Carrying out the directions given last month for preparing the hives
for winter, must not be delayed later than the middle of September.
All our colonies being strong and having plenty of stores, they should
now be wrapped up warmly and left undisturbed until next spring. Two
American flour bags placed over the quilts will be quite enough extra
covering, or one of these stuffed with a little dry barley straw will
answer the purpose even better, providing a warm covering over the
frames from two to three inches thick. An inspection should be made of
the roofs of the hives, and if they are not thoroughly weather-proof,
two coats of good white-lead paint should be applied to them. The size
of the entrance must not be reduced to less than three inches.
The quieter bees are kept during the winter the better they come out
in the spring. Being snowed up will not hurt them as long as they get
sufficient air to breathe, which they will do through two or three feet
of light snow. In the middle of a warm day in February, when the bees
are flying freely, it will do no harm to lift a corner of the quilts
and take note of the amount of sealed stores they still possess, if
care be taken not to expose and disturb them more than is necessary.
If they seem to be running short of food, a box containing soft candy
should be given to them over the feed-hole. Feeding liquid food would
excite the bees too much so early in the year, and it should not be
done until the beginning of April. If the stores are almost exhausted,
feeding with candy or syrup will have to be kept up until the bees
are able to find enough honey in the fields to support themselves. In
some districts this may not be until June. On the other hand, it is a
mistake to keep feeding our bees unless they really require it.
March and April are often trying months for the bees, the sudden
changes of temperature being very unfavourable to bee-life. Colonies
that are not very strong may become so reduced in numbers that they
“pull through” only with difficulty, and afterwards require the whole
of the following season to regain their full strength, yielding neither
honey nor swarms.
On the other hand, strong colonies, under favourable conditions, during
the latter part of April and May, will increase so rapidly that, unless
they are given plenty of room inside the hive in good time, they will
make preparations for swarming, which the bee-keeper, who wishes to
work for honey and not swarm, will find it difficult to check. The
usual way to give the bees more room in the spring is by inserting a
frame or foundation, or of empty comb in the centre of the brood-nest.
If, however, the bees are not quite strong enough to take it, and a
spell of cold weather follows, some of the brood may get chilled and
this will be a worse disaster than an over-crowded hive.
The spring, then, is a period which calls for constant attention and
vigilance on the part of the bee-keeper, who must not be satisfied, as
many are, that all is going on right because the bees show activity on
a warm day, but must be acquainted with their exact condition, so that
prompt assistance may be given when it is required.
Having completed my sketch of the chief events in the bee-keeper’s
calendar, it only remains to add a few details which may be of use or
interest.
The subject of bee diseases is one that claims our attention. There
is only one serious disease that bees are subject to; but that,
unfortunately, is rather common. It is known as _foul brood_. It is
caused by a micro-organism, which attacks the brood in the combs,
causing it to putrefy and die. In its earlier stages, the presence
of foul brood can only be detected by a careful examination of the
brood combs, in which here and there a larva or two will be found
to be decomposing into a coffee-coloured ropy mass, and some of the
capped cells containing pupæ will have their cappings sunken and
perforated. As the disease advances, much of the brood gets affected,
and a foul smell issues from the entrance of the hive, which may often
be perceived several yards away. The colony becomes rapidly weak and
profitless, and in the end frequently perishes altogether.
Foul brood is very contagious, and strong measures must be taken to
stamp it out directly its presence is discovered. In a bad case the
whole colony must be burnt. If the hive is a good one, it may be
preserved, but then it must be thoroughly disinfected by being scalded
and painted inside and out with carbolic acid. When the disease is
discovered in an early stage the combs only need be destroyed, the
bees being shaken off them and treated as a swarm. They should be put
into a new hive on frames of foundation, and fed with syrup medicated
with Naphthol-beta. This drug is supplied in packets by the principal
dealers in bee-appliances, and full directions for use are printed on
each packet. The old hive and everything connected with the diseased
colony must be burnt or thoroughly disinfected. If the combs contain
much honey it may be utilised for human consumption without fear; but
on no account must it be given back to the bees. When fresh brood
develops in the new combs, a sharp look-out must be maintained for the
reappearance of the disease; if it should manifest itself, in however
slight a degree, the operation of renewing hive and combs must be gone
through again. The disease must be looked for in other hives, and
these, if found to be affected, must at once be dealt with in a similar
way. The source of infection should be ascertained, and if it be found
that a neighbouring bee-keeper has any diseased colonies, he should be
persuaded to take immediate steps to cure or destroy them.
Bees do not suffer from the attacks of many enemies in this country.
Wasps are sometimes troublesome around the hive entrances in the
autumn, and titmice are rather too fond of making a meal on a bee or
two in the winter. The latter have an amusing way of bringing the bees
out of the hive by tapping with their beaks on the alighting board,
until a worker appears to see what the matter is, for which act it
is immediately seized and swallowed. Field-mice like honey, and will
sometimes play havoc with the combs of a weak colony; but if the
entrance is not more than 3/8 inch deep, they will find it difficult to
force a passage in the hive.
