The illustrated apiary, mistakes to avoid and advice to follow, 1895, Georges de Layens

Georges de LAYENS

LAUREATE OF THE INSTITUTE (ACADEMY OF SCIENCES)

PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERATION OF FRENCH BEEKEEPING SOCIETIES

41 BOARDS

out of text

13 FIGURES IN THE TEXT

The Illustrated Apiary

ERRORS

TO AVOID

ADVICE TO FOLLOW

PAUL DUPONT

EDITOR

4, RUE DU BOULOI, 4

Paris

The Illustrated Apiary

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“As in the New Flora, the appearance of which caused, it can be said, a considerable change in the teaching of descriptive botany, the authors made a clean sweep of all technical terms; because the use of these terms always presents great difficulties for anyone who is not versed in the special language of flora.

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THE

Illustrated apiary

Mistakes to avoid

and Tips to follow

Mr. GEORGES DE LAYENS

Laureate of the Institute (Academy of Sciences),

President of the Federation of French Beekeeping Societies,

41 PLATES WITHOUT TEXT

13 figures in the text

PARIS

PAUL DUPONT, EDITOR

4, RUE DU BOULOI, 4

PAUL DUPONT BOOKSTORE, 4, RUE DU BOULOI, PARIS

WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR

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PREFACE

This volume contains what is generally missing in works dealing with the management of bees.

It is aimed at all those who have hives, whatever the common hive or frame hive system they use, and whatever the way in which they manage their colonies.

I tried to write it without any methodological bias and without preconceived ideas, with only the results that the experience of the facts can give.

We usually say in all works what must be done to control the bees; we too rarely talk about what not to do.

The beginner, in fact, encounters a certain number of obstacles in practice, and he is often stopped by the smallest as well as the largest.

This is why I have adopted a mode of writing that allows me to highlight the main mistakes that the beginner can make in the various circumstances that occur during the seasons of the year.

Each fault being first stated, I give the means of remedying it, or if this is not possible, I indicate what precautions must be taken to avoid the inconveniences it produces.

In support of these errors to avoid, and these advice to follow, I have grouped, in the same order of the subjects examined, a fairly large number of illustrations which complete the text.

The beekeeper's equipment is often represented in treatises; almost never do we see the beekeeper at work with this equipment; We will find in this work the representation, always made from nature, of the main operations that must be carried out in an apiary, either with common hives or with frame hives.

Other illustrated documents relate to the different states presented by the combs of hives; These are the various aspects that the beekeeper must know how to recognize safely in order to manage his colonies by any method.

These documents: variously constructed cells, brood in various states, capped honey, etc., are so difficult to describe and even to draw that I took photographs of them which were reproduced directly in the plates of this volume.

I think this little illustrated album will be useful to anyone interested in bees.

FIRST CHAPTER

PURCHASE AND TRANSPORT OF COLONIES

I. — Purchase of natural swarms.

You can establish your apiary or increase the number of your colonies using natural swarms that you harvest (fig. 1 and fig. 3. p. 13) or buy

FIG. 1. — HARVESTING A SWOOD.

The beekeeper collects a natural swarm from an empty hive, shaking the branch from which the swarm hangs, in order to make it fall into the hive.

Let us first examine the mistakes that can be made when purchasing natural swarms; we will then talk about purchasing hives.

1st fault. — To set up your apiary we bought late or weak swarms.

Unless there is an exceptionally honey-producing season, late or weak swarms will build few combs and harvest little honey, in regions where there are no autumn harvests. It would be a bad speculation to want to preserve them for the following year, by feeding them in the fall. The best use that can be made of these hives containing weak swarms is to unite them together at the end of the season (fig. 2).

FIG. 2. — MEETING OF VULGAR HIVES BY SUPERPOSITION.

The hive on the right is not joined to another.

2nd fault. — To form your apiary, we bought strong early swarms, but the season was very poor in honey production.

Strong swarms, weighing 2 to 3 kilograms, will begin to build combs (fig. 4, p. 15), and may even, it is true, completely fill their hive (fig. 5, p. 15); but often they will not harvest enough honey for the bad season. It is therefore still a mistake to want to climb into an apiary, even with strong swarms. If they are missing a lot of honey, we will have to reunite them with other hives (fig. 2), but we can feed them (fig. 47, p. 109) if they are only missing a few kilograms of honey to spend the winter.

Besides, it will always be more profitable and more prudent to spend 15 or 20 francs on the purchase of a good colony, than to buy swarms.

The famous Abbot Collin wrote this sentence that beginners should not forget: “Never buy swarms, it is a random market where the buyer is more often fooled than the seller. »

II. — Purchase of common hives.

3rd foul. — We bought hives with too small a capacity (15 or 20 liters).

Hives that are too small will only ever produce small, worthless swarms. If we want natural or artificial swarms, we must, from spring, enlarge them by adding a rise of sufficient volume to double their capacity (fig. 6, p. 17). The small colony can also be placed on a frame hive, and the bees lacking space will settle in the new frame hive (fig. 7, p. 19).

4th foul. — We bought hives containing too much honey.

The mother, in spring, having no place to lay eggs, too many combs being occupied by honey, the colony will develop little, and will only produce small swarms. We must, as in the previous case, enlarge the hives to. the help of increases, from spring.

5th foul. — We bought hives whose combs were constructed very irregularly.

When we want to transfer these colonies into frame hives, we will encounter all kinds of difficulties.

If you have purchased such hives, it will be preferable not to do the transfer, and to furnish the frame hives with artificial swarms removed from these hives.

6th foul. — We bought hives in the spring whose combs were severely moldy.

These colonies certainly suffered from humidity during the winter, due to lack of sufficient ventilation; This resulted in greater mortality than in other hives, and the health of the survivors was impaired. Such hives will lose more bees in the spring than others, and therefore their population will be lower for the time of the big harvest.

7th foul. — We bought hives in the spring which contain a lot of male combs.

As soon as you have just purchased them, you must remove the majority of the male combs from such hives, and most often the bees will rebuild the majority of the combs into worker cells.

In summary: Only buy ordinary hives with the following qualities: large hives of 40 to 60 liters; the most active of the apiary where they were located, having sufficiently straight combs (fig. 5, p. 15), not too black, little or not moldy, having combs with worker cells in the middle of the hive and having bees at least in the intervals of four combs, in the month of March or April.

III. — Transport of hives.

8th foul. — We transported hives in hot weather, in the middle of the day.

Nothing is more dangerous; the bees become agitated on the way, become overheated, the honey can flow on them and suffocate them. If we have carried out the transport in such bad conditions, we will try to save the hives in the following way: We will put them in a dark cellar, we will remove the canvases and we will place a corner of wood underneath, so as to give them plenty of air. The next day, the hives, if they are saved, will be put back in the place they were supposed to occupy.

It is prudent to only transport hives in the spring or fall, overnight, in cool weather. The hives are wrapped with wrapping cloth (fig. 8, p. 21), so that they have air underneath.

9th foul. — Hives that were formed with swarms from the previous year were transported without precaution.

One-year-old hives require a lot of care to move, because the combs are new and an impact could break them. Or transport them on the back of a man, suspended from a stick carried on the shoulder (fig. 9, p. 23).

10th foul. — During the summer, we transported hives taken very close to his home.

