Bee-Keeping for Profit

CHAPTER I. =general Information and Hints=

=General Information and Hints=

The question of profit depends almost entirely upon the knowledge, energy, and perseverance of the bee-keeper, for, given suitable hive-accommodation and proper attention, the bees can generally be depended upon to do their share of the work.

=Regularity and Foresight.=--All who are engaged in productive work in conjunction with Nature know that "there is a time for everything," in connection with that work, and every advantage must be taken of that particular tide if full benefits are to be secured at the harvest season. Work must be done in regular rotation. A farmer must plough his land before he can sow his seed; the seed must be sown at a certain time--sown in hope many months before the harvest can be expected. The same regularity and hopeful anticipation are necessary in bee-keeping if full advantage is to be secured of the honey-harvest. In the same manner, just as farmers must make use of modern methods and appliances to obtain the best return for the outlay of capital and labour, so the bee-keeper must bring into his work the practice of up-to-date principles and labour-saving appliances connected with bee-keeping.

The old "skep," and the happy-go-lucky methods connected with it have given place to the frame hive with well-defined principles to govern and stimulate the production of its community of workers.

To work a bar-framed hive for profit it is first necessary that the bee-keeper should exercise forethought and be prepared for any emergency that may arise. He should always have by him plenty of spare frames, foundations, supers, and other necessities, for nothing is more annoying than a shortage of such during an unexpected honey-flow. It is always at such times that his orders take longest in fulfilment, for it is then the appliance-maker is overwhelmed with commissions from unprepared clients, and the delay in the delivery of the goods means a corresponding reduction of the bee-keeper's profits.

=Watchfulness and Intelligence.=--These two qualities are essential assets to any would-be successful bee-keeper. There is no "golden rule," for his guidance through the year, nothing that must be done invariably at stated times and seasons. It is here that the novice is puzzled and perplexed, for apparently what is right at one time becomes wrong at another, but it is only by experience that the guiding knowledge is acquired. For instance, it is useless to feed a hive with the view to increase the brood, if the hive be queenless, or possesses a drone-breeding queen, or a fertile worker. And again, it is useless to put a super on a queenless stock or a weak hive, for instead of helping to conserve the heat of the hive one but adds to the area for the bees to heat with their own little bodies, with the additional risk of chilling the brood and starving the bees. For it should be remembered that the colder the hive, the greater the consumption of food by the bees.

It is well to bear in mind that the best of all heat-producers in a hive are the bees themselves, but to enable them satisfactorily to become so suitable accommodation and food are absolutely necessary.

=The Queen.=--One of the greatest mysteries connected with the hive is the life history of the queen bee, and her position in the bee community. Each hive is, as it were, a republic of female workers, who serve with slavish devotion one of their number set apart from birth for the position of supreme head of the community. Like their sex generally throughout Nature, they give of their best where it is most needed. They know by their instinct that if the queen is fed with rich food her egg-laying capacity is stimulated, and, on the contrary, when the honey-flow is finished, that the supply of such food must be checked, with a consequent reduction in the number of eggs laid. They know that the greater the population of the hive the greater the drain on their honey store.

Generally speaking the life of a queen bee extends from two to five years, at which age she is generally exhausted, or is deposed by the community in favour of a younger queen.

The egg from which a queen bee develops is at the first precisely similar to that which produces a worker, and both are fertile. It all depends upon the kind of cell in which the egg is deposited by the queen whether a mere worker or a royal offspring ensues. The queen cells are acorn shaped, and larger in size than the others and are generally placed on the edge of the comb. It is when the eggs are hatched--three days after they have been placed in the cells--that the special treatment of the queen grub commences. It is taken charge of by the nurses and fed with the rich food--known as "chyle" food (see page 50), and it is this food alone that produces the difference between a queen and a worker bee.

