it will produce, but various" plants, such as clovers, alfalfa, and
buckwheat, are valuable for other purposes and are at the same time
excellent honey plants; their cultivation is therefore a benefit to the
bee keeper. It is often profitable to sow some plant on waste land; sweet
clovers are often used in this way. The majority of honey-producing
plants are wild, and the bee keeper must largely accept the locality
as he finds it and manage his apiary so as to get the largest possible
amount of the available nectar. Since bees often fly as far as 2 or 3
miles to obtain nectar, it is obvious that the bee keeper can rarely
influence the nectar supply appreciably. Before deciding what kind of
honey to produce the bee keeper should have a clear knowledge of the
honey resources of his locality and of the demands of the market in which
he will sell his crop. If the bulk of the honey is dark, or if the main
honey flows are slow and protracted, it will not pay to produce comb
honey, since the production of fancy comb honey depends on a rapid flow.
The best localities for comb honey production are in the northern part
of the United States east of the Mississippi River, where white clover
is a rapid and abundant yielder. Other parts of the United States where
similar conditions of rapidity of flow exist are also good. Unless these
favorable conditions are present it is better to produce extracted honev.
[Illustration: Fig. 21.--Knives for uncapping honey.]
=EXTRACTED HONEY.=[1]
[1] For farther discussion of the production and care of extracted honey,
see Bulletin 75, Part I, Bureau of Entomology.
Extracted honey is honey which has been removed by means of centrifugal
force from the combs in which the bees stored it. While it is possible
to adulterate extracted honey by the addition of cheap sirups, this is
rarely done, perhaps largely on account of the possibility of detection.
It may be said to the credit of bee keepers as a class that they have
always opposed adulteration of honey.
In providing combs for the storage of honey to be extracted the usual
practice is to add to the top of the brood chamber one or more hive
bodies just like the one in which brood is reared, and fill these with
frames. If preferred, shallower frames with bodies of proper size may
be used, but most honey extractors are made for full-size frames. The
surplus bodies should be put on in plenty of time to prevent the crowding
of the brood chamber, and also to act as a preventive of swarming.
Honey for extracting should not be removed until it is well ripened and
a large percentage of it capped. It is best, however, to remove the crop
from each honey flow before another heavy producing plant comes into
bloom, so that the different grades of honey may be kept separate. It
is better to extract while honey is still coming in, so that the bees
will not be apt to rob. The extracting should be done in a building,
preferably one provided with wire-cloth at the windows (p. 9).
[Illustration: Fig. 22.--Honey extractor.]
The frames containing honey to be extracted are removed from the hive,
the cappings cut off with a sharp, warm knife (fig. 21) made specially
for this purpose, and the frames are then put into the baskets of the
honey extractor (fig. 22) . By revolving these rapidly the honey is
thrown out of one side. The basket is then reversed and the honey from
the other side is removed. The combs can then be returned to the bees to
be refilled, or if the honey flow is over, they can be returned to the
bees to be cleaned and then removed and stored until needed again. This
method is much to be preferred to mashing the comb and straining out the
honey, as was formerly done.
In large apiaries special boxes to receive cappings, capping melters to
render the cappings directly into wax, and power-driven extractors are
often used. These will be found listed in supply catalogues.
The extracted honey is then strained and run into vessels. It is
advisable not to put it in bottles at once, but to let it settle in open
vessels for a time, so that it can be skimmed. Most honeys will granulate
and become quite hard if exposed to changes of temperature, and to
liquefy granulated extracted honey it should be heated in a water bath.
Never heat honey directly over a stove or flame, as the flavor is thereby
injured. The honey should never be heated higher than 160° F. unless it
is necessary to sterilize it because of contamination by disease.
Extracted honey is put up in bottles or small tin cans for the retail
trade, and in 5-gallon square tin cans or barrels for the wholesale
market. Great care must be exercised if barrels are used, as honey will
absorb moisture from the wood, if any is present, and cause leakage. The
tin package is much to be preferred in most cases. In bottling honey
for retail trade, it will well repay the bee keeper or bottler to go to
considerable expense and trouble to make an attractive package, as the
increased price received will more than compensate for the increased
labor and expense. Honey should be heated to 160° F. and kept there for a
time before bottling, and the bottle should be filled as full as possible
and sealed hermetically.
