SUNFLOWER. 



416 



SWARMING. 



sunflower seeds. Then I cut off the empty heads, 

 place them near the bee-hive, fill them with sugar 

 and water, and that suits tlie bees to a T. So you 

 see I was at no expense, and they paid well. I write 

 this that othei'S may be benefited as well as myself. 

 Dr. K. Hitchcock. 

 South Norwalk, Conn., Feb. 3, 1875. 



SWARIMEirTG-. All animated nature 

 seems to have some means of reproducing 

 its kind, that the species may not become ex- 

 tinct ; and, especially among the insect 

 tribes, we find a great diversity of ways and 

 means for accomplishing this object. In the 

 microscopic world we find simple forms of 

 animal life contracting themselves in the 

 middle until they break in two, and then 

 each separate part, after a time, breaks in 

 two, and so on. With bees we have a some- 

 what similar phenomenon. Where a colony 

 gets excessively strong, the inmates of the 

 hive, by a sort of preconcerted mutual agree- 

 ment divide themselves off into two parties, 

 one remaining in the old hive, and the other 

 stalling out to seek their fortunes elsewhere. 



We have carefully walclied this proei'ed 

 ing, with a view of determining how the mat- 

 ter conies about, that is, whether it is because 

 a part of the bees become dissatisfied vvith 

 their old home and seek to better their con- 

 dition, or because the queen leaves, for some 

 reason of her own (because she has not room 

 to lay her eggs, for instance), and the bees 

 simply follow from a sort of natural instinct, 

 since she is the mother of the colony and 

 an absolute necessity to their prosperity. 

 After seeing a number of swarms issue, and 

 finding that the queen was among the last to 

 leave the hive, we concluded that the bees 

 take the lead, and that the queen simply fol- 

 lowed as a matter of course in the general 

 melee. Suppose, however, that the queen 

 should not take a notion to join the new ad- 

 venture. Swarms do sometimes start out 

 without a queen accompanying them, but 

 they usually go back to the hive after a time, 

 to try it again next day. If she does not go 

 then, nor at the next attempt, they often 

 wait until they can rear a new queen, and 

 then go off with her. After we were pretty 

 well satisfied that this is the correct idea of 

 their plan, a little circumstance seemed to 

 upset it all. A neighbor, wanting to make 

 an observatory hive, drummed perhaps a 

 quart of bees from one of his old hives. As 

 he had no queen, we gave him a black one 

 taken from a colony purchased several miles 

 away. We mention this to show that the 

 queen had never been out of the hive, in the 

 location which it then occupied. After a 

 day or two, this neighbor informed us that 



we had played a fine trick on him, for our 

 queen liad gone home, and taken his quart of 

 bees with her. We told him it was impos- 

 sible, for she had never been out of the hive, 

 except when we carried her over in the cage. 



We went and looked in the hive she came 

 from, and there she was, true enough, with 

 the bees she had brought with her stung to 

 death in front and on the bottom-board. It 

 is possible that the bees swarmed out first ; 

 but even if they did, they certainly followed 

 the queen in going back to her old home. 

 We also know that bees sometimes follow 

 a young queen when she goes out to take 

 her wedding-flight. 



It is our opinion that neither queen nor 

 workers alone make the first start, but all 

 hands join together and act in concert. 



WHY BEES SWAKM. 



If we attempt to contract the size of the 

 hive when honey is coming in bountifully, 

 the bees will be very apt to take measures 

 toward swarming about as soon as the 

 combs are full of brood, eggs, pollen, and 

 honey. They will often wait several days 

 after the hive is seemingly full; and while 

 this course may not cause them to swarm fit 

 all, it is very likely to. As soon as it has 

 been decided that the hive is too small, and 

 that there is no feasible place for storing ex- 

 tra supplies of honey where it can be procur- 

 ed in the winter, as needed, they generally 

 commence queen-cells. Before doing this 

 we have known thein to go so far as to store 

 their honey outside on the portico, or even 

 underneath the hive, thus indicating most 

 clearly their want of extra space for stores 

 where they could protect them. 



Want of room is probably the most gen- 

 eral cause of swarming, although it is not 

 the only one; for bees often swarm incess 

 antly when they have a hive only partly 

 filled with comb. First swarms usiiiilly 

 come about from the cause we have men- 

 tioned; but Aftek-swarming (which see) 

 often gets to be a sort of mania with the 

 bees, and they swarm, apparently, loithout a 

 reason. 



AT WHAT SEASON BEES -USUALLY SWARM. 



Tfie old adage runs, — 



A swarm of bees in May 

 Is worth a load of hay ; 

 A swarm of bees in June 

 Is worth a silver spoon; 

 A swarm of bees in July 

 Is not worth a fly. 



There is much truth m this, especially if 

 managed on the old plan ; but with modern 

 improvements a swarm in July may be 



