BEE-KEEPING

Bee-keeping, or the cultivation of the honey-bee as a source of income

to those who practise it, is known to have existed from the most ancient

times. Poets, philosophers, historians and naturalists (among whom may

be mentioned Virgil, Aristotle, Cicero and Pliny) have eulogized the bee

as unique among insects, endowed by nature with wondrous gifts

beneficial to mankind in a greater degree than any other creature of

the insect world. We are told that some of these ancient scientists

passed years of their lives studying the wonders of bee-life, and left

accurate records of their observations, which on many points agree with

the investigations of later observers. As a forcible illustration of the

manner in which a colony of bees was recognized as the embodiment of

government by a chief or ruler, in the earliest times of which there is

any existing record, it may be mentioned that on the sarcophagus

containing the mummified remains of Mykerinos (now in the British Museum

and dating back 3633 years B.C.) will be found a hieroglyphic bee,(fig.

8) representing the king of Lower Egypt.

[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Sign of the king of Lower Egypt; from the coffin

of Mykerinos, 3633 B.C. (British Museum).]

Queen-rearing.

In dealing with the practical side of bee-keeping as now understood, it

may be said that, compared with the methods in vogue during the first

decade of the 19th century, or even within the memory of men still

living at the beginning of the 20th, it is as the modern locomotive to

the stagecoach of a previous generation. Almost everything connected

with bee-craft has been revolutionized, and apiculture, instead of being

classed with such homely rural occupations as that of the country

housewife who carries a few eggs weekly to the market-town in her

basket, is to-day regarded in many countries as a pursuit of

considerable importance. Remarkable progress has also been made in the

art of queen-rearing, and in improving the common or native bee by

judicious crossing with the best foreign races, selected mainly for

hardiness, working qualities and the prolific capacity of their queens.

American bee-breeders are conspicuous in this respect, extensive

apiaries being exclusively devoted to the business of rearing queens by

the thousand for sale and export.

On the European continent queen-rearing apiaries are plentiful, but less

attention is paid there to hybridizing than to keeping the respective

races pure. In England also, some bee-keepers include queen-rearing as

part of their business, while one large apiary on the south coast is

exclusively devoted to the rearing of queen bees on the latest

scientific system, and to breeding by selection from such races as are

most suited to the exceptional climatic conditions of the country.

Honey as food.

Extensive apiaries have been established on the American continent, some

containing from 2000 to 3500 colonies of bees, and in these honey is

harvested in hundreds of tons yearly. The magnitude of the bee industry

in the United States may be judged from the fact of a single bee-farmer

located in California having harvested from 150,000 lb. of honey in one

year from 2000 stocks of bees, and, as an instance of the enormous

weight of honey obtainable from good hives in that favoured region, the

same farmer secured 60,000 lb. of comb-honey in one season from his best

300 colonies. This is probably the maximum, and the hives were

necessarily located in separate apiaries some few miles apart in order

to avoid the evils of overstocking, but all in the midst of thousands of

acres of honey-yielding flowers. Results like the above compared with

those of the skeppist bee-keeper of former days, who was well pleased

with an average of 20 to 25 lb. per hive, may be regarded as wonderful,

but they are matters of fact. The consumption of honey as an article of

food has also largely increased of late years; a recent computation

shows that from 100 to 125 million lb. of honey, representing a money

value of from eight to ten million dollars, is consumed annually in the

United States alone. Many of the larger bee-farmers of the United States

of America and Canada harvest from 50,000 to 60,000 lb. of honey in a

single season, and some of them sell the whole crop direct to consumers.

State aid for bee-keeping.

It is a notable fact that in the United States, Canada, Australia, New

Zealand, and indeed all English-speaking countries outside the United

Kingdom, honey is far more extensively used than it is there as an

article of daily food. The natural result of this is that the trade in

honey is conducted, in those countries, on entirely different lines from

those followed in the British Isles, where honey production as an

occupation has, until quite recent years, been regarded as too

insignificant for official notice in any form. The value of the bee

industry is now recognized, however, by the British government as worthy

of state aid, in the promotion of technical instruction connected with

agriculture. On the American continent apiculture is officially

recognized by the respective states' governments; and by the federal

government at Washington it is taken into account as a section of the

Agricultural Department, with fully equipped experimental apiaries and

qualified professors engaged therein for educational work. In several

Canadian provinces also, the public funds are used in promoting the bee

industry in various ways, mainly in combating the bee-disease known as

"foul brood." In New Zealand the government of the colony has displayed

the most praiseworthy earnestness and vigour in promoting apiculture.

State-aided apiaries have been established under the supervision of a

skilled bee-keeper, who travels over the colony giving instruction in

practical bee-work at the public schools, and forming classes at various

centres where pupils are taught bee-keeping in all its branches.

Value of bees as fertilizers.

In Europe similar progress is observable; technical schools, with

well-equipped apiaries attached, are supported by the state, and in them

the science and practice of modern bee-keeping is taught free by

scientists and practical experts. Institutions of this kind have been

established in Germany, Russia, Switzerland and elsewhere, all tending

in the same direction, viz. the cultivation of the honey-bee as an

appreciable source of income to the farmer, the peasant cultivator, and

dwellers in districts where bee-forage is abundant and, if unvisited by

the bee, lies wasting its sweetness on the desert air. It may be safely

said that the value of the bee to the fruit-grower and the

market-gardener has been proved beyond dispute; and the technical

instruction now afforded by county councils in the rural districts of

England has an appreciable effect. In proof thereof, we may quote the

case of an extensive grower in the midland counties--sending fruit to

the London market in tons--whose crop of gooseberries increased nearly

fourfold after establishing a number of stocks of bees in close

proximity to the gooseberry bushes. The fruit orchards and raspberry

fields of Kent are also known to be greatly benefited by the numerous

colonies of bees owned by more than 3000 bee-keepers in the county. The

important part played by the bee in the economy of nature as a

fertilizer is shown in fig. 9.

[Illustration: FIG. 9.--A, Raspberry (_Rubus idaeus_, order _Rosaceae_),

being fertilized. B, Cross section.

A, Flower.

p, p, Petals.

a, a, Anthers.

s, Stigma.

no, Nectary openings.

nc, Nectar cells.

D, Drupels.

B, Section through core, or torus (C) and drupels (D).

ud, Unfertilized drupel.

ws, Withered stigma.

(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical_.)]

Bee-keepers' associations.

Bee and honey shows.

Honey labels.

In the United Kingdom the prevailing conditions, climatic and otherwise,

with regard to apiculture--as well as the lack of sufficient natural

bee-forage for large apiaries--are such as to preclude the possibility

of establishing apiaries on a scale comparable with those located in

less confined lands. On the other hand, even in England the value of

bee-keeping is worthy of recognition as a minor industry connected with

such items of agriculture as fruit-growing, market-gardening or

poultry-raising. The fact that British honey is second to none for

quality, and that the British market is eagerly sought by the

bee-keepers of other nationalities, has of late impressed itself on the

minds of thinking men. Moreover, their views are confirmed by the

constant references to bees and the profits obtainable from bee-keeping

in the leading papers on all sides. This newly-aroused interest in the

subject is no doubt to a large extent fostered by the grants in aid of

technical instruction afforded by county councils in rural districts.

The British Bee-keepers' Association (instituted in 1874) has been

untiring in its efforts to raise the standard of efficiency among those

who are desirous of qualifying as experts and teachers of bee-keeping on

modern methods. This body had for its first president the distinguished

naturalist Sir John Lubbock (Lord Avebury). Subsequently the baroness

Burdett-Coutts accepted the office in the year 1878, and was re-elected

annually until her death in 1906. During this time she presided at its

meetings and took an active part in its work, until advancing years

prevented her attendance, but her interest in the welfare of the

association was maintained to the last. Branch societies of bee-keepers

were established throughout the English counties, mainly by the efforts

of the parent body in London, with the object of securing co-operation

in promoting the sale of honey, and showing the most modern methods of

producing it in its most attractive form at exhibitions held for the

purpose. Nearly the whole of these county societies affiliated with the

central association, paying an affiliation fee yearly, and receiving in

return the silver medal, bronze medal and certificate of the

association, to be offered as prizes for competition at the annual

county shows. Other advantages are given in connexion with the

qualifying of experts, &c., while nearly all the county associations in

the United Kingdom employ qualified men who visit members in spring and

autumn for the purpose of examining hives and giving advice on bee

management to those needing it. Another advantage of membership is the

use of a "county label" for affixing to each section of honey in comb,

or jar of extracted honey, offered for sale by members. These labels are

numbered consecutively, and thus afford a guarantee of the genuineness

and quality of the honey, the label enabling purchasers to trace the

producer if needed. The British Bee-keepers' Association is an entirely

philanthropic body, the only object of its members being to promote all

that is good in British bee-keeping, and to "teach humanity to that

industrious little labourer, the honey-bee." Bee-appliance manufacturers

are not eligible for membership of its council, nor are those who make

bee-keeping their main business; thus no professional jealousies can

possibly arise. In this respect the association appears to stand alone

among the bee-keepers' societies of the world. There are many equally

beneficial societies, framed on different lines, existing in Germany,

France, Russia and Switzerland, but they are mainly co-operative bodies

instituted for the general benefit of members, who are without exception

either bee-keepers on a more or less extensive scale, or scientists

interested in the study of insect life.

The bee-keepers' associations of the United States, Canada and most of

the British colonies, are--like those last mentioned above--formed for

the sole and laudable purpose of promoting the business interests of

their members, the latter being either bee-farmers or bee-appliance

manufacturers. Thus they make no pretension of any but business

discussions at their conferences, and much benefit to all concerned

follows as a matter of course. In fact, we find enthusiastic bee-men and

women travelling several hundreds of miles and devoting time, money and

labour in attending conferences of bee-keepers in America, while the

proceedings usually last for several days and are largely attended. The

extent of the industry compared with that of Great Britain is so great

that it fully accounts for the difference in procedure of the respective

associations.

[Illustration: FIG 10.--"1-lb. section" wooden box for holding

Comb-honey.

(Redrawn from the _A B C of Bee Culture_, published by the A. I. Root

Co. Medina, Ohio, U.S.A.) ]

The bee-appliance trade.

As a natural consequence of this activity, the trade in bee-appliance

making has assumed enormous proportions in the United States, where

extensive factories have been established; one firm--employing over 500

hands, and using electric-power machinery of the most modern type--being

devoted entirely to the manufacture of bee-goods and apiarian

requisites. From this establishment alone the yearly output is about

25,000 bee-hives, and upwards of 100 millions of the small wooden boxes

used for holding comb-honey. The most generally approved form of this

box is known as the "1-lb. section," made from a strip of wood 1/2 in.

thick, 2 in. wide, and of such length that when folded by joining the

morticed and tenoned ends A B (fig. 10) it forms the section of box C,

measuring 4-1/4" X 4-1/2" X 2" when complete, and holds about 1 lb. of

comb-honey when filled by the bees and ready for table use. The V-shaped

groove D (cut across and partly through the wood) shows the joint when

in the flat, and E the same joint when closed for use. All the section

boxes used in the United Kingdom are made in the U.S.A or in Canada from

the timber known as basswood, no native wood being suitable for the

purpose.