When the young queen is about a week old she will leave the hive to find a mate. As mating can only take place when the queen and drone are on the wing, she soars into the air followed by the rival and eager drones. When the mating is accomplished the queen returns to the hive and is then capable of laying eggs, both fertile and unfertile, at will. The drone also returns home, but only to die: he has laid down his life for the perpetuation of his race. A queen that has been recently mated can be identified by a white speck on the back near the end of the abdomen--the organ torn away from the drone.

Should a queen fail to be mated within six weeks of her leaving the cell she is only capable of laying unfertile eggs. The egg-laying capacity of the queen, under the "chyle-food" treatment is enormous, ranging up to 3,000 eggs per day.

When a ruling queen realises that a queen grub is being reared in the hive, the sex-hatred of a possible rival soon manifests itself, and were it not for the watchful care of the workers the young queen's career would soon be ended. But the old queen is put virtually under arrest, and not allowed to venture near the queen cells. Her agitation increases until she summons together all who are willing to follow her and leaves the hive. This exodus of a queen and her adherents is known as "a swarm." (See page 44.)

The queen bee can always be distinguished by her greater size, while the increased length of her legs makes her still more prominent among the workers. If it is wished to prevent the rearing of queens in the hive, all that is necessary is for the bee-keeper to cut out the queen cells from the combs, and give the bees additional room to store the food they gather.

=The Worker Bee.=--The normal worker bee is an undeveloped female and a true amazon. She is utterly indifferent to the drone, and is, of course, unable to propagate her species. In some cases, however, the ovaries of a worker are so far developed that she is able to produce eggs which are necessarily unfertile. Such a worker is a nuisance in a modern hive worked for profit.

As we have already seen, the egg from which the worker develops is precisely similar to that from which a queen springs; the rôle of worker or queen is determined by the cell in which the egg is deposited. A grub in a worker cell gets but little "chyle" food--it is stopped altogether on the third day--and a mixed diet of honey and pollen. The drone is brought up entirely on the latter food.

As soon as a worker grub leaves the cell it enters upon its life of labour. It is immature at this point, and as the air-organs, or tracheæ, are not fully developed, it cannot fly. Its first work, therefore, is that of "nurse" to the grubs still in the cells, and to supply the queen with "chyle" food. About a fortnight after leaving the cell, the young bee, if the weather be fine and warm, will venture out of the hive to try its wings, and on early spring days such numbers of them may be seen sporting near the entrance of the hive as to lead a novice to suppose that swarming was about to take place. The bee-keeper of experience, however, while rejoicing at the sight, will know that the exodus is partly due to the fact that some natural or artificial food has entered the hive and that more must be supplied for the needs of the inmates.

After the worker's trial flight, she proceeds upon her duties as a food supplier to the community. She has had some experience as a "nurse" in handling pollen, so that at first it seems but natural she should give most attention to that food, and, in cleaning her body from its clinging particles, she finds out the uses of her several organs. In the beginning her loads of pollen are often small, but with experience her carrying capacity soon finds its limit. In time she discovers nectar in the flowers, and as she becomes less able to gather pollen she increases her honey-collecting power. When nectar is abundant bees will often commence their work at sunrise and continue throughout the day until sunset. In such a "honey-flow" the average life of the worker from the time she leaves the cell is seldom more than six or eight weeks, every minute of which is given up to the communal labour. The whole of the work inside the hive depends upon the worker--she is architect, builder, caretaker, nurse, sanitary officer and the rest; there is method in everything she does, so it is inadvisable to interfere unnecessarily with any part of it. She objects strongly to undue interference, to mere curiosity of inquisitive humans. The worker bees are, indeed, wondrous creatures: they are known to have their feelings of friendship and dislike almost human in their intensity; their expressions of sorrow on the loss of their queen or when their stores are failing are as unmistakable as their hum of contentment when the hive is thriving, or the buzz of anger when rudely-disturbed.

Continue reading Bee-Keeping for Profit free in the Wunder reader →