CHAPTER III.QUIETING AND MANIPULATING BEES.
The demeanor of bees toward an individual depends largely upon his bearing and treatment of them. Langstroth, in his excellent treatise, Langstroth on the Honey Bee (p. 193, revised edition), says:
Let all your motions about your hives be gentle and slow; never crush or injure the bees; acquaint yourself fully with the principles of management, and you will find you have little more reason to dread the sting of a bee than the horns of a favorite cow or the heels of your faithful horse.
Let all your motions about your hives be gentle and slow; never crush or injure the bees; acquaint yourself fully with the principles of management, and you will find you have little more reason to dread the sting of a bee than the horns of a favorite cow or the heels of your faithful horse.
Fig. 12.Use of veil and bee smoker. (Original.)
Fig. 12.Use of veil and bee smoker. (Original.)
Most bee manipulators, however, grow somewhat indifferent to stings, since in time they become so inoculated with the poison of the bee that the pain of the sting is less severe and the swelling slight.But to avoid the stings is, with some of the races more recently introduced into this country, simply a question of care in manipulation and a free use of smoke.It is not meant that the bees should be stupefied with smoke, but merely alarmed and subjugated, and whenever they show any disposition to act on the offensive recourse is to be had to smoke. It is not necessary that the smoke should be from a particular source, but that from certain substances, as tobacco, subjugates them more quickly, while burning puffball stupefies them for the time. There are some objections to these substances which do not apply to wood, either partially decayed or sound, and as the latter when in a good smoker holds fire best and is very effective, it is advisable to keep a good supply at hand. Seasoned hickory or hard maple are best, though beech, softmaple, etc., are good. The most improved bellows smokers, when supplied with such fuel sawed 5 or C inches long and split into bits a half inch or less in size, will burn all day and be ready at any time to give a good volume of blue smoke, by which bees of most of the races now cultivated in this country are subdued at once.
Fig. 13.—Manipulation—removing comb from hive. (Original.)
Fig. 13.—Manipulation—removing comb from hive. (Original.)
With Italian or black bees a puff or two of smoke should be given at the hive entrance and the cover and honey board, or quilt, removed slowly and carefully, smoke being driven in as soon as the least opening is made and the volume increased enough to keep down all bees as fast as the covering is removed. The smoker may then be placed on the windward side of the hive to allow the fumes to pass over the top and toward the operator. The frames may then be gently pried loose and lifted out carefully, without crushing a bee if it can be avoided. Crushing bees fills the air with the odor of poison, which irritates the bees. So also when one bee is provoked to sting others follow because of the odor of poison.
Too much smoke will often render certain manipulations difficult; for example, when queens are to be sought out, or nuclei or artificial swarms made, volumes of smoke blown in between the combs will drive the bees from them so that they will cluster in clumps on the bottoms of the frames or in the corners of the hives. A little observation and judgment will enable one to know when the bees need smoke and how much of it to prevent any outbreak on their part, which it is always best to forestall rather than be obliged to quell after it is fully under way.
Fig. 14.—Manipulation—tilting to bring reverse side of comb in view. (Original.)
Fig. 14.—Manipulation—tilting to bring reverse side of comb in view. (Original.)
The frame hive as now made—with metal rabbets and arrangements for surplus honey, and quilts instead of honey boards—reduces propolization to a minimum and renders the danger of irritating the bees by jarring when manipulating much less. As a prerequisite to rapid and safe manipulationperfectly straight combs are necessary.
Fig. 15.—Manipulation—reverse side of comb brought to view. (Original.)
Fig. 15.—Manipulation—reverse side of comb brought to view. (Original.)
Fig. 16.—Manipulation—examining verse side of comb. (Original.)
Fig. 16.—Manipulation—examining verse side of comb. (Original.)
With the common or black bees it is never safe to do without the veil as a protection to the face, and with these bees it will also be very difficult to avoid stings on the hands unless considerable smoke has been driven into the entrance beforehand and time has been given the bees to get well filled with honey before the hive is opened; even then frequent recourse to smoke will generally be necessary. Blacks are by far the most troublesome of all races about flying from their hive entrances to sting in an unprovoked manner. Next to these are the crosses containing the blood of the blacks. Italians have much less of this disposition, and Carniolans and Cyprians rarely, then latter almost never, fly from their hive entrances to attack unless their hives have been disturbed.PureCyprians can generally be handled without the use of the bee veil by skillful bee manipulators who understand the qualities of the race. Much of the work among pure Italians can be done without a veil after one has gained experience in manipulation. During four years' residence in Carniola the writer, manipulating annually several hundred colonies of bees, never had occasion to employ a bee veil. If no bees but gray Carniolans of pure blood are in the apiary and some smoke is used a veil will never be necessary. They maybe handled in all kinds of weather, early and late, even during the night, yet with but a small part of the risk which attends the manipulation of other races. Nor will it be necessary to delude them with smoke from time to time, as one is obliged to do with blacks. To dispense entirely with the bee veil is a more important consideration, especially to the professional bee-master, than is at first apparent to the inexperienced. Its use injures the eyesight seriously, especially where one is obliged to strain his eyes for hours to see eggs, larvæ, etc., in the cells, to hunt out queens and queen cells, and adjust frames. Besides this, the hindrance to rapid work which the veil causes, as well as the great discomfort in wearing it for hours during hot weather, are considerations worth weighing.
Fig. 17.—Quinby closed-end frames. (From A B C of Bee Culture.)
Fig. 17.—Quinby closed-end frames. (From A B C of Bee Culture.)
To recapitulate: To secure easy, rapid, and safe manipulation accurately made hives, with the frames, if hanging, arranged to rest on folded metal rabbets, and the combs perfectly straight, are essential. It is equally important also that some one of the gentler races be kept Furthermore, a good bee smoker fed with dry fuel is necessary, while the bee escape to clear supers without manipulation of combs is a great help. Quilts, queen excluders, and bee escapes reduce the amount of manipulation required, and at the same time facilitate what is absolutely necessary.
In general, the best time to manipulate hives is when most of the bees are busy in the fields. The young bees left at home are most easily controlled and the old ones returning are generally laden.