[Illustration: FIG. 11.-Straw skep in section, showing arrangement of

Combs

A, Vertical section.

fb, Floor board.

e, Entrance.

br, Brood

p, Pollen.

h, Honey.

fh, Feeding hole.

bs, bs, Bee spaces.

B, Horizontal section.

sk, Skep-side.

c, c, Combs.

sc, sc, Store combs.

bs, bs, Bee spaces.

(from Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical_.)]

The straw skep.

The movable-frame hive.

Huber's observatory hive.

_Development of the Movable-frame Hive_--The dome-shaped straw skep of

our forefathers may be regarded as the typical bee-hive of all time and

of all civilized countries; indeed, it may with truth be said that as a

healthy and convenient home for the honey-bee it has no equal. A swarm

of bees hived in a straw skep, the picturesque little domicile known the

world over as the personification of industry, will furnish their home

with waxen combs in form and shape so admirably adapted to their

requirements as to need no improvement by man. Why the circular form was

chosen for the skep need not be inquired into, beyond saying that its

shape conforms to that of a swarm, as the bees usually hang clustered on

the branch of a neighbouring tree or bush after issuing from the parent

hive. Fig 11 shows a straw skep in section, and explains itself as

illustrating the admirable way in which the bees furnish their dwelling.

The vertical section (A) shows the lower portion of the combs devoted to

brood-rearing, the higher and thicker combs being reserved for honey,

and midway between the brood and food is stored the pollen required for

mixing with honey in feeding the larvae. It will be seen how well the

upper part of the combs are fitted for bearing the weight of stores they

contain, and how the lower portion allows the bees to cluster around

the tender larvae and thus maintain the warmth necessary during its

metamorphosis from the egg to the perfect insect. The horizontal section

(B) with equal clearness demonstrates the bee's ingenuity in economizing

space, showing how the outer combs are used exclusively for stores, and,

as such, may be built of varying thickness as more or less storage room

is required. The straw skep has, however, the irredeemable fault of

fixed combs, and the gradual development of the movable-frame hive of

today may be said to have first appeared in 1789 with the leaf-hive of

Huber, so called from its opening like the leaves of a book. Prior to

that date wooden box-hives of various shapes had been adopted by

advanced bee-masters anxious to increase their output of honey, and by

enthusiastic naturalists desirous of studying and investigating the

wonders of bee-life apart from the utilitarian standpoint. Foremost

among the latter was the distinguished Swiss naturalist and bee-keeper,

Francois Huber, who was led to construct the leaf-hive bearing his name

after experimenting with a single comb observatory hive recommended by

Reaumur. Huber found that although he could induce swarms to occupy the

glass-sided single frame advised by Reaumur, if the frame was fitted

with ready-built pieces of comb patched together before hiving the

swarm, the experiment was successful, while if left to themselves the

bees built small combs across the space between the sheets of glass, and

the desired inspection from the outside was thus rendered impossible. He

also gathered that the abnormal conditions forced upon the bees by a

ready-built single comb might so turn aside their natural instincts as

to render his investigations less trustworthy than if conducted under

perfectly natural conditions; so, in order to remove all doubt, he

decided to have a series of wooden frames made, measuring 12 in. sq.,

each of rather more than the ordinary width allowed for brood-combs.

These frames were numbered consecutively 1 to 12, and hinged together as

shown in fig. 12 (h, A). In this way the frames of comb could be opened

for inspection like a book, while when closed the bees clustered

together as in an ordinary hive. Ten of these frames had a small piece

of comb fixed to the top-bar in each, supported (temporarily) by a thin

lath wedged up with pegs at side, the latter being removed when the comb

had been made secure by the bees. When closed, the ten frames, together

with the two outside ones (fitted with squares of glass for inspection),

which represent the covers of the book, were tied together with a couple

of stout strings. In a subsequent form of the same hive Huber was

enabled--with the help of very long thumb-screws at each side (fig.

13)--to raise up any frame between two sheets of glass which confined

the bees and allowed him to study the process of comb-building better

than any hive we know of today. By means of the leaf-hive and using the

entrances (fig. 12, e, e, A) Huber made artificial swarms by dividing

and the use of division-boards, though not in quite the same fashion as

is practised at the present day. On the other hand, it must be admitted

that Huber's hive was defective in many respects; the parting of each

frame, thus letting loose the whole colony, caused much trouble at

times, but it remained the only movable-comb hive till 1838, when Dr

Dzierzon--whose theory of parthenogenesis has made his name

famous--devised a box-hive with a loose top-bar on which the bees built

their combs and a movable side or door, by means of which the frames

could be lifted out for inspection. This improvement was at once

appreciated, and in the year 1852 Baron Berlepsch added side-bars and a

bottom-bar, thus completing the movable frame.

[Illustration: FIG. 12.--Huber's book or leaf hive.

A, Book hive.

e, e, Entrances.

s, s, Side leaves.

h, Hinges.

B, Side view of frame or leaf.

tb, Top-bar

c, Comb.

p, p, Pegs.

C, Part of bin, cross section, lettering as before.

(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical_.)]

[Illustration: FIG. 13.-Huber's bar-hive, showing how comb is built, cb,

Comb bar; g, g, glass sheets; s, s, screws; e, entrance

(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical_.) ]

Laagstroth's hive.

About the same time the Rev. L.L. Langstroth was experimenting on the

same lines in America, and in 1852 his important invention was made

known, giving to the world of bee-keepers a movable frame which in its

most important details will never be excelled. We refer to the respective

distances left between the side-bars and hive walls on each side, and

between the lower edge of the bottom-bars and the floor-board.

Langstroth, in his measurements, hit upon the happy mean which keeps bees

from propolizing or fastening the frames to the hive body, as they

assuredly would do if sufficient space had not been allowed for free

passage round the side-bars; it is equally certain that if too much space

had been provided, they would fill it with comb and thus render the frame

immovable. In addition to these benefits, Langstroth's frame and hive

possessed the enormous advantage over Dzierzon's of being manipulated

from above, so that any single frame could be raised for inspection

without disturbing the others. Langstroth's space-measurements have

remained practically unaltered notwithstanding the many improvements in

hive-making, and in the various sizes of movable frames, since introduced

and used in different parts of the world.

Size of frames in the U.S.A.

In the United States of America Langstroth's frame and hive are the

acknowledged "standards" among the great body of bee-keepers, although

about a dozen different frames, varying more or less in size, have their

adherents. Among these may be named the American, Adair, Danzenbaker,

Gallup, Heddon, Langstroth and Quinby. Three of these, the American,

Adair and Gallup, may be termed square frames, the others being oblong,

but the latter shape appears to possess the most all-round advantages to

the modern bee-keeper. Amid the different climatic conditions of so vast

a continent as America, variation in size, and in the capacity of frames

used, is in some measure accounted for.

[Illustration: FIG. 14.--Standard Frame.]

British "Standard" frame.

In the British Isles, though the conditions are variable enough, they

are less extreme, and, fortunately for those engaged in the pursuit,

only one size of frame is acknowledged by the great majority of

bee-keepers, viz. the British Bee-keepers' Association "Standard" (fig.

14). This frame, the outside measurement of which is 14 by 8-1/2 in.,

was the outcome of deliberations extending over a considerable time on

the part of a committee of well-known bee-keepers, specially appointed

in 1882 to consider the matter. In this way, whatever type or form of

hive is used, the frames are interchangeable. Differences in view may,

and do, exist regarding the thickness of the wood used in frame-making,

but the _outside_ measurement never varies. Notwithstanding this fact,

the advancement of apiculture and the continuous development of the

modern frame-hive and methods of working have proceeded with such

rapidity, both in England and in America, that hives and appliances used

prior to 1885 are now obsolete.

[Illustration: FIG. 15.--Langstroth Hive.

(Redrawn from the _A B C of Bee-Culture_, published by the A. I. Root

Co., Medina, Ohio, U.S.A.)]

Winter cellars for bees.

It may, therefore, be useful to compare the progress made in the United

States of America and in Great Britain in order to show that, while the

industry is incomparably larger and of more importance in America and

Canada than in Great Britain, British bee-keepers have been abreast of

the times in all things apicultural. The original Langstroth hive was

single-walled, held ten frames (size 17-3/4 by 9 in.), and had a deep

roof, made to cover a case of small honey boxes like the sections now in

use; but the cumbersome projecting porch and sides, made to support the

roof, are now dispensed with, and the number of frames reduced to eight.

Although various modifications have since been made in minor

details--all tending to improvement--its main features are unaltered.

The typical hive of America is the _improved_ Langstroth (fig. 15),

which has no other covering for the frame tops but a flat roof-board

allowing 1/4 in. space between the roof and top-bars for bees to pass

from frame to frame. Consequently, on the roof being raised the bees can

take wing if not prevented from doing so. This feature finds no favour

with British bee-keepers, nevertheless the "improved Langstroth" is a

useful and simple hive, moderate in price, and no doubt efficient, but

not suitable for bees wintered on their summer stands, as nearly all

hives are in Great Britain. American bee-keepers, therefore, find it

necessary to provide underground cellars, into which the bees are

carried in the fall of each year, remaining there till work begins in

the following spring. Those among them who cannot, for various reasons,

adopt the cellar-wintering plan are obliged to provide what are termed

"chaff-covers" for protecting their bees in winter. Of late years they

have also introduced, as an improvement, the plan long followed in

England of using double-walled chaff-packed hives. The difference here

is that packing is now dispensed with, it being found that bees winter

equally well with an outer case giving 1-1/2 in. of free space on all

sides of the hive proper, but with no packing in between. Thus no change

is needed in winter or summer, the air-space protecting the bees from

cold in winter and heat in summer. Another point of difference between

the English and American hive is the roof, which being gable-shaped in

the former allows warm packing to be placed directly on the frame tops,

so that the bees are covered in when the roof is removed and may be

examined or fed with very little disturbance. Again, the American hive

is, as a general rule, set close down on the ground, while stands or

short legs are invariably used in Great Britain. One of the best-known

hives in England is that known as the W.B.C. hive, devised in 1890 by W.

Broughton Carr.

[Illustration: FIG. 16.--Exterior, W.B.C. Hive.]

Figs. 16 and 17 explain its construction and, as will be seen, it is

equally suitable when working for comb or for extracted honey.