If you purchased hives less than 2 or 3 kilometers from your home, you should only transport them during the winter, when there is no frost. But it is always preferable to obtain colonies more than 2 kilometers from the new station they are to occupy.

FIG. 3. — HARVESTING A POORLY POSTED SWOOD.

A natural swarm has landed along a tree trunk. To collect it, an empty hive is attached to a branch, and with the help of a little smoke, the beekeeper makes the swarm climb into the hive.

FIG. 4. — START OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE RAYS.

Vulgar wicker hive in which the bees have started to build combs. The wax of these spokes being new, the spokes are still of a very light color.

FIG. 5. — HIVE FULL OF RAYS.

Vulgar hive made of small wood, which the bees have completed filling with combs.

FIG. 6. — INSTALLATION OF A RISE TO A VULGAR HIVE.

The beekeeper bought ordinary hives that were too small; From spring onwards, he takes care to enlarge them using supers which he places under the hive. (The hive and the super must be attached to each other with iron hooks.)

FIG. 7. — TRANSFER INTO A HIVE WITH RAR SUPERPOSITION FRAME.

The beekeeper has a small ordinary hive containing a colony, and he wants to move it into a frame hive; he placed the common hive on the frame hive. The whole thing is covered with a straw cap. He took care to prime all the frames in advance as shown in fig. 29, p. 59, or better, to fill the hive with embossed leaves (fig. 33, p. 67).

FIG. 8. — HIVE READY TO BE TRANSPORTED.

The beekeeper wishing to transport a colony wraps it in the evening in packing cloth. So that it does not lack air, he placed a corner under the hive.

FIG. 9. — Transport OF HIVES.

The beekeeper carries hives. Two canvas hives hang from the two ends of the stick he carries on his shoulder.

SECOND CHAPTER

TRANSFER

I. — Premature transfer.

11th foul. — We transferred a colony too early in the season.

When a colony has been transferred, in March for example, it is rare (except in the South) that cold weather without honey then occurs during which the bees cannot build new combs nor, in general, work on the embossed sheets.

If the bees work, they will be able to exhaust their honey supplies quickly, the transfer causing a fairly large expenditure of honey.

We will therefore be obliged to feed them (See further, fig. 47, p. 109).

The best time to transfer is during April or the beginning of May, a little earlier in the South.

As for transferring the bees at the end of the season, this is very dangerous; not only would you have to be a good beekeeper to succeed in this operation, but it would be necessary to have honeycomb in reserve for the wintering of the transferred colony.

II. — Transfer from a common hive into an empty common hive.

12th foul. — We started tapping towards the top or towards the middle of the hive instead of starting at the bottom.

If this is done, the bees often refuse to leave their home to climb into the empty hive or do so only very slowly; they remain clinging to their rays, without wanting to move.

We must therefore tap the bottom of the hive first and only tap higher when we see the bees climbing into the empty hive. The exit of the bees is greatly improved by placing, under the hive to be transferred, a lit cloth whose smoke enters through a hole that has been made in the bottom of the hive.

13th foul. — We were unable to place the empty hive in the desired position on the hive to be transferred.

The empty hive must be placed at an angle so that one of the edges touches the full, overturned hive, on the side where the bees usually pass to exit (fig. 15, p. 35). By taking this precaution, the bees will move more quickly into the empty hive.

14th foul. — We wanted to transfer the bees in cold weather.

When it's cold, bees don't want to leave their hive; for the operation to be carried out easily, 15 to 20 degrees of heat are required.

15th foul. — We transfer the bees in favorable weather, but as they do not want to pass, we believe the operation has failed.

In this case, here is a way to force the bees to leave their home: We tap the hive, and as soon as the edge of the combs are covered with bees, we put the hive back in the ordinary direction, then we tap it lightly on a canvas spread on the ground. The bees fall onto the canvas and are covered with another empty hive. We repeat the same maneuver several times until there are no more bees in the hive to be transferred.

In any case, we can better understand the operation by hunting the bees in the open (fig. 15, p. 35), than by the old method (fig. 10).

FIG. 10. — THE BEEEKEEPER KNOCKS ON THE BOTTOM HIVE, IN ORDER TO MAKE THE BEES CLIMB INTO THE UPPER HIVE.

16th foul. — We wanted to transfer a colony during heavy honey flow.

When honey is abundant in flowers, a large number of cells are filled with uncapped honey. In this case, there is great danger in transferring a colony from a common hive into an empty hive; tapping causes honey to flow from the cells between the combs and onto the bees, which sticks them with honey, and the mother can be in danger. We should therefore not choose a time of high honey flow to transfer the hives.

17th foul. — We believed that the transfer had been successful because we recognized that the majority of the bees were in the upper hive.

When we think that the transfer is finished, we must always place the hive which has just received the bees on a black sheet, in order to ensure the presence of the mother by the eggs which she will soon leave fall on the sheet (fig. 16, p. 37). If, after a certain time, no eggs are found on the sheet, you must continue tapping.

III. — Transfer to a frame hive.

18th foul. — We wanted to transfer a common hive too late into a frame hive, by overturning the common hive.

When we want to transfer a common hive, by inversion, below a frame hive (fig. 17, p. 39), several embarrassing cases can arise:

If the common hive only has a small population, the bees will not decide to leave their hive. If the hive has a very high population, but it is overturned too late in the season, it may swarm and the colony will then have become too weak to move to the upper hive.

To succeed in this type of transfer, you therefore need a large population and carry out the reversal approximately 15 to 20 days before the probable time of natural swarming.

If the transfer is too late, in the case where the hive is swarming, the swarm must be returned to the hive, and, if the bees have not decided to move on at the end of the season, the transfer must be abandoned. transfer for this year and return the common hive to its natural position, for wintering.

19th foul. — In the frame hive that we prepared to receive bees, we did not take care to place the frames regularly next to each other.

The result of this poor arrangement is that the bees will build their combs irregularly in the frames, and also between the gaps in the combs when they are too far apart. When we want to visit the hive, we will have a lot of difficulty putting everything back in order.

We would then be obliged, in fact, to cut the rays regularly, to fix them in the frames with strings and even to sacrifice the parts that were too irregular.

20th fault.— After the introduction of the swarm into the hive, we neglected to place the hive upright on its stool.

If you use frames that are only positioned upwards, it is essential to place the hive vertically on its stool; without this precaution each spoke started straight will then tilt down on the next frame (fig. 11). In this case, we cut each poorly constructed comb on the sides, we push it back into the middle of the frame, then we put the hive back upright.

FIG. 11. — COMBINED POORLY CONSTRUCTED IN THE FRAME, WHEN THE HIVE HAS NOT BEEN PLACED PLUMB.

21st foul. — We didn't stick any indicators in the frames. The bees, in these conditions, will build the combs crookedly in the frames, and it will be impossible to visit the hives without breaking the combs. When starting the frames, it is very important to completely fill the top, and all the pieces must touch each other (fig. 18, p. 41, and fig. 29, p. 59); otherwise the bees could still build irregularly.

FIG. 12. — MAXIMUM TO PLACE THE PRIMED WAX BLADE.

A, square rule for placing the primer wax blade; B, frame (supposed to be cut) showing the arrangement to be made for pouring a strip of wax into it as a primer.

