378 



November, 1913. 



American Hne Journalx ^g^i^ 



nually to each hive, and the wax about 

 2 pounds. 



As for flowers, no attention whatso- 

 ever is paid to them. The bees are 

 allowed to select nectar in a haphaz- 

 ard fashion, although the keepers are 

 well aware that certain flowers con- 

 tain more honey than others. Curi- 

 ously enough, honey that is gathered 

 when the coff^ee trees are in bloom 

 has an acrid, bitter coffee taste, while 

 a certain vine which grows profusely 

 in that neighborhood taints the honey, 

 when it blossoms, with an onion odor. 



The honey-comb is removed by Me.xi- 

 can beekeepers by means of machetes, 

 long Spanish knives. The bees are 

 usually smoked out by burning corn- 

 cobs or by means of dry manure burned 

 in clay or cheap metal stoves. The 

 honey is separated from the combs in 

 exactly the way it was done a hundred 

 years ago. They compress the combs 

 with their bare hands until no more 

 honey exudes ; then the whole mass is 

 pressed in a coarse cloth made of some 

 common fibre such as pitu. Very few 

 of them use a hand press or sieve ; only 

 a very few use modern honey extrac- 

 tors. 



There are large black ants called by 

 the Mexicans "opehua," which are 

 most destructive to bees. When these 

 vicious insects make an onslaught 

 upon a colony they may destroy it in 

 one night. These ants, however, do 

 not seem inclined to attack the wild 

 honey, made by the wild Me.xican bee, 

 a small, stingless honey gatherer. This 

 little stingless bee is no larger than 

 the ordinary house fly, and its product 

 is particularly prized for an alleged 

 medicinal value. Although wild, this 

 bee is easily domesticated, when gourds 

 or small vessels are used for its hives. 



Wax from this fly-like bee is black 

 or very dark in color, and is often 

 found in hollow trees, fissures in rocks, 

 and holes in the ground, where the 

 tiny creature makes its nest, .\nother 

 wild Mexican bee called the"cuitla" 

 is dark in color. When angry or dis- 

 turbed, this bee spurts out a liquid said 

 to cause an itchy eruption on the skin. 

 This fluid is much sought by the super- 

 stitious natives, as well as medical 

 charlatans, for the supposed cure of 

 every ailment of the human flesh. 



Baltimore, Md. 



Swarming Facts and Fallacies 



BY J. E. H.^ND. 



THE thoughts expressed in the be- 

 ginning of the next to the last 

 paragraph of the article by Ed- 

 ward F. Bigelow, page .348, re- 

 minds me of the Irishman who 

 said, "Faith, and I'm open to conviction, 

 but, begorrah, I'd like to see the man 

 who can convince me." While I may 

 not succeed in convincing Mr. Bigelow 

 of the error of his hypothetical con- 

 clusions, I can at least show my good 

 will by making the attempt, for all my 

 e.xperience along this line leads me to 



believe that his hypothesis is at fault in 

 more ways than one. 



First, he is in error in assuming that 

 the queen leads the swarm ; in fact, 

 the reverse would be nearer the truth. 

 We practiced clipping queens exclu- 

 sively, for several yiars, during which 

 time we watched the issuing of hun- 

 dreds of swarms, with all our senses 

 alert to discover the clipped queen in 

 order to cage her in time to prepare 

 the hive for the returning swarm, and 

 we never yet saw a queen /end a swarm 

 out of the hive. Occasionally she will 

 accompany the first rush of bees, but 

 oftener will emerge when the swarm is 

 about half out, and not unfrequently 

 will be among the last to leave the 

 hive. Again, his hypothesis is wrong, 

 when it leads him to conclude that 

 nature intentionally provides a plural- 

 ity of queens for a prime swarm. 



I have sifted hundreds of colonies of 

 bees through queen excluding metal, 

 searching for the queen to clip her, 

 and never found a plurality of queens 

 except in case of supersedure; in 

 which case the failing queen and her 

 daughter are frequently found on the 

 same comb, and might also both ac- 

 company the prime swarm. Such 

 queens, however, cut no figure, since 

 they are tolerated on account of their 

 weakness. 



With this view of the case, I must 

 conclude that instances where a plu- 

 rality of queens accompanying a prime 

 swarm are of rare occurrence, and can 

 be accounted for in one of three ways. 

