spores are easily transported from hive to hive by the bees themselves, by the operator, in honey, or in combs changed from one hive to another. Once established in an apiary, it usually spreads, unless speedily and energetically checked, until all of the colonies in the neighborhood are ruined and even exterminated. The most apparent symptoms are the turning black of larvæ in open cells, many sealed cells with sunken caps, frequently broken in and containing dead larvæ or pupæ in a putrid condition, brown or coffee-colored, jelly-like or ropy in consistency, and giving off an offensive odor. The disease, though known to exist in nearly all countries, can hardly be said to be common. The writer, in an experience of over thirty years in bee keeping in several States of the Union, as well as in a number of foreign countries, has met the disease but rarely, and has had but one experience with it in his own apiary, it having been in this instance brought in by a neighbor who purchased bees at a distance. It was easily cured, without great loss. Thus the beginner's risks of disaster in this direction are, if he be forewarned, comparatively small. He may, furthermore, gain assurance from the fact that, should the disease invade his apiary, prompt and intelligent action will prevent serious loss.

The following is the treatment for a colony which still has sufficient strength of numbers to be worth saving: The bees are to be shaken from their combs just at nightfall into an empty box, which is to be removed at once to a cool, dark place. They are to be confined to the box, but it must be well ventilated through openings covered with wire cloth. During the first forty-eight hours no food should be given to them, and during the second forty-eight hours only a small amount of medicated sirup--a half pint daily for a small colony to a pint for a strong one. This food is prepared by adding one part of pure carbolic acid or phenol to 600 or 700 parts of sugar sirup or honey. At the end of the fourth day the bees are to be shaken into a clean hive supplied with starters of comb foundation. This hive is to be placed outside on a stand some distance from all other colonies, and moderate feeding with medicated sirup or honey should be continued for a few days thereafter.

The combs of diseased colonies which contain brood may be assembled over a single one of these colonies, or, if the amount of brood be too great for one colony to care for, over several such diseased colonies, until the young bees have emerged. All of the honey is then to be extracted. While it is wholesome as food, it should not be offered for sale, lest some of it be used in feeding bees or be inadvertently exposed where foraging bees might find it and carry to their hives the germs of this disease, harmless to other creatures but so fatal to bee life. A good use for this honey is to employ it in making vinegar. One and one-third pounds added to each gallon of rain water or soft spring water and allowed to ferment for three months in a warm place makes a quality of vinegar quite equal to the best cider vinegar. Provision for the free circulation of air through the cask should be made. This is easily secured by placing the cask, not completely filled, on its side and boring an auger hole in each end near the upper side, the holes to be covered with cheese cloth or fine gauze, to keep out insects.

If the honey containing the germs is to be used for feeding bees, it is to be diluted with half its own quantity, by measure, of water and kept at the boiling point for three hours in a water bath--a vessel within another containing water.

The combs from which the honey has been extracted, as well as all of the pieces built by the bees during their four days' confinement, may be melted into wax, by thorough boiling in soft water. This wax should be kept liquid for 48 hours or longer, to allow all impurities to settle. These will include the foul brood spores, which may then be removed with, the impure wax by scraping or cutting away the bottom of the cake. These scrapings should be burned. The same disposition had better be made of the frames from which the combs containing germs were removed.

In all of this work the utmost care should be exercised to avoid the dripping of honey about the apiary or the exposure of implements, receptacles, or combs smeared with or containing honey from the diseased colonies. It may even be better, in order to save time and possible risk, where but few combs and a comparatively small amount of honey are involved, to destroy all of these immediately after their removal from the hive. The old hive and all utensils used about the diseased colony should be disinfected by washing in a solution of corrosive sublimate--one-eighth ounce in one gallon of water--and should afterwards be exposed to the air and sun for some time. If healthy colonies are to be manipulated immediately after handling diseased ones the hands of the operator must also be disinfected by washing in the solution just mentioned.

Those who care to try and save combs and brood should employ the remedial method developed by the late Professor Cheshire. This is explained in full in his work on bee keeping,[C] and a brief statement of it may also be found in "The Honey Bee," Bulletin No. 1, new series, of the Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture. Notwithstanding these remedies, some will prefer, where healthy colonies of bees can be bought at moderate prices, to burn diseased bees, combs, and frames rather than spend time to effect a cure, and risk, as they fear they may, the further spread of the pest. To kill the bees thus is, however, neither profitable, humane, nor necessary, for if confined as described above and separated at once from the other colonies, this work being done at nightfall, when all of the bees are in their hives, the risk of spreading the disease will not thereby be increased, nor is the labor much greater than that involved in the removal of combs and bees for burning. And if it be found that the diseased colonies are weak in numbers and seem, therefore, individually hardly worth saving, this need not be taken as an excuse for the death sentence, as several colonies may be smoked and shaken together into the same box to make a single strong colony, the best queen of the lot having been selected and caged in the box in such a way that the workers can release her within a few hours by eating through candy.

[C] "Bees and Bee keeping," by Frank K. Cheshire, F. L. S., F. E. M. S., London, 1888, Vol. II, pages 554-575.

BEE PARALYSIS.

