Transcriber Note
Text emphasis denoted as _Italics_ and =Bold.=.
[Illustration: Mrs. Lizzie E. Cotton]
BEE KEEPING FOR PROFIT
A NEW SYSTEM
OF
Bee Management,
FIRST EDITION.
BY
Mrs. Lizzie E. Cotton,
WEST GORHAM, MAINE.
=ILLUSTRATED.=
1880.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by
MRS. LIZZIE. E. COTTON,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
CONTENTS.
Chapter. Page
I.--Honey Bees 13
II.--The Controllable Hive and New System of Bee Management 22
III.--Patent and non-Patent Hives 29
IV.--Feeding 32
V.--Boxes for Surplus Honey 40
VI.--Swarming and Hiving 45
VII.--Anger of Bees 55
VIII.--Bee Moth 59
IX.--Robbing 62
X.--Profits of Bee Keeping 66
XI.--Changing Old Queens for Young Ones 74
XII.--Rearing and Introducing Queens 77
XIII.--Sources of Honey 84
XIV.--Location of Hives 89
XV.--Wintering Bees 92
XVI.--Transferring Bees 98
XVII.--Italian Bees 103
XVIII.--Construction of Controllable Hives 107
XIX.--Monthly Duties 113
XX.--Conclusion 120
PREFACE.
In presenting this work I have no apology to make. After an experience
with bees dating almost from childhood, and a careful study of all
works published on the subject of bees, and the journals devoted to
that particular branch of rural affairs, I find _theory, guess-work,
prejudice and selfish motives_ are so prevalent, as to confuse and
discourage the _beginner_, and finally, all who are seeking after
information by which they may make bee keeping a source of profit, and
who wish to adopt a correct and scientific system of bee management.
In my early efforts at bee keeping, I met with many failures and heavy
losses, from being confused by the contradictory teachings of selfish
or ignorant bee keepers, and from a lack of that personal knowledge
which experience, and a close study of the nature and habits of bees
has now placed in my possession. After many unsuccessful experiments,
and careful investigation, and a close study of the natural habits and
instincts of bees, I have succeeded in inventing a hive and new system
of bee management which completely changes the whole process of bee
keeping, and renders the business _safe_, _pleasant_ and _profitable_.
_The hive and system of bee management recommended in these pages is
entirely original with me, and is not patented._ I invented the hive
and plan of management for my own use, as I am engaged in raising
honey for market, and wish every swarm of bees I keep to produce the
greatest possible amount of surplus honey, and in the most convenient
and attractive marketable form. I am induced to place this work before
the public at the earnest and oft repeated requests of friends and
correspondents. The work has been hurriedly written, as I had but
little spare time to devote to this matter, consequently sentences are
not all, perhaps, grammatically arranged. I have made the beautiful of
secondary importance to the useful. I have endeavored, however, to make
my statements so clear as to be readily understood and comprehended by
every person of intelligence, although he may be wholly unacquainted
with bee keeping.
Every person, who has a farm or garden, should keep bees, at least one
or more swarms, to furnish honey for the use of the family. There is no
greater luxury than nice honey in clean snow-white comb in nice glass
boxes, such as is produced by my new system of bee management. This
best of all sweets is now within reach of every one who has a plot of
ground large enough to set a hive of bees upon.
After bees are once located in my hives but very little expense is
required to keep them in proper condition, so that they will give a
good quantity of nice box honey every year.
Under the old methods of bee keeping, bees required a great deal of
care and attention, especially during the summer season. And then the
winters were very destructive to them, many often losing their entire
stock; or if they were not a total loss, they were so damaged by the
winter as to be of no profit, and two severe winters in succession were
quite sure to finish them.
This was very discouraging, and many have abandoned bee keeping,
entirely discouraged.
On my plan a complete revolution is effected in bee management, as will
be shown in this work.