=Granulated honey.=--Some honeys, such as alfalfa, granulate quickly after
being extracted. Such honeys are sometimes allowed to granulate in large
cans and the semisolid mass is then cut into 1-pound bricks like a butter
print and wrapped in paraffin paper. It may be put into paraffined
receptacles before granulation, if desired. There is always a ready
market for granulated honey, since many people prefer it to the liquid
honey.
=COMB HONEY.=
Comb honey is honey as stored in the comb by the bees, the size and
shape being determined by the small wooden sections provided by the bee
keeper. Instead of having comb in large frames in which to store surplus
honey, the bees are compelled to build comb in the sections and to
store honey there (fig. 2). A full section weighs about 1 pound; larger
ones are rarely used. By the use of modern sections and foundation the
comb honey now produced is a truly beautiful, very uniform product, so
uniform in fact that it is often charged that it must be artificially
manufactured. The purchaser of a section of comb honey may be absolutely
certain, however, that he is obtaining a product of the bees, for never
has anyone been able to imitate the bees' work successfully. To show
their confidence in the purity of comb honey, the National Bee Keepers'
Association offers $1,000 for a single pound of artificial comb filled
with an artificially prepared sirup, which is at all difficult of
detection.
There are several different styles of sections now in use, the usual
sizes being 4-1/4 inches square and 4 by 5 inches. There are also two
methods of spacing, so that there will be room for the passage of bees
from the brood chamber into the sections and from one super of sections
to another. This is done either by cutting "bee ways" in the sections and
using plain flat separators or by using "no bee-way" or plain sections
and using "fences"--separators with cleats fastened on each side, to
provide the bee space. To describe all the different "supers" or bodies
for holding sections would be impossible in a bulletin of this size,
and the reader must be referred to catalogues of dealers in beekeeping
supplies. Instead of using regular comb honey supers, some bee keepers
use wide frames to hold two tiers of sections. It is better, however, to
have the supers smaller, so that the bees may be crowded more to produce
full sections. To overcome this difficulty, shallow wide frames holding
one tier of sections may be used. The majority of bee keepers find it
advisable to use special comb honey supers.
In producing comb honey it is even more necessary to know the plants
which produce surplus honey, and just when they come in bloom, than it
is in extracted honey production. The colony should be so manipulated
that the maximum field force is ready for the beginning of the flow. This
requires care in spring management, and, above all, the prevention of
swarming. Supers should be put on just before the heavy flow begins. A
good indication of the need of supers is the whitening of the brood combs
at the top. If the bees are in two hive bodies they should generally be
reduced to one, and the frames should be filled with brood and honey so
that as the new crop comes in the bees will carry it immediately to the
sections above. If large hives are used for the brood chamber it is often
advisable to remove some of the frames and use a division board to crowd
the bees above. To prevent the queen from going into the sections to lay,
a sheet of perforated zinc (fig. 23) may be put between the brood chamber
and the super (fig. 2).
It is often difficult to get bees to begin work in the small sections,
but this should be brought about as soon as possible to prevent loss of
honey. If there are at hand some sections which have been partly drawn
the previous year, these may be put in the super with the new sections as
"bait." Another good plan is to put a shallow extracting frame on either
side of the sections. If a few colonies in the apiary that are strong
enough to go above refuse to do so, lift supers from some colonies that
have started to work above and give them to the slow colonies. The super
should generally be shaded somewhat to keep it from getting too hot.
Artificial swarming will quickly force bees into the supers.
To produce the finest quality of comb honey full sheets of foundation
should be used in the sections. Some bee keepers use nearly a full sheet
hung from the top of the section and a narrow bottom starter. The use of
foundation of worker-cell size is much preferred.