[Illustration: FIG. 17.--Interior, W.B.C. Hive.]

Honey extractors.

Various causes have contributed to the development of the modern hive,

the most important of which are the improvements in methods of

extracting honey from combs, and in the manufacture of comb-foundation.

Regarding the first of these, it cannot be said that the honey

extractor, even in its latest form, differs very much from the original

machine (fig. 18) invented by Major Hruschka, an officer in the Italian

army, who in later life became an enthusiastic apiculturist. Hruschka's

extractor, first brought to public notice in 1865, may be said to have

revolutionized the bee-industry as a business. It enabled the honey

producer to increase his output considerably by extracting honey from

the cells in most cleanly fashion without damaging the combs, and in a

fraction of the time previously occupied in the draining, heating and

squeezing process. At the same time the combs were preserved for

refilling by the bees, in lieu of melting them down for wax. The

principle of the honey extractor (throwing the liquid honey out of the

cells by centrifugal force) was discovered quite by accident. Major

Hruschka's little son chanced to have in his hand a bit of unsealed

comb-honey in a basket to which was attached a piece of string, and, as

the boy playfully whirled the basket round in the air, his father

noticed a few drops of honey, thrown out of the comb by the centrifugal

force employed to keep the basket suspended. The value of the idea at

once struck him, he set to work on utilizing the principle involved, and

ere long had constructed a machine admirably adapted to serve its

purpose. Since that time changes, of more or less value, have been

introduced to meet present-day requirements. One of the first to take

advantage of Hruschka's invention was Mr A. I. Root, who in 1869

perfected a machine on similar lines to the Hruschka one but embodying

various improvements. This appliance, known as the "Novice Honey

Extractor," became very popular in the United States of America, but it

had the fault of wasting time in removing the combs for reversing after

one side had been emptied of its contents. A simple form of machine for

extracting honey by centrifugal force was brought to notice in England

in 1875, and was soon improved upon, as will be seen in fig. 19, which

shows a section of one of the best English machines at that time.

Various plans were tried in America to improve on the "Novice" machine,

and Mr T.W. Cowan, who was experimenting in the same direction in

England, invented in the year 1875 a machine called the "Rapid," in

which, the combs were reversed without removal of the cages (fig. 20).

The frame-cases--wired on both sides--are hung at the angles of a

revolving ring of iron, and the reversing process is so simple and

effective that the "Cowan" reversible frame has been adopted in all the

best machines both in Great Britain and in America.

[Illustration: FIG. 18.--Hruschka Extractor. (Redrawn from _The A B C of

Bee Culture_, published by the A. I. Root Co, Medina, Ohio, U.S.A.)]

[Illustration: FIG. 19.--Diagram of the Raynor Extractor.

A, Section of extractor.

fr, Fixing rail

ffr, Frame for cage.

wb, Metal webbing.

wn, Wire netting.

co, Comb

w, Wire bottom.

p, Pivot.

c, Stiffening cone.

cb, Coned bottom.

gt, Gutter.

st, Syrup tap.

C, Perpendicular section of side of cage enlarged.

oc, Outer casing

wb, Metal webbing

wn, Wire netting

(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical._)

The latest form of honey extractor used in America is that known as the

"Four-frame Cowan." Fig. 21 shows the working part or inside of the

appliance. In this, and indeed in all extractors used in large apiaries,

the "Cowan" or reversible frame principle is used. Each of the four

cages in which the combs are placed is swung on a pivot attached to the

side, and when the outer faces of the combs are emptied the cages are

reversed without removal from the machine for emptying the opposite

sides of combs. The further development of the honey extractor has of

late been limited to an increase in the size of machine used, in order

to save time and manual labour, and thus meet the requirements of the

largest honey producers, who extract honey by the car load. Some of the

largest machines--propelled by motor power--are capable of taking eight

or more frames at one time. It may also be claimed for the honey

extractor that it does away with the objection entertained by many

persons to the use of honey, by enabling the apiarist to remove his

produce from the honey-combs in its purest form untainted by crushed

brood and untouched by hand.

[Illustration: FIG. 20.--Cowan's rapid Extractor.]

[Illustration: FIG. 21.--Cowan's four-frame Extractor; interior.

(Redrawn from _The A B C of Bee Culture_, published by the A. I. Root

Co, Medina, Ohio, U.S.A.)]

Comb foundation.

Next in importance, to bee-keepers, is the enormous advance made in late

years through the invention of a machine for manufacturing the impressed

wax sheets known as "comb foundation," aptly so named, because upon it

the bees build the cells wherein they store their food. We need not

dwell upon the evolution from the crude idea, which first took form in

the endeavour to compel bees to build straight combs in a given

direction by offering them a guiding line of wax along the under side of

each top-bar of the frame in which the combs were built; but we may

glance at the more important improvements which gradually developed as

time went on. In 1843 a German bee-keeper, Krechner by name, conceived

the idea of first dipping fine linen into molten wax, then pressing the

sheets so made between rollers, and thus forming a waxen midrib on which

the bees would build their combs. This experiment was partially

successful, but the instinctive dislike of bees to anything of a fibrous

nature caused them completely to spoil their work of comb-building in

the endeavour to tear or gnaw away the linen threads whenever they got

in touch with them. In 1857 Mehring (also a German) made a further

advance by the use of wooden moulds for casting sheets of wax impressed

with the hexagonal form of the bee-cell. These sheets were readily

accepted by the bees, and afterwards plates cast from metal were

employed, with so good a result as to give to the bees as perfect a

midrib as that of natural comb with the deep cell walls cut away. Fig.

22 shows a portion of one of these metal plates with worker-cells of

natural size, i.e. five cells to the inch. Thus Mehring is justly

claimed as the originator of comb-foundation, though the value of his

invention was less eagerly taken advantage of even in Germany than its

merits deserved. Probably it was ahead of the times, for not until

nearly twenty years later was any prominence given to it, when Samuel

Wagner, founder and editor of the _American Bee Journal_, became

impressed with Mehring's invention and warmly advocated it in his paper.

Mr Wagner first conceived the idea of adding slightly raised side walls

to the hexagonal outlines of the cells, by means of which the bees are

supplied with the material for building out one-half or more of the

complete cell walls or sides. The manifest advantage of this was at once

realized by practical American apiarists as saving labour to the bees

and money to the bee-keeper. One of the first to recognize its value was

Mr A I. Root, of Medina, Ohio, who suggested the substitution of

embossed rollers in lieu of flat plates, in order to increase the output

of foundation and lessen its cost to the bee-keeper. He lost no time in

giving practical shape to his views, and mainly through the inventive

genius of a skilled machinist (Mr A. Washburn) the A. I. Root Co.

constructed a roller press (fig 23) for producing foundation in sheets.

This form of machine came into extensive use in the United States of

America and afterwards in Great Britain. The first roller press was made

by the A.I. Root Co. and imported by Mr William Raitt, a Scottish

bee-keeper of repute in Perthshire, N.B. In all roller machines used at

that time the plain sheets of wax were first made by the "dipping"

process, i.e. by repeated dippings of damped boards in molten wax (kept

in liquid condition in tanks immersed in hot water) until the sheet was

of suitable thickness for the purpose. The prepared sheets were then

passed through the rollers, and after being cut out and trimmed were

ready for use.

[Illustration: FIG. 22.--Portion of a type-metal plate--i.e. form of

Comb Midrib (five cells to the inch). (From Cheshire's _Bees and

Bee-keeping Scientific and Practical_.)]

Owing to the enormous demand for comb-foundation at that time various

devices were tried with the view of securing (1) more rapid production,

and (2) a foundation thin enough to be used in surplus chambers when

working for comb-honey intended for table use. Foremost among the able

men who experimented in this latter direction was Mr F.B. Weed, a

skilful American machinist, who, after some years of strenuous effort,

succeeded in devising and perfecting special rollers and dies, by the

use of which foundation was produced with a midrib so thin as to compare

favourably with natural comb built by the bees. "Dipping," however,

proved not only a stumbling-block to speed but to the production of

continuous sheets of wax; and in the end Mr Weed, acting in concert with

Mr A.I. Root (who placed the resources of his enormous factory at his

disposal), devised and perfected machinery--driven by motor power--for

manufacturing foundation by what is known as the "Weed" process. By this

process "dipping" is abolished, and in its latest form sheets of wax of

any length are produced, passed between engraved rollers 6 in in

diameter, cut to given lengths, trimmed, counted and paper-tissued ready

for packing, at a rate of speed previously undreamt of.

[Illustration: FIG. 23.--Foundation Machine.

(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical_.)]

_Practical Management of Bees._--Among the world of insects the

honey-bee stands pre-eminent as the most serviceable to mankind; from

the day on which the little labourer leaves its home for the first time

in search of food, its mission is undoubtedly useful. Launched upon an

unknown world, and guided by unerring instinct to the very flowers it

seeks, the bee fertilizes fruit and flowers while winging its happy

flight among the blossoms, gathering pollen for the nurslings of its own

home and honey for the use of man. Nothing seems to be lost, nor can any

part of the bee's work be accounted labour in vain; the very wax from

which the insect builds the store-combs for its food and the cells in

which its young are hatched and reared is valuable to mankind in many

ways, and is regarded today no less than in the past ages as an

important commercial product. The hive bee is, moreover, the only insect

known to be capable of domestication, so far as labouring under the

direct control of the bee-master is concerned, its habits being

admirably adapted for embodying human methods of working for profit in

our present-day life.

In dealing with the practical side of apiculture it will not be

necessary to do more than mention the salient points to be considered by

those desirous of acquiring more complete knowledge of the subject.

Authoritative text-books specially written for the guidance of

bee-keepers are numerous and cheap, and on no account should any one

engage in an attempt to manage bees on modern lines without a careful

perusal of one or more of these. Bearing this in mind the reader will

understand that so much of the natural history of the honey-bee as is

necessary for elucidating the practical part of our subject may be

comprised in (1) the life of the insect, (2) its mission in life, and

(3) utilizing to the utmost the brief period during which it can labour

before being worn out with toil.

[Illustration: FIG. 24.-Hive bee (_Apis mellafica_). a, Worker; b,

queen; c, drone.

(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical_.)]

Sex of bees.

Loss of queens.

