for bee entirely different lines from those followed in the British Isles, where honey production as an occupation has, until quite recent years, been regarded as too insignificant for official notice in any form. The value of the bee industry is now recognized, however, by the British government as worthy of state State aid aid, in the promotion of technical instruction connected keeping. with agriculture. On the American continent apiculture is officially recognized by the respective states' governments; and by the federal government at Washington it is taken into account as a section of the Agricultural Department, with fully equipped experimental apiaries and qualified professors engaged therein for educational work. In several Canadian provinces also, the public funds are used in promoting the bee industry in various ways, mainly in combating the bee-disease known as "foul brood." In New Zealand the government of the colony has displayed the most praiseworthy earnestness and vigour in promoting apiculture. State-aided apiaries have been established under the supervision of a skilled bee-keeper, who travels over the colony giving instruction in practical bee-work at the public schools, and forming classes at various centres where pupils are taught bee-keeping in all its branches. In Europe similar progress is observable; technical schools, with well-equipped apiaries attached, are supported by the state, and in them the science and practice of modern bee-keeping is taught free by scientists and practical experts. Institutions of this kind have been established in Germany, Russia, Switzerland and elsewhere, all tending in the same direction, viz. the cultivation of the honey-bee as an appreciable source of income to the farmer, the peasant cultivator, and dwellers in districts where bee-forage is abundant and, if unvisited by the bee, lies wasting its sweetness on the desert air. It may be safely said that the value of the bee to the fruit-grower and the market-gardener has been proved beyond dispute; and the technical instruction now afforded by county councils in the rural districts of England has an appreciable effect. In proof Value of thereof, we may quote the case of an extensive grower bees as in the midland counties-sending fruit to the London fertilizers. market in tons-whose crop of gooseberries increased nearly fourfold after establishing a number of stocks of bees in close proximity to the gooseberry bushes. The fruit orchards and raspberry fields of Kent are also known to be greatly benefited by the numerous colonies of bees owned by more than 3000 bee-keepers in the county. The important part played by the bee in the economy of nature as a fertilizer is shown in fig. 9. In the United Kingdom the prevailing conditions, climatic mankind in a greater degree than any other creature of the insect world. We are told that some of these ancient scientists passed years of their lives studying the wonders of bee-life, and left accurate records of their observations, which on many points agree with the investigations of later observers. As a forcible illustration of the manner in which a colony of bees was recognized as the embodiment of government by a chief or ruler, in the earliest times of which there is any existing record, it may be mentioned that on the sarcophagus containing the mummified remains of Mykerinos (now in the British Museum and dating back 3633 years B.C.) will be found a hieroglyphic bee (fig. 8) representing the king of Lower Egypt. In dealing with the practical side of beekeeping as now understood, it may be said FIG. 8.-Sign of that, compared with the methods in vogue the king of Lower during the first decade of the 19th century, Egypt; from the or even within the memory of men still coffin of Mykerinos, living at the beginning of the 20th, it 3633 B.C. (British is as the modern locomotive to the stageMuseum). coach of a previous generation. Almost everything connected with bee-craft has been revolutionized, and apiculture, instead of being classed with such homely rural occupations as that of the country housewife who carries a few eggs weekly to the market-town in her basket, is to-day regarded in many countries as a pursuit of considerable importance. Remarkable progress has also been made in Queenthe art of queen-rearing, and in improving the common rearing. or native bee by judicious crossing with the best foreign races, selected mainly for hardiness, working qualities and the prolific capacity of their queens. American bee-breeders are conspicuous in this respect, extensive apiaries being exclusively devoted to the business of rearing queens by the thousand for sale and export. On the European continent queen-rearing apiaries are plentiful, but less attention is paid there to hybridizing than to keeping the respective races pure. In England also, some bee-keepers include queen-rearing as part of their business, while one large apiary on the south coast is exclusively devoted to the rearing of queen bees on the latest scientific system, and to breeding by selection from such races as are most suited to the exceptional climatic conditions of the country. Extensive apiaries have