208 



American ^ec Joarnal| 



July, 190S. 



ideas relating to intensive and extensive 

 arriculturc ? 



It would be possible to show quite as 

 startling a view held by almost any one 

 of the bee-periodicals on some certain 

 subject, but as an assault on editors in 

 general was not the intent of this arti- 

 cle, I will refrain. Still the aggressive 

 attitude of Gleanings just now toward 

 our old stand-by — -spring-feeding — can 

 hardly be allowed to go unrebuked. 



The position Gleanings appears to 

 have taken in this discussion is, that all 

 colonies should be provided with suffi- 

 cient stores before the beginning of win- 

 ter so that there will be none needing 

 attention in this respect at the break- 

 ing of spring. Now, while admitting the 

 possibility of there being localities where 

 this might work, as in case of a late 

 honey-flow, we all know that in the ma- 

 jority of cases, it is either break your 

 back spreading and equalizing brood, or 

 practise stimulative feeding. Of the two 

 evils, the former is unquestionably the 

 greater. 



That fall-feeding when the bees are 

 short of stores is fully as important as 

 spring - feeding, I am quite ready to 

 agree ; but that it is more important^ 

 no, sir! 



After devoting 12 years to the pro- 

 duction of section honey, I have learned 

 to look upon the practise of tearing 

 open the brood-nest durino- chilly weath- 

 er for equalizing or spreading brood, as 

 a remnant of barbarism. I now depend 

 altogether upon stimulative feeding for 

 quickly building up weak colonies. 



In theory, this feeding heavily in the 

 fall looks as if it might be the whole 

 thing, but in practise it will be soon 

 discovered that bees can not be made to 

 breed to their full capacity because they 

 have a large amount of honey. Not un- 

 til new honey, or a substitute, begins 

 coming plentifully from somewhere, will 

 the bees start breeding in earnest. Yet 

 it is true that in most localities a col- 

 ony that is in good condition in the 

 spring, will usually, if it has plenty of 

 stores, be in condition to make the most 

 of the honey-flow. We can hardly dis- 

 pense with the spring feeding, however, 

 on account of the backward colonies, of 

 which there will always be from 15 to 

 20 percent. 



Fort Smith, Ark. 



How the Bees Swarm 



BY G. M. DOULITTLE. 



Very many of the young bee-keepers 

 do not seem to know just how swarming 

 is conducted, and so in their making of 

 artificial swarms or colonies, by chang- 

 ing hives, they do not get the best re- 

 sults. Not long ago a man who had 

 kept bees for 3 years, and thought he 

 was quite well informed in bcc-mattcrs, 

 told me that only old bees went with 

 the swarm ; and during the winter, while 

 talking with another person, who num- 

 bers his colonies by the score, I was told 

 that the young queen hatched in the par- 

 ent colony within 24 hours after the 

 prime swarm left. Now I do not say 

 that it is impossilile for a young queen 

 to emerge from her cell within a day 

 after the prime swarm goes out, but I 

 do say that no such thing happens once 



ou": of a thousand times. It is only when 

 the swarm has been kept 6 or 7 days 

 by bad weather that such a thing can 

 happen. Then, if any swarm ever is- 

 sued, composed wholly of old bees, it 

 would have to be from a prime swarm 

 within 21 days from the time it was 

 hived, or under some such abnormal 

 condition, which is never the rule, but 

 the exception. 



I have had thousands of natural 

 swarms, and experimented very largely 

 to know under what conditions swarms 

 issued, as a rule, and have found, in 

 regard to age of bees, that bees of all 

 ages, in about equal proportions, leave 

 the parent hive from the old forager 

 with her wings all tattered and torn 

 from the wear they get when hitting 

 them against the grass while working 

 in the helds of clover, to the bee that 

 has been out of its cell but a few 

 hours — -not long enough to have the 

 white fuzz that is on its thorax and 

 abdomen, obtain its usual color, which 

 is seen on a bee of more advanced 

 age. 