A prosperous bee-colony managed on modern lines will in the height of

summer consist of three kinds of bees: a queen or mother-bee, a certain

number of drones, and from 80,000 to 100,000 workers. With regard to

sex, the queen is a fully-developed female, the drones are males and the

workers may be termed neuters or partially developed females. These last

possess ovaries like the queen, but shrunken and aborted so as to render

the insect normally incapable of egg-production. The relative importance

of the three kinds of bees, differs greatly in a degree and in somewhat

curious fashion. For instance, the queen (or "king" of the hives as it

was termed by our forefathers) is of paramount importance at certain

seasons, her death or disablement during the period when the male

element is absent meaning extinction of the whole colony. Fecundation

would under such conditions be impossible, and without this the eggs of

a resultant queen will produce nothing but drones. During the summer

season, however (from May to July), when drones are abundant, the loss

of a queen is of comparatively little moment, as the workers can

transform eggs (or young larvae not more than three days old), which

would in the ordinary course produce worker bees, into fully-developed

queens, capable of fulfilling all the maternal duties of a mother-bee.

The value of this wonderful provision of nature to the bee-keeper of

today may be estimated from the fact that bees managed according to

modern methods are necessarily subject to so much manipulating or

handling, that fatal accidents are as likely to happen in bee life as

among human beings.

Authorities differ with regard to the age during which the queen bee is

useful to the bee-keeper who works for profit. Under normal conditions

the insect will live for three, four or sometimes five years, but the

stimulation given together with the high-pressure system followed in

modern bee-management, exhausts the period of her greatest fecundity in

two years, so that queens are usually superseded after their second

season has expired and egg-production gradually decreases. This can

hardly cause wonder if it is borne in mind that for many weeks during

the height of the season a prolific queen will deposit eggs at the rate

of from two to three thousand every twenty-four hours.

The drone.

Drones (or male bees) are more or less numerous in hives according to

the skill of the bee-keeper in limiting their production. It is admitted

by those best able to judge that the proportion of about a hundred

drones in each hive is conducive to the prosperity of the colony, but

beyond that number they are worse than useless, being non-producers and

heavy consumers. Thus in times of scarcity, which are not infrequent

during the early part of the season, they become a heavy tax upon the

food-supply of the colony at the critical period when brood-rearing is

accelerated by an abundance of stores, while shortness of food means a

falling-off in egg-production. The modern bee-keeper, therefore, allows

just so much drone comb in the hive as will produce a sufficient number

of drones to ensure queen-mating, while affording to the bees the

satisfaction of dwelling in a home equipped according to natural

conditions, and containing all the elements necessary to bee-life. The

action of the bees themselves makes this point clear, for when the

season of mating is past the drone is no longer needed, the providing of

winter stores taking first place in the economy of the hive. So long as

honey is being gathered in plenty drones are tolerated, but no sooner

does the honey harvest show signs of being over than they are

mercilessly killed and cast out of the hive by the workers, after a

brief idle life of about four months' duration. Thus the "lazy yawning

drone," as Shakespeare puts it, has a short shrift when his usefulness

to the community is ended.

The worker-bee.

Longevity in bees.

Finally we have the aptly named worker-bee, on whom devolves the entire

labour of the colony. The worker-bee is incapable of egg-production and

can therefore take no part in the perpetuation of its species, so that

individually its value to the community is infinitesimal. Yet it forms

an item in a commonwealth, the members of which are in all respects

equally well endowed. They are in turn skilled scientists, architects,

builders, artisans, labourers and even scavengers; but collectively they

are the rulers on whom the colony depends for the wonderful condition of

law and order which has made the bee-community a model of good

government for all mankind. Then so far as regards longevity, the period

of a worker-bee's existence is not measured by numbering its days but

simply by wear and tear, the marvellous intricacy and wonderful

perfection of its framework being so delicate in construction that after

six or seven weeks of strenuous toil, such as the bee undergoes in

summer time, the little creature's labour is ended by a natural death.

On the other hand, worker-bees hatched in the autumn will seven months

later be strong with the vigour of lusty youth, able to take their full

share in the labour of the hive for six weeks or more in the early

spring, which is the most critical period in the colony's existence;

hence the value to the apiarist of bees hatched in the autumn.

The mission of the worker-bee is _work_; not so much for itself as for

the younger members of the community to which it belongs. We cannot

claim for it the virtue of strict honesty with regard to the stranger,

but for its own "kith and kin" it is a model of socialism in an ideal

form, possessing nothing of its own yet toiling unceasingly for the good

of all. The increasing warmth of each recurring spring finds the bee

awake, and full of eagerness to be up and doing; its sole mission being

apparently to accomplish as much work as possible while life lasts. The

earliest pollen is sought out from far and near, and has its immediate

effect upon the mother bee of the colony. If healthy and young she

begins egg-laying at once, and brood-rearing proceeds at an

ever-increasing rate as each week passes, until the hive is brimming

over with bees in time for the first honey flow. Then comes the almost

human foresight with which the bee prevents the inevitable chaos created

by an overcrowded home. There is no cell-room either for storing the

abundant supply of food constantly being brought in, or for the

thousands of eggs which a prolific queen will produce daily as a

consequence of general prosperity; therefore unless help comes from

without an exodus is prepared for, and what is known as "swarming" takes

place.

Swarming.

Hiving swarms.

It would be difficult to imagine anything more exhilarating to a

beginner in bee-keeping than the sight of his first hive in the act of

swarming. The little creatures are seen rushing in frantic haste from

the hive like a living stream, filling the air with ever-increasing

thousands of bees on the wing. The incoming workers returning

pollen-laden from the fields, carried away by the prevailing excitement,

do not stop to unload their burdens in the old home, but join the

enthusiastic emigrants, tumbling over each other pell-mell in the

outrush; among them the queen of the colony will in due course have

taken her place, bound like her children for a new home. It soon becomes

apparent to the onlooker when the queen has joined the flying multitude

of bees in the air, for they are seen to be closing up their ranks, and

in a few moments begin to form a solid cluster, usually on the branch of

a small tree or bush close to the ground. When this stage of swarming is

reached the bee-keeper has but to take his hiving skep, hold it under

the swarm, and shake the bees into it, preparatory to transferring them

into a frame-hive already prepared for their reception. The process of

hiving a swarm is very simple and need not occupy many moments of time

under ordinary conditions, but so many unlooked-for contingencies may

arise that the apiarist would do well to prepare himself beforehand by

carefully reading the directions in his text-book.

[Illustration: FIG. 25.--Honeycomb, Metamorphoses of the Honey Bee.

(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical_.)]

The illustration given in fig. 25 will serve more readily than words to

enlighten the would-be bee-keeper. It shows a portion of honeycomb

(natural size) not precisely as it appears when the frame containing it

is lifted out of the hive, but as would be seen on two or more combs in

the same hive, namely, the various cells built for--and occupied

by--queens, drones and workers; also the larvae or grubs in the various

stages of transformation from egg to perfect insect, with the latter

biting their way out of sealed cells. It also shows sealed honey and

pollen in cells, &c. To familiarize himself with the various objects

depicted, all of which are drawn from nature, will not only help the

reader to understand the different phases of bee-life during the

swarming season, but tend to increase the interest of beginners in the

pursuit. "Early drones, early swarms" was the ancient bee-man's

favourite adage, and the skilled apiarist of to-day experiences the

same pleasurable thrill as did the skeppist of old at the sight of the

first drone of the year, which betokens an early swarm. As the drones

increase in number queen-cells are formed, unless steps be taken to turn

aside the swarming impulse by affording additional room beforehand in

the hive. The above brief outline of the guiding principles of natural

swarming is merely intended as introductory to the fuller information

given in a good text-book.

Bee-forage in U.S.A.

_Management of an Apiary._--The main consideration in establishing an

apiary is to secure a favourable location, which means a place where

honey of good marketable quality may be gathered from the bee-forage

growing around without any planting on the part of the bee-keeper

himself. It is impossible to deal here with the varying conditions under

which apiculture is carried on in all parts of the world, but, as a

rule, the same principle applies everywhere. The bee industry prospers

greatly in America, where amid the vast stretches of mountain and canyon

in California the bee-forage extends for miles without a break, and the

climatic conditions are so generally favourable as to reduce to a

minimum the chances of the honey crop failing through adverse weather.

The bee-keeper's object is to utilize to the utmost the brief space of a

worker-bee's life in summer, by adopting the best methods in vogue for

building up stocks to full strength before the honey-gathering time

begins, and preparing for it by the exercise of skill and intelligence

in carrying out this work.

Value of pollen.

The queen of bee-plants.

In the United Kingdom there is a difference of several weeks in the

honey season between north and south. Swarming usually begins in May in

the south of England, and in mid-July in the north of Scotland, the

issue of swarms coinciding with the early part of the main honey flow.

The weather is naturally more precarious in autumn than earlier in the

year, and chances of success proportionately smaller for northern

bee-men, but the disadvantage to the latter is more than compensated for

by the heather season, which extends well into September. With regard to

the British bee-keeper located in the south, the early fruit crop is

what concerns him most, and where pollen (the fertilizing dust of

flowers) is plentiful his bees will make steady progress. If pollen is

scarce, a substitute in the form of either pea-meal or wheaten flour

must be supplied to the bees, as brood-rearing cannot make headway

without the nitrogenous element indispensable in the food on which the

young are reared. But the main honey-crop of both north and south is

gathered from the various trifoliums, among which the white Dutch or

common clover (_Trifolium repens_) is acknowledged to be the most

important honey-producing plant wherever it grows. In the United States,

Canada, Australia, New Zealand and in many other parts of the world

honey of the finest quality is obtained from this "queen of bee-plants,"

and in lesser degree from other clovers such as sainfoin, alsike (a

hybrid clover), trefoil, &c.

British and American methods.

Before undertaking the management of a modern apiary, the bee-keeper

should possess a certain amount of aptitude for the pursuit, without

which it is hardly possible to succeed. He must also acquire the ability

to handle bees judiciously and well under all imaginable conditions. In

doing this it is needful to remember that bees resent outside

interference with either their work or their hives, and will resolutely

defend themselves when aroused even at the cost of life itself.

Experience has also proved that, when alarmed, bees instinctively begin

to fill their honey-sacs with food from the nearest store-cells as a

safeguard against contingencies, and when so provided they are more

amenable to interference. The bee-keeper, therefore, by the judicious

application of a little smoke from smouldering fuel, blown into the hive

by means of an appliance known as a bee-smoker, alarms the bees and is

thus able to manipulate the frames of comb with ease and almost no

disturbance. The smoker (fig. 26) devised by T.F. Bingham of Farwell,

Michigan, U.S.A., is the one most used in America and in the United

Kingdom. No other protection is needed beyond a bee-veil of fine black

net, which slipped over a wide-brimmed straw hat protects the face from

stings when working among bees; as experience is gained the veil is not

always used. The man who is hasty and nervous in temperament, who fears

an occasional sting, and resents the same by viciously killing the bee

that inflicts it will rarely make a good apiarist. The methods of

handling bees vary in different countries, this being in a great measure

accounted for by the number of hives kept. Very few apiaries in the

United Kingdom contain more than a hundred hives; consequently the

British bee-keeper has no need for employing the forceful or "hustling"

methods found necessary in America, where the honey-crop is gathered in

car-loads and the hives numbered by thousands. It naturally follows that

bee-life is there regarded very slightly by comparison, and the

bee-garden in England becomes the "bee-yard" in America, where the

apiarist when at work must thoroughly protect himself from being stung,

and, safe in his immunity from damage, cares little for bee-life in

getting through his task, the loss of a few hundred bees being

considered of no account. There are, however, other reasons, apart from

humanity, to account for the difference in handling bees as advocated in

the United Kingdom. The great majority of apiaries owned by British

bee-keepers are located in close proximity to neighbours; consequently a

serious upset among the bees would in many cases involve an amount of

trouble which should if possible be avoided; therefore quietness and the

exercise of care when manipulating are always recommended by teachers,

and practised by those who wisely take their lessons to heart.

