CHAPTER IV.
ESTABLISHING AN APIARY: TIME—SELECTING HIVES OF BEES—MOVING BEES—SELECTION OF SITE.
Spring is the best season to establish an apiary, especially for a person unacquainted with the practical care of bees. Colonies in good condition procured then are more easily kept in order by the novice than if purchased in the fall. Mistakes in management may possibly be remedied before the season closes, and by the time it is necessary to prepare for the winter the learner will have gained a certain amount of practical knowledge of the nature and requirements of the bees. If the start be made late in the season mistakes, if they occur, may result fatally before the proper remedy can be applied.
The beginner had better obtain his start by purchasing one or two colonies of pure Italian or Carniolan bees in accurately made frame hives and in first-class condition. These he should get from some bee-master of repute near his own place, if possible, in order to avoid expressage and possible damage through long confinement or numerous transfers. The cost per colony may be $6 to $8; yet bees at this price will generally be found much cheaper in the end, for, though common bees in box hives may frequently be obtained for half or even less than half as much, the cost, when finally transferred into frame hives, fitted up with straight combs, and the common queens replaced by Italians or Carniolans, will not be less. The possession of a colony already in prime working order gives the novice a standard with which to compare all others and often enables him to avoid costly experiments. Another plan, also commendable, is to agree with some neighboring bee keeper to deliver as many first swarms on the day they issue as are wanted. These will give the right start if placed as soon as received in hives with foundation starters and the frames properly spaced—1⅜ inches from center to center, it being understood that the swarms are early and prime ones, with vigorous queens. Only those issuing from colonies that have swarmed the year before or from such as were themselves second swarms of the previous year should be accepted. Swarms from these will have queens not over one year old. It is better to have queens of the current year's raising, but these can only be obtained by taking the second or third swarms from a given hive, which come later and are smaller, or by substituting young queens for those which come with the swarms.
SELECTION OF STOCKS.
The relative Strength of different stocks may be determined by watching the flight of the bees. The playing of the young bees in front of the hive is apt to deceive one. This lasts but twenty minutes or so, but a weak stock compared then with a strong one whose young bees are not flying might be regarded as very populous. The young bees sporting in front of the hive may be known by their light, fuzzy appearance, and by the fact that as they take wing to leave the hive they turn their heads toward the entrance and sail about it in semicircles, frequently alighting on the flight board and taking wing again. They are thus marking the location of the hive so as to be able to return to it, for an attempt to enter another hive might result fatally to them. They finally fly away in constantly widening circles. Field workers used to the location fly in a direct line away from the hive. When the young bees return they do not alight at once as do the field workers laden with honey, but generally hover about the entrance until certain they have reached the right hive. Having noted by their flight which stocks seem to have the most bees, a closer examination can be made by blowing a little smoke of any sort into the entrances and tipping the hives back, if they stand on loose bottom boards. When not so constructed the examination must, of course, be made by removing the top covering, or if the combs are built in frames, some of these.
In addition to the strength of the colony, the number of combs containing brood, straightness, kind and age of combs, amount of honey on hand, the cleanliness and healthfulness of the colony are points upon which full information is desirable. In April a good colony located in a central latitude ought to have brood in five or six combs; yet as ordinarily wintered it will be difficult to find colonies having at this time more than three or four combs containing brood. The combs should be straight, so that if in an old-fashioned box hive they can be cut out and fitted without great waste into frames, and if the hive is a frame one it is absolutely necessary to have combs straight and built wholly within the frames in order that the latter may be readily removed and returned to the hive. The less drone comb the better. There will always be enough, an area half the size of a man's hand being quite sufficient for each hive. The larger size of the drone cells and greater thickness of the combs (1¼ inches) will make it readily recognizable. If over one-eighth of the surface is drone comb the colony should be rejected. If the combs are so old as to be nearly black and to show cell walls much thickened they are very objectionable. There should be several pounds of sealed honey in each hive in early spring. Other things being equal, those stocks which come through the winter with 20 pounds or so of sealed honey in the combs will develop much faster than those having just enough to last them until they gather fresh honey rapidly enough to supply their daily needs. The presence of an abundance gives the bees courage. They do not fear to draw upon their stores to supply the young that are fast developing. The combs filled with honey part with their heat only slowly when the outside temperature falls, and there is thus less danger of a check in the development of the brood through too low temperature in the hive.
Fig. 18.—Box hive prepared for transportation. (Original.)
If the surfaces of the combs, the frames, or the inner walls of the hive are spotted with a brown, crumbly looking substance it is an evidence that the bees have bad diarrhea during the winter or spring, and if they have been badly affected not only will the combs and the whole interior of the hive be soiled, the former perhaps so as to be rendered almost worthless, but the bees will lack vitality, and will soon dwindle in numbers, not being able to survive the first arduous labors of the opening of the season. It is not always easy to determine whether a stock in a box hive is affected with foul brood or not, for the odor of decaying brood is not of itself sufficient to warrant such a conclusion, although it is well to reject any hive having any putrid odor about it. The natural odor of the hive, produced as it is largely by honey, wax, pollen, and propolis, is not unpleasant to most people, so that the presence of any disagreeable odor should arouse suspicion. If larvæ that have turned black are seen in the cells, and the capping of the sealed brood is sunken and in some instances perforated, showing brown and ropy contents in the bottoms of the cells, and the putrid odor is present, the existence of foul brood (Bacillus alvei Cheshire) is pretty certain. This is a scourge much to be dreaded. Not only should no hives or colonies be purchased from the same apiary, but none in the vicinity of an apiary so affected.