When the beekeeper has neither embossed wax nor old combs to prime the frames, he will proceed in the following manner to direct the construction of the bees in the frames:

We construct a ruler in the form of a square like the one indicated in A, fig. 12; this ruler has a length equal to the interior width of the frame. After having well coated the rule with tallow, apply it to the upper crosspiece of the inverted frame (at B, fig. 12).

We then pour melted wax into the angle formed by the rule and the frame; as soon as it has cooled, the ruler is removed, and a wax edge remains attached to the top of the frame (fig. 19, p. 43).

FIG. 13. — FRAME WITH IRON WIRE TO KEEP THE EMBOSSED WAX.

To attach the wire to the frames, proceed as follows: Start by nailing staples in the middle of the crosspieces at the points. A, B, C, D, E. We then attach the wire to the staple A, and after successively passing the wire through the staples B, C, D, E, we wrap the end of the wire around 'an upholsterer's point F, which is nailed to the crosspiece.

22nd foul. — We fixed embossed wax in the frames by placing iron wires vertically.

In this case, the embossed wax plate may slip on the wires due to the heat, and collapse in the hive. Figures 13 and 14 show how best to fix the embossed wax in the frames.

FIG. 14.— WAY OF TENSIONING IRON WIRE ON A FRAME.

To tension the iron wires, we use pliers which we place as shown in the figure, the upper jaw of the pliers resting on the clip. By tightening the pliers, the staple sinks into the wood and tightens the wire. Then, the embossed sheet of wax is placed on a board of the same size as it, and the frame lined with wire is placed on top; then, using a roulette heated in the lamp, we push the iron wire into the wax (fig. 20, p. 45).

23rd fault. — We bought embossed sheets of falsified wax.

Due to competition, falsified waxes are often found on the market. These wax sheets offer a lot of disadvantages. Sometimes they collapse in the hive, sometimes the bees refuse to work there, the mother refuses to lay eggs, etc., etc. To have pure beeswax you should not be afraid to pay the price; it is a very bad economy to buy the embossed wax as cheaply as possible.

One of the simplest processes that is often used to determine whether the wax is pure or not is the following:

We melt in small paper tubes, on the one hand a small stick of wax whose purity is certain, on the other hand a small stick similar to the wax to be tested. We place the two sticks in two bottles which we fill with gasoline. Pure wax will dissolve very well if the bottle is shaken from time to time, while adulterated wax will leave pieces undissolved or incompletely attacked by the benzine, even when shaken.

24th foul. — We leave unused the pieces of comb filled with honey which remain following transfer into a frame hive.

When a common hive has been transferred directly into a frame hive, by cutting the combs of the common hive to arrange them in the frames of the hive which is to receive the bees, many pieces remain at the end of the operation. of combs with cells containing honey.

To use these spoke fragments, they can be placed between two fences, in a frame, as shown in Figure 21, p. 47. This frame will be placed in the hive following the frames already there, and it will be removed as soon as the bees have removed the honey.

25th foul. — We leave, in the frames, rays which have too many male cells.

After extracting the honey, we must cut off the parts of these combs which contain male cells, and replace them with pieces of the same size, which we fit into the empty parts (fig. 22, p. 49) ; the bees will take care of welding the pieces together.

26th foul. — Frame hives were populated in the middle of the day by throwing the bees either on a sheet (fig. 23, p. 51) or in the hive (fig. 24, p. 53).

In both cases. above, if we operated in the middle of the day in the heat, we made a mistake, because the swarm overexcited by the heat can sometimes fly away and get lost; we must therefore carry out this operation towards the end of the day. To be sure that the swarm remains in the frame hive, it is useful to add, among the frames to be built, a comb of brood taken from a strong colony in the apiary.

FIG. 15. — TRANSFER OF A VULGAR HIVE BY TAPPING.

The beekeeper chases, by tapping, the bees from a common hive into an empty hive. The two hives are attached to each other by hooks. The beekeeper watches the bees climb into the upper hive in order to see the mother pass, which will indicate to him that the operation was successful.

FIG. 16. — SEARCH FOR EGGS.

The beekeeper, after having chased the bees from a colony into an empty hive, had placed this hive on a tray covered with black cloth, in order to ensure that the mother was with the bees. If the mother was in the hive, she must have dropped eggs on the sheet. We can indeed see the eggs that he points to with his finger. The hive which contains the bees is temporarily placed on the ground.

FIG. 17. — TRANSFER INTO A FRAME HIVE, BY REVERSAL.

In the spring, the beekeeper overturned a strong ordinary hive by placing it in a hollow in the ground; he placed on this overturned hive a tray pierced with a hole, and on top of it, the frame hive lined with embossed leaves. (We see against the wall on the left another similarly pierced tray.) At the end of a honey season, the bees will be mounted in the frame hive, and we can remove the common hive empty of honey and brood.

FIG. 18. — BONDING OF PRIMERS.

The beekeeper cut out the pieces of comb that we see in the middle of the table. Using strong glue, he fixes these pieces next to each other under the upper crossbar of an overturned frame. We see on the left, leaning against a box, frames already primed and, on the ground, other frames which are not yet primed; a stove, on which is the strong glue, is placed next to the operator.

FIG. 19. — BEEKEEPERS PRIMING FRAME.

The beekeeper, after placing the rule (A, fig. 12, p. 31) on the frame in the desired position (B, fig. 12, p. 31), pours hot melted wax between the rule and the crosspiece of the frame. After letting the wax cool, he removes the ruler and a strip of wax remains attached to the frame. We see on the table three frames already primed.

FIG. 20. — FIXING THE EMBOSSED WAX IN THE FRAMES.

The beekeeper placed an embossed sheet of wax on a thick board of the same size as the sheet. He places the wire-lined frame on the embossed wax sheet. Using a roulette, which he took care to heat on the wine spirit lamp, placed next to him, he pushes the iron wire into the wax by moving the roulette over the wire.

FIG. 21. — FRAME FILLED WITH PIECES OF RAYS WHICH HONEY IS RETURNED TO THE ABELLS.

To use the remains of the combs and have the honey removed by the bees, the beekeeper places them in a frame between two fences attached by strings; this frame is thus placed in the hive following the other combs; it is removed from the hive as soon as the bees have removed the honey. The figure represents a frame filled with pieces of comb from which the bees have just removed all the honey.

FIG. 22. — FRAME WITH REPLACED MALE CELLS.

The beekeeper, having a comb composed largely of male cells, removed all the space occupied by these cells and replaced it with a large piece of comb with worker cells. We see dark parts and white parts in this ray. The white parts indicate that the bees in these places have elongated the cells with new wax.

FIG. 23. — INTRODUCTION OF A SWORD INTO A FRAME HIVE.

The beekeeper placed on the ground, on a sheet, a frame hive lifted by one corner. With a sharp blow, he made the bees contained in the common hive fall onto the sheet, from where they move towards the frame hive to enter.

FIG. 24. — INTRODUCTION OF A SWORD INTO A FRAME RUCUE BY THROWING THE SWORD INTO THE HIVE.