been established on the American continent, some containing from 2000 to 3500 colonies of bees, and in these honey is harvested in hundreds of tons yearly. The magnitude of the bee industry in the United States may be judged from the fact of a single bee-farmer located in California having harvested from 150,000 lb of honey in one year from 2000 stocks of bees, and, as an instance of the enormous weight of honey obtainable from good hives in that favoured region, the same farmer secured 60,000 lb of comb-honey in one season from his best 300 colonies. This is probably the maximum, and the hives were necessarily located in separate apiaries some few miles apart in order to avoid the evils of overstocking, but all in the midst of thousands of acres of honey-yielding flowers. Results like the above compared with those of the skeppist beekeeper of former days, who was well pleased with an average of 20 to 25 lb per hive, may be regarded as wonderful, but they are matters of fact. The consumption of honey Honey as food. as an article of food has also largely increased of late years; a recent computation shows that from 100 to 125 million lb of honey, representing a money value of from A, eight to ten million dollars, is consumed annually in the United States alone. Many of the larger bee-farmers of the United States of America and Canada harvest from 50,000 to 60,000 lb of honey in a single season, and some of them sell the whole crop direct to consumers. It is a notable fact that in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and indeed all English-speaking countries outside the United Kingdom, honey is far more extensively used than it is there as an article of daily food. The natural result of this is that the trade in honey is conducted, in those countries, on A ILC no ws FIG. 9.-A, Raspberry (Rubus idaeus, order Rosaceae), being fertilized. B, Cross section. B, Section through core, or toru. (C) and drupels (D). Flower. P. P. Petals. a, a, Anthers. Stigma. no, Nectary openings. Nectar cells. Drupels. D, ud, Unfertilized drupel. ws, Withered stigma. (From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Practical.) and otherwise, with regard to apiculture-as well as the lack of sufficient natural bee-forage for large apiaries-are such as to preclude the possibility of establishing apiaries on a scale comparable with those located in less confined lands. On the other appliance As a natural consequence of this activity, the trade in beeappliance making has assumed enormous proportions in the United States, where extensive factories have been established, one firm-employing over 500 hands, The beeand using electric-power machinery of the most modern trade. type-being devoted entirely to the manufacture of bee-goods and apiarian requisites. From this establishment alone the yearly output is about 25,000 bee-hives, and upwards of 100 millions of the small wooden boxes used for holding combhoney The most generally approved form of this box is known as the "1-lb section," made from a strip of wood in. thick, 2 in. wide, and of such length that when folded by joining the morticed and tenoned ends A B (fig. 1o) it forms the section or box C, measuring 4"X4" X 2" when complete, and holds about 1 lb of comb-honey when filled by the bees and ready for table use. The V-shaped groove D (cut across and partly through the wood) shows the joint when in the flat, and E the same joint when closed for use. All the section boxes used in the United Kingdom are made in the U.S.A. or in Canada from the timber known as basswood no native wood being suitable for the purpose. FIG. 10.-1-lb section" wooden box for holding Comb-honey. (Redrawn from the 4 BC of Bee-Culture, published by the A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio, US. A) The straw Development of the Movable-frame Hive.-The dome shaped straw skep of our forefathers may be regarded as the typical bee-hive of all time and of all civilized countries; indeed, it may with truth be said that as a healthy skep and convenient home for the honey-bee it has no equal. A swarm of bees hived in a straw skep, the picturesque little domicile known the world over as the personification of industry, will furnish their home with waxen combs in form and shape so admirably adapted to their requirements as to need no improvement by man. Why the circular form was chosen for the skep need not be inquired into, beyond saying that its shape conforms to that of a swarm, as the bees usually hang clustered on the branch of a neighbouring tree or bush after issuing from the parent hive. Fig. 11 shows a straw skep in section, and explains -bs A Bee keepers associations. Bee and honey shows. hand, even in England the value of bee-keeping is worthy of recognition as a minor industry connected with such items of agriculture as fruit-growing, market-gardening or poultryraising. The fact that British honey is second to none for quality, and that the British market is eagerly sought by the bec-keepers of other nationalities, has of late impressed itself on the minds of thinking men. Moreover, their views are confirmed by the constant references to bees and the profits obtainable from