=SPRING MANIPULATION.=
The first examination in the spring should be mainly for the purpose
of ascertaining whether or not the honey stores have been exhausted.
It should be early, and hence not so extended as to risk the loss of
much warmth from the brood apartment. Merely lifting one edge of the
quilt or, if the bottom board is a loose one, tipping the hive back so
as to get a view in between the combs will often suffice. Should there
not be at least the equivalent of two full frames of honey it is best
to supply the deficiency at once. Without disturbing the brood full
combs may be substituted at each side for the empty ones. If combs
stored with honey and sealed over are not in reserve liquid honey or
sugar sirup may be poured into empty ones and placed in the hives at
night. A less dauby plan is to use one or more feeders directly over
the brood nest, supplying several pounds of food at once. An excellent
way is to give at one time all they need in the shape of a cake of bee
candy, made by mixing fine sugar with just enough honey to produce a
stiff dough. This cake of candy should be wrapped in heavy paper (half
parchment, or such as is used for wrapping butter is good) and laid on
top of the frames, after having punctured the paper in several places
with a pencil or sharp stick to give the bees ready access. Two or
three twigs or strips of wood laid across the frames before the cake is
placed on them will also give the bees a better opportunity to reach
the food.
If the food be given in small quantities brood rearing will be
encouraged and still greater supplies of food will be called for,
rendering it absolutely necessary to give a large amount at once or
continue the feeding until natural sources fully supply the needs
of the bees and brood, otherwise both may starve. Three pounds of
sugar dissolved in one quart of water will make a suitable sirup for
spring feeding. Dry sugar may be used instead of sirup. The bees will
liquefy it themselves if they have access to water. For stimulative
purposes honey; s better than sugar, "strained honey" being better than
extracted. This is because of the greater amount of pollen which the
strained product contains, the pollen being highly nitrogenous, hence
capable of building up muscular tissue. But if the liquid honey is
one-half more in price per pound than sugar the latter would doubtless
be the more economical, certainly so if a plentiful supply of good
pollen in the combs or fresh from the fields can be had. Eye flour put
in sunny places and sprinkled with honey to attract the bees will be
collected until new pollen comes.
When the weather has become sufficiently settled to render safe the
inspection of the brood combs, or, in general, when the bees fly the
greater part of each clear day, the work of the queen may be inspected.
Should the comb having the largest area of brood in it be toward one
side of the hive it is best to locate it as near the center as may
be, placing on either side successively those combs having smaller
circles of brood and on each side of these the combs containing no
brood, but well stored with pollen, while those having honey only
will come still outside of these. The brood nest will then have an
opportunity to develop equally in all directions. Empty combs are of
little use at this time outside of the brood nest as thus arranged,
and should be replaced by combs of honey if the latter is needed, or
removed altogether. If the combs are well crowded with bees and the
queen shows by her regular and compact placing of the brood, as well
as by the quantity she seems to have, that she is vigorous and thus
capable of accomplishing more than any ordinary brood nest will require
of her at this time of the year, a frame filled with worker comb may
be slipped into the center of the brood nest. This will be taken
possession of immediately by the bees, cleaned and warmed up, whereupon
the queen will soon have it filled with eggs. From time to time other
combs may be added in the same manner. If cautiously and judiciously
followed this plan, supplemented by liberal stores, will increase the
brood area and eventually the population of the hive. But the utmost
caution is needed, for if done too early cool weather may cause the
bees to cluster more closely and result in the chilling of some part
of the brood which has thus been spread. The very object sought is not
only missed, but the loss of brood will prove a serious setback to
the colony. The escape of any of the warmth generated by the bees, as
also sudden changes in the weather, should be guarded against. Warm
covering above and outer protection are therefore absolute necessities
if the best results are to be attained. With favorable weather for the
development of brood it is certain that stimulative feeding, if made
necessary by the fact that the natural honey resources of the country
will not alone bring the strength of the colony fairly up to the
desired standard by the opening of the harvest, is to be begun six to
seven weeks before the opening of the honey flow from which surplus is
to be expected.