The frame hive is placed upright where it is to remain. From one side, we put 8 or 10 frames filled either with embossed wax or with primers and arranged suitably. The intervals of the frames are closed at the top as usual. In the part of the hive which does not have frames, with a sharp blow, we make the bees fall from the basket into the hive. We then cover the hive with a canvas to prevent the bees from flying away; then, using the bellows, we throw smoke under the canvas, placing ourselves on the side of the empty space into which the bees have fallen, in order to force the latter to go into the frames. We then open the door which is on the side of the frames and we leave the other closed. The next day or ensures that the executives were not disturbed during the operation.

CHAPTER THREE

VISIT TO THE HIVES

27th foul. — We don't know how to operate the smoker, or it goes out during the operation.

Whether visiting ordinary hives (fig. 30, p. 61), or visiting frame hives (fig. 31, p. 63, and fig. 32, p. 65), the Beginners must learn to operate the smoker before using it in the apiary, because if this instrument only gives smoke imperfectly, the bees can become irritated and the stings are not long in coming. If the smoker goes out, it is best to postpone the operation until later, after having closed the hive.

28th foul. — We visit the bees, at a time when they cannot find honey, by smoking them too moderately.

This is a mistake, because in this case, we will have to use a lot of smoke to tame them, and it will take more time to make them rustle as the temperature is lower.

29th foul. — We do not know how to recognize, by examining rays, what the various states that they can present correspond to.

If we cannot determine by looking at a comb, when visiting the hives, what the various aspects it may present relate to, we can hardly conclude anything about the state of the colony.

The beginner must therefore learn to know:

1° The beginning of the work of the bees on a frame lined with embossed wax (fig. 33, p. 67);

2° The brood of males and the brood of workers (fig. 34, p. 69);

3° The compact or crown brood (fig. 35, p. 71) which is proof that the colony has a good mother;

4° Scattered brood (fig. 36, p. 73) which generally indicates that the hive contains a bad mother;

5° Capped cells containing honey, and their difference from brood cells (fig. 35, 36 and 37, p. 71, 73,75);

6° The mother alveoli (fig. 25);

7° The brood in different states (fig. 26).

Note that when we say to take from a hive a comb of brood of any age to give it to another hive, this means to take a comb which contains brood similar to that represented in the cells in figure 26.

FIG. 25. — MOTHERS’ ALVEOLI.

FIG. 26. — BROOD IN DIFFERENT STATES.

a, worker egg; b, c, d, e, f, larvae of different ages; g, cells closed by a rounded lid, containing brood in a state of transformation; h, larva transformed into a bee ready to emerge from the cell.

30th foul. — During a visit to a hive, collapsed combs are found, and they are removed during the day.

If we find combs more or less collapsed (either because the wax sheets were falsified, or because they were poorly attached, or as a result of the great heat), it will be prudent to postpone this long operation until the evening. ; in fact, if these combs were removed during the day, the honey could flow into the hive, the bees from other colonies would notice it, and the hive would run the risk of being pillaged.

31st foul. — When visiting a hive, we find honeycombs that are much too thick, and when we want to move them we cannot intersperse them between the others.

This disadvantage most often comes from the fact that care was not taken to place, from the start, the rays at an equal distance from each other. To remedy this defect, we remove the combs and cut off everything that is excess, and we can then intersperse them in the hive.

32° fault. — We forgot to sulfur the reserve rays.

At the end of winter and as long as the temperature remains cold, the wax moth does not develop in the rays; but from the first heat, if we neglected to burn sulfur in the boxes or in the room where the combs are located, the moth will develop quickly and destroy them in a short time, especially if they are old and s They touch each other.

We can very well keep the combs in the hives under the protection of the bees; the only colonies where the moth can develop are orphan colonies, or those that are too weak and which contain a large number of combs not covered by bees.

33rd foul. — At the time of swarming, the frame hive contains an insufficient quantity of fully constructed combs.

If a large hive, which can contain for example 20 combs, still only has 5 or 6, which are fully constructed, the bees not having sufficient space for their work, will swarm as if the hive were small.

For a large hive to have the least chance of swarming, it must be almost full of buildings at the time of the. great harvest. The sheets of embossed wax, not completed by the bees, cannot replace the completed combs and we can therefore only hope to eliminate swarming almost entirely when we have had our bees successively build a sufficient number of combs.

34th foul. — The mother spreads her clutches over many combs in a horizontal frame hive.

In this case we will sometimes be hampered by the harvest.

FIG. 27. — ARRANGEMENT OF FRAMES IN A HIVE IN SPRING.

It is the fault of the beginner, either because he has bees of a foreign breed, which offer more disadvantages than advantages, or because he did not, on the first visit in spring, change the bees. spokes as indicated (fig. 27).

In the spring, the beekeeper arranges the combs in the following way: Around the HIJ combs which contain the brood and a little honey at the top, he places combs empty of honey to the left and right of the brood to force the mother not to lay only in this part of the hive. We see in the figure, two to the right of the brood and five to the left.

At the other end of the hive, he places the remaining honeycombs, alternating them with empty frames only primed at the top. We see in the figure the LFME honeycombs which alternate with the empty frames NNNN

The result of this arrangement is that the mother has all the space necessary to lay eggs, and the bees have all the space necessary to store honey and build combs if they wish.

FIG. 28. — FRAME CUT BY THE MIDDLE CORRESPONDING TO FRAME H OF FIGURE 27.

FIG. 29. — A STARTED FRAME CORRESPONDING TO ONE OF THE NNNN FRAMES OF FIGURE 27.

Figure 28 shows one of the combs with brood in the middle and honey at the top.

Figure 29 shows a bootstrapped frame corresponding to one of the NNN frames in Figure 27.

We can also give the mother room to lay eggs by uncapping, using a knife, the honey which is above the combs containing the brood (the bees remove the honey which is replaced by brood) . Empty combs are then placed to the right and left of the brood combs.

35th foul. — We grafted a mother cell onto a comb without brood and placed the comb outside the brood frames of the hive.

If the bees are not very numerous in the hive, they will abandon the cell and the operation will be missed; we must always graft a cell in the middle of the brood and place the comb with the other combs of brood. (See fig. 38, p. 77.)

FIG. 30. — VISIT TO A VULGAR HIVE.

We overturned a common hive on a hive to visit it. Not having found any capped brood, the beekeeper cut a piece of comb, and looked at the bottom of the cells to see if he found larvae or eggs.

FIG. 31. — SMOKING OF A HIVE.

The beekeeper, before visiting the combs of a colony, begins by smoking the bees for a while between the frames at the end of the hive. He placed, next to him, the box intended to receive the rays which he could remove, if necessary.

FIG. 32. — VISIT THE SHELVES.

The beekeeper visits the combs of a frame hive. During the operation, he took care to place the smoker in front of him on the hive, in order to work in a small cloud of smoke which controls the bees and prevents raiders from entering the hive. hive.

FIG. 33. — SHELF LINED WITH EMBOSSED WAX WHERE THE BEES HAVE BARELY STARTED TO WORK.

At the top of this leaf on the left we see a darker part where the bees have started to work to form worker cells.

FIG. 34. — FRAME WITH BROOD OF MALES.

Ray largely occupied by male brood. In the left part, at the bottom, there is worker brood. We see in this comb that some of the young bees have already left the open cells.

FIG. 35. — COMPACT AND CROWN BROOD COMBINATION.

