THE PLEASURES OF BEE-KEEPING.
ByF. W. L. SLADEN.
Thehive generally fills rapidly with honey during July. When the super is full it may be removed from the hive, and, if honey is still coming in in fair quantity, another one substituted for it.
When honey—or, strictly speaking, nectar—is first gathered from the flowers, its consistency is thin, almost like water, and if it remained in this state it would soon ferment and go sour. But by means of the high temperature which the bees always maintain inside the hive the excess of moisture is evaporated out, and the nectar is changed into thick ripe honey. As each cell in the honey-comb gets filled with this honey, the bees seal it over with a thin capping of wax, to preserve the contents from any outside contamination, just as we tie the vegetable parchment over our pots of jam. In this condition the honey will keep good any length of time.
The combs in the middle of the super are always finished first, the work extending from the centre outwards, so that if, by lifting a corner of the quilts we see that the outside combs are sealed over, we may be sure that all the combs in the super are finished in like manner, and that the super is ready for removal.
I will now describe the operation of removing a full rack of sections from off the hive. The bees, of course, must first have timely warning that something is about to be done by our giving them a few light puffs of smoke under the quilt. After leaving them for a minute, the rack of sections may be prized up underneath, at the back, with a screw-driver, and a few more puffs of smoke blown into the opening thus formed. The rack of sections may now be lifted right off the hive and taken away. If another rack is not to be put on, the sheet of queen-excluding zinc must also be removed, and the quilts must be taken from off the rack of sections to cover the frames in the stock-box. The hive may then be closed up.
But the operation by no means concludes here; the super is full of bees, and our work now will be to get rid of these. The quickest and simplest way of doing this is to take each section out of the rack and shake the bees off it on to the alighting-board of the hive; in doing this a goose-wing or bottle-brush will be found useful to brush off any bees that may not be detached by a few gentle shakes. The sections must be handled carefully, as they are rather fragile, and the comb is easily cracked and bruised.
A far better way of ridding the super of bees is to use asuper-clearer, which consists of a board with a thick frame round the edge, and having a hole in the centre in which is inserted a little tin appliance with springs, which will allow the bees to pass through it only in a downward direction, so that they cannot go back again into the super.
The super-clearer is placed between the super and the stock-box. If the weather is warm it will be found that in about twenty-four hours’ time not a bee will be left in the super, and it may then be removed andbrought indoors. In colder weather the super-clearer may take two days or more to do its work. It should not be left on the hive after the super has been taken away, but must be removed with a little smoke, its place over the frames being taken by the quilts.
SUPER-CLEARER.
SUPER-CLEARER.
SUPER-CLEARER.
One word of caution is necessary before we leave the subject of removing the super.
Combs containing honey, or drops of honey, must never be left out-of-doors, or anywhere within reach of the bees. Their scent for all sweets of this kind is very keen, especially if there is not much to be obtained in the fields, and they will soon discover and steal them, even fighting over the ill-gotten booty, so that many thousands of workers are sometimes killed by their greedy companions. Frequently the mischief does not end here, for when the robbers have finished their spoil they may, in their thirst for more, attack and force a passage into the hive of some weak neighbouring colony, which is incapable of defending its stores against such an overwhelming army of marauders, and this will often result in the annihilation of the luckless colony—“cleared out,” as the bee-keeper, who has not been careful to prevent the mischief in the beginning, exclaims with surprise, when in going the round of his hives a few days later, he discovers too late the sad state of affairs.
Sections of honey-comb should be stored in a warm and dry place. For home use they may be left in the section-rack, but if they are to be offered for sale they must be separated, and the particles of wax and propolis scraped off the sides and edges of the wood of each section, care being taken in so doing not to bruise or crack the combs.
Sections for sale are rendered more attractive if placed in neat cardboard boxes, with or without glass on one side. These boxes can be obtained from any of the dealers in bee-appliances. 1s. to 1s. 3d. ought to be readily obtained for a section of good honey done up in this way; but the price of honey varies in different seasons and districts.
In removing a super containing shallow frames, proceed in the same way as with the rack of sections. The honey must be extracted from these frames in the honey-extractor.
The extracting should be done immediately after the frames are taken from off the hive, while the combs are still warm.
Before placing the comb in the extractor, the cappings must be pared offbothsides of the comb with a long, sharp knife, which does the work much better if it is warm. It will be convenient to have two knives in a dish of hot water close at hand for the purpose. Uncapping is an operation the beginner cannot expect to excel at the first time. Plenty of mess and stickiness will most likely be the order of the day during the first few occasions, so it will be advisable to have the clothes well protected by a good apron.