When one super becomes half full or more and there are indications that
there will be honey enough to fill others, the first one should be
raised and an empty one put on the hive under it. This tiering up can
be continued as long as necessary, but it is advisable to remove filled
sections as soon as possible after they are nicely capped, for they
soon become discolored and less attractive. Honey removed immediately
after capping finds a better market, but if left on the hive even until
the end of the summer the quality of the honey is improved. A careful
watch must be kept on the honey flow, so as to give the bees only enough
sections to store the crop. If this is not done a lot of unfinished
sections will be left at the end of the flow. Honeys from different
sources should not be mixed in the sections, as it usually gives the comb
a bad appearance
[Illustration: Fig. 23.--Perforated zinc queen excluder.]
To remove bees from sections, the super may be put over a bee escape so
that the bees can pass down but can not return, or the supers may be
removed and covered with a wire-cloth-cone bee escape.
[Illustration: Fig. 24.--Shipping case for comb honey.]
After sections are removed the wood should be scraped free of propolis
(bee glue) and then packed in shipping cases (fig. 24) for the market.
Shipping cases to hold 12, 24, or 48 sections, in which the various
styles of sections fit exactly, are manufactured by dealers in supplies.
In shipping these cases, several of them should be put in a box or crate
packed in straw and paper and handles provided to reduce the chances of
breakage. When loaded in a freight car the combs should be parallel with
the length of the car.
In preparing comb honey for market it should be carefully graded so that
the sections in each shipping case are as uniform as possible. Nothing
will more likely cause wholesale purchasers to cut the price than to
find the first row of sections in a case fancy and those behind of
inferior grade. Grading rules have been adopted by various bee keepers'
associations or drawn up by honey dealers. The following sets of rules
are in general use:
Eastern Grading Rules for Comb Honey.
_Fancy._--All sections -well filled; combs straight; firmly attached to
all four sides; the combs unsoiled by travel, stain, or otherwise; all
the cells sealed except an occasional one; the outside surface of the
wood well scraped of propolis.
_A No. 1._--All sections well filled except the row of cells next to the
wood; combs straight; one-eighth part of comb surface soiled, or the
entire surface slightly soiled; the outside surface of the wood well
scraped of propolis.
_No. 1._--All sections well filled except the row of cells next to the
wood; combs comparatively even; one-eighth part of comb surface soiled,
or the entire surface slightly soiled.
_No. 2._--Three-fourths of the total surface must be filled and sealed.
_No. 3._--Must weigh at least half as much as a full-weight section.
In addition to this the honey is to be classified according to color,
using the terms white, amber, and dark; that is, there will be "Fancy
White," "No. 1 Dark," etc.
New Comb Honey Grading Rules Adopted by the Colorado State Bee Keepers'
Association.
_No. 1 White._--Sections to be well filled and evenly capped, except the
outside row, next to the wood ; honey white or slightly amber, comb and
cappings white, and not projecting beyond the wood; wood to be well
cleaned; cases of separatored honey to average 21 pounds net per case of
24 sections; no section in this grade to weigh less than 13-1/2 ounces.
Cases of half-separatored honey to average not less than 22 pounds net
per case of 24 sections. Cases of unseparatored honey to average not less
than 23 pounds net per case of 24 sections.
_No. 1 Light Amber._--Sections to be well filled and evenly capped, except
the outside row next to the wood; honey white or light amber; comb and
cappings from white to off color, but not dark; comb not projecting
beyond the wood; wood to be well cleaned. Cases of separatored honey to
average 21 pounds net per case of 24 sections; no section in this grade
to weigh less than 13-1/2 ounces. Cases of half-separatored honey to
average not less than 22 pounds net per case of 24 sections. Cases of
unseparatored honey to average not less than 23 pounds net per case of 24
sections.
_No. 2._--This includes all white honey, and amber honey not included in
the above grades; sections to be fairly well filled and capped, no more
than 25 uncapped cells, exclusive of outside row, permitted in this
grade; wood to be well cleaned; no section in this grade to weigh less
than 12 ounces. Cases of separatored honey to average not less than 19
pounds net. Cases of half-separatored honey to average not less than
20 pounds net per case of 24 sections. Cases of unseparatored honey to
average not less than 21 pounds net per case of 24 sections.