Among other diseases of a bacterial nature paralysis is most noticeable, although not to be dreaded as foul brood. It affects the adult bees only, producing a paralyzed condition of their members and a swelling up of their bodies. The diseased bees, often set upon by other workers, lose the hairy covering of their bodies, and, black and shiny in appearance, may often be seen wriggling away from their hives to die. In such cases the working force of the affected colony frequently becomes so greatly reduced as to preclude any return in the form of honey or swarms during the given season. The source from which the bees obtain the original infection is unknown, but, once in the apiary, it is spread mainly by the entrance of affected workers into healthy colonies, and probably also by the visits which bees from healthy colonies make to the diseased ones, the latter often being so weakened in numbers as to be unable to protect their stores from healthy bees out on robbing expeditions.

Ordinary paralysis may generally be cured by strewing powdered sulphur over the combs, bees, and along the top bars of the frames, the precaution first having been taken of removing all unsealed brood. This brood would be killed by the application of sulphur, but as there is no danger whatever of spreading the disease by the transfer of brood or honey from one hive to another, provided absolutely every one of the adult bees has first been shaken or brushed from the combs, the latter may be given to healthy colonies which need strengthening.

Another simple plan for getting rid of the disease and yet utilizing the available strength of the affected colonies is to close their hives at night and move them a mile or more, locating them, if possible, outside of the range of other bees. As the brood in these colonies remains healthy all that is sealed or even well advanced in the larval stage may have the bees shaken from it and be distributed among the remaining colonies of the apiary. The bees of the diseased colonies thus become rapidly reduced in numbers, and several of the colonies themselves may soon be combined, the best queen being selected to continue egg deposition. Eventually the diseased apiary becomes, by the removal of the developing brood and the death of the old bees, reduced to nothing. None of the queens should be saved nor should any of the adult workers be returned to the healthy apiary.

A combination of the sulphur cure with the last plan mentioned--that of getting rid of the disease through the removal of brood combs from affected colonies--is really, all in all, the best procedure. When a fairly strong colony has been made up by shaking the adult bees of two or more together and this removed to an isolated locality, the application of sulphur may be made before any brood has been started. It is well, also, to replace the queen with a vigorous one from stock entirely unrelated to the diseased bees. Should any signs of the disease reappear, constant removal of the brood should be followed, as mentioned in the preceding paragraph.

Other bacterial diseases, though existing, have developed only very locally or have been too limited in the amount of injury inflicted to require special mention here.

INSECT AND OTHER ENEMIES.

The bee or wax-moth (_Galleria mellonella_ Linn.) is regarded by those unfamiliar with modern methods in bee keeping as a very serious enemy to success in this work. It was frequently such when only the common black bee was kept and the old way of managing, or rather of trusting to luck, was followed. But with the better races now introduced and with improved hives and methods, and especially with the care that is now given to have no colonies queenless long at a time, the wax-moth larvæ are no longer regarded with great concern.

Some species of wasps take a little honey at times--more particularly when hives are opened--and they annoy the bees; others capture and eat workers, as do also the large ant-like "cow-killers" (Mutillidæ), and certain predaceous flies (Asilidæ), true bugs (Phymatidæ), and neuropterous and orthopterous insects (Libellulidæ and Mantidæ). The larvæ of certain beetles (Dermestidæ and Tenebrio) feed upon pollen and the cast-off skins of developing larvæ and pupæ, and certain of the Meloid larvæ attach themselves to the bodies of bees as parasites. Ants (Formicidæ) and cockroaches (Blattidæ), which gather above the quilts and between the quilts and the tops of the frames in order to be benefited by the warmth of the cluster of bees, sometimes help themselves to honey, and their presence annoys the bees more or less. Some of the insects here mentioned are only found locally, the predaceous ones being confined mainly to the South, while it may be said that the general welfare of strong colonies is not often materially affected nor the return noticeably reduced through the attacks of any of them.

Spiders, toads, and lizards destroy, in addition to many injurious insects, also some bees, and should be tolerated in the vegetable garden rather than in the apiary.

Swallows, kingbirds or bee martins, mice, skunks, and bears only occasionally commit depredations in the apiary.

Properly constructed hives enable the bees to limit in a great measure the injury which these various enemies might inflict, and the avoidance of overswarming, with care to insure the constant presence of a prolific queen and a supply of food suited to the needs of the colony at the time, will keep it populous and therefore in shape to repel attacks or to make good most of the unavoidable losses.

ROBBER BEES.

Robbing is sometimes a more serious matter, although it very rarely happens that a little careful attention just at the right time on the part of the bee keeper would not avoid all serious trouble on this score. When bees find nothing to gather during weather when they can still fly out they are easily tempted to appropriate the stores of weaker colonies. Exposure of combs of honey at such times may even occasion a combined attack upon a good colony otherwise quite able to take care of itself. It is then that the greatest destruction ensues, for such a colony will defend itself vigorously, and a pitched battle, with perhaps fifty or sixty thousand Amazons on either side, leaves the ground literally strewn with dead and dying.

If the invaders conquer, every drop of honey is taken from the few vanquished that are likely to be still alive; and in turn the despoilers invariably fight among themselves as to the possession of the booty. When the robbing takes place during the absence of the owner, the condition of the robbed colony may not attract immediate attention, and during warm weather moth larvæ gain full possession of the combs within a few days. When this condition is observed, the whole damage is very likely to be attributed to the moth larvæ. Colonies that have been left queenless for some time, and those weakened by disease or by overswarming, are especial marks for such attacks. Of course these defects should be remedied whenever observed, but meanwhile, if legitimate field work is likely to be interrupted, every colony should be assisted in protecting itself against assault by having its hive made secure and the entrance such a narrow pass as to enable a few workers to repel attack there.