The most troublesome pests, when they get in the hives, are the
caterpillars or the wax-moth. They riddle the combs with their numerous
silk-lined tunnels, devouring all the pollen brood and honey that
come in their way. It is difficult to get rid of these caterpillars
without destroying the combs. All moths found in the quilts should be
destroyed, for they lay the eggs which produce the caterpillars. The
wax-moth is very destructive in bee-hives in America, but one seldom
hears of its doing much damage in England, except in badly-kept or
neglected hives. Two balls of naphthaline placed on the quilts will
help to keep the wax-moth away.
A curious parasite called the bee-louse (_Branla cocca_) is sometimes
found attached to the body of the queen, and occasionally also the
workers. Though it belongs to the order of flies, it is blind and
wingless, and most resembles a tiny reddish-brown spider. A few of
these parasites do not seem to inconvenience the queen-bee.
Ants may be kept out of the hive by placing the legs in saucers
containing water. Earwigs do no harm in the hive.
Experienced bee-keepers are often able to increase their colonies
cheaply in the autumn by _driving_ their neighbour’s bees. Unhappily
there are still many owners of bees in this enlightened country to whom
the hive is as a sealed book that they have never attempted to open.
They do not trouble to look after their bees, and, when wanting the
honey, would destroy them to obtain it, if some practical bee-keeper
did not come forward and offer to do the work for them, asking to be
allowed to take the bees he has saved from destruction in return for
his services, a request which the owner is generally willing enough
to grant. It requires a man of some little experience to drive bees
successfully, so we will not go into the details of the operation here.
Suffice it to say that the straw hive or skep from which the bees are
to be driven is fixed in an inverted position, and another skep placed
over it into which the bees, by repeated rapping, are driven. Driven
bees can generally be bought fairly cheaply in the autumn. Several lots
of driven bees should be put together into a wooden hive provided with
frames fitted with foundation, or better still, ready drawn-out combs
if you have them. Rapid feeding must then be commenced at once, and
sufficient food for winter stores should be taken down and sealed over
before the middle of September.
We must not be surprised if our extracted honey becomes opaque and
solid on the approach of cold weather. This process is called candying
or granulation, and is, in fact, a proof of the purity of the honey,
though some kinds granulate much sooner than others. Well-ripened
honey, when granulated, will keep good for years.
In concluding these papers a few words on the natural history of bees
may be of interest. Some of my readers will be surprised when I tell
them that there are about two hundred different kinds of bees to be
found in England. Up to the present I have been talking only about one
of these, and this one, properly speaking, is a honey-bee. Almost all
the other bees are solitary in their habits, that is, they do not live
in large colonies in hives, but singly or in pairs in holes in the
ground, in old stumps or walls, or in the hollow stems of plants. Still
they are, many of them, very interesting, and well worth studying.
They all feed on honey, and may be found on various kinds of flowers
throughout the spring and summer. Some of them are large and beautiful
like the well-known humble-bees; others are small and inconspicuous.
Some resemble our honey-bee so closely that none but an expert could
tell them apart; others again have such a strong likeness to wasps that
a novice would scarcely give them credit for sweeter relationships.
[Illustration: QUEEN HUMBLE-BEE (_Bombus terrestris_).]
But readers of this magazine, who happen to reside abroad, might come
across other kinds of honey-bees, wild perhaps, but to which, if put
in hives, all the foregoing remarks would more or less apply. Several
of the foreign races of the honey-bee have been tried in this country
and have been found to do very well. One of these, the Italian bee, is
quite naturalised, and has spread so extensively over the country that
it is hard to find a colony of pure English bees now, most of our bees
being a cross between the English and the Italian races. Italian bees
may be readily recognised by the pale semi-transparent, orange-yellow
markings on the tail, true English bees being entirely black all over.
The Italian bees are more prolific than the English race and they are
easier to handle because they remain quietly on their combs when the
hive is opened. A good cross between the English and Italian races is
generally acknowledged to be the best honey-bee for all purposes in
this country, but it has acquired a name for being rather bad-tempered.
Books that will be helpful to those who are “going in” for bee-keeping
are _The British Beekeeper’s Guide Book_ (paper, 1s. 6d.), and _Modern
Bee-keeping_ (6d.), published by the British Bee-keepers’ Association.
Finally, the beginner must not be disheartened by a few difficulties
and failures. They should, on the contrary, spur on to greater
efforts in seeking to avoid them in the future, for it is chiefly by
first failures that experience, that most important factor in every
successful pursuit, is gained. Persistent effort will bring its reward,
and the bees will soon become a greater source of interest than we ever
thought could be possible.
GIRLS AS I HAVE KNOWN THEM.
BY ELSA D’ESTERRE-KEELING, Author of “Old Maids and Young.”