November, 1913. 



379 



American Hee Journal 



A Kansas Apiary Owned by Geo. K. Capvveli.. of Cottonwood Falls 



deep bass voice, mingling with the 

 shrill treble of the workers, makes a 

 pleasant harmony, and forms the well- 

 known bugle note that heralds the is- 

 suing of a swarm of bees. At the 

 sound all hands join in the chorus, and 

 the inmates of the hive, old and young, 

 male and female, great and small, all 

 seem bent on getting out of the hive 

 as quickly as possible, evidently for the 

 purpose of joining in the exercises, 

 and enjoying the festivities of the oc- 

 casion. It frequently happensthat these 

 noisy demonstrations will influ'ince 

 other colonies to join in the holiday 

 orgies, when a general melee ensues 

 that is likely to make things interest- 

 ing for the beekeeper. On such an 

 occasion I have had 9 swarms out at 

 the same time. It was on July 4, and 

 the bees seemed to enjoy the holiday 

 better then we did. 



Concerning Mr. Bigelow's hypothe- 

 sis that drones have a purpose in ac- 

 companying the swarm, isn't it going a 

 little too far to attribute to bees a mo- 

 tive for their acts ? Evidently nature 

 has decreed that they shall accompany 

 the swarm for the purpose of perform- 

 ing certain necessary functions for 

 which they were especially created. 

 This decree makes it just as natural 

 for drones to accompany the swarm as 

 for queens ; for they are a part of the 

 commonwealth of the community, and 

 their presence is necessary for the per- 

 petuation of its existence. In reply to 

 the question by Mr. Bigelow, as to why 

 the drones accompany the swarm, per- 

 mit me to further say that the method 

 that nature employes to induce drones 

 to accompany the swarm, may perhaps 

 be the desire to perform certain func- 

 tions as already mentioned. This is 

 merely a matter of conjecture, however, 

 and evidently the first answer to the 

 hypothetical question is the nearer 

 correct. 



If Mr. Bigelow will pardon the lib- 

 erty, I would further suggest that it is 

 hardly worth while to try to find out 

 why bees do certain things in a cer- 

 tain way, for mother nature wouldn't 

 tell us if we asked her. The knowl- 

 edge that they will always do things in 



the same way, under like conditions, is 

 sufficient to enable us to manage them 

 intelligently, and I fail to see wherein 

 a knowledge of the whys and where- 

 fores of the case can benefit us. Es- 

 pecially since nature has not seen fit 

 to enlighten us along these lines, but 

 commands obedience to her laws with- 

 out offering any excuse for their ex- 

 istence. 



Undoubtedly the piece of honey- 

 comb that Sampson took from the car- 

 cass of the lion contained the ortho- 

 do.x number of queen and drone cells. 

 All things considered, is it really worth 

 while to question the wisdom of na- 

 ture's methods ? It is true that mother 

 nature is sometimes rather lavish in 

 her supply of drones and queens, but 

 she cannot be expected to be every- 

 where at once, and therefore should 

 not be blamed if a refractory colony, 

 taking advantage of her absence, builds 

 too much drone comb and too many 

 queen-cells. And when we consider 

 the multitude of her subjects, all bent 

 on violating her laws and" frustrating 

 her plans, it seems ungenerous to cast 

 reflections upon the wisdom of her 

 methods just because she cannot afford 

 two or three queens for every swarm. 



Birmingham, Ohio. 



Cleaning Out Pollen-Filled 

 Combs 



BY EDWIN BEVINS. 



I HAD a peculiar experience with a 

 colony of bees this season. The 

 colony was in a hive holding 8 

 frames, 2 inches deeper than the 

 standard frame. It was strong 

 early in the season, and wishing to get 

 the queen at work in combs of stand- 

 ard size, I put a hive-body filled with 

 combs on top. The flow had been on 

 some days before I examined the col- 

 ony, and I then found the combs in the 

 upper story full of honey, but no brood 

 in any of them. 



Thinking the queen must be below I 

 took off the upper story, put a queen 

 excluder on the lower hive, then put 



on a hive-body filled with empty combs, 

 and put the filled body on top of that. 

 Honey was coming in freely, and I 

 soon discovered that another set of 

 empty combs was wanted. I took off 

 the two filled bodies in order to put 

 one filled with empty combs next to 

 the brood-chamber, and then as it was 

 too big a lift for me to put the body 

 first filled on top of all the rest, I put 

 it on another hive standing near, which 

 had but one super. 



A little later I saw that something 

 was wrong with the colony about 

 which I am writing. Wishing to carry 

 some supers with sealed honey to the 

 extracting room, I opened the body 

 that I had put on another colony in 

 order to take away part of the combs, 

 and not have to carryall at once; but 

 found that a large part of the combs 

 were filled with brood. I had given 

 the queen to the stronger colony, and 

 the bees had, of course, destroyed her. 



I did not examine the old colony 

 for some days, but when I did I found 

 the 8 deep combs solidly filled with 

 pollen. I took the excluder away and 

 also one filled super. In the other 

 super I put a comb having eggs and 

 larvse, in hopes that the bees would 

 rear a queen. At the third trial I suc- 

 ceeded. It is now Oct. 7. A few days 

 ago I put the upper story below, and 

 then shook all the bees with the queen 

 from those 8 deep combs in front of 

 the hive. There was no pollen in any 

 of these 8 combs, and they were about 

 half filled with honey. 



If the description has any value, it is 

 from the method by which I got pol- 

 len-filled combs cleaned out by the 

 bees. 



Leon, Iowa. 



Swarms— Queens and Drones 



BV A. D. D. WOOli. 



I HARDLY agree with Dr. Bigelow's 

 article, but perhaps he has good 

 ground for writing as he does. I 

 am glad his article came as it did, 

 right on the heels of an experi- 

 ment I conducted this last June, and 

 by which I am fully convinced the 

 Doctor's views and mine are far apart. 

 On June 10 I had a large swarm is- 

 sue, and upon going to the hive I no- 

 ticed the queen about 2 feet away, and 

 sat down to observe what they would 

 do when they returned. (I strive to 

 have all laying queens clipped.) This 

 time I wanted to study developments. 

 The bees clustered; a few bees stayed 

 with the queen. In less than five min- 

 utes the swarm commenced to return ; 

 there were no virgins with them this 

 time. For seven consecutive days 

 they came out; each time the queen 

 was watched, and each time the bees 

 returned; no virgins at any time. On 

 the eighth day they came out, and the 

 old queen went so far that she would 

 not have returned even if the bees did. 

 But the bees stayed, and the virgins 

 came with them this time. I caged the 

 old queen and placed her at the en- 

 trance of the old hive ; took my basket, 

 shook the bees in it, and commence! 

 to hunt. I found two virgins. I set 

 the basket in the shade and they all re- 

 turned to the parent hive. The next 