There is in my opinion no pursuit which offers greater inducements
than bee keeping, especially to women. There are _very many_ who are
confined indoors nearly the whole time, excluded from the air and
sunshine, to the great injury of their health; and after this great
sacrifice they barely succeed in obtaining a livelihood. To such,
bee keeping offers great inducements, such as improved health, and
a handsome recompense for all labor performed. I am acquainted with
many who have commenced bee keeping on my plan, who are meeting with
complete success. A lady bought a swarm of Italian bees of me in 1874,
and she writes me that from that _one_ she increased her stock to over
twenty swarms the third season; besides she got over one hundred pounds
of _nice_ honey from the swarm I sent her the _first season_. Here I
wish to be clearly understood; I do not wish to hold out inducements
which will never be realized, for the purpose of causing any one to
commence bee-keeping; yet I believe bee keeping on correct principles
should be encouraged, until bees enough are kept to collect all the
honey now allowed to go to waste, and which if collected by bees and
stored in nice glass boxes, would add millions of dollars to the wealth
of the country.
Since the day I introduced my Controllable Hive and new system of
bee management to the notice of the public, the worthless bee hive
swindlers and their tools have been boiling over with wrath against me,
lying and slandering me through the public journals, and especially
through the Bee Journals, and all because, that I, a woman, had
succeeded in inventing a bee hive and new system of bee management
superior to anything yet produced, and which was fast coming into use
on its merits among bee keepers; consequently the sale of other hives
was _decreasing_ in the same proportion. I first perfected the hive
and system of management for my own use, with no thought of making it
public, but through the kindness of my personal friends, and others
who have visited me to enquire into the new system, it has become known
from Maine to Oregon, and adopted by many of the most intelligent bee
keepers in the United States. And in compliance with that command in
the good book which reads--"_Let your light shine_," I am determined to
spread the truth, regardless of all opposition from the ignorant and
selfish crowd which is constantly attacking me.
Without egotism I claim a thorough knowledge of the habits and
instincts of bees. Consequently I claim a thorough knowledge of the
requisites of a hive, and all fixtures pertaining to it, as well as a
knowledge required to make bee keeping successful and profitable; and
all this has been acquired in the school of _experience_ and _practice_.
Kind reader, I respectfully submit the following pages, and ask for
them a candid and unprejudiced consideration. Read _carefully_ and
_understandingly_, and apply to bee keeping, and I feel certain you
will realize many times the cost of this book in the increased profits
of your bees, managed as here directed.
The statements herein set forth are the result of many years _practical
experience with bees_ with a view of making the raising of honey for
market profitable, and the general management of bees successful.
MRS. LIZZIE E. COTTON.
West Gorham, Maine, Aug. 5th, 1880.
CHAPTER I.
HONEY BEES.
[Illustration: QUEEN BEE.]
A SWARM of bees contains _one_ Queen, thousands of workers and in the
summer season a limited number of drones. The queen is the only fully
developed female in the swarm. She never leaves the hive except on two
occasions--when leading a swarm, and when but a few days old, to meet
the drone, or male bee, in the air, for the purpose of fecundation. It
appears from close observation that only one impregnation is operative
during life, as old queens have never been known to leave the hive for
that purpose.
The natural life of the queen averages from four to six years.
Queens sometimes become entirely barren before death; at other times
the eggs of old queens are found to produce only drones. No matter
whether deposited in drone cells, or worker cells, the progeny will
be drones invariably. When drones are reared in worker cells they
will be very much dwarfed in size, notwithstanding the worker bees'
attempt to overcome the difficulty, by lengthening the worker cells, to
accommodate the monstrosities.
The queen has a sting, yet she may be handled with impunity, for she
will not use it except when in deadly combat with a rival queen. She
receives the most marked attention from all members of her family;
deprive a swarm of their queen, and they will, as soon as the loss is
known, manifest the greatest agitation and alarm, and if the swarm is
one just hived, and only a few hours from the parent stock, they will
all return at once to the old home. They appear to fully realize the
vast importance of a mother, and that with no means to supply her place
they must soon perish; and to avoid their impending fate they return
to the old hive. With old stocks deprived of their queen the result is
different, as will be shown further on. Every one who keeps bees should
strive to become familiar with the appearance of the queen, that they
may be able to recognize her at a glance among thousands of workers,
as it will often be necessary to look her up in my new system of bee
management. In looking for the queen in full hives, she is usually
found on the brood combs, unless in opening the hive she may have been
frightened, and taken refuge in some hiding place, as the corner of the
hive, at the bottom ends of the comb-frames, or some similar hiding
place. After we become familiar with her appearance and movements we
are able to find her quite readily, even when the hive is crowded with
bees.
[Illustration: WORKER BEE.]
