488 



GLEANINGS IN UEE CULTUllE. 



Oct. 



with a rush, comb-building and honey -storing is 

 the hobby, to the partial neglect of brood-rearing, 

 and swarms are but few. Then further on, when a 

 dearth follows the rush of honey, they naturally in- 

 cline not to start very much brood. But when hon- 

 ey comes steadily, yet so slow that there is no comb- 

 building to do, brood-rearing and queen-rearing 

 become the hobby, I take it; all the home bees en- 

 gaging in it, and soon out come the swarms thicker 

 and faster, and more of 'em. 



Cause 2. Small brood-chamber. In some locali- 

 ties the surplus is mainly stored from runs of four 

 or five pounds per day, with occasional good days 

 up to ten or even twenty pounds. Apiarians having 

 such a locality can use either small or large brood- 

 chamber, as they like, and do well in either case. 

 In other localities, like mine, the surplus must be 

 stored, if at all, from runs of about a pound a daj', 

 the income never going as high as five pounds. To 

 get section honey in such a locality, the brood-cham- 

 ber must be made small. I give seven frames. It is 

 presumable that such a contraction of the chamber 

 causes a considerable increase in the number of 

 swarms that issue. 



Cause 3. Frequent Infusion of fresh blood into 

 the apiary. Non-swarmers are usually bees totally 

 let alone; and I suspect that apiaries where only a 

 dozen or two of swarms emerge from a hundred 

 hives, are in almost all cases apiaries where very 

 few outside queens have been brought in for the 

 past three years. Fresh blood boils; and if it does, I 

 hardly think I can afford to let the vital forces stag- 

 nate, even if the swarms do make me skip around. 



Cause 4. Some races and strains of bees arc pre- 

 disposed to excessive swarming— Italians and hj- 

 brids swarming more than blacks, and some strains 

 of each varying considerably from the usual habits 

 of their race. 



Here is another side incident of swarming that I 

 don't remember to have seen in the books. It is 

 well known that the workers often keep a lot of 

 young queens imprisoned in their cells for some 

 time, and that when the last swarm is about to go, 

 all are allowed to come out that can get out. I find 

 they sometimes let the queens out and drive them 

 " to Jericho," or any other place, without swarming. 

 My evidence is this; July 1st 1 opened a hive that 

 had recently cast two swarms, the last one two days 

 previous. I was surprised to find a nic3 young 

 queen all alone between the chaff cushion and the 

 cover. On lifting up the cushion there was another 

 one; and when I took up the cushion to replace it in 

 the hive there was still another one. The bees down 

 below had one young queen, just as they should. 



And here 1 am at the close of a long article, and I 

 haven't told yet about my important invention for 

 putting back swarms. I must make that my special 

 theme for next month. More correctly, it is another 

 man's invention put into practical shape. Sufiice it 

 to say, that by means of it I have returned to their 

 old quarters 64 after-swarms, and, with but two ex- 

 ceptions, they all stayed the first time trying, llad 

 It not been for this new help, I hardly know what 

 would have become of me. E. E. Hasty. 



Richards, Lucas Co., O., Sept. 16, 1882. 



Many thanks, friend Hasty, for your sug- 

 gestions. I am one who has always held 

 that bees never swarm, unless they are get- 

 ting honey ; but of course I mean by this, 

 normal, natural swarming. Although many 

 reports of this excessive swarming have 



come in, we have never in our apiary had 

 swarming after the basswood closed, unless 

 it was an occasional swarm, after the second 

 crop of red clover was out. I have some- 

 times thought it would be fun to have our 

 apiary get such a mania, but I presume that 

 before it got up into the numbers you re- 

 port, I should be glad enough to have it 

 cease. We surely have new blood in our 

 apiary, enough of it; but it is very likely 

 prevented from getting started, by the way 

 in which we rear and handle bees. I think 

 bees might swarm when prevented by rain 

 from gathering honey, but knowing, at the 

 same time, there was honey to be had. I 

 think this quite different from a long dearth 

 of honey, when they return to their hives 

 day after day, finding little or no honey. 



REPORT FROWI TWO COLONIES OF 

 CYPRIANS. 



I^X'KEASED TO 16; ICO LBS. SOLD, AND ALL THE HON- 

 EY A LARGE FAMILY COULD USE BESIDES. 



a, Jj^Y small apiary of two in the spring has expand- 

 n/M, ^^ ^o ^■^ strong colonies. A large swarm 

 ' went 1J4 miles, and entered a large white 

 oak, on my own land, 6 feet from the ground, and 

 two went V,2 miles to a neighbor's, and were hived, 

 and two have been found in trees about two miles 

 distant; hence 16 swarms at least have been sent 

 out. Having a large farm to look after, I could not 

 give them close attention. The last swarm came 

 out the fifth of this month, and have already stores 

 enough for wintering. Our large family have had 

 all the honey we could eat; have sold over 100 lbs.; 

 have considerable on hand, and most of the supers 

 are about full again. 



As the black bees had mostly died off last winter 

 near me, I had hoped to keep my Cyprians pure; but 

 nearly all my young queens mated with black 

 drones, while my drones went off and hybridized all 

 the black bees of the surrounding country. Is this 

 a law of the bee-hive, to prevent in-and-in breeding? 

 I am unable to perceive that my hybrids are in any 

 wise inferior to the full bloods. All are cross, if 

 handled improperly or allowed to^il their hives, for 

 then they have nothing to do but guard their stores, 

 and they are faithful and brave sentinels. I have 

 had a few lessons in this direction, by which 1 hope 

 to profit. In hiving swarms I have not heard a 

 single angry note. My apiary is in an apple or- 

 chard, the trees heading low. I set a step-ladder un- 

 der the cluster, with frames uncovered ; set the 

 hive on the platform on top of the ladder, gently 

 lay on the enameled cloth, and after two or three 

 minutes more I gently carry the hive and set in po- 

 sition, put on the cover, and the work is done. Not 

 a single swarm has refused to stay where put. 



Owing to frequent and heavy rains, white clover 

 furnished only about a week of good pasturage, and 

 the cold weather of spring had kept the bees from 

 the fruit-blossoms. But for a few weeks we have 

 had a honey boom, which, however, a drought 

 threatens to bring to a close. The spider plant has 

 been booming in our yard for a long time, with its 

 great drops of nectar glistening in the rays of the 

 morning and evening sun, but not a single bee ever 

 visits it, which puzzles me very much. 



Jem, Mo., Sept. 13, 1883. C. S. Callihan. 



It doesn't quite look as if the Cyprians 



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