Many and many a time have I seen 

 the ground in front of the hive from 

 which a swarm has just issued, nearly 

 covered with bees so young as to be 

 unable to fly, which after a little crawl 

 back into the hive again ; and as often 

 have I seen the veterans with their 

 jagged wings hanging with the swarm, 

 as well as those having their pollen 

 baskets filled with pollen. Thus we have 

 the field-bees, or the outside workers, 

 or bees from 6 to sixteen days old, and 

 the nurse-bees, or those 6 days old 

 and under, in about equal proportions, 

 this showing that the All-wise Creator 

 knew how things should be when He 

 pronounced all which He had made as 

 good. If it were not for young bees 

 going with the swarm the home which 

 the swarm entered would be nearly de- 

 populated by the bees dying of old 

 age, before the brood from the eggs 

 which the queen would lay after the 

 home was established would emerge 

 from their cells to take the places of 

 the rapidly dying population, as the 

 field-bees have only about 26 days to 

 live after they are old enough to go into 

 the field to labor, when the colony cast- 

 a swarm is in a normal condition. 



Under normal conditions, the bee is 

 16 days old before it goes out from the 

 hive as a gatherer of stores, and as all 

 worker-bees die of old age during the 

 season of gathering honey when about 

 42 days old, 26 days would be the life 

 of the worker after it entered the fields 

 as a laborer. 



Again, if all were old bees, where 

 would the comb come from to fill the 

 hive? for when in a normal condition 

 the bees between the ages of 8 and 24 

 days old are the ones which do this 

 work. 



Then, how about the nurse-bees which 

 prepare the chyle to feed the larvK. 

 When in a normal condition these nurse- 

 bees are between 3 and 12 days old. 

 Of course, when any colony is thrown 

 out of its normal condition by the hand 

 of man, the bees do the best they can, 

 but the colony is not so prosperous 

 then, as it is when normal conditions 

 prevail. 



But let us look inside of the hive 



when preparations for swarming are be- 

 ing made, and see if we cannot arrive 

 at the truth in the matter, as regards- 

 the conditions under which the swarm 

 issues, when the first young queen 

 emerges, etc. 



The first indication of swarming is 

 the laying of eggs in the drone-comb. 

 While eggs in drone-cells are not a sure 

 sign that swarms will issue, yet, as far 

 as I know — and this knowledge comes- 

 by careful observation — swarms never 

 do issue without eggs laid therein. If 

 the weather is propitious, the next step- 

 is the building of queen-cells, soon af- 

 ter which the old queen deposits eggs 

 in them. In 3 days these eggs hatch 

 into larvae, and said larvae are fed an 

 abundance of food by the nurse-bees 

 for 6 days, when the cells containing the 

 embryo queens are sealed over. If no- 

 bad weather has intervened, the swarm 

 will issue the next day, provided that 

 day is fine, the old queen going with the 

 swarm. Now bear in mind that this 

 is the rule with the black or German 

 bee, and generally with the Italians ; 

 still, the Italians often swarm when the 

 eggs are first laid in the queen-cells,, 

 and sometimes without the least prep- 

 arations at all except eggs in the drone- 

 cells, when they are in the most pros- 

 perous condition, and the weather and 

 nectar supply the most propitious. All 

 good authority allows that the queen- 

 larva remains 7 days in the cell, as my 

 experience also proves ; and I cannot 

 see how it is possible to make the mis- 

 take of claiming that said young queen 

 emerges in 24 hours after the old queer> 

 goes out with the swarm. 



When such bad weather occurs that the 

 swarm is kept from issuing dujing the 

 first 6 days after the first cell is sealed, 

 it is possible for the swarm to issue 

 the next day, should that be pleasant, in 

 which case the first young queen would 

 emerge from her cell during that 24 

 hours. But this is something I never 

 had occur but once or twice during my 

 40 years of bee-keeping life, for, in 

 such cases, the bees become discouraged 

 about swarming, when the queen-cells 

 are destroyed and swarming is post- 

 poned for an indefinite period. So I 

 find, as a rule, that the first queen- 

 emerges from her cell from 6 to 7 days 

 after the first swarm. 



If more swarms issue, the first of 

 these, or what is generally termed the 

 "second swarm," usually comes out two 

 days later, or from the 8th to the 9th 

 day after the first, and never later than 

 the i6th. If a third swarm is allowed, 

 this will come in from one to two days 

 after the second, and if more than this, 

 then there will be one issue every day 

 afterward. 



As soon as it is decided that no more 

 swarms shall issue, all queens in the 

 cells are destrojed, when, in from .^ to 

 9 days the young queen left in the hive 

 goes out to meet the drone, two days 

 after which she commences to lay. 



This, in short, is as I find the condi- 

 tion during natural swarming. Now, in 

 making swarmin.g, if wo would be suc- 

 cessful to the fullest extent we will see 

 that we have the queen and bees of all 

 ages witli her, as nearly as possible ini 

 accord with nature's plan of swarming. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



