Bee-keeping for profit

Position of Hives.—All hives, if possible, should be arranged to face south, for cold and draughts are among the deadliest foes of the bees. Cold showers of rain or sleet in the spring often work havoc among them so that it is well to minimise the danger as much as possible. In this connection it is a common sight in early spring to see bees that have become chilled lying on the ground near the hives, and novices may gain experience in handling bees by picking up these moribund specimens. They should be lifted with one finger and thumb and dropped into a jar which should be covered at the top and placed before a fire. When the bees have revived they may be liberated.

Manipulating the Bees.—Confidence is the most necessary quality to the bee-keeper and one, of course, that can only be acquired by experience. One golden rule to be remembered by the beginner is that the hive should be approached always from the rear, and another, that everything should be done slowly and deliberately and never jerkily. Nothing irritates bees more than erratic or jerky movements on the part of those manipulating the hives.

Until one has definitely proved immunity from the bee-sting it is necessary that all safe-guards should be adopted before any work is attempted on hives of which the bees are in possession. The veil, gloves, and gauntlets should be donned and the trousers tied tightly round the ankles to prevent the incursion in that direction of any roving member of the hive. For although bees are usually on good terms with their owner they are subject to varying moods, and it is well to run no unnecessary risks.

The Smoker.—The smoker should always be ready to hand, charged and lighted, with matches immediately available in case the fuel does not burn properly. As already explained, the effect of the smoker is to cause the bees to gorge themselves with food and so become good-tempered. Having removed the roof of the hive, one corner of the quilt is raised and a little smoke blown under it. The operation should be repeated in two or three different places, and then an interval of two or three minutes allowed to elapse in which the bees may fill themselves. The quilt may then be carefully removed, and if necessary more smoke may be blown over the frames, but not downwards among the bees.

When handling the frames the nearest one at the side or back of the hive should be taken out first, the bees that are on it shaken off, and the frame placed safely on one side. This allows ample space in the hive for moving the frames about for examination and other purposes without crushing the bees.

How to Handle Frames.—Frames should never be held by the metal ends, for these are liable to slip off and cause disaster. The frames should always be lifted and handled near the ends of the top bar.

A frame of comb should never be turned horizontally, for in that position the comb is apt to break. The proper way is to lower one end of the frame until it is in a perpendicular position, then swing it round half a turn and lower the other end. The comb will then be the wrong side up and the movement must be continued until the comb is again in its proper position.

Examination or other work in connection with the hive should be completed as quickly as possible so that the combs may not be unduly exposed.

Spring and Autumn Cleaning.—In the springtime—generally speaking about the middle of April—it is necessary that the hive should be cleaned, and, to secure "a thorough spring clean," the bees should be transferred to another hive that has been already cleaned. If this is not done, the hive must be thoroughly overhauled, and should any of the combs be found to be in a bad condition and without any bees on them they should be removed. If the combs are full of brood and honey it is necessary to expand the brood chamber as described on page 67. In the autumn the hive must be examined and cleaned again. All empty combs, or those not used by the bees, should be removed and the space thus rendered vacant closed by a dummy. Should the hive contain only a small quantity of food the bees will have to be fed artificially. (See page 82.)

Weak Hives.—It is at the spring and autumn examinations that the real state of the hive community is discovered, and in the former the "weak." hive is a common occurrence. It is then that much depends upon the bee-keeper whether his work is to be successful or not. It is then that weak stocks must be brought up and strengthened either by doubling or uniting the stocks, or by feeding.

The bees from strong hives soon find out those that are weak, and apparently act on the principle that "to him that hath shall be given," for they proceed to help themselves to the depleted stores of the weak hive. They even go to the length of forcing its occupants to help in the removal of their stores and grant them the privilege of joining their community for so doing. Those that remain faithful to the queen of the weak hive are thus reduced to starvation. When a bee-keeper finds that a weak hive is being raided in this manner he should close it up entirely for a day or two. This will often quicken the spirit of its inhabitants and cause them to retaliate on the raiders.

Doubling Stocks.—For this purpose an empty hive is necessary, and it should be one in which the frames range from the front to the back. Placing the two weak hives on either side of the empty one, the frame with the bees from the right hand hive are transferred to the right side of the new hive. A dummy is then placed and all holes through which a bee might crawl carefully blocked up. The frames from the other hive are then placed in the remaining space and the hive closed up. Care should be taken to fasten the quilt down firmly so that the bees cannot obtain access to each other, for if they do they will surely fight. For the same reason the entrances to the two parts of the hive should be placed as far apart as possible and a piece of wood placed along the centre of the floorboard.