 First, it might happen in case of super- 

 sedure, as just described. Secondly, 

 swarming might be delayed by inclem- 

 ent weather until some of the young 

 queens emerge, in which case there 

 would undoubtedly be a plurality of 

 queens with the prime swarm. This 

 occurrence is rare, however, and is no 

 part of nature's plan. This is proven 

 by the fact that the bees e.xert every 

 effort within their means to hold such 

 queens in the cells, until after the issu- 

 ing of the swarm. 



Several cases of this kind have come 

 under my observation ; in one instance 

 .5 queens emerged from their cells in 

 one hive, in as many minutes after the 

 issuing of a prime swarm, accompanied 

 by a laying queen, and some of them 

 bore evidence of having been held in 

 leash within the cells, for a day or two. 

 Another instance came to my notice 

 where two unhatched queens were in- 

 timidated by the threatening attitude 

 of the bees to the extent that, while the 

 caps were removed from the cells, 

 they did not emerge until several min- 

 utes after the issuing of the prime 

 swarm. Judging from their appear- 

 ance, and the lively manner in which 

 they frisked about upon the combs, I 

 would have taken them to be at least 

 two days old, had I not seen them in 

 the act of emerging from the cells; 

 and I have also known the same thing 

 to occur in after swarming. Thirdly, 

 a virgin might be on her mating tour 

 at the time, and might be attracted by 

 the commotion of the swarm, and join 



it. In this case, there would be a plu 

 rality of queens in the prime swarm. 



Again, it is not necessary to sift a 

 swarm, having a clipped queen, in or- 

 der to determine whether or not it 

 contains a plurality of queens. The 

 action of the swarm, in returning to 

 the hive, after the clipped queen is 

 caged, is a prima facie evidence of 

 queenlessness. All my experience 

 along this line will warrant me in mak- 

 ing the positive assertion that some 

 one of these three contingencies is re- 

 sponsible for every case of a plurality 

 of queens in a prime swarm. It is true 

 that two or more prime swarms might 

 unite, as frequently happens, in which 

 case there would be a plurality of 

 swarms, as well as queens. This is no 

 part of nature's plan, however, since it 

 could not happen except where several 

 colonies are assembled in proximity, 

 by the interference of man. 



With reference to the wisdom of 

 nature's method of hinging the exis- 

 tence of the swarm upon the life of a 

 single queen; nature has evidently de- 

 creed that it is the wiser course to pro- 

 vide against accident to the queen 

 while traveling with the swarm, by 

 leaving behind a sufficient number of 

 unhatched queens and drones, to en- 

 sure the safety of several after swarms. 

 In which case should the swarm come 

 to grief, it is only a fart of the increase 

 that is lost, and the original colony 

 still remains, and is rejuvenated by the 

 departure of all the old folks, leaving 

 nothing behind, except the combs of 

 brood and honey, and a few straggling 

 bees. These augmented by a goodly 

 number of returning field bees, and the 

 rapidly hatching brood, the strength 

 of the colony will be recuperated in 

 time to discharge an after swarm, as 

 soon as the oldest queens are of flying 

 age. This operation is liable to be re- 

 peated as long as sufficient unhatched 

 brood and a plurality of queen-cells 

 remain. 



Viewing it from statures standpoint, 

 the loss of a prime swarm is of little 

 moment, but to a beekeeper it means the 

 loss of the honey crop, for with the 

 swarm go the workers who would 

 produce it. Concerning the kingbird, 

 if one should fly into a moving swarm 

 by accident, or with avaricious intent, 

 self preservation would undoubtedly 

 forbid any attempt or desire to swal- 

 low the queen. 



The period of the greatest danger to 

 the queen is during her mating tour, 

 and having passed this period in safety, 

 her chances of a long and useful life 

 are good; since accident along other 

 lines is chiefly due to the interference 

 of man. 



Concerning the four queens that Mr. 

 Bigelow found in as many small 

 bunches of bees, this is characteristic 

 of after swarms, in which a plurality 

 of queens may be expected, in numbers 

 ranging all the way from two to a 

 dozen. 



Concerning drones, the swarming 

 season is indeed a holiday season for 

 the gay and festive drone; and his 



pct top notch prices 

 ulI for your honey 



BY 



Using LewisSections 

 AND Shipping Cases 



Send for .\nnaal Ca«nIog which will tell 

 you who is your nearest Distributer. 

 <;, B. Lewis Company, AVatertown, \Vis. 