Two combs having been uncapped, they will be placed in the cages of the extractor, and the handle turned so as to make them revolve. This must be done slowly at first. A few turns of the extractor will bring the centrifugal force into play by which the honey will be thrown out in countless drops, which will settle on the inside walls of the extractor, and coalescing, will trickle down to the receptacle in the bottom of the machine in which the clear amber fluid will quickly gather. There is a danger, in turning the handle too fast, of the honey not getting extracted on the inside of the comb, pressing on the midrib, and breaking through it, especially in warm weather when the wax is soft. This danger is reduced by the use of “wired” combs. In from five to ten minutes’ time the honey will cease to flow from the combs. The turning must then be stopped, the combs lifted out and replaced in the extractor with the reverse side outward, the revolving process being then repeated to extract the honey from the second side of the comb. When the combs are again lifted out they will be emptied, and the extractor will be ready to take another pair of uncapped combs. The emptied combs should be given back to the bees, either to be filled again with honey, or to be licked clean preparatory to their being put away for the winter for use next year.
The honey which has gathered in the bottom of the extractor should be strained through flannel to get rid of the small particles of wax and other impurities it is likely to contain. After this, it may be run into jars or bottles, which should be tied over with parchment to exclude the air.
HONEY-EXTRACTOR.
HONEY-EXTRACTOR.
HONEY-EXTRACTOR.
The wax cappings should also be strained in a warm room to separate the honey. They may then be melted down in a pan of water over a slow fire. When they are quite melted, the pan should be removed and stood in a cool place. In a few hours’ time the beeswax will be found to have set in a solid cake, floating on the surface of the water. The impurities which have collected on the under side of the cake can be scraped off. If desired, the wax can again be melted and cast in convenient-sized blocks in moulds which have previously been well smeared with sweet oil to prevent the wax sticking to them. An appliance called a wax-extractor will be useful for rendering larger quantities of wax from old combs.
Beeswax comes in very useful for a variety of purposes in the home. Mixed with spirits of turpentine, it forms a valuable furniture polish. A lump is handy in the work-basket for waxing sewing-threads. It is also useful for securing foundation in frames and sections. A compound of beeswax with mutton fat, with the addition of a little lamp-black, sweet oil, turpentine, and lard, makes an excellent dubbing for children’s boots in the winter, keeping the leather soft and dry.
Carrying out the details of harvesting their crop of honey in the manner described above is a pleasant enough occupation with most bee-keepers, but it is one that I fear a good many of my readers may not have the pleasure of experiencing in this their first season.
Perhaps the swarm has not been strong enough to do any work in the super at all, and the sad prospect of no honey this season is rather a damper to your ardour. Never mind, the bees may have been able to gather more than enough for themselves in the stock-box. If, however, the colony is very weak, the bees not nearly filling the stock-box, they will now require a little looking after to bring them up quickly to the requisite strength, to ensure successful wintering, followed by a profitable yield of honey, or perhaps a swarm or two, next year. If the weather keeps unfavourable, they may require feeding. Such feeding should be kept up regularly two or three times a week, and only a small quantity of syrup given at each time. It will then have the effect of encouraging breeding.
Another good way to stimulate a weak colony is to give it a comb containing brood from another stronger hive that can well afford to spare it. The bees on the comb must be shaken back into the hive from which they came before it is put into the hive we want to strengthen, and care must be taken to see that the queen, should she chance to be on this particular comb, is returned to her hive in safety. Bees from different hives will not agree if put together, unless special means are taken to make them do so, and these will be explained later on when we consider “uniting.”
Those who have been fortunate enough to secure a crop of honey may sometimes be disappointed to find that it is inferior in quality, with a more or less disagreeable flavour. This is a trouble which it is beyond the power of the bee-keeper to remedy, as it depends on the flora of the neighbourhood. The best honey, barring heather honey, is very pale in colour, and comes chiefly from the Dutch clover, sainfoin, mustard and lime-tree blossoms. Inferior kinds are darker; the blackberry and sunflower are among the flowers to which credit is given for producing them, and probably most honey obtained from mixed bloom, whether in the garden or on the wayside, is not so good as that which is gathered from flowers of the clover group. But what most spoils a sample of honey, making it dark and unpalatable, is leaf honey or honey-dew. This substance is not really honey, being secreted by the leaves of certain trees, especially the lime-tree, oak, and sycamore, and in some years much more than in others. The bees feed on it with relish, but it is not wholesome for them.
(To be continued.)