The worker bee is much smaller than the queen. On the worker devolves
all the labor of the swarm. They collect honey, pollen or bee bread,
and propolis, or bee glue. The workers produce wax from honey, and from
the wax they build comb, in which to store the honey and bee bread
they collect, for their own use in time of need. Wax is produced from
honey, as butter is produced from milk. Bees do not collect wax, but
they collect honey, which by a natural process in the stomach of the
bee is changed, and exudes from between the rings of the abdomen in
minute scales of wax, which is detached by the bee and moulded into
comb. The worker bee possesses a sting, and is ever ready to make
use of it in defending home and treasure. This is a wise provision
of nature, for were it otherwise, the other insect and animal tribes
would appropriate the treasures of the bee--honey, wax, &c., and this
industrious little insect would soon become extinct.
The worker bee possesses an instinct but little inferior to reason in
the human family. A few examples will show their wonderful instinct:
Twenty hives of bees, placed in a row, but a few inches distant one
from the other, all of like size, shape and color; the bees to our
perception _exactly_ alike, no difference in size, shape, color or
action;--yet every bee of this vast number (which at some seasons of
the year would amount to more than six hundred thousand bees) in these
twenty hives knows its own hive, and if let alone will not enter any
other, except it be for the purpose of securing the honey therein for
its own use, or in other words to plunder and rob its neighbor. There
is no intercourse between swarms--each is a separate colony governed
by a queen. If through mistake the subjects of one enter the domain
of another, a war of extermination is commenced at once. To test
this point, I changed two hives so that they were reversed, the one
occupying the place of the other. This was done while the bees were out
collecting honey in a warm day. The first bees that entered the hive
were instantly killed, and this was kept up until the hives were set in
their proper places. The ground in front of the hives was covered with
hundreds of dead bees. A bee is killed almost _instantly_ by the sting
of another.
The young bee on its first excursion from the hive does not leave its
home without precaution. With a view to a safe return, it turns its
head towards its home, rises slowly on the wing, at first describing a
circle of only a few inches in diameter, as it recedes slowly backward,
seeming to so mark every object surrounding the hive as to enable it to
return and enter, without the slightest danger of entering any other
hive. Bees in Spring, in their first flight, mark their location in
this manner. After the location has been thus marked, the bees leave
the hive in a direct line, and return by their way-marks, with perfect
accuracy and regularity.
[Illustration: DRONE BEE.]
The drone bee is a clumsy fellow. The drones are the male bees. Where
a dozen or more hives are kept, there is no necessity for more drones
than one swarm would naturally rear, yet each one of the twelve swarms
carries out its natural proclivities, and rears a large number of these
useless consumers, not one in a thousand of which is ever of any use.
Swarms should not be permitted to rear a large number of these non
producers. A few are indispensable, yet we should take this matter into
our own hands. Not one drone in five thousand ever fulfils the purpose
for which it was created. Fifty drone cells is enough for one hive, and
when more than this number is constructed (sometimes they will number a
thousand or more in a hive) cut out all but a very few, and fit in a
piece of worker comb in their place--it is more profit to raise workers
than drones. Drones leave the hive, to sport in the sunshine in large
numbers, every fine afternoon in June and July. When on the wing they
make a very loud, coarse buzzing. They have no sting and may be handled
without the least fear.
When the honey season is over, the worker bees drive out the drones,
and a prosperous swarm will not tolerate a drone in the hive through
the winter.
In September I have seen a quart or more of drones clustered together
near the entrance of the hive, from whence they had been driven by the
bees. The workers on guard about the entrance of the hive, would not
let one pass into the hive, though they were constantly making the
attempt. As soon as one would approach the entrance to the hive to
pass in, a half dozen or more workers would seize him, and drag him
struggling to the edge of the platform and pitch him off, at apparent
great danger to his portly and clumsy body.
I wish to impress strongly on the minds of all who adopt my plan of bee
management, the great importance of cutting out all the drone cells,
except a very few in every hive. Don't leave _more than_ fifty, half
that number will do. After you have once cut out the surplus drone comb
and fitted in worker comb, there is no further trouble with an excess
of drones from that hive. It takes a great deal of honey to rear a
large brood of drones, and still more to support them in idleness two
or three months.