If, however, this honey flow comes so early that it is likely to be
preceded by weather unfavorable to the development of brood, it will be
necessary to allow for this by beginning the stimulation even earlier,
so that it may be done more gradually, and the greatest care will have
to be taken to retain all the heat of the brood nest. Should the main
flow be preceded by a lighter one, especially if the latter comes some
weeks before the chief harvest, it may be important to watch the brood
nest closely lest it becomes clogged with honey to the exclusion of
brood, inclining the bees not to enter surplus receptacles placed above
and causing the colony to be weak in numbers later in the season. This
state of affairs can be easily avoided by the timely use of the honey
extractor, since the brood combs, emptied of the honey which the
workers in an emergency have stored wherever they found vacant cells,
are made available for the queen. Before the main harvest opens it may
even be necessary in order to keep the combs filled with brood to feed
back gradually this extracted honey or its equivalent; but by taking
it away and returning it gradually the object sought will have been
accomplished, namely, keeping the combs stocked with brood until the
harvest is well under way, or as long as the larger population thus
gained in the hive can be made available.
It is in this getting workers ready for the early harvest--hives over
flowing, as it were, with bees--that the skill of the apiarist is taxed
to its utmost. The work properly begins with the close of the summer
preceding the harvest, for the first steps toward successful wintering
should be taken then, and unless wintered successfully the colony can
not be put in shape to take full advantage of an early honey harvest.
Good judgment in the application of the hints given in this chapter,
with careful and frequent attention, will bring colonies to the chief
spring or early summer flow of honey in good condition, with plenty
of bees and with combs well stocked with brood, provided they have
wintered well and have good queens.
TRANSFERRING.
If colonies have been purchased in box hives, it is advisable at the
first favorable opportunity to get them into frame hives.
[Illustration: Fig. 53.--Transferring--drumming the bees from a box
hive into a frame hire. (Original.)]
Early in the season--that is, in April or May in middle latitudes,
before the brood nest has reached its greatest extension and while the
hive contains the least honey--it is not a difficult matter to drive
the bees from their combs, cut out the latter, and fit them into
frames. If the combs thus fitted in are held temporarily in place in
the frames, the bees, under whose care they should be placed at once,
will fasten them securely in a few hours or days at most. To drive
the bees from the box hive proceed as follows: Toward the middle of
a pleasant day blow smoke into the hive to be transferred, and after
the bees have been given a few minutes in which to lap up their fill
of honey, invert the hive and place over the open end an empty box,
or the frame hive itself, making whichever is used fit closely on
the hive (fig. 53). By rapping continuously for some minutes on the
hive the bees will be impelled to leave it and cluster in the upper
box. A loud humming will denote that they are moving. The hive thus
vacated may then be taken into a closed room and one side pried off to
facilitate the removal of the combs. The box containing the bees is to
be placed meanwhile on the spot originally occupied by the box hive,
the bees being allowed to go in and out without restraint, only two
precautions being necessary, namely, to shade the box well and provide
for ventilation by propping it up from the bottom, leaving also, if
possible, an opening at the top. When the combs have been fitted into
frames, the hive containing them is placed on the original stand and
the bees shaken from the box in front of it.
In filling the frames with combs cut from a box hive, the largest and
straightest sheets having the most sealed worker brood in them should
be selected first and so cut that the frame will slip over them snugly,
taking pains, as far as possible, to have the comb placed in the frame
in the same position in which it was built, since most of the cells,
instead of being horizontal, are inclined upward, the inclination of
the deeper store cells being greatest. The comb, if not heavy, can be
held in place temporarily by slender wire nails pushed through holes
punched in the side and top bars. Before the introduction of wire
nails the writer used long thorns pulled from thorn-apple trees, which
served the purpose very well. In the case of combs heavy with honey
or brood or pieced more or less it will be safer to use, in addition
to a few wire nails, a pair or two of transferring sticks. These are
simply slender strips of wood slightly longer than the depth of the
frame and notched at each end. By placing such a stick on either side
of the comb and winding annealed wire around the top and bottom ends
so as to draw the sticks firmly against the surface of the combs the
latter will be held securely in the frames. The midrib between the rows
of cells should be pressed neither to one side nor the other; thus,
if cells on one side are deeper than those on the other, they should
be shaved down, unless the honey will be cut into too much, in which
case the comb maybe allowed to project on one side until it has been
fastened in the frame and the hive has been generally put in order by
the bees, the point being not to force them to try to manage too much
running honey at one time, lest robbing be induced. In many instances
the comb when pressed into the frame will seem to be so firm as not to
need nails or sticks, but in the heat of the hive, and with the weight
of the bees that will cluster on it to repair the cut edges and fasten
them to the bars of the frame, unsupported combs are very apt to give
way, creating disastrous confusion. Thus the sticks, nails, or their
equivalent should always be used (fig. 54). All frames should be filled
with perfectly straight combs so as to be interchangeable. With care in
fitting in and some trimming and pressing into shape afterwards, fully
three-fourths of the worker combs cut from box hives can be made into
good, serviceable combs in frame hives. The process is much facilitated
if such combs are used in the extractor during the first season or two
after transferring.
