THE HONEYBEE — HAMBLETON 303 



hive bodies. These should be considered the sacred property of the bees 

 themselves from which the beekeeper is not to remove any honey. Dur- 

 ing rainy spells and periods when it is too cold for the bees to fly they 

 must have their daily food. Large reserves of honey should be on 

 hand at all times. Honey that the bees make in addition to that stored 

 in the two hive bodies the beekeeper can claim for himself. 



The nectar as brought by the bees into the hive may contain upward 

 of 80 percent water, whereas honey contains only about 18 percent. 

 This excess water has to be removed by the bees. For this purpose, 

 comb space is required, so that the watery nectar may be spread over 

 as large a surface as possible to hasten evaporation ; thus more combs 

 are necessary to make the crop than are required to hold the ripened, 

 finished honey. 



A colony of bees should never be allowed to fill the hive completely 

 while the honey crop is being made. Shortly before every comb is 

 filled with brood, pollen, or honey, a colony, sensing the end of its job, 

 makes preparation to swarm. In this preparation there is a decided 

 let-down in the storage of honey. Swarming is objectionable from 

 this standpoint. 



A colony swarms simply because its living quarters are inadequate — 

 too crowded. The old queen and the majority of bees old enough to 

 fly leave the hive. If the swarm is not captured, the bees light off 

 to the woods, find a hollow tree or a cavity in the wall of a dwelling 

 and build a new home. In the parent hive will be left all the young 

 bees, brood, and a number of queen cells from which one or more new 

 queens will emerge. One of these will eventually head the newly 

 formed colony. 



The bees that fly to the fields for nectar and pollen do not deposit 

 the nectar in the cells of the hive. They turn the nectar over to young 

 house bees — bees too young to fly — and it is these house bees that do 

 all the work from that point on in converting the nectar into full 

 mellow-ripe honey. The combination of the young and old bees is 

 essential to produce a crop of honey. When a colony swarms, this 

 very essential teamwork is destroyed. For best honey production 

 every effort should be made to control swarming. 



There are other pitfalls in beekeeping beside diseases and swarm- 

 ing. A weakened colony of bees, like a weakened animal, is preyed 

 on by enemies. A colony that is not strong enough to keep its house 

 clean becomes infested with wax moths which, if not tended to, will 

 destroy the combs. A colony too weak effectively to guard its entrance 

 to the hive is subject to attack by bees from stronger colonies. Not 

 only will the robbers carry away the honey, but they will leave in 

 their wake many bees killed in the last defense of their home. Col- 

 onies are often weak because they lack sufficient food. Honeybees do 



