The Old Way of Keeping Bees

A peek at the inside of the Hoffman frame.

       The old primitive box hives of our grandfathers, consisting of a rude box (hence the name), was about 12 inches square, and from two to three feet deep. (Go here to read about even older hives known as 'skep' hives.) Through the center were secured two cross-cleats at right angles to each other, to help support the combs. This box hive standing on a board or slab usually had a notch at the bottom in front, to provide an entrance and exit for the bees. The bees, when building their combs in such a hive, fastened them to the sides and ends over and around the crosscleats before mentioned. The combs, when so built, would, of course, permit of no examination nor handling, as do the modern hives; and when it was desired to take the honey, the bees of the heaviest hives in the fall were brimstoned, while those of the lightest were allowed to live over until the next season, to provide for swarms to replace those brimstoned. The honey taken from box hives was mixed with bee-bread and brood, and was of inferior quality. The combs were cut out of the hive and dumped into buckets to be used as necessity required.
       A more modern hive has long since eliminated these crude and cruel methods, and in their stead we have accessibility to every part; and, so far from destroying our little servants, we can take their honey without a sting if we follow directions. Every comb is now built in movable frames that permit of easy examination. In fact, we can open the hive and remove the frames, playing with our pets by the hour if we know how. There is no more alluring pastime for the tired business or professional man or the overworked housewife than the keeping of bees. They all say it's just fun, and it's fun that makes money.
       The semi-modern hive, or exterior housing, in its simplest form consists of a floor or bottom-board; a hive body (box without cover or bottom) to hold the brood-frames; of supers (shallow box rims) to hold section-holders for the sections or extracing-frames for extracted honey; a thin wooden lid, or super cover, and over the whole a telescope cover, as shown, to shield the hive from the weather. In addition there's an entrance-contracting cleat that can be removed so that a wide or narrow entrance may be used, depending on the season. In the best-regulated apiaries, hive-stands are used for holding the hives. These protect the bottom and hive proper from unnecessary exposure to the ground and rot, and at the same time provide an easy grade or alighting-board for the convenience of heavily laden bees as they come in from the field. When a bee is filled with honey it very often drops down a foot or two from the hive. It is, therefore, very important to have an easy runway into the hive proper, and hence the hive-stand provided with an alighting-board, as shown.
       Each of the hive parts here enumerated is separable. One part can be piled on top of another in such a way as to accommodate the largest colonies and the largest yields of honey that may be secured. The modern hive, therefore, is capable of all degrees of expansion, to accommodate any colony or any honey crop. Some large colonies will store enough honey to make a hive four and even five stories high.

BROOD-FRAMES

       Movable frames to hold the combs are called brood-frames. The tops of these have projections resting upon rabbets cut in the upper ends of the hive. (See diagram, lower right hand.) The end-bars of the frames have, near the top, projecting ends just wide enough so that the combs will he spaced the correct distance apart. Such self-spacing frames for holding the combs are called Hoffman brood-frames, and any one of them can be removed and replaced. Another set of frames of the same pattern, but shallower, are used for the storage of the surplus honey. These are hung in shallow hives, or supers, as they are technically called. The honey may be cut out of them and stored in tin cans, or it may be extracted from the combs by means of a honey-extractor.

 

Left, Hoffman frame. Right, Honey-knife.

 

       Every comb has a series of honey-cells on each side, which, when filled with honey, are capped over with a thin film of wax. This capping is sliced off with a sharp-bladed knife made for the purpose, called a capping-knife. The combs, with the cappings removed, are then placed in the baskets of a centrifugal honey-extractor. These baskets are geared to run at a relatively high rate of speed inside of a metal can. The honey is thrown out by centrifugal force from the side of the comb next to the can. The machine is stopped; the combs are reversed, when the reel is started revolving, throwing the honey out from the other side also. When emptied the combs are put back into the hive and refilled with honey, when they are again extracted as before. This process may be repeated one or more times during the season, or as long as the honey-flow lasts.

       Extracted honey can be produced for less money than that in the comb, because the empty combs can be used over and over again, year after year. As it takes anywhere from 5 to 10 lbs. of honey to make a pound of wax, the extracted honey, or honey separated from the comb, saves the bees making comb each time. As a matter of fact, the market price for extracted is but a little more than half that of comb honey.

SECTIONS AND SEPARATORS AS USED IN COMB-HONEY PRODUCTION

Novice extractor.

       The production of honey in the comb involves a different set of fixtures. Comb honey is produced in little square boxes technically called sections. These are usually either 4x5x1 3/8 inches wide, or 4 1/4 square by l 7/8 wide. These sections, four in number, are placed in a sort of frame called a section-holder. Between each row of sections, when placed on the hive, is a wooden separator consisting of a thin piece of veneer wood a little narrower than the section is deep. Sometimes a series of thin slats, fastened together by cross-cleats, technically called fences, are used in place of separators. The function of the separator or fence is to separate the rows of sections from each other. Without them the bees would build the comb in these sections too fat or too lean. So far as possible it is highly important, from the marketing point of view, to have each comb in each section approximately the same weight something between 12 and 14 ounces. While the sections will hold an even pound when filled clear full, it is very seldom that the producer of comb honey can get his bees to make his sections run uniformly one pound in weight. The average market permits and expects that comb-honey sections shall run slightly less than one pound.

Left, one-piece section. Right, section holder end blocks and bottom of.

 

COMB FOUNDATION

       In order to start the bees building their combs centrally in the section, a product known as comb foundation‚ (quite generally abbreviated fdn) is used. This consists of a thin sheet or sheets of pure beeswax embossed or favosed, so that the surface shall be an exact duplicate of the midrib or center of the honeycomb with the cells sliced off. In other words, comb foundation is a duplicate of the foundation of the natural comb, and hence the name. The artificial product has more wax in the initial cells than the natural product. This surplus is used by the bees in building out their combs. In modern apiculture it is almost an indispensable article. It is used either in narrow strips called foundation starters, or in full sheets. The latter are preferable, because the bees will build more nearly perfect combs‚ combs that are in every sense an exact duplicate of the article built wholly by the bees. Without comb foundation the bees will show a tendency to build their own product in all kinds of fantastic shapes, crosswise of the section honey-boxes or the brood-frames. Practically all the combs in modern apiculture today are built on comb foundation. This is tilled with honey by the bees, and capped. over, and in all respects is equal and even superior to that made by the bees without the use of starters.

 

Left sheet of thin bees wax comb foundation. Right, a thicker option.

• The Behavior of Bees
  
• Tools for Handling Bees
• Manipulating A Colony of Bees