bee-keeping in the leading papers on all sides. This newly-aroused interest in the subject is no doubt to a large extent fostered by the grants in aid of technical instruction afforded by county councils in rural districts. The British Beekeepers' Association (instituted in 1874) has been untiring in its efforts to raise the standard of efficiency among those who are desirous of qualifying as experts and teachers of bee-keeping on modern methods. This body had for its first president the distinguished naturalist Sir John Lubbock (Lord Avebury). Subsequently the baroness BurdettCoutts accepted the office in the year 1878, and was re-elected annually until her death in 1906. During this time she presided at its meetings and took an active part in its work, until advancing years prevented her attendance, but her interest in the welfare of the association was maintained to the last. Branch societies of bee-keepers were established throughout the English counties, mainly by the efforts of the parent body in London, with the object of securing co-operation in promoting the sale of honey, and showing the most modern methods of producing it in its most attractive form at exhibitions held for the purpose. Nearly the whole of these county societies affiliated with the central association, paying an affiliation fee yearly, and receiving in return the silver medal, bronze medal and certificate of the association, to be offered as prizes for competition at the annual county shows. Other advantages are given in connexion with the qualifying of experts, &c., while nearly all the county associations in the United Kingdom employ qualified men who visit members in spring and autumn for the purpose of examining hives and giving advice on bee management to those needing it. Another advantage of membership is the use of a "county label" for affixing to each section of honey in comb, or jar of extracted honey, offered for sale by members. These labels are numbered consecutively, and thus afford a guarantee of the genuineness and quality of the honey, the label enabling purchasers to trace the producer if needed. The British Bee-keepers' Association is an entirely philanthropic body, the only object of its members being to promote all that is good in British bee-keeping, and to "teach humanity to that industrious little labourer, the honey-bee." Bee-appliance manufacturers are not eligible for membership of its council, nor are those who make bee-keeping their main business; thus no professional jealousies can possibly arise. In this respect the association appears to stand alone among the bee-keepers' societies of the world. There are many equally beneficial societies, framed on different lines, existing in Germany, France, Russia and Switzerland, but they are mainly co-operative bodies instituted for the general benefit of members, who are without exception either bee-keepers on a more or less extensive scale, or scientists interested in the study of insect life. Honey The bee-keepers' associations of the United States, Canada and most of the British colonies, are-like those last mentioned above-formed for the sole and laudable purpose of promoting the business interests of their members, the latter being either bec-farmers or bec-appliance manufacturers. Thus they make no pretension of any but business discussions at their conferences, and much benefit to all concerned follows as a matter of course. In fact, we find enthusiastic bee-men and women travelling several hundreds of miles and devoting time, money and labour in attending conferences of bee-keepers in America, while the proceedings usually last for several days and are largely attended. The extent of the industry compared with that of Great Britain is so great that it fully accounts for the difference in procedure of the respective associations. FIG. 11.-Straw skep in section, showing arrangement of Combs Pollen. B, Horizontal section. sc, sc, Store combs (From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-beeping, Scientific end Practical) itself as illustrating the admirable way in which the bees furnish their dwelling. The vertical section (A) shows the lower portion of the combs devoted to brood-rearing, the higher and thicker combs being reserved for honey, and midway between the brood and food is stored the pollen required for mixing with honey in feeding the larvae. It will be seen how well the upper part of the combs are fitted for bearing the weight of stores they contain. Hubers hive. and how the lower portion allows the bees to cluster around the Ten of these frames had a small piece of comb fixed to the toptender larvae and thus maintain the warmth necessary during its bar in each, supported (temporarily) by a tiin lath wedged up metamorphosis from the egg to the perfect insect. The hori with pegs at side, the latter being removed when the comb had zontal section (B) with equal clearness demonstrates the bee's been made secure by the bees. When closed, the ten frames, ingenuity in economizing space, showing how the outer combs together with the two outside ones (fitted with squares of glass are used exclusively for stores, and, as such, may be built of