=THE PRODUCTION OF WAX.=
Beeswax, which is secreted by the bees and used by them for building
their combs, is an important commercial product. There are times in
almost every apiary when there are combs to be melted up, and it pays
to take care of even scraps of comb and the cappings taken off in
extracting. A common method of taking out the wax is to melt the combs
in a solar wax extractor. This is perhaps the most feasible method where
little wax is produced, but considerable wax still remains in old brood
combs after such heating. Various wax presses are on the market, or one
can be made at home. If much wax is produced, the bee keeper should make
a careful study of the methods of wax extraction, as there is usually
much wax wasted even after pressing.
=PREPARATIONS FOR WINTERING.=
After the main honey flow is over the management must depend on what may
be expected later in the season from minor honey flows. If no crop is to
be expected, the colony may well be kept only moderately strong, so that
there will not be so many consumers in the hive.
In localities where winters are severe and breeding is suspended for
several months great care should be taken that brood rearing is rather
active during the late summer, so that the colony may go into winter
with plenty of young bees. In case any queens show lack of vitality they
should be replaced early, so that the bees will not become queenless
during the winter.
The important considerations in wintering are plenty of young bees, a
good queen, plenty of stores of good quality, sound hives, and proper
protection from cold and dampness.
If, as cold weather approaches, the bees do not have stores enough, they
must be fed. Every colony should have from 25 to 40 pounds, depending on
the length of winter and the methods of wintering. It is better to have
too much honey than not enough, for what is left is good next season. If
feeding is practiced, honey may be used, but sirup made of granulated
sugar is just as good and is perfectly safe. If honey is purchased for
feeding, great care should be taken that it comes from a healthy apiary,
otherwise the apiary may be ruined by disease. _Never feed honey bought on
the open market._ The bees should be provided with stores early enough so
that it will not be necessary to feed or to open the colonies after cold
weather comes on. Honeydew honey should not be left in the hives, as it
produces "dysentery." Some honeys are also not ideal for winter stores.
Those which show a high percentage of gums (most tree honeys) are not so
desirable, but will usually cause no trouble.
In wintering out of doors the amount of protection depends on the
severity of the winter. In the South no packing is necessary, and even
in very cold climates good colonies with plenty of stores can often
pass the winter with little protection, but packing and protection
make it necessary for the bees to generate less heat, and consequently
they consume less stores and their vitality is not reduced. Dampness
is probably harder for bees to withstand than cold, and when it is
considered that bees give off considerable moisture, precautions should
be taken that as it condenses it does not get on the cluster. An opening
at the top would allow the moisture to pass out, but it would also waste
heat, so it is better to put a mat of burlap or other absorbent material
on top of the frames. The hive may also be packed in chaff, leaves, or
other similar dry material to diminish the loss of heat. Some hives are
made with double walls, the space being filled with chaff; these are
good for outdoor wintering. The hive entrance should be lower than any
other part of the hive, so that any condensed moisture may run out. The
hives should be sound and the covers tight and waterproof.
Entrances should be contracted in cold weather not only to keep out cold
wind, but to prevent mice from entering. There should always be enough
room, however, for bees to pass in and out if warmer weather permits a
flight.
In the hands of experienced bee keepers cellar wintering is very
successful, but this method requires careful study. The cellar must be
dry and so protected that the temperature never varies more than from 40
to 45° F.; 43° F. seems to be the optimum temperature. The ventilation
must be good or the bees become fretful. Light should not be admitted
to the cellar, and consequently some means of indirect ventilation is
necessary.
Cellar wintering requires the consumption of less honey to maintain the
proper temperature in the cluster and is therefore economical. Bees so
wintered do not have an opportunity for a cleansing flight, often for
several months, but the low consumption makes this less necessary. Some
bee keepers advocate carrying the colonies out a few times on warm days,
but it is not fully established whether this is entirely beneficial and it
is usually not practiced.
The time for putting colonies in the cellar is a point of dispute, and
practice in this regard varies considerably. They should certainly be
put in before the weather becomes severe and as soon as they have ceased
brood rearing. The time chosen may be at night when they are all in the
hive, or on some chilly day.
