After a few excursions, when surrounding objects have become familiar, this precaution is not taken, and they leave in a direct line for their destination, and return by their way-...
To a person that has never inverted a hive full of bees, even to overflowing, or never has seen it done, it appears like a great undertaking, as well as the probability of ruining...
Swarms that lose their queen the first few hours after being hived, generally return to the parent stock; with the exception that they sometimes unite with some other. If much time...
Perhaps one swarm in three hundred will depart for the woods without first clustering. I have had three times that number, not one of which has ever left me thus. Yet I have eviden...
Catnip, (_Nepeta Cataria_,) Mother-wort, (_Leonurus Cardiaca_,) and Hoarhound, (_Marrubium Vulgare_,) about the middle of June, put forth their flowers, rich in sweetness, and like...
Striking them down renders them ten times more furious. Not in the least daunted, they return to the attack. Not the least show of fear is perceived. Even after losing their sting,...
Mrs. Griffith, of New Jersey, is said to have invented the suspended chamber hive with the inclined bottom-board. One would suppose this was sufficiently inconvenient to use, and d...
The value of changeable hives is based upon the following principle:--Each young bee when it first hatches from the egg, is neither more nor less than a worm; when it receives the...
The queen is the mother of the entire family; her duty appears to be only to deposit eggs in the cells. Her abdomen has its full size very abruptly where it joins the trunk or body...
Again, after the breeding season is over, in the fall, _every stock should be thoroughly inspected, and all diseased ones condemned for stock hives_. It is better to do it, even if...
Feeding bees in spring is sometimes absolutely necessary; but in ordinary seasons and circumstances, it is somewhat doubtful if it is the surest road to success, for the apiarian t...
This accumulation of faeces is considered by many writers as a disease--a kind of dysentery. It is described as affecting them towards spring, and several remedies are given. Now i...
When about to remove the contents of a hive, I have never found it necessary to use all the precautions often recommended to prevent the access of bees. I have seen it stated that...
I have termed the cap or box a cover; but this should also be covered with a board laid on, if nothing else. A good roof for each hive can be made by fastening two boards together...
Many people contend that bees are an injury to this crop, by taking away the substance that would be formed into grain. The best reasons for this opinion that I have obtained are t...
The one I shall recommend, without paint, will not cost, or need not, over 37-1/2 cents, with cover, etc. Now, if we wish hives for ornament, it is well enough to expend something...
Should it be thought best to hive after swarms, and risk the chances, they should receive a little extra attention after the first week or two, to destroy the worms; a little timel...
When too many are taken out at once, the rush from all the hives is so much like a swarm, that it appears to confuse them. Some of the stocks by this means will get more bees than...
This size will also do in this latitude (42 degrees,) in some seasons, but not at all in others.[3] Not one swarm in fifty will consume twenty-five lbs. of honey through the winter...
But if such hive is only half full, or 2,000 inches, it is very common for them to swarm without adding any new comb; proving very conclusively that a hive that size, is sufficient...
When an occurrence like the above happens, the drones next fall victims to the failure of honey. A brief existence only is theirs; such as are perfect, are destroyed without mercy;...
Having told how I make a hive, I will now give some reasons for preferring a particular kind of boxes. I have taken great quantities of honey to market, put up in every style, such...
I had about twenty old stocks with diseased brood, and but few bees, yet _honey enough_. Now this honey appears healthy enough for the old bees, and fatal only to the young brood....
You will probably find some in your best stocks; but don't be frightened; this is not the season when they often destroy your stocks, yet they injure them some.
I will here describe some of their battles. I have in the spring frequently seen the whole front side of the hive covered with the combatants, (but for such hives I have no fears;...
Two inches being nearly the right distance, each one will be so made that a bee arriving at the top of the hive between any two sheets will be able to find a passage into the box,...
As regards the distance between hives generally, I would say let it be as great as convenience will allow. Want of room makes it necessary sometimes to set them close; where such n...
We are told by most writers, the period of time necessary to perfect from the egg, the three different kinds of bees. Huber leads the way, and the rest, _supposing him to be right_...
By the use of tobacco smoke, bees may be united with nearly the same success. First, smoke the two to be united, thoroughly; disturb them and smoke again, that all may become parti...
In ordinary circumstances, when a swarm has left a stock, the oldest of the young queens is ready to emerge from her cell in about eight or nine days; if no second swarm is sent ou...