for inspection), which represent the covers of the book, were lied varying thickness as more or less storage room is required. The together with a couple of stout strings. In a subsequent form straw skep has, however, the irredeemable fault of fixed combs, of the same hive Huber was enabled with the help of very long and the gradual development of the movable-frame thumb-screws at each side (fig. 23) to raise up any frame The more hive of to-day may be said to have first appeared in between two sheets of glass which confined the bees 1789 with the leaf-hive of Huber, so called from its and allowed him to study the process of comb-building opening like the leaves of a book. Prior to that date better than any hive we know of to-day. By means for hive. wooden box-hives of various shapes had been adopted by of the leaf-hive and using the entrances (fig. 13, 64, A) advanced bee-masters anxious to increase their output of honey, Huber made artificial swarms by dividing and the use of divisionand by enthusiastic naturalists desirous of studying and in- | boards, though not in quite the same fashion as is practised at vestigating the wonders of bee-life apart from the utilitarian the present day. On the other hand, it must be admitted thao standpoint. Foremost among the latter was the distinguished 193 Swiss naturalist and bee-keeper, François Huber, who was led to construct the leaf-hive bearing his name after experimenting with a single comb obeervatory hive recommended by Réaumur. to eat tid Huber found that although he could induce swarms to occupy the glass-sided single frame advised by Réaumur, if the frame was fitted with ready-built pieces of comb patched together before hiving the swarm, the experiment was successful, while if left to themselves the bees built small combs across the space Lupin between the sheets of glass, and the desired inspection from the EVS outside was thus rendered impossible. He also gathered that the hi abnormal conditions forced upon the bees by a ready-built single comb might so turn aside their natural instincts as to render his investigations less trustworthy than if conducted under perfectly old natural conditions; so, in order to remove all doubt, he decided to have a series of wooden frames made, measuring 12 in. sq., FIG. 13.--Huber's bar-hive, showing how comb is built. cb, Comb each of rather more than the ordinary width allowed for broodbar: 1. &. glass sheets; 5.5, screws; e, entrance. combs. These frames were numbered consecutively 1 to 12, From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Predial) and hinged together as shown in fig. 12 (h, A). In this way the Huber's hive was defective in many respects; the parting of cach frame, thus letting loose the whole colony, caused much trouble at times, but it remained the only movable-comb hive A till 1838, when Dr Dzierzon-whose theory of parthenogenesis has made his name famous-devised a box-hive with a loose top-bar on which the bees built their combs and a movable side or door, by means of which the frames could be lifted out for inspection. This improvement was at once appreciated, and in 12 the year 185a Baron Berlepsch added side-bars and a bottom-bar, thus completing the movable frame. About the same time the Rev. L. L. Langstroth was experimenting on the same lines in America, and in 1857 his important invention was made known, giving to the world of Lang bee-keepers a movable frame which in its most im- strotti's portant details will never be excelled. We refer to the respective distances left between the side-bars and hive walls on each side, and between the lower edge of the bottom-bars and the floor-board. Langstroth, in his measurements, hit upon the happy mean which keeps bees from propolizing or fastening the frames to the hive body, as they assuredly would do if B sufficient space had not been allowed for free passage round tlic side-bars, it is equally certain that if too much space had bera provided, they would fill it with comb and thus render the frame immovable. In addition to these benefits, Langstroth's frame and hive possessed the enormous advantage over Dzierzon's of с being manipulated from above, so that any single frame could be raised for inspection without disturbing the others. Lange stroth's space-measurements have remained practically unaltered notwithstanding the many improvements le hive-making, and in the various sizes of movable frames, since introduced and used FIG 12-Huber's book or leal hive. in different parts of the worla. A. Book his B, Side view of frame In the United States of America Langstroth's frame and live e... lntrance or leaf. C Part of bin, crowd are the acknowledged "standards" among the great body of %, s, Sede leaves. 