[Illustration: FIG. 26.--Bee-Smoker.

(Redrawn from the _A B C of Bee-Culture_, published by the A.I. Root Co,

Medina, Ohio, U.S.A.)

Chosing a location.

Bee-keeping for profit.

Having made himself proficient in practical bee-work and chosen a

suitable location for his apiary, the bee-keeper should carefully select

the particular type of hive most suited to his means and requirements.

This point settled, uniformity is secured, and all loose parts of the

hives being interchangeable time will be saved during the busy season

when time means money. Beginning with not too many stocks he can test

the capabilities of his location before investing much capital in the

undertaking, so that by utilizing the information already given and

adopting the wise adage "make haste slowly" he will realize in good time

whether it will pay best to work for honey in comb or extracted honey in

bulk; not only so, but the knowledge gained will enable him to select

such appliances as are suited to his needs. As a rule, it may be said

that the man content to start with an apiary of moderate size--say fifty

stocks--may realize a fair profit from comb-honey only; but so limited a

venture would need to be supplemented by some other means before an

adequate income could be secured. On the other hand, the owner of one or

two hundred colonies would find it more lucrative to work for extracted

honey and send it out to wholesale buyers in that form. By so doing a

far greater weight of surplus per hive may be secured, and extracted

honey will keep in good condition for years, while comb-honey must be

sold before granulation sets in. At the same time it is but fair to say

that bee-culture in the United Kingdom, if limited to honey-production

alone, is not sufficiently safe for entire reliance to be placed on it

for obtaining a livelihood. The uncertain climate renders it necessary

to include either other branches of the craft less dependent on warmth

and sunshine, or to combine it with fruit-growing, poultry-rearing, &c.

Under such conditions the bees will usually occupy a good position in

the balance-sheet.

Need of forethought.

Another indispensable feature of good bee-management is "forethought,"

coupled with order and neatness; the rule of "a place for everything

and everything in its place" prepares the bee-keeper for any emergency;

constant watchfulness is also necessary, not only to guard against

disease in his hives, but to overlook nothing that tends to be of

advantage to the bees at all seasons. Among the many ways of saving time

nothing is more useful than a carefully-kept note-book, wherein are

recorded brief memoranda regarding such items as condition of each stock

when packed for winter, amount of stores, age and prolific capacity of

queen, strength of colony, healthiness or otherwise, &c., all of which

particulars should be noted and the hives to which they refer plainly

numbered. It also enables the bee-keeper to arrange his day's work

indoors while avoiding disturbance to such colonies as do not need

interference. In the early spring stores must be seen to and replenished

where required; breeding stimulated when pollen begins to be gathered,

and appliances cleaned and prepared for use during the busy season.

Length of bee season.

Swarm prevention.

The main honey-gathering time (lasting about six or seven weeks) is so

brief that in no pursuit is it more important to "make hay while the sun

shines," and if the bee-keeper needs a reminder of this truism he surely

has it in the example set by his bees. As the season advances and the

flowers yield nectar more freely, visible signs of comb-building will be

observed in the whitened edges of empty cells in the brood-chambers; the

thoughtful workers are lengthening out the cells for honey-storing, and

the bee-master takes the hint by giving room in advance, thus lessening

the chance of undesired swarms. In other words, order and method,

combined with the habit of taking time by the forelock, are absolutely

necessary to the bee-keeper, seeing that the enormous army of workers

under his control is multiplying daily by scores of thousands. As spring

merges into summer, sunny days become more frequent; the ever-increasing

breadth of bee-forage yields still more abundantly, and the excitement

among the labourers crowding the hives increases, rendering room in

advance, shade and ventilation, a _sine qua non_. It requires a level

head to keep cool amongst a couple of hundred strong stocks of bees on a

hot summer's day in a good honey season. Moreover, it will be too late

to think of giving ventilation at noontide, when the temperature has

risen to 80 deg. F. in the shade; the necessary precautions for swarm

prevention must therefore be taken in advance, for when what is known as

the "swarming fever" once starts it is most difficult to overcome.

The well-read and intelligent bee-keeper, content to work on orthodox

lines, will be able to manage an apiary--large or small--by guiding and

controlling the countless army he commands in a way that will yield him

both pleasure and profit. All he needs is good bee weather and an apiary

free from disease to make him appreciate bee-craft as one of the most

remunerative of rural industries; affording a wholesome open-air life

conducive to good health and yielding an abundance of contentment.

_Diseases of Bees._--It is quite natural that bees living in colonies

should be subject to diseases, and only since the introduction of

movable-comb hives has it been possible to learn something about these

ailments. The most serious disease with which the bee-keeper has to

contend is that commonly known as "bee-pest" or "foul brood," so called

because of the young brood dying and rotting in the cells. This disease

has been known from the earliest ages, and is probably the same as that

designated by Pliny as _blapsigonia (Natural History_, bk. xi. ch. xx.).

Coming to later times, Della Rocca minutely describes a disease to which

bees were subject in the island of Syra, between the years 1777 and

1780, and through which nearly every colony in the island perished. From

the description given it was undoubtedly foul brood, and the bee-keepers

of the island became convinced, after bitter experience, that it was

extremely contagious. Schirach also mentioned and described the disease

in 1769, and was the first to give it the name of "foul brood." Still

later, in 1874, Dr Cohn, after the most exhaustive experiments and

bacteriological research, realized that the disease was caused by a

bacillus, and--nine years later--the name _Bacillus alvei_ was given to

it by Cheyne and Cheshire, whose views were in agreement with those of

Dr Cohn.

The illustration (fig. 27) shows a portion of comb affected with foul

brood in its worst form. The sealed cells are dark-coloured and sunken,

pierced with irregular holes, and the larvae in all stages from the

crescent-shaped healthy condition to that in which the dead larvae are

seen lying at the bottom of the cells, flaccid and shapeless. The

remains then change to buff colour, afterwards turning brown, when

decomposition sets in, and as the bacilli present in the dead larvae

increase and the nutrient matter is consumed, the mass in some cases

becomes sticky and ropy in character, making its removal impossible by

the bees. In course of time it dries up, leaving nothing but a brown

scale adhering to the bottom or side of the cell. In the worst cases the

larvae even die after the cells are sealed over; a strong characteristic

and offensive odour being developed in some phases of the disease,

noticeable at times some distance away from the hive.

[Illustration: FIG. 27.--Foul Brood (_Bacillus alvei_).

(From Cheshire's _Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical._)]

Two forms of foul brood have been long known, one foul smelling, the

other odourless; and investigations made during 1906 and 1907 showed that

the etiology of the disease is not by any means simple, but that it is

produced by different microbes, two others in addition to _Bacillus

alvei_ playing an important part. These are _Bacillus brandenburgiensis_,

Maassen (syn. _B. burri_, Burri: _B. larvae_, white), and _Streptococcus

apis_, Maassen (syn. _B. Guntheri_, Burri). The first two are found in

both forms of foul brood, whereas the last is only present with _B.

alvei_ in the strong-smelling form of the disease, in which the larvae

are attacked prior to the cells being sealed over.

The brood of bees, when healthy, lies in the combs in compact masses,

the larvae being plump and of a pearly whiteness, and when quite young

curled up on their sides at the base of the cells. When attacked by the

disease, the larva moves uneasily, stretches itself out lengthwise in

the cell, and finally becomes loose and flabby, an appearance which

plainly indicates death.

When the disease attacks the larvae before they are sealed over

_Bacillus alvei_ is present, usually associated with _Streptococcus

apis_, which latter imparts a sour smell to the dead brood. In cases

where the disease is odourless the larvae are attacked after the cells

are sealed over, and just before they change to pupae, when they become

slimy, sputum-like masses, difficult to remove from the cells. Under

these conditions _Bacillus brandenburgiensis_ is found, although

_Bacillus alvei_ may also be present. The two bacilli are antagonistic,

each striving for supremacy, first one then the other predominating.

Various other microbes are also present in large numbers, but are not

believed to be pathogenic or disease-producing in character.

It is, therefore, seen that at least three different microbes play an

important part in the same disease. The danger of contagion lies in the

wonderful vitality of the spores, and their great resistance to heat and

cold. Dr Maassen records a case where he had no difficulty in obtaining

cultures from spores removed from combs after being kept dry for twenty

years. It should be borne in mind that the disease is much easier to

cure in the earlier stages while the bacilli are still rod-shaped than

when the rods have turned to spores.

Since the bacterial origin of foul brood has been established, the

efforts of some bacteriologists have been employed in finding a simple

remedy by means of which the disease may be checked in its earliest

stages, and in this an appreciable amount of success has been attained.

Nor has foul brood in its more advanced forms been neglected, all

directions for treatment being found in text-books written by

distinguished writers on apiculture in the United Kingdom, America and

throughout the European continent.

The only other disease to which reference need be made here is

dysentery, which sometimes breaks out after the long confinement bees

are compelled to undergo during severe winters. This trouble may be

guarded against by feeding the bees in the early autumn with good food

made from cane sugar, and housing them in well-ventilated hives kept

warm and dry by suitable coverings. When bees are wintered on thin,

watery food not sealed over, and are unable for months to take cleansing

flights, they become weak and involuntarily discharge their excrement

over the combs and hive, a state of things never seen in a healthy

colony under normal conditions. The stocks of bee-keepers who attend to

the instructions given in text-books are rarely visited by this disease.

The above embraces all that is necessary to be said in relation to

diseases, though bees have been subject to other ailments such as

paralysis, constipation, &c.

In the Isle of Wight a serious epidemic broke out in 1906 which caused

great destruction to bee-life in the following year. The malady was of

an obscure character, but its cause has been under investigation by the

British Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, and by European

bacteriologists in 1908.