When in the spring, while visiting his colonies, the beekeeper finds combs in his hives with brood in a compact mass or in a tight crown, he can be certain that the mother is a good layer.

We see that there is still a little capped honey remaining in this comb, towards the top.

FIG. 36. — COMBINATION WITH SCATTERED BROOD.

When in the spring, while visiting his colonies, the beekeeper finds scattered brood in a hive (which will be the exception), the mother will generally be bad; If by piercing the cells with a pinhead, a sticky material is removed, it is because the hive has foulbrood disease.

We can still see capped honey at the top of the comb.

FIG. 37. — BUILDINGS IN THE WAY OF CONSTRUCTION.

Beginning of the work of the bees in a frame which is initiated with pieces of old comb glued to the top of the frame. We see new, white wax at the bottom of the comb, and at the top, part of the cells occupied by capped honey.

FIG. 38. — GRAFTING OF A MATERIAL SELL.

The beekeeper cuts from a frame, which he holds in his hand, a piece of comb in the shape of a triangle, in the middle of which we see a mother cell. After delicately detaching this piece of comb, he inserts it into a triangular hole of the same size that we see in the comb placed on the ground against the hive.

CHAPTER FOUR.

HARVEST ; MEETINGS; LOOTTING; ARTIFICIAL Swarming

I. — Harvest.

36th foul. — The caps or supers were placed too early on hives with vertical frames.

In this case, there is a risk, if a low temperature occurs, of cooling the brood; on the other hand, which offers a great inconvenience, the mothers can pass into the supers and the caps to continue laying eggs. Generally, the supers or caps should be placed a few days before the big harvest (fig. 39, p. 89).

37th foul. — A cap, or a hive box with vertical frames, was left to fill with capped honey.

If you harvest a cap (fig. 40, p. 91) or a super (fig. 41, p. 93) when it is full of honey, you can lose part of the harvest because, when the cap or the box is full, there is not enough room for the harvest, both in the box and in the hive. We must therefore put a second cap or a second box, under the first one already placed, when the first cap or the first box is two-thirds full of honey.

38th foul. — When harvesting frame hives (fig. 42, p. 95), the combs have not been sufficiently spaced apart from each other when removing a first comb.

By removing a first comb, we rub the bees against each other, which irritates them, and they sting the operator.

We must therefore always tilt the frames on top of each other before removing one.

39th foul. — By harvesting a frame hive, we discovered all the frames at once.

You only have to discover a few frames at a time, which makes the visit easier. Before removing the frames, you must continue to smoke between the combs, until the bees make a loud buzzing sound.

40th foul. — We don't know how to use the uncapping knife.

To operate easily you need two knives, one of which is dipped in boiling water while the other is used. To uncapping quickly, we use the Joly knife which has two handles (fig. 43, p. 97): but the shape of these knives does not allow them to be dipped in boiling water; we then use a kerosene stove on which we heat the knives.

41st foul. — We turned the extractor too fast at first, and we broke the spokes.

To avoid this accident, the extractor must be operated slowly. When the machine has acquired a certain speed, we hear a sound of rain which stops after a certain time; it is at this moment that the frames must be turned over to extract the honey from the second side until it is exhausted; then we turn them over to also use up the first side, which still contains a little honey.

42nd foul. — We placed in the extractor, opposite each other, rays of very different weights.

If the rays placed opposite each other are not approximately of the same weight, the moving extractor begins to swing and the device can be distorted. We must also pay attention, as said above, to the age of the rays; old combs, or those containing pollen, weigh much more than new ones. For new spokes, which are very fragile, they must be placed between mesh (fig. M, p. 99).

43rd foul. — We extracted the honey before it was capped.

Honey extracted without being sealed contains a lot of water, and, later, it will ferment in vases and crystallize only imperfectly; but we can generally extract honey from combs which are already three-quarters capped.

44th foul. — The honey was poured directly into the vases intended for sale without having first purified it.

This method is bad, even if the honey has been run through a sieve; because small particles of wax always pass through the sieve which rise to the surface of the honey. The honey must be poured into purifiers that are not very wide and very high; we will thus let it purify itself for a certain time; then we will then draw it into the vases. The upper part of the purifier contains the most liquid honey, which can be used to make mead or should be consumed first, as it could ferment later.

45th foul. — The containers containing the honey were placed in a humid place.

If the vases containing the honey do not have an airtight seal, they must be stored in a dry and ventilated place, in an attic for example. Without this precaution, the honey absorbs moisture, remains liquid on the surface and this upper part subsequently ferments. In a humid place, sealing the vases tightly is absolutely necessary.

46th foul. — The necessary precautions were not taken to ensure that the honey crystallized in the containers containing it.

The honey of certain flowers, when not mixed with any other, sometimes crystallizes with difficulty. By harvesting late, which means that we always harvest a mixture of several honeys, or by leaving in the hive a little honey from the previous year which we pass through the extractor at the same time as the Again, honey generally crystallizes easily.

II. — Meetings of the colonies.

47th foul. — We brought together two colonies far from each other and we were surprised, in the following days, not to find the hive which contained them noticeably more populous than before.

For a meeting to preserve all the bees of the two colonies, it is necessary that they are next to each other, because if we bring together two distant hives, the next day and the following days, many these bees will return to their former place, and, no longer finding their home, will seek hospitality from neighboring hives. If there is honey in the flowers, they will be well received, but if there is a shortage of honey, they will be killed at the entrance to the hives to which they are intended.

If the hives to be united are far apart, they will be brought closer to each other by approximately 50 centimeters, each day that the bees work.

48th foul. — We neglected, during a meeting of frame hives, to put all the brood combs together.

This is a serious fault, because if the number of bees is not sufficient to cover all the brood combs, part of this brood is abandoned and perishes in the cells; Foulbrood disease can break out and cause great damage to the apiary.

49th foul. — In one meeting, we did not sufficiently smoke the two colonies to be united, and we did not water the bees with flavored syrup.

In this case, there may be a battle between the bees, and many dead bees will be found on the tray or on the ground, outside the hive.

If, after a meeting, we see the bees chasing each other and fighting, we must hasten to smoke out the colony again, sprinkle the bees with syrup, and throw a few handfuls of flour between the combs and on the bees.

III. — Looting.

We will now examine the main causes of looting.

50th foul. — We forgot some honey near the hives.

Bees should never be able to enter any place where there is honey, even more so should we not leave honey in the apiary, which could lead all the colonies to pillage each other. There is nothing that excites bees more to plunder than having honey within their reach.

When we notice that there is a beginning of pillage, we place the smoker in front of the door, so as to prevent the bees from entering the hive (fig. 45, p. 101). You can also spray the looted hive with oil, except at the entrance, which must be greatly reduced.

51st foul. — When visiting a colony, we left the hive open too long.

When the bees hardly come out in the middle of the day, which indicates that there is little honey in the flowers, we must learn to visit the hives quickly, because during the operation there are always bees coming from other colonies that seek to enter the hive, which can lead to pillaging.

When there is a shortage of honey in the flowers, it will be prudent to only visit the hives at dusk and if there is some agitation in the apiary everything will calm down at night.

However, while visiting the combs, you should place the mechanical smoker on the hive in front of you, so as to work in a cloud of smoke which prevents raiders from entering the hive (fig. 32, p. 65).

