Bee Keeping

Part 1

Transcriber Notes

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U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

FARMERS' BULLETIN No. 59.

BEE KEEPING.

FRANK BENTON, M. S.,

IN CHARGE OF APICULTURAL INVESTIGATIONS.

=[Revised, March 1905.]=

WASHINGTON:

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.

1905.

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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

U. S. Department of Agriculture,

Bureau of Entomology,

Washington, D. O., March 1905.

Sir: Frequent inquiries from correspondents of the Department of Agriculture for information on matters pertaining to the culture of bees, and particularly as to the conditions under which one may reasonably expect to meet with success in this pursuit, led to the preparation of this bulletin in July, 1897. Though designed by the author primarily to answer a few of the specific questions which are most likely to present themselves to the mind of the inquirer wholly unfamiliar with the subject, the aim has been also to introduce in the treatment of the various topics information which it is hoped will lead many of longer experience into more successful methods than they have yet practiced. The stereotype plates of the earlier editions having become much worn, necessitating the resetting of the type of the entire bulletin, the opportunity has been afforded of inserting several new paragraphs and making a few slight changes in the text as heretofore published.

Respectfully,

L. O. Howard,

Entomologist,

Hon. James Wilson,

Secretary of Agriculture,

CONTENTS.

Page.

Locations suited to the keeping of bees 9 The returns to be expected from an apiary 11 Anyone who desires to do so can learn to manipulate bees 13 How to avoid stings 14 What race of bees to choose 16 Caucasians 16 Carniolans 17 Italians 17 Cyprians 17 Cyprio-Carniolans and Cyprio-Caucasians 18 Syrian and Palestine or "Holy-Land" bees 18 German, common black, or brown bees 18 What hive to adopt 19 Management in swarming 21 Natural swarming 21 Artificial swarming 22 Dividing 22 Nucleus system 22 Shaken or brushed swarms 23 Prevention of swarming 23 Dequeening 24 Requeening 24 Space near entrances 25 Selection in breeding 25 Special crops for honey alone not profitable 26 Economic plants and trees for cultivation for honey and pollen 27 How to obtain surplus honey and wax 29 Extracted honey 30 Comb honey 31 Grading and shipping comb honey 33 Production of wax 34 The wintering of bees 35 General considerations 37 Indoor wintering 38 Outdoor wintering 38 The risk of loss through disease and enemies 41 Foul brood or bacillus of the hive 41 Bee paralysis 44 Insect and other enemies 45 Robber bees 46 Legislation affecting apiarian interests 47 Journals treating of apiculture 47

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page.

Part 2

Fig. 1. The Bingham bee smoker 14 2. Bee veil 15 3. The Porter spring bee escape 16 4. Langstroth hive with two half-depth supers for surplus honey 19 5. The Langstroth hive--Dadant-Quinby form--cross section showing construction 20 6. Quinby closed-end frames 20 7. The Simmins nonswarming system--single-story hive with supers 24 8. The Simmins nonswarming system--double-story hive with supers 25 9. Quinby uncapping knife 30 10. The automatic reversible honey extractor 31 11. Langstroth hive--super above, holding 28 sections for comb honey 32 12. Comb honey stored in pound section 32 13. Perforated zinc queen excluder 33 14. Shipping cases for comb honey 34 15. Solar wax-extractor 35 16. Steam wax-extractor 35 17. Double-walled hive adapted to outdoor wintering, as well as summer use 39 18. The American straw hive (Langstroth principle) of Hayek Brothers 40 19. Colony of bees with newspapers packed between inner and outer cases and brood frames on end for the winter 41

BEE KEEPING.

LOCATIONS SUITED TO THE KEEPING OF BEES.

It may be safely said that any place where farming, gardening, or fruit raising can be successfully followed is adapted to the profitable keeping of bees--in a limited way at least, if not extensively. Many of these localities will support extensive apiaries. In addition to this there are, within the borders of the United States, thousands of good locations for the apiarist--forest, prairie, swamp, and mountain regions--where agriculture has as yet not gained a foothold, either because of remoteness from markets or the uninviting character of soil or climate. This pursuit may also be followed in or near towns and, to a limited extent, in large cities. It even happens in some instances that bees in cities or towns find more abundant pasturage than in country locations which are considered fair.

The city of Washington is an example of this, bees located here doing better during the spring and summer months than those in the surrounding country, owing to the bee pasturage found in the numerous gardens and parks and the nectar-yielding shade trees along the streets. This is due mainly to the fact that the linden, or basswood, which is rarely seen in the country about Washington, has been planted extensively in the parks and for miles on both sides of many of the streets and avenues of the city. Another source in the city not found extensively in the country adjacent is melilot, Bokhara or sweet clover (Melilotus alba), which has crept into vacant lots and neglected corners, and diffuses its agreeable perfume to the delight of all city dwellers, whether human or insect. The writer has practiced with profit the transportation of nearly a hundred colonies from a country apiary 10 miles distant to Washington for the linden and sweet clover yield. He has also seen a prosperous apiary kept on the roof of a business house in the heart of New York City, and on several occasions has visited another apiary of 30 to 40 colonies, which a skillful apiarist had located on the roof of his store in the business portion of Cincinnati, Ohio, and from which 30 to 40 pounds of honey per colony were usually obtained each year.

Several species of lindens are included in these plantings, but none yields more than our common American linden, or basswood (Tilia americana).

Another apiary personally inspected was located directly on the sand banks forming the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. These bees were, of course, unable to forage westward from the apiary, hence had but half "a field." The soil of the area over which the bees ranged was a light sand, unproductive for most crops, and the region was little developed agriculturally, most of the honey coming from forest trees and from shrubs and wild plants growing in old burnings and windfalls, yet 25 to 30 pounds of excellent honey per colony was the usual surplus obtained. At one time the writer had an apiary in the city of Detroit, Mich., where the wide river on one side cut off nearly half of the pasturage, yet the bees did will. And again for several years he had an apiary containing from 100 to 200 colonies of bees on a very sterile coast of the Island of Cyprus, and another nearly as large located but a few rods from the seashore on a rocky point of Syria. Both of these apiaries were devoted in the main to queen rearing, yet the yield of honey was not an unimportant item, especially in the Syrian apiary, while in the Cyprus apiary some honey was frequently taken, and it was rarely necessary to feed the bees for stores. In the latter case about one-fourth of the range was out off by the sea, the bees being located at the head of an open bay and a short distance from the shore, while the location of the Syrian apiary prevented the bees from securing half of the usual range, hence their greater prosperity was due to the nature and quantity of the pasturage of their limited range.

It is evident, therefore, that no one similarly located need be deterred from keeping bees, provided the nectar-yielding trees and plants of the half range are of the right sort and abundant. Moreover, regions so rough and sterile or so swampy as to give no encouragement to the agriculturist, or even to the stock raiser, will often yield a good income to the bee keeper, insignificant and apparently worthless herbs and shrubs furnishing forage for the bees. The ability of the bees to range over areas inaccessible to other farm stock and to draw their sustenance from dense forests when the timber is of the right kind, and the freedom which, because of their nature, must be accorded them to pasture on whatever natural sources are within their range of 3 or 4 miles, must be taken into account in estimating the possibilities of a locality. It will be found that very few localities exist in our country where at least a few colonies of bees may not be kept. Whether a large number might be profitably kept in a given locality can be decided only by a careful examination as to the honey-producing flora within range of the apiary (see pp. 12 and 26-29).

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