THE PLEASURES OF BEE-KEEPING.
ByF. W. L. SLADEN.
Carryingout the directions given last month for preparing the hives for winter, must not be delayed later than the middle of September. All our colonies being strong and having plenty of stores, they should now be wrapped up warmly and left undisturbed until next spring. Two American flour bags placed over the quilts will be quite enough extra covering, or one of these stuffed with a little dry barley straw will answer the purpose even better, providing a warm covering over the frames from two to three inches thick. An inspection should be made of the roofs of the hives, and if they are not thoroughly weather-proof, two coats of good white-lead paint should be applied to them. The size of the entrance must not be reduced to less than three inches.
The quieter bees are kept during the winter the better they come out in the spring. Being snowed up will not hurt them as long as they get sufficient air to breathe, which they will do through two or three feet of light snow. In the middle of a warm day in February, when the bees are flying freely, it will do no harm to lift a corner of the quilts and take note of the amount of sealed stores they still possess, if care be taken not to expose and disturb them more than is necessary. If they seem to be running short of food, a box containing soft candy should be given to them over the feed-hole. Feeding liquid food would excite the bees too much so early in the year, and it should not be done until the beginning of April. If the stores are almost exhausted, feeding with candy or syrup will have to be kept up until the bees are able to find enough honey in the fields to support themselves. In some districts this may not be until June. On the other hand, it is a mistake to keep feeding our bees unless they really require it.
March and April are often trying months for the bees, the sudden changes of temperature being very unfavourable to bee-life. Colonies that are not very strong may become so reduced in numbers that they “pull through” only with difficulty, and afterwards require the whole of the following season to regain their full strength, yielding neither honey nor swarms.
On the other hand, strong colonies, under favourable conditions, during the latter part of April and May, will increase so rapidly that, unless they are given plenty of room inside the hive in good time, they will make preparations for swarming, which the bee-keeper, who wishes to work for honey and not swarm, will find it difficult to check. The usual way to give the bees more room in the spring is by inserting a frame or foundation, or of empty comb in the centre of the brood-nest. If, however, the bees are not quite strong enough to take it, and a spell of cold weather follows, some of the brood may get chilled and this will be a worse disaster than an over-crowded hive.
The spring, then, is a period which calls for constant attention and vigilance on the part of the bee-keeper, who must not be satisfied, as many are, that all is going on right because the bees show activity on a warm day, but must be acquainted with their exact condition, so that prompt assistance may be given when it is required.
Having completed my sketch of the chief events in the bee-keeper’s calendar, it only remains to add a few details which may be of use or interest.
The subject of bee diseases is one that claims our attention. There is only one serious disease that bees are subject to; but that, unfortunately, is rather common. It is known asfoul brood. It is caused by a micro-organism, which attacks the brood in the combs, causing it to putrefy and die. In its earlier stages, the presence of foul brood can only be detected by a careful examination of the brood combs, in which here and there a larva or two will be found to be decomposing into a coffee-coloured ropy mass, and some of the capped cells containing pupæ will have their cappings sunken and perforated. As the disease advances, much of the brood gets affected, and a foul smell issues from the entrance of the hive, which may often be perceived several yards away. The colony becomes rapidly weak and profitless, and in the end frequently perishes altogether.
Foul brood is very contagious, and strong measures must be taken to stamp it out directly its presence is discovered. In a bad case the whole colony must be burnt. If the hive is a good one, it may be preserved, but then it must be thoroughly disinfected by being scalded and painted inside and out with carbolic acid. When the disease is discovered in an early stage the combs only need be destroyed, the bees being shaken off them and treated as a swarm. They should be put into a new hive on frames of foundation, and fed with syrup medicated with Naphthol-beta. This drug is supplied in packets by the principal dealers in bee-appliances, and full directions for use are printed on each packet. The old hive and everything connected with the diseased colony must be burnt or thoroughly disinfected. If the combs contain much honey it may be utilised for human consumption without fear; but on no account must it be given back to the bees. When fresh brood develops in the new combs, a sharp look-out must be maintained for the reappearance of the disease; if it should manifest itself, in however slight a degree, the operation of renewing hive and combs must be gone through again. The disease must be looked for in other hives, and these, if found to be affected, must at once be dealt with in a similar way. The source of infection should be ascertained, and if it be found that a neighbouring bee-keeper has any diseased colonies, he should be persuaded to take immediate steps to cure or destroy them.
Bees do not suffer from the attacks of many enemies in this country. Wasps are sometimes troublesome around the hive entrances in the autumn, and titmice are rather too fond of making a meal on a bee or two in the winter. The latter have an amusing way of bringing the bees out of the hive by tapping with their beaks on the alighting board, until a worker appears to see what the matter is, for which act it is immediately seized and swallowed. Field-mice like honey, and will sometimes play havoc with the combs of a weak colony; but if the entrance is not more than 3/8 inch deep, they will find it difficult to force a passage in the hive.