AUTHORITIES.--Though in modern times a great deal has appeared in the

daily newspapers on the subject, it is a notable fact that not a tithe

of the wonderful things published in such articles about bees and

bee-keeping is worthy of credence or possesses any real value. Indeed,

a pressman possessing any technical knowledge of the subject--beyond

that obtainable from books--would be a _rara avis_. The account given

above is the result of forty years' practical experience with bees in

England, the writer having for a great portion of the time been

connected editorially with the only two papers in that country

entirely devoted to bees and bee-keeping, _The British Bee Journal_

(weekly, founded 1873), and _Bee-keepers' Record_ (monthly, founded

1882), the former being the only weekly journal in the world. The

following books on the subject may be consulted for further

details:--Francois Huber, _New Observations on the Natural History of

Bees_; T.W. Cowan, _British Bee-keepers' Guide-Book, The Honey Bee,

its Natural History, Anatomy and Physiology; Langstroth on the Honey

Bee_, revised by C. Dadant & Son; A.I. Root, _A B C and X Y Z of

Bee-culture_; F.R. Cheshire, _Bees and Bee-keeping_; Dr Dzierzon,

_Rational Bee-keeping_; E. Bertrand, _Conduite du rucher_; A.J. Cook,

_Manual of the Apiary_; Dr C.C. Miller, _Forty Years among the Bees_;

F.W.L. Sladen, _Queen-rearing in England_; S. Simmins, _A Modern Bee

Farm_. (W. B. Ca.)

BEECH, a well-known tree, _Fagus sylvatica_, a member of the order

Fagaceae to which belong the sweet-chestnut (_Castanea_) and oak. The

name beech is from the Anglo-Saxon _boc, bece_ or _beoce_ (Ger. _Buche_,

Swedish, _bok_), words meaning at once a book and a beech-tree. The

connexion of the beech with the graphic arts is supposed to have

originated in the fact that the ancient Runic tablets were formed of

thin boards of beech-wood. "The origin of the word," says Prior

(_Popular Names of British Plants_), "is identical with that of the

Sanskrit _boko_, letter, _bokos_, writings; and this correspondence of

the Indian and our own is interesting as evidence of two things, viz.

that the Brahmins had the art of writing before they detached themselves

from the common stock of the Indo-European race in Upper Asia, and that

we and other Germans have received alphabetic signs from the East by a

northern route and not by the Mediterranean." Beech-mast, the fruit of

the beech-tree, was formerly known in England as buck; and the county of

Buckingham is so named from its fame as a beech-growing country.

Buckwheat (_Bucheweizen_) derives its name from the similarity of its

angular seeds to beech-mast. The generic name Fagus is derived from

[Greek: phagein] to eat; but the [Greek: phaegos] of Theophrastus was

probably the sweet chestnut (_Aesculus_) of the Romans. Beech-mast has

been used as food in times of distress and famine; and in autumn it

yields an abundant supply of food to park-deer and other game, and to

pigs, which are turned into beech-woods in order to utilize the fallen

mast. In France it is used for feeding pheasants and domestic poultry.

Well-ripened beech-mast yields from 17 to 20% of non-drying oil,

suitable for illumination, and said to be used in some parts of France

and other European countries in cooking, and as a substitute for butter.

The beech is one of the largest British trees, particularly on chalky or

sandy soils, native in England from Yorkshire southwards, and planted in

Scotland and Ireland. It is one of the common forest trees of temperate

Europe, spreading from southern Norway and Sweden to the Mediterranean.

It is found on the Swiss Alps to about 5000 ft. above sea-level, and in

southern Europe is usually confined to high mountain slopes; it is

plentiful in southern Russia, and is widely distributed in Asia Minor

and the northern provinces of Persia.

It is characterized by its sturdy pillar-like stem, often from 15 to 20

ft. in girth, and smooth olive-grey bark. The main branches rise

vertically, while the subsidiary branches spread outwards and give the

whole tree a rounded outline. The slender brown pointed buds give place

in April to clear green leaves fringed with delicate silky hairs. The

flowers which appear in May are inconspicuous and, as usual with our

forest trees, of two kinds; the male, in long-stalked globular clusters,

hang from the axils of the lower leaves of a shoot, while the female,

each of two or three flowers in a tiny cup (cupule of bracts), stand

erect nearer the top of the shoot. In the ripe fruit or mast the

four-sided cupule, which has become much enlarged, brown and tough,

encloses two or three three-sided rich chestnut-brown fruits, each

containing a single seed. It is readily propagated by its seeds. It is a

handsome tree in every stage of its growth, but is more injurious to

plants under its drip than other trees, so that shade-bearing trees, as

holly, yew and thuja, suffer. Its leaves, however, enrich the soil. The

beech has a remarkable power of holding the ground where the soil is

congenial, and the deep shade prevents the growth of other trees. It is

often and most usefully mixed with oak and Scotch fir. The timber is not

remarkable for either strength or durability. It was formerly much used

in mill-work and turnery; but its principal use at present is in the

manufacture of chairs, bedsteads and a variety of minor articles. It

makes excellent fuel and charcoal. The copper-beech is a variety with

copper-coloured leaves, due to the presence of a red colouring-matter in

the sap. There is also a weeping or pendulous-branched variety; and

several varieties with more or less cut leaves, are known in

cultivation.

The genus _Fagus_ is widely spread in temperate regions, and contains in

addition to our native beech, about 15 other species. A variety (_F.

sylvatica_ var. _Sieboldi_) is a native of Japan, where it is one of the

finest and most abundant of the deciduous-leaved forest trees. _Fagus

americana_ is one of the most beautiful and widely-distributed trees of

the forests of eastern North America. It was confounded by early

European travellers with _F. sylvatica_, from which it is distinguished

by its paler bark and lighter green, more sharply-toothed leaves.

Several species are found in Australia and New Zealand, and in the

forests of southern Chile and Patagonia. The dense forests which cover

the shore of the Straits of Magellan and the mountain-slopes of Tierra

del Fuego consist largely of two beeches--one evergreen, _Fagus

betuloides_, and one with deciduous leaves, _F. antarctica_.

BEECHER, CHARLES EMERSON (1856-1904), American palaeontologist, was born

at Dunkirk, New York, on the 9th of October 1856. He graduated at the

university of Michigan in 1878, and then became assistant to James Hall

in the state museum at Albany. Ten years later he was appointed to the

charge of the invertebrate fossils in the Peabody Museum, New Haven,

under O.C. Marsh, whom he succeeded in 1899 as curator. Meanwhile in

1889 he received the degree of Ph.D. from Yale University for his memoir

on the _Brachiospongidae_, a remarkable group of Silurian sponges;

later on he did good work among the fossil corals, and other groups,

being ultimately regarded as a leading authority on fossil crustacea and

brachiopoda; his researches on the development of the brachiopoda, and

on the Trilobites _Triarthrus_ and _Trinudeus_, were especially

noteworthy. In 1892 he was appointed professor of palaeontology in Yale

University. He died on the 14th of February 1904.

Memoir by C. Schuchert in _Amer. Journ. Science_, vol. xvii., June

1904 (with portrait and bibliography).

BEECHER, HENRY WARD (1813-1887), American preacher and reformer, was

born in Litchfield, Connecticut, on the 24th of June 1813. He was the

eighth child of Lyman and Roxana Foote Beecher, and brother of Harriet

Beecher Stowe. Entering Amherst College in 1830, and graduating four

years later, he gave more attention to his own courses of reading than

to college studies, and was more popular with his fellows than with the

faculty. With a patience foreign to his impulsive nature, he submitted

to minute drill in elocution, and became a fluent extemporaneous

speaker. Reared in a Puritan atmosphere, he has graphically described

the mystical experience which, coming to him in his early youth, changed

his whole conception of theology and determined his choice of the

ministry. "I think," he says, "that when I stand in Zion and before God,

the highest thing that I shall look back upon will be that blessed

morning of May when it pleased God to reveal to my wondering soul the

idea that it was His nature to love a man in his sins for the sake of

helping him out of them." In 1837 he graduated from Lane Theological

Seminary in Ohio, of which his father was president, and entered upon

his work as pastor of a missionary Presbyterian church at Lawrenceburg,

Indiana, a village on the Ohio, about 20 m. below Cincinnati. The

membership numbered nineteen women and one man. Beecher was sexton as

well as preacher. Two years later he accepted a call to Indianapolis.

His unconventional preaching shocked the more staid members of the

flock, but filled the church to overflowing with people unaccustomed to

churchgoing. He studied men rather than books; became acquainted with

the vices in what was then a pioneer town; and in his _Seven Lectures to

Young Men_ (1844) treated these with genuine power of realistic

description and with youthful and exuberant rhetoric. Eight years later

(1847) he accepted a call to the pastorate of Plymouth Church

(Congregational), then newly organized in Brooklyn, New York. The

situation of the church, within five minutes' walk of the chief ferry to

New York, the stalwart character of the man who had organized it, and

the peculiar eloquence of Beecher, combined to make the pulpit a

national platform. The audience-room of the church, capable of seating

2000 or 2500 people, frequently contained 500 or 1000 more.

Beecher at once became a recognized leader. On the all-absorbing

question of slavery he took a middle ground between the pro-slavery or

peace party, and abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell

Phillips, believing, with such statesmen as W.H. Seward, Salmon P.

Chase, and Abraham Lincoln, that slavery was to be overthrown under the

constitution and in the Union, by forbidding its growth and trusting to

an awakened conscience, enforced by an enlightened self-interest. He was

always an anti-slavery man, but never technically an abolitionist, and

he joined the Republican party soon after its organization. In the

earlier days of the agitation, he challenged the hostility which often

mobbed the anti-slavery gatherings; in the later days he consulted with

the political leaders, inspiring the patriotism of the North, and

sedulously setting himself to create a public opinion which should

confirm and ratify the emancipation proclamation whenever the president

should issue it. When danger of foreign intervention cast its

threatening shadow across the national path, he went to England, and by

his famous addresses did what probably no other American could have done

to strengthen the spirit in England favourable to the United States, and

to convert that which was doubtful and hostile. In 1861-1863 he was the

editor-in-chief of the _Independent_, then a Congregational journal; and

in his editorials, copied far and wide, produced a profound impression

on the public mind by clarifying and defining the issue. Later (in

1870), he founded and became editor-in-chief of the _Christian Union_,

afterwards the _Outlook_, a religious undenominational weekly. His

lectures and addresses had the spirit if not the form of his sermons,

just as his sermons were singularly free from the homiletical tone. Yet

his work as a reformer was subsidiary to his work as a preacher. He was

not indeed a parish pastor; he inspired church activities which grew to

large proportions, but trusted the organization of them to laymen of

organizing abilities in the church; and for acquaintance with his people

he depended on such social occasions as were furnished in the free

atmosphere of this essentially New England church at the close of every

service. But during his pastorate the church grew to be probably the

largest in membership in the United States.