The hives may be piled one on top of the other, the lower tier raised a
little from the floor. The entrances should not be contracted unless the
colony is comparatively weak. It is usually not considered good policy
to close the entrances with ordinary wire cloth, as the dead bees which
accumulate more or less on the bottom boards may cut off ventilation, and
the entrance should be free so that these may be cleaned out.
It is, however, good policy to cover the entrance with wire-cloth having
three meshes to the inch to keep out mice.
The time of removing bees from the cellar is less easily determined than
that of putting them in. The colonies may be removed early and wrapped in
_black_ tar paper or left until the weather is settled. If the weather is
very warm and the bees become fretful, the cellar must either be cooled
or the bees removed. Some bee keepers prefer to remove bees at night, so
that they can recover from the excitement and fly from the hive normally
in the morning. One of the chief difficulties is to prevent the bees
from getting into the wrong hives after their first flights. They often
"drift" badly with the wind, and sometimes an outside row will become
abnormally strong, leaving other colonies weak.
The night before the bees are removed from the cellar it is good practice
to leave the cellar doors and windows wide open.
=DISEASES AND ENEMIES.=
There are two infectious diseases of the brood of bees which cause great
losses to the beekeeping industry of the United States. These are known
as American foul brood and European foul brood. Both of these diseases
destroy colonies by killing the brood, so that there are not enough young
bees emerging to take the place of the old adult bees as these die from
natural causes. The adult bees are not attacked by either disease. In the
hands of careful bee keepers both diseases may be controlled, and this
requires careful study and constant watching. In view of the fact that
these diseases are now widely distributed throughout the United States,
every bee keeper should read the available literature on the subject, so
that if disease enters his apiary he may be able to recognize it before
it gets a start. The symptoms and the treatment recommended by this
department are given in another publication which will be sent free on
request.[2]
[2] Farmers' Bulletin No. 442. "The Treatment of Bee Diseases."
It is difficult for a bee keeper to keep his apiary free from disease if
others about him have diseased colonies which are not properly treated.
The only way to keep disease under control is for the bee keepers in
the neighborhood to cooperate in doing everything possible to stamp out
disease as soon as it appears in a single colony. The progressive bee
keeper who learns of disease in his neighborhood should see to it that
the other bee keepers around him are supplied with literature describing
symptoms and treatment, and should also try to induce them to unite in
eradicating the malady. Since it is so often impossible to get all of
the bee keepers in a community to treat infected colonies properly and
promptly, it is desirable that the States pass laws providing for the
inspection of apiaries and granting to the inspector the power to compel
negligent bee keepers to treat diseased colonies so that the property
of others may not be endangered and destroyed. This has been done in a
number of States, but there are still some where the need is great and in
which no such provision has been made. When no inspection is provided,
bee keepers should unite in asking for such protection, so that the
danger to the industry may be lessened.
In case there is an inspector for the State or county, he should be
notified as soon as disease is suspected in the neighborhood. Some bee
keepers hesitate to report disease through fear that the inspector will
destroy their bees or because they feel that it is a disgrace to have
disease in the apiary. There is no disgrace in having colonies become
diseased; the discredit is in not treating them promptly. The inspectors
are usually, if not universally, good practical bee keepers who from a
wide experience are able to tell what should be done in individual cases
to give the best results with the least cost in material and labor. They
do not destroy colonies needlessly, and, in fact, they all advocate and
teach treatment.
The brood diseases are frequently introduced into a locality by the
shipping in of diseased colonies; or, more often, the bees get honey
from infected colonies which is fed to them, or which they rob, from
discarded honey cans. It is decidedly dangerous to purchase honey on the
market, with no knowledge of its source, to be used in feeding bees.
Many outbreaks of disease can be traced to this practice (see "Feeding,"
p. 26). It is difficult to prevent bees from getting contaminated honey
accidentally. If colonies are purchased, great care should be taken
that there is no disease present. Whenever possible, colonies should
be purchased near at home, unless disease is already present in the
neighborhood.