Starting Right with Bees by H. G. Rowe is a beginner’s handbook published by The A. I. Root Company of Medina, Ohio, in 1922. The title page identifies it as a first edition and describes it as the work of a beginner drawing on his first two years of experience, read, revised and approved by the editors of Gleanings in Bee Culture.
That origin shapes the book. It concentrates on the decisions and operations a newcomer must understand, rather than attempting an advanced treatment of queen breeding, botany or honey chemistry.
Making the first decisions
The opening chapter considers who can keep bees, prospects for profit, combining bees with poultry or fruit growing, when to start and how to begin. These questions establish the scale and purpose of an apiary before equipment is purchased.
Rowe then distinguishes comb honey from extracted honey. Separate outfit chapters explain the equipment associated with each, allowing the reader to see how the intended product affects the initial arrangement.
Hives, frames, foundation, wiring, uncapping tools and extractors appear in this early material. Illustrations support the descriptions of parts and working outfits.
Obtaining bees and choosing a location
The chapter on getting bees compares buying complete colonies, nuclei, swarms and bees by the pound. It also discusses transferring bees from old box hives and obtaining a colony from a bee tree.
The location chapter considers stands, wind, neighbors, flight paths, forage and the number of colonies a district can support. This gives the beginner a view of the apiary as part of its surroundings.
For readers studying self-sufficiency enterprises, these chapters are useful because they connect a small undertaking with available space, nearby people and the resources on which the bees depend.
Learning to inspect a hive
Chapters on the colony’s inhabitants and the inside of the hive distinguish queens, workers, drones and stages of development. Comb, cells, brood patterns, pollen, propolis and honey are explained before detailed management begins.
The handling chapter discusses clothing, stings, the smoker, opening a hive and lifting frames. Photographs show working positions and the arrangement of equipment during inspection.
This progression gives the reader a vocabulary for observation. A later instruction to examine brood or find a queen has more meaning after the book has described what those features look like and where they occur.
Queens, swarms and colony growth
The queen chapter covers finding a queen, loss and replacement, supersedure, laying workers, drone layers, queenlessness and introduction. It also considers balling, one of the difficulties associated with acceptance.
Swarming receives its own extended treatment. Rowe describes indications, hiving a swarm, clipped and unclipped queens, traps, afterswarms and preventive arrangements.
Later chapters discuss increasing the number of colonies by natural or artificial division and preventing robbing. The distinction between robbing and ordinary play flights helps explain why observation precedes intervention.
These sections preserve the practical questions that confront a new keeper when the population and behavior of colonies change rapidly.
Managing and harvesting the honey crop
Separate chapters follow extracted-honey and comb-honey work during the flow and harvest. Supering and swarm control are discussed in relation to the desired crop.
The extracted-honey account includes diagrams associated with the Demaree method, followed by removing honey, uncapping, extraction, returning sticky combs, storage and marketing.
Comb-honey management considers the arrangement of combs and supers, taking off the crop and preparing it for storage and sale. Keeping these two production paths separate makes the handbook easier to consult.
The account then turns to care after harvest, including queens, requeening and the preservation of combs for later use.
Winter and the following spring
Wintering covers food reserves, feeding, wind protection, packing, double-walled hives, cases, tar paper and cellar arrangements. The range of examples records the different approaches available to the period keeper.
Spring management returns to entrances, cleaning, food, space, water, uniting colonies and expanding the brood nest. Candy and syrup are considered in relation to feeding conditions.
An appendix addresses adult and brood diseases and common pests. These descriptions and treatments are historical material and require current specialist guidance before use.
Audience and digital copy
This free ebook suits readers exploring the history of beginner instruction and the annual work of an apiary. Its nineteen chapters connect starting decisions with the return to spring management after the first harvest and winter.
The PDF contains 136 digital pages, retaining the original cover, preliminary pages, illustrated text, appendix and index. Enlarge hive diagrams, small captions and photographs when following an equipment arrangement or manipulation.
Book details
- Author: H. G. Rowe
- Publisher: The A. I. Root Company, Medina, Ohio
- Year: 1922
- Edition: First edition, 1922
- Digital length: 136 PDF pages
- Language: English
- File size: 5.42 MB