It was in the pulpit that Beecher was seen at his best. His mastery of

the English tongue, his dramatic power, his instinctive art of

impersonation, which had become a second nature, his vivid imagination,

his breadth of intellectual view, the catholicity of his sympathies, his

passionate enthusiasm, which made for the moment his immediate theme

seem to him the one theme of transcendent importance, his quaint humour

alternating with genuine pathos, and above all his simple and singularly

unaffected devotional nature, made him as a preacher without a peer in

his own time and country. His favourite theme was love: love to man was

to him the fulfilment of all law; love of God was the essence of all

Christianity. Retaining to the day of his death the forms and phrases of

the New England theology in which he had been reared, he poured into

them a new meaning and gave to them a new significance. He probably did

more than any other man in America to lead the Puritan churches from a

faith which regarded God as a moral governor, the Bible as a book of

laws, and religion as obedience to a conscience to a faith which regards

God as a father, the Bible as a book of counsels, and religion as a life

of liberty in love. The later years of his life were darkened by a

scandal which Beecher's personal, political and theological enemies used

for a time effectively to shadow a reputation previously above reproach,

he being charged by Theodore Tilton, whom he had befriended, with having

had improper relations with his (Tilton's) wife. But in the midst of

these accusations (February 1876), the largest and most representative

Congregational council ever held in the United States gave expression to

a vote of confidence in him, which time has absolutely justified. Not a

student of books nor a technical scholar in any department, Beecher's

knowledge was as wide as his interests were varied. He was early

familiar with the works of Matthew Arnold, Charles Darwin and Herbert

Spencer; he preached his _Bible Studies_ sermons in 1878, when the

higher criticism was wholly unknown to most evangelical ministers or

known only to be dreaded; and his sermons on _Evolution and Religion_ in

1885, when many of the ministry were denouncing evolution as atheistic.

He was stricken with apoplexy while still active in the ministry, and

died at Brooklyn on the 8th of March 1887, in the seventy-fourth year of

his age.

The principal books by Beecher, besides his published sermons, are:

_Seven Lectures to Young Men_ (1844); _Plymouth Collection of Hymns

and Tunes_ (1855); _Star Papers, Experiences of Art and Nature_

(1855); _Life Thoughts_ (1858); _New Star Papers; or Views and

Experiences of Religious Subjects_ (1859); _Plain and Pleasant Talks

about Fruits, Flowers, and Farming_ (1859); _American Rebellion,

Report of Speeches delivered in England at Public Meetings in

Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, and London_ (1864);

_Prayers from Plymouth Pulpit_ (1867); _Norwood: A Tale of Village

Life in New England_ (1867); _The Life of Jesus the Christ_ (1871),

completed in 2 vols. by his sons (1891); and _Yale Lectures on

Preaching_ (3 vols., 1872-1874).

The prinipal lives are: Noyes L. Thompson, _The History of Plymouth

Church_ (1847-1872); Thomas W. Knox, _The Life and Work of Henry Ward

Beecher_ (Hartford, Conn., 1887); Frank S. Child, _The Boyhood of

Henry Ward Beecher_ (Pamphlet, New Creston, Conn., 1887); Joseph

Howard, Jr., _Life of Henry Ward Beecher_ (Philadelphia, 1887); T.W.

Hanford, _Beecher: Christian Philosopher, Pulpit Orator, Patriot and

Philanthropist_ (Chicago, 1887); Lyman Abbott and S.B. Halliday,

_Henry Ward Beecher: A Sketch of his Career_ (New York, 1887); William

C. Beecher, Rev. Samuel Scoville and Mrs. H.W. Beecher, _A Biography

of Henry Ward Beecher_ (New York, 1888); John R. Howard, _Henry Ward

Beecher: A Study_ (1891); John Henry Barrows, _Henry Ward Beecher_

(New York, 1893); and Lyman Abbott, _Henry Ward Beecher_ (Boston,

1903). (L. A.)

BEECHER, LYMAN (1775-1863), American clergyman, was born at New Haven,

Connecticut, on the 12th of October 1775. He was a descendant of one of

the founders of the New Haven colony, worked as a boy in an uncle's

blacksmith shop and on his farm, and in 1797 graduated from Yale, having

studied theology under Timothy Dwight. He preached in the Presbyterian

church at East Hampton, Long Island (1798-1810, being ordained in 1799);

in the Congregational church at Litchfield, Connecticut (1810-1826), in

the Hanover Street church of Boston (1826-1832), and in the Second

Presbyterian church of Cincinnati, Ohio (1833-1843); was president of

the newly established Lane Theological Seminary at Walnut Hills,

Cincinnati, and was professor of didactic and polemic theology there

(1832-1850), being professor emeritus until his death. At Litchfield and

in Boston he was a prominent opponent of the growing "heresy" of

Unitarianism, though as early as 1836 he was accused of being a

"moderate Calvinist" and was tried for heresy, but was acquitted. Upon

his resignation from Lane Theological Seminary he lived in Boston for a

short time, devoting himself to literature; but he broke down, and the

last ten years of his life were spent at the home of his son, Henry Ward

Beecher, in Brooklyn, New York, where he died on the both of January

1863. Magnetic in personality, incisive and powerful in manner of

expression, he was in his prime one of the most eloquent of American

pulpit orators. In 1806 he preached a widely circulated sermon on

duelling, and about 1814 a series of six sermons on intemperance, which

were reprinted frequently and greatly aided temperance reform. Thrice

married, he had a large family, his seven sons becoming Congregational

clergymen, and his daughters, Harriet Beecher Stowe (q.v.) and Catherine

Esther Beecher, attaining literary distinction.

Lyman Beecher's published works include: _A Plea for the West_ (1835),

_Views in Theology_ (1836), and various sermons; his _Collected Works_

were published at Boston in 1852 in 3 vols. Consult his _Autobiography

and Correspondence_ (2 vols., New York, 1863-1864), edited by his son

Charles; D.H. Alien, _Life and Services of Lyman Beecher_ (Cincinnati,

1863); and James C. White, _Personal Reminiscences of Lyman Beecher_

(New York, 1882).

His daughter, CATHERINE ESTHER (1800-1878), was born at East Hampton,

Long Island, on the 6th of September 1800. She was educated at

Litchfield Seminary, and from 1822 to 1832 conducted a school for girls

at Hartford, Connecticut, with her sister Harriet's assistance, and from

1832 to 1834 conducted a similar school in Cincinnati. She wrote and

lectured on women's education and in behalf of better primary schools,

and radically opposed woman suffrage and college education for women,

holding woman's sphere to be domestic. The National Board of Popular

Education, a charitable society which she founded, sent hundreds of

women as teachers into the South and West. She died on the 12th of May

1878 in Elmira, New York. She published _An Essay on Slavery and

Abolition with Reference to the Duty of American Females_ (1837), _A

Treatise on Domestic Economy_ (1842), _The True Remedy for the Wrongs of

Women_ (1851), _Letters to the People on Health and Happiness_ (1855),

_The Religious Training of Children_ (1864), and _Woman's Profession as

Mother and Educator_ (1871).

His son, EDWARD BEECHER (1803-1895), was born at East Hampton, Long

Island, on the 27th of August 1803, graduated at Yale in 1822, studied

theology at Andover, and in 1826 became pastor of the Park Street church

in Boston. From 1830 to 1844 he was president of Illinois College,

Jacksonville, Illinois, and subsequently filled pastorates at the Salem

Street church, Boston (1844-1855), and the Congregational church at

Galesburg, Illinois (1855-1871). He was senior editor of the

_Congregationalist_ (1849-1855), and an associate editor of the

_Christian Union_ from 1870. In 1872 he settled in Brooklyn, New York,

where in 1885-1889 he was pastor of the Parkville church and where he

died on the 28th of July 1895. He wrote _Addresses on the Kingdom of

God_ (1827), _History of the Alton Riots_ (1837), _Statement of

Anti-Slavery Principles_ (1837), _Baptism, its Import and Modes_ (1850),

_The Conflict of Ages_ (1853), _The Papal Conspiracy Exposed_ (1855),

_The Concord of Ages_ (1860), and _History of Opinions on the Scriptural

Doctrine of Future Retribution_ (1878).

CHARLES BEECHER (1815-1900), another of Lyman's sons, was born at

Litchfield, Connecticut, on the 7th of October 1815. He graduated at

Bowdoin College in 1834, and subsequently held pastorates at Newark, New

Jersey (1851-1857), and Georgetown, Massachusetts; and from 1870 to 1877

lived in Florida, where he was state superintendent of public

instruction in 1871-1873. He died at Georgetown, Massachusetts, on the

21st of April 1900. He was an accomplished musician, and assisted in the

selection and arrangement of music in the _Plymouth Collection of Hymns

and Tunes_. He wrote _David and His Throne_ (1855), _Pen Pictures of the

Bible_ (1855), _Redeemer and Redeemed_ (1864), and _Spiritual

Manifestations_ (1879).

THOMAS KINNICUTT BEECHER (1824-1900), another son, born at Litchfield,

Connecticut, on the 10th of February 1824, was pastor of the Independent

Congregational church (now the Park church), at Elmira, New York, one of

the first institutional churches in the country, from 1854 until his

death at Elmira on the 14th of March 1900. He wrote Our _Seven Churches_

(1870).

BEECHEY, FREDERICK WILLIAM (1796-1856), English naval officer and

geographer, son of Sir William Beechey, R.A., was born in London on the

17th of February 1796. In 1806 he entered the navy, and saw active

service during the wars with France and America. In 1818 he served under

Lieutenant (afterwards Sir) John Franklin in Buchan's Arctic expedition,

of which at a later period he published a narrative; and in the

following year he accompanied Lieutenant W.E. Parry in the "Hecla." In

1821 he took part in the survey of the Mediterranean coast of Africa

under the direction of Captain, afterwards Admiral, William Henry Smyth.

He and his brother Henry William Beechey, made an overland survey of

this coast, and published a full account of their work in 1828 under the

title of _Proceedings of the Expedition to Explore the Northern Coast of

Africa from Tripoly Eastward in 1821-1822_. In 1825 Beechey was

appointed to command the "Blossom," which was intended to explore Bering

Strait, in concert with Franklin and Parry operating from the east. He

passed the strait and penetrated as far as 71 deg. 23' 31" N., and 156

deg. 21' 30" W., reaching a point only 146 m. west of that reached by

Franklin's expedition from the Mackenzie river. The whole voyage lasted

more than three years; and in the course of it Beechey discovered

several islands in the Pacific, and an excellent harbour near Cape

Prince of Wales. In 1831 there appeared his _Narrative of a Voyage to

the Pacific and Bering's Strait to Co-operate with the Polar

Expeditions, 1825-1828_. In 1835 and the following year Captain Beechey

was employed on the coast survey of South America, and from 1837 to 1847

carried on the same work along the Irish coasts. He was appointed in

1850 to preside over the Marine Department of the Board of Trade. In

1854 he was made rear-admiral, and in the following year was elected

president of the Royal Geographical Society. He died on the 29th of

November 1856.