52nd foul. — We put back into the hive, in the middle of the day, to have them cleaned by the bees, combs that we have just passed through the extractor.

If we do this, there is always a danger of looting. We must only give the combs to be cleaned at dusk, and, moreover, take care to greatly narrow the entrances to all the colonies in the apiary.

When you have a lot of shelves to clean, you will have to give them all at once in the same evening. The next day, we will still see some agitation, but everything will calm down soon.

53rd foul. — We left the entrances to weak or orphan hives too open.

Weak or orphan colonies must have their entrances very narrow, because there are always bees trying to enter these colonies to grab the honey. As soon as we realize that a hive is orphaned, we must unite it with another as soon as possible, this is the simplest way to take advantage of it.

54th foul. — Poorly constructed hives have slits through which bees can enter.

Bees should only be able to enter and exit hives through one door; we must therefore block all the cracks through which bees can penetrate; a single hive which is thus defective could be attacked by plunderers and cause general disorder in the apiary.

55th foul. — We have colonies of different breeds in the apiary.

Bees of foreign races, for example the Italian ones, are plunderers by nature; We will therefore have to monitor more carefully an apiary which has bees of different breeds. In general, when we see a few colonies very active at a time when all the others are working little, we must fear some kind of disorder in the apiary.

56th foul. — When the hive has two entrances, both entrances are left open at the same time.

During the working season, only one entrance should be left open at a time. This way the bees are more easily guarded and the brood spreads much less. The second entrance is only used during winter to provide air to the bees across the entire width of the hive (fig. 49, p. 113).

At the end of winter, we close the second entrance which was open during the cold season.

IV. — Artificial swarming.

57th foul. — We want to renew our apiary only through natural swarming.

Natural swarming offers many disadvantages; sometimes we hope to have swarms and none come out of the hives, sometimes the swarms fly away and they are lost. Other times they are difficult to collect, or mingle together, or speaking too late in the season cannot harvest their winter supplies. In any case, constant monitoring in the apiary is necessary for weeks. It is to obviate these multiple disadvantages that for a long time many methods have been proposed for making swarms yourself, which we call artificial swarms.

The beekeeper who has large frame hives should not expect, with some exceptions, to see natural swarms coming out of his hives. It follows that if, each year, it does not create artificial swarms, it will be obliged to fill the gaps by purchasing new colonies.

58th foul. — We used a bad method of artificial swarming.

The difficulty for the beginner is not to make an artificial swarm, which is easy, but to know how to choose from the many methods proposed which is the best. Furthermore, if he operates without sufficient knowledge of the multiple resources of the country, the strength of the colonies and the most favorable times, he can make many mistakes.

Here is the principle of an artificial swarming method which almost always gives good results:

We propose to create an artificial swarm using two large hives which will be moved.

Suppose that these two strong hives are the hives A and B shown below, and that next to them there is an empty hive C in which we want to establish an artificial swarm by means of these two strong hives A and B ; we will have :

1st position.

HAS

Strong hive

Empty hive

All the bees from hive B are moved to hive C, which is then placed in the place occupied by hive B; then we place hive B which no longer contains bees, in place of hive A which we transport far away into the apiary.

We will therefore have:

2nd position.

Mother hive containing the combs and collecting those of the bees of A which returning from the harvest return to their old place.

Hive containing the artificial swarm, formed by bees coming from hive B.

HAS

Hive moved far away which preserved the bees not yet going to harvest.

Hive B will have a mother again, and we will thus have three hives instead of two at the end of the season.

Note. — If hive B (which will rarely happen) produces a secondary swarm, 13 or 14 days after the operation, the swarm will be collected in a common hive. The swarm will be put in a cellar for 48 hours, and then returned to the hive.

FIG. 39. — PLACING A CAP ON A VULGAR HIVE.

The beekeeper, after unblocking the hole which should give passage to the bees in the cap, places this cap on the hive; then, with a coating that he places using a trowel, he closes the cracks that exist between the cap and the hive.

FIG. 40. — HARVESTING A CALOTTE.

The beekeeper lifts the cap, smokes it, closes the passage hole for the bees in the common hive with the cap he holds in his hand, then takes away the cap full of combs.

FIG. 41. — HARVESTING A HIVE HIVE.

The beekeeper, after placing a canvas on the exposed box, lifts the box, then before removing it, smokes the bees.

FIG. 42. — HARVESTING THE RAYS OF A RUCUE.

After having smoked the hive, the beekeeper, to remove the bees from the combs, chases them from the frames on which they are, throwing them back into the hive using the brush. He then places the frames in the crate next to him.

FIG. 43. — UNCOPERCULATION OF THE RAYS.

The beekeeper has suspended a comb to uncapping on two hooks; then, using the knife he cuts the covers. When he reaches the bottom of the shelf, he cleans the knife and replaces it with the one heating on the stove placed next to it.

FIG. 44. — EXTRACTION OF HONEY.

The beekeeper, having new and fragile combs to pass through the extractor, placed them, after uncapping them, between two meshes, and put them in the extractor to remove the honey.

FIG. 45. — A COLONY UNDER LOOTTING.

The beekeeper, seeing a colony that is beginning to be pillaged, places his smoker in front of the door, so that the smoke prevents the bees from entering. The looters inside come out through the smoke, but cannot re-enter. After operating the smoker in this way for about half an hour, he will remove it and narrow the entrance, leaving a passage for only one bee at a time. This method is generally successful in stopping the looting in the beginning.

CHAPTER FIFTH

FEEDING, WINTERING, WAX MANUFACTURING

I. — Feeding bees.

We will successively examine the mistakes that can be made in feeding, either for ordinary hives (fig. 46) or for frame hives (fig. 47, p. 109).

FIG. 46. — FEEDING OF VULGAR HIVES.

The beekeeper places, under a common hive, a plate full of honey or sugar syrup, to feed it. He took care to put cork slices on top of the syrup so that the bees would not drown.

59th foul. — We neglected to remove the feeder in the morning, before the bees left, and it still contains syrup.

As long as a colony is absorbing syrup, it is always more or less in danger of being plundered by bees from other hives; it is therefore prudent to only feed at night. If you forget to remove the feeder and looting occurs, see precautions, e.g. 84.

60th foul. — We did not leave enough provisions in the fall and we were obliged to feed, at the end of winter, a colony which lacked provisions; This colony was given a little syrup every evening.

The syrup given in small doses excites the queen to lay eggs, and if, which frequently happens in March and April, the temperature suddenly drops, the bees may be forced to close in to the point of abandoning the young brood; this can then perish, then rot in the cells and occasional serious foulbrood disease.

If you have to feed colonies at the end of winter, you must give thick syrup, which will prevent too much humidity in the hive. When it comes to frame hives, one or two combs must be filled with syrup (fig. 47, p. 109) and given to the colony, never to be touched again.

We can thus administer 3 or 4 kilograms to a large colony in one go, which allows us to wait a long time before renewing the supply. It would even be simpler to add to this hive one or two frames of capped honey which we should always have in reserve.

61st foul. — We fed very late in the season with syrup containing too much water.