15. Top-bar. section lettering bee-keepers, although about a dozen different frames, k. Hinges Comb. varying more or less in size, have their adherents. Slueel s por Clavahire's Bed aad Beekeeping. Sdexiife ad Prasileal.) Among these may be named the American, Adair, the face frames of comb could be opened for inspection like a book, while Danzenbaker, Gallup, Heddon, Langstruth and when closed the beas clustered together as in an ordinary.hive. I Quinby. Three of these, the American, Adair and Gallup, may be termed square frames, the others being oblong, but the latter shape appears to possess the most all-round advantages to the modern bee-keeper Amid the different climatic conditions of so vast a continent as America, variation in size, and in the capacity of frames used, is in some measure accounted for British ard" frame. In the British Isles, though the conditions are variable enough, they are less extreme, and, fortunately for those engaged in the pursuit, only one size of frame is acknowledged by "Stand- the great majority of bee-keepers, viz. the British Bee-keepers' Association "Standard" (fig. 14). This frame, the outside measurement of which is 14 by 8 in., was the outcome of deliberations extending over a considerable time on the part of a committee of well-known bee-keepers, specially appointed in 1882 to consider the matter. In this way, whatever type or form of -17hive is used, the frames are interchangeable. Differences in view may, and do, exist regarding the thickness of the wood used in frame-making, but the outside measurement never varies. Notwithstanding this fact, the adFIG. 14-Standard Frame. vancement of apiculture and the continuous development of the modern frame-hive and methods of working have proceeded with such rapidity, both in England and in America, that hives and appliances used prior to 1885 are now obsolete, 14 that bees winter equally well with an outer case giving 1) in. Various causes have contributed to the development of the modern hive, the most important of which are the improvements in methods of extracting honey from combs, and in the manufacture of combfoundation. Regarding the first of these, it cannot be said that the honey extractor, even in tractors. It may, therefore, be useful to compare the progress made in the United States of America and in Great Britain in order to show that, while the industry is incomparably larger and of more importance in America and Canada than in Great Britain, British bee-keepers have been abreast of the times in all things apicultural. The original Langstroth hive was single-walled, held ten frames (size 17 by 9 in.), and had a deep roof, made to cover a case of small honey boxes like the sections now in use; but the cumbersome projecting porch and sides, made to FIG. 16.-Exterior, W.B.C. Hive. support the roof, are now dispensed with, and the number of its latest form, differs very much from the original machine frames reduced to eight. Although various modifications have (fig. 18) invented by Major Hruschka, an officer in the Italian since been made in minor details-all tending to improvement- army, who in later life became an enthusiastic apiculits main features are unaltered. The typical hive of America is turist. Hruschka's extractor, first brought to public Honey ex the improved Langstroth (fig. 15), which has no other cover-notice in 1865, may be said to have revolutionized the ing for the frame tops bee-industry as a business. It enabled the honey producer to in but a flat roof-board crease his output considerably by extracting honey from the cells allowing in. space in most cleanly between the roof and fashion without top-bars for bees to damaging the pass from frame to combs, and in a frame. Consequently, fraction of the time on the roof being raised previously occupied B the bees can take wing in the draining, if not prevented from heating and squeezdoing so. This feature ing process. At C finds no favour with the same time the British bee-keepers, combs were prenevertheless the "im- served for refilling proved Langstroth" is by the bees, in lieu a useful and simple of melting them hive, moderate in price, down for wax. The principle of the honey extractor (throwing the liquid honey out of the cells by centrifugal force) was discovered quite by accident. Major FIG. 17.-Interior, W.B.C. Hive. Hruschka's little son chanced to have in his hand a bit of unsealed comb-honey in a basket to which was attached a piece of string, and, as the boy playfully whirled the basket round in the air, his father noticed a few drops of honey, FIG. 15.-Langstroth Hive. and no doubt efficient, but not suitable for bees wintered on their Comb foundation. thrown out of the comb by the centrifugal force employed to Next in importance, to bee-keepers, is the enormous advance keep the basket suspended. The value of the idea at once struck made in late years through the invention of a machine for him; he set to work on utilizing the principle involved, and manufacturing the impressed wax sheets known as ere long had constructed a machine admirably adapted to serve" comb foundation," aptly so named, because upon its purpose. Since that time changes, of more or less value, have it the bees build the cells wherein they store their food. Witbeen introduced to meet We need not dwell upon the evolution from the crude present-day requirements. idea, which first took form in the endeavour to compel beesto build One of the first to take ad- straight combs in a given direction by offering them a guiding vantage of Hruschka's in-line of wax along the under side of each top-bar of the frame in vention