456 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



July 18. 1901. 



to see her, and she will stay hid till the hive is closed up 

 and all is quiet. It may help to put the frames in pairs, 

 using a different hive for each pair. After waiting a very 

 few minutes, you may confidently expect to find the queen 

 between the two frames in one of the pairs. Lift the one 

 nearest you, and as you do so keep j'our eye on the nigh 

 side of the frame in the hive, and then examine the farther 

 side of the one in your hand. If you wait long enough, 

 you can tell which pair of frames has the queen, for the 

 bees will show uneasiness, as if missing the queen, in the 

 pairs where she is not. 



If you want to make a sure thing of it, use a queen- 

 excluder. Take an empty hive body and put into it one of 

 the frarties of brood, after getting all the bees off, or at 

 least enough of the bees so you are sure the queen is not 

 on the comb. Put a queen-excluder over it, and over that 

 an empty hive body. Now brush into this all the bees 

 from the combs, and if they are too slow in going through 

 the excluder into the empty hive below brush or smoke 

 them a little. The queen, not being able to pass through 

 the excluder, will be left in the upper hive. 



Often in an ordinary search the queen will escape 

 detection by being among the bees on the side or bottom 

 of the hive while you are wasting your energy by looking 

 over the combs. 



But you can not find a queen when none is in the hive, 

 and " seven queen-cells, most of them being capped," 

 forms a ground for pretty strong suspicion that the colony 

 has swarmed and that the queen is gone. 



2. You need not fear swarming with laying-workers in 

 place of a queen. 



3. Probably. 



4. Yes. 



Swarm Deserting the Hive. 



I have one colony of bees that has acted strangely this 

 spring. It swarmed on Monday while I was in the field, 

 and got awa^'. Then the following Saturday the bees were 

 acting all right at the hive in the morning, but at 11 o'clock, 

 when I came home from town, there were bees all over the 

 house and trees. We sprinkled them with water and they 

 went to the hive, and about 2 o'clock they came out. We 

 put them into a new hive, but about dark they came out 

 again, and we could not find them. We watched them, and 

 the next day about 3 o'clock they came up out of a plum 

 thicket, and went in the direction of the others, right 

 against a strong wind. The last I saw of them they 

 crossed through a hedge, and no one has seen them, so far 

 as I can learn. I have kept bees for years and never had 

 such luck. Now it is a week since the last ones went, and 

 they are acting as if they are going to swarm again. Do 

 you think there were two swarms, or did the first one come 

 back ? Why did they not stay in the hive, as it was a new 

 one and is all right, as far as I can see ? 



South D.\kota. 



Answer. — The probability is that the first time they 

 swarmed it was a prime swarm, and then on Saturday there 

 was a second swarm, the only unusual thing in the case 

 being that it was only five days from the first to the second 

 swarm. If that supposition is correct there will be no 

 more swarming, and the bees are hanging out because the 

 weather is hot and the hive close. When you hived the 

 swarm you ought to have raised the hive and left the cover 

 partly open. They left because it was too hot and close for 

 them. 



Swarming Questions. 



1. Suppose a colony swarms during the honey-flow, and 

 the old clipped queen is taken away, how many days before 

 the old colony will swarm again ? 



2. Is the young queen of the old colony fertilized before 

 the second swarm issues ? Illinois. 



Answers. — l. Generally in about eight days, but if the 

 weather had been severe for some days before the time of 

 tl.e first swarm so as to delay it, that would make the time 

 just so much shorter from the time of the first to the next 

 swarming. If the first swarm should occnr before the 

 usual time (at the sealing of the first queen-cell) the sec- 

 ond swarm would be delayed to that extent. 



2. No. When the second swarm issues, a young queen 

 issues with the swarm, and the young queen that is to 

 reign as the mother colony is still in her cell, so of course 

 could not be fertilized. 



Some Swarming Troubles. 



Will a colony of bees swarm without a queen ? I 

 assisted my father in hiving two swarms of bees this 

 spring. The first swarm we put into a clean new hive with 

 foundation ready for work. They stayed three hours and 

 then left the hive, and we hived them three times in the 

 course of the day, and each time in a new hive. The third 

 time they moved out as quickly as they would, all right. We 

 looked them over and could not find the queen, and before 

 we could hive them again they all started for the timber. 



The second swarm we hived twice, and the third time 

 we put a comb of honey in the hive and shut the entrance, 

 and put them down cellar over night. The next morning 

 they were all dead but about a pint, and we could not find 

 a queen among them. What do you think was the cause ? 



" Lalr,\." 



Answer. — I knew one case in which a swarm issued 

 when there was no queen in the hive. But I had removed 

 the queen from the hive only a short time before, and I sup- 

 pose the bees had not yet learned of her absence. So it is 

 safe to say that a swarm will not issue from a hive without 

 they have, or suppose they have, a queen present. But 

 even should a swarm issue in such z't'iy exceptional case 

 without a queen, they will not go off without a queen, but 

 will return to their hive or to some other hive in the apiary. 

 It is not always easy to find a queen in a swarm, and tl e 

 likelihood is that there was a queen present. 



The probable trouble was that the weather was very 

 hot and you did not shade and ventilate the hive. Putting 

 that swarm in the cellar was not a bad stroke, but you 

 probably shut them up so tight that they smothered. After 

 putting them in the dark cellar you should have given them 

 a very large entrance, raising the hive well. A frame of 

 brood is better than a frame of honey to give to a swarm. 



\ ^ The Afterthought- ^ | 



The "Old Reliable" seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. B. HASTY, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, O. 



FINGER-ITCH FOR RECONSTRUCTIKO. 



What shall be done to me for my everlasting meddlesome- 

 ness ? Can't see a good thing without finger-itch to see if I 

 can't make it better by reconstructing it. Now there's the 

 striking verse on little neglects, which W. Z. Hutchinson 

 quotes to open his excellent paper on page 3^7. I want it to 

 run : 



■' For the want of a nail the shoe was lost; 



For the want o( a shoe the horse was lost ; 



For the want of a horse the rider was lost;" 



And a friend his slain friend did bewail 



When he might have been saved by a horseshoe nail — 



And, if that rider had been De Wet, 



A nation lost in the end we'd get. 



STING-POISON IN HONEY. 



And so (according to page 334) in each 6"2 pounds of 

 honey the bees put an ounce ol sting-poison. The Geiman 

 writer didn't think of the thing in that shape, or the euor- 

 mity of the pilgrim lie would have halted him from passing it 

 on. Although it is the same thing, it looks much more believ- 

 able to say <i. 1 percent. For all the bad company it is in, the 

 statement that sting-poison is probably a non-volatile alkaloid 

 dissolved in volatile but rather harmless fluids, may very well 

 be correct. Hut even on that we must remember that breath- 

 ing the volatile part has a very bad effect on some persons. 



DEKI--TUBED ALSIKE AND WHITE CLOVER. 



E. R. Hoot contributes a good point in a red-hot contro- 

 versy when he says he has seen both alsike and white clover 

 too deep-tubed for average bees to fully reach bottom. Page 

 843. 



PARTHENOGENESIS. 



It was more than a hundred years after Columbus sailed 

 before so wide-open and vitally important a truth as the cir- 

 culation of the blood was discovered ! It's amazing. And 

 one of the <-onstitnents of the atmosphere remained undiscov- 

 ered until the American Bee Journal had become an old paper. 

 Why should man, a reasoning creature, be so great in fantas- 