In the cold weather of autumn, bees cannot evaporate excess water from the administered syrup, so they are forced to overwinter on combs containing uncapped syrup. Wintering then takes place in poor conditions, because the bees find themselves in a humid environment which is completely contrary to good wintering.

If the bees lacked provisions, it would have been necessary to feed earlier, in August for example, and follow the method indicated in the previous paragraph.

62nd foul. — Colonies were fed in the fall, giving them just the weight of syrup that would be necessary to reach spring.

We must always give more food than seems necessary, because, as a result of feeding, part of the syrup is spent by the bees, either to feed new brood, or through the storage itself. during which the bees consume more.

It was calculated that this expense could be estimated at around a quarter of the syrup administered. It would therefore have been necessary to give them a quarter more than the just necessary provision; otherwise, we risk losing the hive or at least being forced to feed it too early at the end of winter.

63rd foul. — Bees don't take the syrup we offer them.

When it is cold, or if the colony contains very few bees, they do not easily leave their combs to get the syrup. It is advantageous, if you have frame hives, to place a comb filled with syrup next to the first comb on which there are a few bees, and soon the bees will flock. If you have common hives, you will need to place the plate containing the syrup high enough so that the slices of cork or the strands of straw which float on the surface of the syrup touch the base of the first combs.

If the colony is very weak, it is a good idea to turn the hive upside down, throw a little syrup between the combs on the bees and immediately place the hive back on the plate containing the syrup.

II. — Wintering of colonies.

Let us examine the mistakes that can be made in wintering either ordinary hives (fig. 48, p. 111), or frame hives (fig. 49, p. 113).

64th foul. — We forgot to tilt the hives during the winter and to separate the tray from the hive with small wedges, in order to obtain a current of air under the combs.

In humid places, and where, due to close shelters, the air does not circulate around the hives, the humidity produced by the bees cannot escape outside. The result is that many bees die and the others, having become sick, go outside to die at the end of winter; hence, the depopulation of the hives in spring.

65° fault. — We only left just enough honey. necessary for wintering.

We must always leave in the hives, for the winter, more honey than is strictly necessary; because in a mild winter, or if the very fertile mother begins her laying early, it results in a greater expenditure of honey than in ordinary winters.

It is prudent never to leave less than 30 or 35 pounds of honey in the fall; otherwise, we may have to feed too early in the spring.

66th foul. — In approximately calculating the honey left in the hives during the winter, we forgot to take into account the old age of the combs which contain the honey.

We must not forget that an old spoke weighs much more than a new one; the same goes for a comb that contains a lot of pollen. We must therefore take this difference into account when, in autumn, we leave winter provisions for the bees.

III. — Manufacture of wax.

67th foul. — We want to remove the wax from the shelves without knowing in detail the procedure to follow.

If we want to extract the wax from these old combs, without using complicated and expensive tools, we will use the following process (fig. 50 p. 115):

A tap is fitted to the lower part of a cauldron. The cauldron should be placed on a tripod high enough so that a watering can can easily be placed under the faucet.

The boiler, two-thirds filled with water, is then placed on the fire; when the water boils, add the rays, then, using a stick, stir everything until the wax is completely melted. Care must be taken not to add too many rays at once, and to reduce the heat when everything is boiling, for fear that the molten wax will overflow the boiler, as it is flammable.

When the wax is melted, boiling water is drawn off through the tap into the watering can. Using a kitchen strainer, we draw from the boiler a certain quantity of marc mixed with wax and water, and, while, with one hand, we support this strainer above the boiler, on the other we pour all the boiling water contained in the watering can; this water carries all the wax with it and we throw away the pool that remains in the strainer.

We repeat this operation until all the grounds in the cauldron are used up.

At this moment, we melt a new quantity of rays and we start the operation again.

When we have finished, we remove the boiler from the fire and surround it with straw or hay, also wrapping it with blankets so that as it cools very slowly, the wax purifies.

It is by this process that we most easily obtain all the wax from the combs.

FIG. 47. — FEEDING FRAME HIVES.

The beekeeper, when he has to feed his bees, pours thick syrup, using a cruet, into the cells of a comb that he has placed on an oilcloth placed on a table. He has, next to him, a box in which he places the shelves containing the syrup. This box has a tin bottom to receive the little syrup that drips.

FIG. 48. — WINTERING OF A VULGAR HIVE.

The beekeeper has attached, in front of the entrance to the hive, a grid whose holes are large enough for the bees to pass through; he then slipped, between the tray and the hive, two pieces of slate approximately 5 millimeters thick, so that air could circulate under the hive during the winter. At the end of winter he removes the wedges and the grid.

FIG. 49 — FRAME HIVE IN WINTERING.

The beekeeper replaced the doors with winter grilles. To renew the air, he then lifted the hive onto its tray, then, behind it, he slipped two small wedges about 5 millimeters thick under the hive, one of which can be seen on the right. Finally, so that the water from the tray can drain, he lifts the tray carrying the hive by putting two large wedges under the hive. We see one of them, in the figure, between the tray and the stool, on the right.

FIG. 50. — MANUFACTURE OF WAX.

The beekeeper, seated on the left, is using a skimmer to stir the grounds that he has removed from a kitchen strainer. At the same time, a helper pours boiling water over the grounds. The water carries the melted wax into the boiler, and the grounds remain in the strainer. When there is no more wax in the strainer, he throws away the grounds and repeats the operation until he runs out.

We finish this little beekeeping album by giving photographed reproductions of four apiaries located in Auvergne, Dauphiné and Normandy; they are represented on plates 51, 52, 53 and 54.

FIG. 51. — Apiary of Mr. COUSIN, FARMER IN BEAUPUITS (EURE). 50 horizontal hives of 18 to 20 frames.

FIG. 52. — Apiary of Mr. HOMMELL, PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURE IN RIOM, DURTOL (PUY-DE-DOME). 100 horizontal hives of 30 frames.

FIG. 53. — HIVERY OF M, ABBÉ BAPFERT IN LUZIKAY (ISÈRE). 30 horizontal hives of 20 to 26 frames.

FIG. 54. — HIVERY OF EXPERIMENTS OF M. DE LAYENS.

CONCLUSION

We have just reviewed a certain number of mistakes that can be made in beekeeping, and certainly others can still occur.

However, the beginner should not let himself be frightened by the form given to this small volume, because if the possible mistakes are highlighted there, this does not mean that in reality he will commit them all. Indeed, on the one hand, simply reading the preceding pages will allow him to avoid many of these inconveniences in advance; on the other hand, these mistakes, when they are made, most often have, alongside their statement, the very simple solution which allows them to be remedied.

When a beginner is told how to perform an operation, he is not always told what will prevent him from succeeding if he operates otherwise. The way in which this volume is written has the advantage of showing him in a palpable way the consequences to which he exposes himself, if he wants to operate according to his whim instead of following to the letter the advice of practiced practice.

It is useful for the beginner to have done the most varied operations with bees, and to have gone through the greatest number of difficulties himself, because this is how he will be able to acquire the experience necessary for him. allow him to eliminate them all, and only then will he adopt any method he wishes, even the simplest.