The most troublesome pests, when they get in the hives, are the caterpillars or the wax-moth. They riddle the combs with their numerous silk-lined tunnels, devouring all the pollen brood and honey that come in their way. It is difficult to get rid of these caterpillars without destroying the combs. All moths found in the quilts should be destroyed, for they lay the eggs which produce the caterpillars. The wax-moth is very destructive in bee-hives in America, but one seldom hears of its doing much damage in England, except in badly-kept or neglected hives. Two balls of naphthaline placed on the quilts will help to keep the wax-moth away.
A curious parasite called the bee-louse (Branla cocca) is sometimes found attached to the body of the queen, and occasionally also the workers. Though it belongs to the order of flies, it is blind and wingless, and most resembles a tiny reddish-brown spider. A few of these parasites do not seem to inconvenience the queen-bee.
Ants may be kept out of the hive by placing the legs in saucers containing water. Earwigs do no harm in the hive.
Experienced bee-keepers are often able to increase their colonies cheaply in the autumn bydrivingtheir neighbour’s bees. Unhappily there are still many owners of bees in this enlightened country to whom the hive is as a sealed book that they have never attempted to open. They do not trouble to look after their bees, and, when wanting the honey, would destroy them to obtain it, if some practical bee-keeper did not come forward and offer to do the work for them, asking to be allowed to take the bees he has saved from destruction in return for his services, a request which the owner is generally willing enough to grant. It requires a man of some little experience to drive bees successfully, so we will not go into the details of the operation here. Suffice it to say that the straw hive or skep from which the bees are to be driven is fixed in an invertedposition, and another skep placed over it into which the bees, by repeated rapping, are driven. Driven bees can generally be bought fairly cheaply in the autumn. Several lots of driven bees should be put together into a wooden hive provided with frames fitted with foundation, or better still, ready drawn-out combs if you have them. Rapid feeding must then be commenced at once, and sufficient food for winter stores should be taken down and sealed over before the middle of September.
We must not be surprised if our extracted honey becomes opaque and solid on the approach of cold weather. This process is called candying or granulation, and is, in fact, a proof of the purity of the honey, though some kinds granulate much sooner than others. Well-ripened honey, when granulated, will keep good for years.
In concluding these papers a few words on the natural history of bees may be of interest. Some of my readers will be surprised when I tell them that there are about two hundred different kinds of bees to be found in England. Up to the present I have been talking only about one of these, and this one, properly speaking, is a honey-bee. Almost all the other bees are solitary in their habits, that is, they do not live in large colonies in hives, but singly or in pairs in holes in the ground, in old stumps or walls, or in the hollow stems of plants. Still they are, many of them, very interesting, and well worth studying. They all feed on honey, and may be found on various kinds of flowers throughout the spring and summer. Some of them are large and beautiful like the well-known humble-bees; others are small and inconspicuous. Some resemble our honey-bee so closely that none but an expert could tell them apart; others again have such a strong likeness to wasps that a novice would scarcely give them credit for sweeter relationships.
QUEEN HUMBLE-BEE (Bombus terrestris).
QUEEN HUMBLE-BEE (Bombus terrestris).
QUEEN HUMBLE-BEE (Bombus terrestris).
But readers of this magazine, who happen to reside abroad, might come across other kinds of honey-bees, wild perhaps, but to which, if put in hives, all the foregoing remarks would more or less apply. Several of the foreign races of the honey-bee have been tried in this country and have been found to do very well. One of these, the Italian bee, is quite naturalised, and has spread so extensively over the country that it is hard to find a colony of pure English bees now, most of our bees being a cross between the English and the Italian races. Italian bees may be readily recognised by the pale semi-transparent, orange-yellow markings on the tail, true English bees being entirely black all over. The Italian bees are more prolific than the English race and they are easier to handle because they remain quietly on their combs when the hive is opened. A good cross between the English and Italian races is generally acknowledged to be the best honey-bee for all purposes in this country, but it has acquired a name for being rather bad-tempered.
Books that will be helpful to those who are “going in” for bee-keeping areThe British Beekeeper’s Guide Book(paper, 1s. 6d.), andModern Bee-keeping(6d.), published by the British Bee-keepers’ Association.
Finally, the beginner must not be disheartened by a few difficulties and failures. They should, on the contrary, spur on to greater efforts in seeking to avoid them in the future, for it is chiefly by first failures that experience, that most important factor in every successful pursuit, is gained. Persistent effort will bring its reward, and the bees will soon become a greater source of interest than we ever thought could be possible.