CONTENTS INTR0 DUCTI0 N 3 THE COLONY AND ITS ORGANIZATION 4 The Queen ~___________ 5 The Dr0 ne 6 The Worker 6 Swarming --__________________ 8 BEEKEEPING EQUIPMENT 9 MAKING A START WITH BEES 11 Kinds of Bees to Keep 11 Securing Bees ~ 11 Location of the Apiary -- 12 W0 rking A Hive ------- 13 SEASONAL MANAGEMENT 13 Wintering ~ 13 Feeding ---- 14 Spring Management --------------- 14 Increase ------------------ __ 15 Management During the Honey Flow --------------------15 Wax Rendering 16 Care of Combs --- 16 QUEEN-REARING 17 POLLINATI0 N OF PLANTS 18 HONEY PLANTS 18 GRANULATED HONEY 19 POISONING OF BEES BY INSECTICIDES 19 PESTS AND DISEASES 19 Wax Moth 19 F 0 u1brood 19 WHERE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT BEES 20 Cover picture was used through the courtesy of The American Bee Journal ., 'Bel?keeping for 'Beginners By Paul Gregg, Assistant Entomologist A. and M. College Extension Service And V. A. Little, Professor Entomology Department There is no doubt that man kept honeybees before there were any written records of the human race. Undoubtedly primitive man discovered that honey was a desirable food long before he conceived the idea of keeping bees in crude hives. Therefore beekeeping is one of the oldest of all agricul- tural pursuits, practiced more widely in olden times than it is today. Honey was the only known sweet. Beeswax was widely employed in religious ceremonies, in ancient arts and in the burial of the dead. Even taxes have been known to be levied on honey and wax. Whenever a honeybee is seen noisily busying itself around flowers gathering nectar and pollen it excites some degree of curiosity. Bees would be as common as poultry and livestock around the farm home were it not for their very effective weapon of defense-the sting. However, bees are not kept through interest alone, but primarily for the honey produced. In the more favored beekeeping sections of Texas a few hives of bees properly cared for will not only adequately supply the owner's table with honey but may produce a small surplus for sale as well. In producing this honey a greater service is done by helping to pollinate many plants such as fruits, vege- tables, clover and alfalfa. There is no group of insects as effi- cient as the honeybee in the pollination of plants. Who should keep bees? Regardless of age, sex, creed, or color anyone may keep bees if the individual is a careful ob- server, interested in natural history, of an even temperament, and not hypersensitive to bee stings. Bees may be kept wherever sufficient nectar producing plants are available to support the colonies and provide a sur- plus of honey. But they should not be placed where they may be a nuisance to passers-bY and the neighbors. Often times 3 their presence is also undesirable around watering troughs of livestock. Time, work and study is essential to the mastering of any trade or profession. Beekeeping is no exception. One should start with only one or two colonies, and some choice reading material. Then he may expand his operations as he learns, and as the bees pay their way. If, after a year or two, he decides he is no beekeeper after all, or that his location is not suitable, he may dispose of his. colonies and equipment with little or no monetary loss. It is not within the provinces of this bulletin to present more than the briefest discussion of beekeeping. Several choice references are given on page 20 for those who desire detailed information. Bees are not domesticated insects. There is no difference in the behavior of a colony in a hollow tree and one in a mod- ern apiary. But if one knows their biology and instincts he can do just about whatever he chooses with them. All beekeeping manipulations are based on this knowledge. The first consid- eration, therefore, is to learn something of the colony and its way of life. The Colony and its Organization A colony of bees consists of a queen, at least a few drones, with the exception of mid-winter, and a large but variable number of workers. There may be less than 10,000 workers in early spring while exceptionally strong colonies may con- tain as many as 75,000 at peak strength. ;/' Worker Queen Drone Courtesy of the United States Department of Agriculture The colony may live in a hollow tree, a cave, within the walls of a building or in a modern hive. Since the habits and 4 instincts of the bee remain unchanged, regardless of its habi- tation, the general pattern of the nest is essentially the same. The nest consists of a number of combs about one-half an inch apart, composed of hexagonal cells. The combs are made of wax secreted by young bees from their bodies. Experiments have shown that bees must eat an average of almost ten pounds of honey to produce one pound of comb. Therefore, combs are expensive and every effort must be made to con- serve them. The combs are composed of two principal types of cells, the worker and the drone cells. Respective individuals are reared in these cells and both types are employed for the stor- age of honey. A third type of cell, the queen cell, is not gen- erally seen as only a small number are constructed. These are destroyed soon after the occupants have emerged. They are found usually along the lower edges of the combs, hanging downward and resemble unshelled peanuts. Eggs are deposited singly in the cells by the queen. The egg hatches into the larva, or grub, which later changes into a pupa, or transformation stage, from which the adult emerges. These immature stages are known collectively as brood. At the end of the larval stage they are capped with wax. This capped brood is often mistaken for honey by the beginner. The Queen: In every normal colony is found a mother bee, the queen, which resembles a wasp with short legs and wings. She is not so robust as the drone, but her body is longer and more tapering. Normally only one queen is found in a colony, but occasionally an old queen and a daughter may live together for several weeks. Sole duty of the queen is to lay eggs. Since she is little more than a slave, she has nothing to do with the governing of the colony. This duty apparently belongs to the workers. At the height of the brood-rearing season in the spring she may lay 2,000 or more eggs in a single day-a weight of eggs greater than her own body. However, this rapid rate of egg production is continued for only a relatively short time. Eggs laid in worker or queen cells are fertile and develop into fe- males, workers or queens; those deposited in drone cells are not fertilized and these develop into drones (males). Queens may live for as long as five years, but it is advis- able to requeen at least every other year as a queen has passed her peak in egg production by this time. Queens are reared in nature under three impulses, queenlessness, supersedure and swarming. Should a queen die or be killed the worker bees will 5 construct a queen cell around an egg or a newly hatched work- er larva and rear another. In supersedure workers rear a young queen to replace the old one that is failing in her duties of egg laying. Swarming is the normal mode of reproduction. At this time a young queen is reared to take the place of the old queen which leaves with the swarm. Queens are reared from fertile eggs just as the workers are. The queen, unlike the worker, is a sexually developed fe- male. She is reared in a large cell and fed throughout her larval life on a white creamy-like substance known as "royal jelly," a highly nutritious food of glandular origin supplied by the nurse bees. Approximately 16 days are required for develop- ment of the queen. Average length of the egg, larva, and pupa, or capped brood, stages are 3, 6, and 7 days respectively, a total of sixteen days. A knowledge of this life cycle is essen- tial in queen rearing, making divisions and other manipula- tions. When the young queen is about seven days old she takes her mating flight, mating occurring in the air. This is nature's method of selecting a virile mate to insure vigorous offspring to perpetuate the race. Bee breeding is difficult, as the male cannot be selected. Science has learned to artificially insem- inate queens, greatly speeding up bee breeding work. Queens may mate one, two or even three times, and plural matings are about as common as single matings; but all matings occur before egg laying begins. The queen usually begins to lay two days after mating. She never leaves the hive again unless to accompany a swarm. The Drone: Drones are male bees, developing from infer- tile eggs in drone cells. They are even larger and stouter than the queens, but their bodies are not so long. They have no stings and are physically disqualified for any work. Their sole purpose in nature is to fertilize young queens. Since many stores are consumed in their rearing and upkeep, and as only few are necessary for mating purposes the modern beekeeper tries to eliminate their production as much as possible. This is done best by using full sheets of worker-size foundation in the frames so the bees will construct but few drone cells, and also by continuously culling out undesirable combs.