METHOD TABLE

PREFACE 5

FIRST CHAPTER

Purchasing natural swarms 7

Purchase of common hives 10

Transport of hives 12

SECOND CHAPTER

Premature transfer 25

Transfer from a common hive to an empty common hive. 26

Transfer to a frame hive 29

CHAPTER THREE

Visit to the hives 55

CHAPTER FOUR

Harvest 79

Meeting of the colonies 83

Looting 84

Artificial swarming 87

CHAPTER FIFTH

Bee feeding 103

Wintering of bees 106

Wax making 107

CONCLUSION 127

SHAPES TABLE

Gathering a swarm 7

Reunion of common hives by superposition 8

Harvesting a poorly placed swarm 13

Start of construction of rays 15

Hive full of combs 15

Installation of a super to a common hive 17

Transfer to a frame hive by superposition 19

Hive ready to be transported 21

Transport of hives 23

The beekeeper knocks on the bottom hive, in order to make the bees go up to the top hive 27

Mat comb built into the frame, when the hive has not been placed upright 30

How to place the primed wax blade 31

Frame with wires to hold the embossed wax 32

Way of tensioning the wires on a frame 33

Transferring a common hive by tapping 35

Search for eggs 37

Transfer to a frame hive by inversion 39

Bonding of primers 41

Beekeeper priming frames 43

Fixing embossed wax in frames 45

Frame filled with pieces of comb whose honey is returned to the bees 47

Frame with replaced male cells 49

Introduction of a swarm into a frame hive 51

Introduction of a swarm into a frame hive by throwing the swarm into the hive 53

Mother cells 56

Brood in different states 56

Arrangement of frames in a hive in spring 58

Frame cut in the middle 59

A primed framework 59

Visit to a common hive 61

Smoking a hive 63

Visit of departments 65

Comb lined with embossed wax where the bees have barely started to work 67

Frame with brood of males 69

Compact and crowned shelf 71

Scattered brood comb 73

Buildings under construction 75

Grafting of a mother's socket 77

Placing a cap on a common hive 89

Harvesting a skullcap 91

Harvesting a honeybee hive 93

Harvesting combs from a hive 95

Uncapping shelves 97

Honey extraction 99

A pillaging colony 101

Feeding common hives 103

Feeding frame hives 109

Wintering a common hive 111

Frame hive in winter 113

Wax making 115

Apiary of Mr. Cousin, farmer in Beaupuits (Eure) 119

Apiary of Mr. Hommell, professor of agriculture in Riom (Puy-de-Dôme) 121

Apiary of Mr. Abbé Baffert in Luzinay (Isère) 123

Apiary of experiments of M. de Layens 125

9770-95. — CROW. Printing ED. CRETE.

PAUL DUPONT BOOKSTORE, 4, RUE DU BOULOI, PARIS

NATURAL SCIENCES

Works by Mr. Gaston BONNIER

PROFESSOR AT LA SORBONNE

Complete course in natural history, Zoology, Botany, Geology, for use by candidates for the Brevet Supérieure, Upper Primary Schools, Normal Schools, Agricultural Schools, Baccalaureate candidates, etc. Work written according to the new programs of 1891 and 1893, with 767 figures in the text and a colored geological map. 15th edition. Hardcover price 4 fr. »

Natural history and hygiene, for the elementary certificate and for use in upper primary schools. Work conforms to the new programs of 1893, with 530 figures in the text. A volume in-12 of more than 400 pages. Price, hardback 2 fr. 75

Mr. Gaston BONNIER wrote this work in the same spirit as his Complete Course of Natural History for the Brevet Supérieur, which is very successful.

In this new volume, the author has also condensed all of Natural History into a single course, but remaining more elementary and giving greater emphasis to applications, which is both in the spirit of the exam of the Elementary Certificate and the new study plan for upper primary schools; in addition he added the notions of hygiene by showing their relationship with the natural sciences.

We can say of this volume what was said of the work intended for the Brevet supérieur:

“What should be praised especially in Mr. Bonnier's new work is the clarity. With such a book, you cannot forget what you have just learned: you cannot ignore which are the important questions of the course and which are the relatively incidental parts.

“Thanks to the way in which the chapters are prepared, brought to methodical development and carefully summarized, the reader finds himself guided through descriptions and classifications which seem to be the most difficult. A considerable number of figures, often simplified or schematized, further add to the clarity of the text.

“Such a work was missing: it will, without a doubt, replace the outdated manuals which have spread so many false notions in education, which are still so difficult to uproot today. »

A LITTLE NATURAL HISTORY, for the school certificate and preparation for 6th grade (in preparation).

ELEMENTS OF ZOOLOGY (6th grade classes of classical education and modern education), with 364 figures. New edition ; cloth binding 2 fr. 50

ELEMENTS OF BOTANY (5th grade classes of classical education and modern education), with 403 figures, 16th edition; cloth binding 2 fr. 50

ELEMENTS OF GEOLOGY (5th grade classes of classical education and modern education, with 279 figures in the text, color map. (Just published.) Cloth binding 2 fr. 50

ANIMAL ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY (Classes of philosophy, 1st grade, modern education and elementary mathematics, with 268 figures in the text. New revised and corrected edition; 3 fr. cloth binding."

PLANT ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY (Philosophy, 1st grade, modern education and elementary mathematics classes), with 345 figures in the text. New edition; cloth binding 3 fr. »

PAUL DUPONT BOOKSTORE, 4, RUE DU BOULOI, PARIS.

NEW FLORA

For easy plant identification without technical words

By GASTON BONNIER, Professor at the Sorbonne,

and G. DE LAYENS, Laureate of the Academy of Sciences.

With 2,170 new figures

containing plants common in the interior of France.

This Flora was crowned by the Academy of Sciences and by the French Agricultural Society.)

A pocket volume, 5th edition revised and corrected, with new tables for Cruciferae. — Price, paperback: 4 fr. 50; English binding: 5 fr.

Work adopted for the primary schools of the city of Paris, by the Commission on the Sciences of Primary Education for the Primary Normal Schools, registered on most departmental lists, honored with subscriptions from the Ministry of Public Instruction and the Ministry of Agriculture; two gold medals from the National Society of Agriculture, etc.

The extraordinary success of La Nouvelle Flore by MM. G. Bonnier and de Layens dispense with praising this work. It is enough to recall that its appearance caused a revolution in the teaching of descriptive Botany. The authors have abandoned the old methods bristling with barbaric and incomprehensible terms; they succeeded in putting the practical determination of plants within everyone’s reach.

SMALL FLORA

Summary of the NEW FLORA

FOR EASY DETERMINATION OF THE MOST COMMON SPECIES

PRECEDED BY NOTIONS OF BOTANY.

with 898 figures

By MM. G. BONNIER and G. DE LAYENS

A volume in-12, hardback. New edition. — Price: 1 fr. 50

(This work was recommended by the Ministry of Public Education.)

Flora of Northern France and Belgium, by MM. GASTON BONNIER and G. DE LAYENS, with 2282 figures and a map of botanical regions. 2nd edition, revised and corrected. 1 vol. of 350 pages. Paperback, 4 fr. 50; bound 5 fr.

New Flora of Mosses and Liverworts, without technical words, with 1,288 figures in the text representing all the species (following the New Flora), by M. Douin, Professor at the Chartres high school. Paperback, 5 fr. ; bound 5 fr. 50

Catalog of Plants of France, Switzerland and numbered species, subspecies, etc., by the Institute.