BEECHEY, SIR WILLIAM (1753-1839), English portrait-painter, was born at

Burford. He was originally meant for a conveyancer, but a strong love

for painting induced him to become a pupil at the Royal Academy in 1772.

Some of his smaller portraits gained him considerable reputation; he

began to be employed by the nobility, and in 1793 became associate of

the Academy. In the same year he was made portrait-painter to Queen

Charlotte. He painted the portraits of the members of the royal family,

and of nearly all the most famous or fashionable persons of the time.

What is considered his finest production is a review of cavalry, a large

composition, in the foreground of which he introduced portraits of

George III., the prince of Wales and the duke of York, surrounded by a

brilliant staff on horseback. It was painted in 1798, and obtained for

the artist the honour of knighthood, and his election as R.A.

BEECHING, HENRY CHARLES (1859- ), English clergyman and author, was

born on the 15th of May 1859, and educated at the City of London school

and at Balliol College, Oxford. He took holy orders in 1882, and after

three years in a Liverpool curacy he was for fifteen years rector of

Yattendon, Berkshire. From 1900 to 1903 he lectured on pastoral and

liturgical theology at King's College, London, and was chaplain of

Lincoln's Inn, where he became preacher in 1903. He became a canon of

Westminster in 1902, and examining chaplain to the bishop of Carlisle in

1905. As a poet he is best known by his share in two volumes--_Love in

Idleness_ (1883) and _Love's Looking Glass_ (1891)--which contained also

poems by J.W. Mackail and J. Bowyer Nichols. He was a sympathetic editor

and critic of the works of many 16th and 17th century poets, of Richard

Crashaw (1905), of Herrick (1907), of John Milton (1900), of Henry

Vaughan (1896). Under the pseudonym of "Urbanus Sylvan" he published two

successful volumes of essays, _Pages from a Private Diary_ (1898) and

_Provincial Letters and other Papers_ (1906). His works also include

numerous volumes of sermons and essays on theological subjects.

BEECHWORTH, a town of Bogong county, Victoria, Australia, 172 m. by rail

N.E. of Melbourne. Pop. (1901) 7359. The town is the centre of the Ovens

goldfields, and the district is mainly devoted to mining with both

alluvial and reef working, but much of the land is under cultivation,

yielding grain and fruit. The water supply is derived from Lake Kerferd

in the vicinity, which is a favourite resort of visitors; the scenery

near the town, which lies at an elevation of 1805 ft. among the May Day

Hills, being singularly beautiful. The industries of Beechworth include

tanning, ironfounding and coach-building.

BEEF (through O. Fr. _boef_, mod. _boeuf_, from Lat. _bos, bovis_, ox,

Gr. [Greek: bous], which show the ultimate connexion with the Sanskrit

_go, gaus_, ox, and thus with "cow"), the flesh of the ox, cow or bull,

as used for food. The use of the French word for the meat, while the

Saxon name was retained for the animal, has been often noticed, and

paralleled with the use of veal, mutton and pork. "Beef" is also used,

especially in the plural "beeves," for the ox itself, but usually in an

archaic way. "Corned" or "corn" beef is the flesh cured by salting, i.e.

sprinkling with "corns" or granulated particles of salt. "Collared" beef

is so called from the roll or collar into which the meat is pressed,

after extracting the bones. "Jerked" beef, i.e. meat cut into long thin

slices and dried in the sun, like "biltong" (q.v.), comes through the

Spanish-American _charque_, from _echarqui_, the Peruvian word for this

species of preserved meat. For "Beefeater" see YEOMEN OF THE GUARD.

BEEFSTEAK CLUB, the name of several clubs formed in London during the

18th and 19th centuries. The first seems to have been that founded in

1709 with Richard Estcourt, the actor, as steward. Of this the chief

wits and great men of the nation were members and its badge was a

gridiron. Its fame was, however, entirely eclipsed in 1735 when "The

Sublime Society of Steaks" was established by John Rich at Covent Garden

theatre, of which he was then manager. It is said that Lord Peterborough

supping one night with Rich in his private room, was so delighted with

the steak the latter grilled him that he suggested a repetition of the

meal the next week. From this started the Club, the members of which

delighted to call themselves "The Steaks." Among them were Hogarth,

Garrick, Wilkes, Bubb Doddington and many other celebrities. The

rendezvous was the theatre till the fire in 1808, when the club moved

first to the Bedford Coffee House, and the next year to the Old Lyceum.

In 1785 the prince of Wales joined, and later his brothers the dukes of

Clarence and Sussex became members. On the burning of the Lyceum, "The

Steaks" met again in the Bedford Coffee House till 1838, when the New

Lyceum was opened, and a large room there was allotted the club. These

meetings were held till the club ceased to exist in 1867. Thomas

Sheridan founded a Beefsteak Club in Dublin at the Theatre Royal in

1749, and of this Peg Woffington was president. The modern Beefsteak

Club was founded by J.L. Toole, the actor, in 1876.

See J. Timbs, _Clubs and Club Life in London_ (1873); Walter Arnold,

_Life and Death of the Sublime Society of Steaks_ (1871).

BEELZEBUB, BEELZEBUL, BAALZEBUB. In 2 Kings i. we read that Ahaziah ben

Ahab, king of Israel, fell sick, and sent to inquire of Baalzebub, the

god of the Philistine city Ekron, whether he should recover. There is no

other mention of this god in the Old Testament. _Baal_, "lord," is the

ordinary title or word for a deity, especially a local deity, cf. such

place names as Baal Hazor (2 Sam. xiii. 23), Baal Hermon (Judges iii.

3), which are probably contractions of fuller forms, like Beth Baal Meon

(Josh. xiii. 17), the House or Temple of the Baal of Meon. According to

these analogies we should expect _Zebub_ to be a place. No place

_Zebub_, however, is known; and it has been objected that the Baal of

some other place would hardly be the god of Ekron. These objections are

hardly conclusive.

Usually _Zebub_ is identified with a Hebrew common noun _zebub_ =

flies,[1] occurring twice in the Old Testament,[2] so that Baalzebub "is

the Baal to whom flies belong or are holy. As children of the summer

they are symbols of the warmth of the sun, to which ... Baal stands in

close relation. Divination by means of flies was known at Babylon."[3]

There are other cases of names compounded of Baal and an element

equivalent to a descriptive epithet, e.g. Baalgad, the Baal of

Fortune.[4] For the "Fly-god," sometimes interpreted as the "averter of

insects," cf [Greek: Zeus apomouios, muiagros], and the Hercules [Greek:

muiagros]. Clemens Alexander speaks of a Hercules [Greek: apomuios] as

worshipped at Rome. It has been suggested that Baalzebub was the

dung-beetle, _Scarabaeus pillularius_, worshipped in Egypt.

A name of a deity on an Assyrian inscription of the 12th century B.C.

has been read as _Baal-zabubi_, but this reading has now been abandoned

in favour of _Baal-sapunu_ (Baal-Zephon).[5] Cheyne considers that

Baalzebub is a "contemptuous uneuphonic Jewish modification of the true

name Baalzebul."[6]

In the New Testament we meet with Beelzebul,[7] which some of the

versions, especially the Vulgate and Syriac, followed by the Authorized

Version, have changed to Beelzebub, under the influence of 2 Kings. In

Matt. x. 25, Christ speaks of men calling the master of the house, i.e.

Himself, Beelzebul.[8] In Mark iii 22-27,[9] the scribes explain that

Jesus is possessed by Beelzebul[10] and is thus enabled to cast out

devils. The passage speaks of Beelzebul as Satan and as the prince of

the demons.

The origin of the name Beelzebul is variously explained. (a) It is "a

phonetic corruption, perhaps a softening of the original word"; as

Bab-el-mandel is a corruption of Bab-el-mandeb. (b) _Zebul_ is from

_zebel_, a word found in the Targums in the sense of "dung," so that

Beelzebul would mean "Lord of Dung," a term of contempt. The further

suggestion has been made that _zebul_ itself in the sense of "dung" is a

term for a heathen deity, cf. the Old Testament use of "abomination" &c.

for heathen deities, so that Beelzebul would mean "Chief of false gods,"

and so arch-fiend. (c) _Zebul_ is found in 1 Kings viii. 13 in the sense

of "height," _beth-sebul_--lofty house, and in Rabbinical writings in

the sense of "house" or "temple," or "the fourth heaven";[11] and

Beelzebul may equal "Lord of the High House" or "Lord of Heaven." This

view is perhaps favoured by Matt. x. 25, "if they have called the lord

of the house Beelzebul." It appears, however, that Rabbinical writings

use _yom_ (day-of) _zebul_ for the festival of a heathen deity; and

Jastrow connects this usage with the meaning "house" or "temple," so

that the meaning "Lord of the False Gods" might be arrived at in a

different way.

The names _Zebulun, 'Izebel_ (Jezebel), suggest that _Zebul_ may be an

ancient name of a deity; cf. the names [Hebrew: baal ezebel] (B'L 'ZBL),

[Hebrew: shemzebel] (ShMZBL) in Punic and Phoenician inscriptions.[12]

The substitution of Beelzebub for Beelzebul by the Syriac, Vulgate and

other versions implies the identification of the New Testament

arch-fiend with the god of Ekron; this substitution, however, may be due

to the influence of the Aramaic _B'el-debaba_, "adversary," sometimes

held to be the original of these names.

There is no trace of Beelzebul or Beelzebub outside of the Biblical

passages mentioned, and the literature dependent on them. If we assume a

connexion between the two names, there is nothing to show how the god

became in later times the devil.

In _Paradise Lost_, Book ii., Beelzebub appears as second only to Satan

himself.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Lightfoot, _Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae_, Works, vol.

ii. pp. 188 f., 429, ed. Strype (1684); Baethgen, _Beitrage zur

semitischen Religionsgeschichte_, pp. 25, 65, 261. Commentaries on the

Biblical passages especially Burney and Skinner on _Kings_, Meyer and

A.B. Bruce on the _Synoptic Gospels_, and Swete on _Mark_. Articles on

"Baal," "Baalzebub," "Beelzebub," "Beelzebul," in Hastings' _Bible

Dict._, Black and Cheyne's _Encycl. Bibl._, and Hauck's

_Realencyklopadie_; on [Hebrew: baal zebub] in Clarendon Press _Hebr.

Lex._; and on [Hebrew: zebel] and [Hebrew: zebul] in Jastrow's _Dict.

of the Targumim, &c._ (W. H. Be.)