was Mr A. I. Root, which the combs were built; but we may glance at the more who in 1869 perfected a important improvements machine on similar lines to which gradually developed the Hruschka one but em- as time went on. In 1843 bodying ovarious improve- a German bee-keeper, ments. This appliance, Krechner by name, conknown as the " Novice Honey ceived the idea of first bExtractor," became very dipping fine linen into popular in the United States of molten wax, then pressing America, but it had the fault the sheets so made beof wasting time in removing tween rollers, and thus the combs for reversing after forming a waxen midrib one side had been emptied on which the bees would of its contents. A simple form of machine for extracting build their combs. This honey by centrifugal force was brought to notice in England experiment was partially in 1875, and was soon improved upon, as will be seen in fig. successful, but the in19, which shows a section of one of the best English machines stinctive dislike of bees at that time. Various plans were tried in America to improve to anything of a fibrous on the "Novice" machine, and Mr T. W. Cowan, who was nature caused them comexperimenting in the same direction in England, invented in pletely to spoil their work FIG. 20.-Cowan's rapid Extractor. the year 1875 a machine called the " Rapid," in which the combs of comb-building in the endeavour to tear or gnaw away were reversed without removal of the cages (fig. 20). The frame- the linen threads whenever they got in touch with them. cases-wired on both sides are In 1857 Mehring (also a German) made a further advance hung at the angles of a revolving by the use of wooden moulds for casting sheets of wax imring of iron, and the reversing pressed with the hexagonal form of the bee-cell. These process is so simple and effective sheets were readily accepted by the bees, and afterwards that the "Cowan" reversible plates cast from metal were employed, with so good a result as to frame has been adopted in all give to the bees as perfect a midrib as that of natural comb with the best machines both in Great the deep cell walls cut away. Fig. 22 shows a portion of one of Britain and in America dabge these metal plates with worker-cells of natural size, i.e. five cells The latest form of honey to the inch. Thus Mehring is justly claimed as the originator extractor used in America is that of comb-foundation, though the value of his invention was less known as the "Four-frame eagerly taken advantage of even in Germany than its merits A Cowan." Fig. 21 shows the deserved. Probably it was ahead of the times, for not until working part or inside of the nearly twenty years later was any prominence given to it, when appliance. In this, and indeed Samuel Wagner, founder and in all extractors used in large editor of the American Bee sb apiaries, the "Cowan" or re- Journal, became impressed versible frame principle is used. with Mehring's invention and Each of the four cages in which warmly advocated it in his the combs are placed is swung paper. Mr Wagner first conceived the idea of adding slightly raised side walls to the hexagonal outlines of the cells, by means of which the bees are supplied with the material for building out one-half or more of the complete cell walls or sides. The manifest advantage of this was at once realized by practical American apiarists as saving labour FIG. 21.-Cowan's four-frame to the bees and money to the bee-keeper. One of the first (Redrawn from the 4 BC of Bee-Culture, to recognize its value was Mr published by the A. I. Root Co., Medina, A. I. Root, of Medina, Ohio, Ohio, USA) holding hann save who suggested the substitution of embossed rollers in lieu of flat plates, in order to increase the output of foundation and lessen its cost to the bee-keeper. He lost no time in giving practical shape to his views, and mainly through the inventive genius of a skilled machinist (Mr A. Washburn) the A. I. Root Co. constructed a roller press (fig. 23) for producing foundation in sheets. This form of machine came FIG. 19.-Diagram of the Raynor on a pivot attached to the side, A, Section of extractor and when the outer faces of the combs are emptied the cages are reversed without removal from the machine for emptying the opposite sides of combs. The further development of the dhoney extractor has of late been limited to an increase in the size of machine used, in order to save time and manual C, Perpendicular section of side labour, and thus meet the reof cage enlarged. quirements of the largest honey producers, who extract honey by the car load. Some of the largest machines-propelled by motor power-are capable of taking eight or more frames at one time. It may also be claimed for the honey extractor that it does away with the objection entertained by many persons to the use of honey, by enabling the apiarist to remove his produce from the honey-combs in its purest form untainted by crushed brood and untouched by hand. I C. Stiffening cone. cb, Coned bottom. gt, Gutter. st, Syrup tap. oc, Outer casing zob, Metal webbing. wn, Wire netting. (From Cheshire's Bees and Bee-keeping, Scientific and Pradical.) Extractor; interior. |