After a few weeks the bees in the two divisions will acquire the same scent and can be united. Should a spare queen be required one can be removed, if not the older one should be killed, for the bees should not be left to adjust the matter for themselves. A hole may be made in the dummy so that the bees can pass from one division to the other, and a few days after the dummy may be removed altogether.

This procedure may be followed also in the autumn, especially if young queens are numerous and it is desired to save some.

Feeding Weak Stocks.—If facilities are not to hand for thus dealing with weak stocks, the frames not required by the bees should be removed from the hive, the space contracted by a dummy, and the bees fed inside the hive. In the autumn it is advisable to give weak hives frames of food that have been stored and sealed by a strong hive that is kept especially for such a purpose.

Whenever inside feeding is adopted, the entrance aperture to the hive should be reduced so as to keep out bodies of raiders. The most efficient means of securing this is to place along the entrance a piece of perforated zinc with holes just large enough for one bee to pass through at a time. This prevents a rush of marauders and allows ample ventilation in the hive.

Uniting Stocks.—This procedure is not so common among English bee-keepers as it is with those in other parts of the world where the conditions are more favourable to a successful result. The reasons are chiefly because we can very seldom secure that the bees all work on the same flowers, and because most of our English bees are cross-breeds and therefore more addicted to fighting. It is not to be expected that a broken breed of bees will unite peacefully with a pure breed.

However, uniting is sometimes resorted to, and the method of procedure generally adopted in England is as follows. The hives to be united are brought nearer to each other gradually, not more than a yard or so at a time, and on fine days only, when the bees are flying about. The need for this precautionary care is that the bees soon lose their bearings if their hive is shifted to any great extent and will fly about until death ensues from exhaustion; while to enter a strange hive in mistake for their own is equally fatal for them. The actual process of uniting is accomplished by taking combs alternately from each hive and placing them in their new quarters, meanwhile spraying bees and combs with scented syrup, or dredging them with flour.

I should, however, recommend the novice to "shake" or "drive" (see pp. 74, 79) each stock before uniting them, for hunger will do more to reconcile the bees to each other than anything else. The driven bees should be passed through a queen-excluder and the oldest queen, or queens, destroyed. This will save a battle royal in the new hive, and do much towards uniting the two sections of bees.

Queen-rearing hives may have frames of young bees added to them without much fear of trouble, for as a rule young bees do not fight.

Stimulating.—Bee-keepers who are working for honey generally stimulate the bees after the semi-hibernation days of winter are passed, for a period of some six or eight weeks before their services are likely to be required for honey gathering. This is to encourage brood-rearing and is accomplished by feeding the bees with syrup or artificial pollen. (See Chapter on Feeding, p. 82.)

It must be remembered that once artificial feeding for this purpose has been resorted to it must be continued until the natural sources of nectar are available to the bees, for nothing checks the population or does more harm to the hive than stopping the food supply when breeding has commenced.

It should be the aim of every bee-keeper to make himself acquainted with the order and approximate times of blossoming of the flowers and trees, and particularly the largest source of nectar in his neighbourhood.

As a rule, from six to eight weeks is required to get the hives into a profitable condition after brood-rearing has commenced in earnest. In some favoured places the queen may begin to deposit eggs as early as January, though of course, in the north and colder districts, this is exceptional. Unless, therefore, a bee-keeper is in an exceptionally good district, and works for early fruit blossoms as a source of nectar, it is to his interest to leave the bees to themselves until the middle or end of March, provided, of course, they are not short of food.

Choked Brood-Nest.—When feeding the bees in spring it is necessary to spread the brood-nest from time to time by adding a frame of comb near the centre of it. This provides the queen with sufficient cells in which to lay her eggs. Should the brood-nest become choked with honey, feeding should be stopped and a frame or two of honey taken from the hive and extracted, or given to hives that are not so fortunately placed, filling up the space with empty combs. Should the stores of honey and pollen be plentiful, it is well to scratch the cappings from some of the cells, though care must be taken not to damage the cappings of the brood cells, which will usually be found in the centre of the frames.

Should the hive be full of frames and bees and most of the cells along the top of the combs be covered with clean white cappings, a super may be introduced, the necessary sheet of queen-excluder being placed over the brood-nest. The super should be a warm one with no leaky joints and fit properly over the brood-chamber. In districts exposed to high winds the precaution should be taken of tacking a narrow strip of thin soft felt round the bottom edges of the super to make it perfectly draught proof.