[Illustration: Fig. 54.--Transferred comb and inserted queen cell.
(Original.)]
Should the time be near the swarming season the combs will be so filled
with brood and honey that the task will be much greater, and the
transfer should be postponed until three weeks after the first swarm
issues. The brood left by the old queen will have matured and issued
from the cells by that time, and the young queen, if no accident has
happened to her, will have begun laying; yet there will usually be only
eggs, with perhaps a few very young larvæ, present in the combs at this
time, so that the cutting out and fitting of the latter into frames
will not be as troublesome nor attended with so much waste as just
before the swarm issued.
Still another plan--one which it would not be best to employ before
fairly warm weather has set in, but which will render the work of
transferring the lightest--is to turn the box hive bottom upward and
place on it the brood apartment of a frame hive, having in it frames
filled with worker combs or with comb foundation, arranging at the same
time to give the bees ready access from their combs to those above and
no entrance to their hive except through the frame hive above. This can
easily be done by making a temporary bottom board for the frame hive,
with several holes through it, or with one large one about the size of
the open end of the box hive. As soon as it is perceived that the queen
has taken possession of the new combs--as she will be almost certain
to do, especially if one of the combs placed above contains some
brood--a piece of queen-excluding zinc placed over the opening between
the two hives will keep her above, and three weeks later, when all the
brood in the combs below has matured, the box hive may be removed and
the combs transferred to frames, if worth using in this way; but if
old or composed of drone cells or very irregular in shape these combs
may be rendered into wax, after extracting any honey that may happen
to be in them. Inverting the box hive will generally cause the bees
to remove what honey they have stored in the combs. This honey will
be utilized in building out the foundation placed in the added story,
or, having these combs completed, the bees will store in them whatever
remains. Should the queen fail to enter the superposed hive, the plan
may be adopted of driving her with her workers into the added story, as
described on page 72. When the lower combs have been nearly deserted it
will be safe to assume that the queen has gone into the upper hive with
the main force of workers, and the excluder zinc may be inserted.
QUEENLESSNESS IN SPRING.
The loss of a queen during winter or early spring can generally be
discovered by noticing just at nightfall, after the first or second
general flight, which colonies are restless and continue to buzz
excitedly when the others are humming in a contented manner or have
quieted down for the night. The workers of the queenless colony run in
and out excitedly, searching over the front of the hive. Should it be
opened they will not resent the intrusion, but, remaining on the combs,
will at once set up a loud and prolonged buzzing. These symptoms become
less pronounced from day to day. If a comb containing brood be inserted
during this period it will be hailed with evident delight, manifested
by the eager crowding of the bees from all sides toward it. A contented
hum replaces the sound of mourning, and if young worker-larvæ are
present preparations, as described on pages 88-89, are begun at once
to rear a queen. However, if much reduced in numbers the colony should
be joined to one with a queen, or several queenless ones united. The
latter may be smoked and simply shaken or brushed together. But bees
that have been queenless long when added to those that have not yet
missed their own queen will frequently be killed at once. The queen
should therefore be taken from her own bees and caged for thirty-six to
forty-eight hours in the hive which has previously been queenless, and
her own bees added when she is released. (See page 94.) A board leaned
against the front of the hive will cause the bees to note their change
in location when they fly out and they will then easily find their new
quarters when returning from their flight.