[Illustration: HONEY CELL--WORKER CELLS--QUEEN CELLS]
This engraving represents a section of comb in a miniature comb frame,
containing all the different cells found in a hive. At the top are
cells for storing honey. At the extreme right, near the bottom, is a
queen cell complete, as it appears in queen raising, or in one week
after a swarm has been deprived of its queen, in a full stock, or as
it is found in stocks that swarm naturally, at the time the _first_
swarm issues. Though often found in different places on the comb, and
often to the number of a half dozen or more in one stock or hive, yet
its relative position is _always the same_. It will always present the
same appearance, whether at the edges or on other parts of the comb.
Near the queen cell is seen the worker cells, _containing brood_ in all
stages of growth, from the tiny egg just deposited by the queen, to the
full-grown grub, or young bee. Near the worker cells, at the bottom,
are the empty drone cells.
Breeding.
The natural increase of the honey bee is very imperfectly understood
by the great majority of bee keepers. Very many suppose that young
bees are raised only in the warm summer months, and their ideas of the
_modus operandi_ of increase are exceedingly vague. I find that strung
stocks have maturing brood nearly every month in the year--have found
brood in stocks in December and January.
The queen lays all the fertile eggs in the swarm; consequently all
increase is dependent on her. I say the queen lays all the _fertile_
eggs, because occasionally under certain circumstances we find eggs
laid by workers, but under my observation such eggs never mature.
Egg-laying workers are known to be such, by eggs being found in stocks
that have been deprived of their queen, and the means of rearing
another. This is one of the wonders of nature, of which no satisfactory
solution has been given. The points established as to the sex of bees
are these: the queen is a fully developed female; the drones are fully
developed males; the worker,--_what is it?_ The worker is said by
some to be neuter. If this last is true, how are the eggs produced?
Others say the worker is a female with generative organs _not fully
developed!_ A pretty nice point--to credit them with the power to
produce eggs, without imparting vitality sufficient to germinate.
We will leave this knotty question, as it is of no consequence in the
practical management of bees for profit. Suffice it then to say, the
queen is the mother of the entire family, and without a queen no swarm
of bees can long
The time taken to perfect the three different kinds of bees, queen,
worker and drone, varies slightly. The queen will mature in about
sixteen days from the time the egg is deposited in the cell. The drone
and worker each in about twenty days. This time is subject to some
variation, governed by the weather, and number of bees in the hive,
which causes the temperature of the hive to be greater or less. A high
temperature will forward, while a low temperature will retard, the
maturing of the brood.
Swarms with healthy prolific queens increase rapidly through the spring
and summer. The queen at this season will deposit from one thousand to
fifteen hundred eggs per day. Some writers estimate higher. To secure
so large a number of eggs, and consequent increase of bees, we must
have healthy prolific queens to start with, and offer every available
facility to encourage the desired increase. How to do this successfully
is shown further on.
If we wish to secure a good harvest of honey, we must have the bees to
collect it, and we must have them at the proper time, viz: _when the
harvest is ready_. To do this we must encourage breeding to the utmost
in _early spring_.
Early in the spring the queen enlarges the circle containing the brood;
perhaps, if the stock was very strong, and everything favorable, she
laid a few eggs in one or two combs near the center of the cluster of
bees in January. Perhaps the cells occupied at that time were less
than a dozen, all compact together in a circle, occupying less space
than the size of a silver half dollar. As she progresses, this circle
is enlarged, and the cells on the opposite side of this comb is used;
then the next comb and so on, at the same time enlarging the circle,
keeping the brood _compactly together_, so that the bees, by clustering
around it, can keep up the required warmth to forward to maturity the
brood. As the young bees hatch, the queen proceeds with her duties of
laying eggs, until every brood cell is occupied, and as fast as a bee
matures and leaves its cell, she is on hand with an egg to occupy the
vacant place. This is kept up without cessation till swarming time,
when the hive becomes crowded with bees, then, as preparation for
swarming, the queen deposits eggs, from which the bees by a special
course of treatment, rear queens. When they are sealed over, as shown
in the plate, the old queen leaves the hive with the _first_ swarm to
seek a new home. In about ten days the young queens hatch and lead out
after-swarms--second, third, etc. When swarming is over, the strongest
queen destroys the others, and reigns over the old swarm till another
swarming season. This is the process in natural swarming; on my plan we
improve upon the process, as will be shown in the proper place.
[Illustration]