1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE 



549 



Conversations with 

 Doolittle 



At Borodino 



NATURAL, SWARMING ; THE EMERGING OF 

 QUEENS, ETC. 



"I am all mixed up on natural swarming. 

 I was told in the spring, by one I consider- 

 ed a practical bee-keeper, that bees would 

 swarm at the commencement of the honey 

 harvest; and that if more than one swarm 

 was cast from any colony, the second swarm 

 would come twelve days later, while if a 

 third swarm came, it would be four days later 

 still, or sixteen days after the first swarm." 



"At least forty years' experience tells me 

 that swarming is not conducted like that, 

 unless, perchance, rainy weather has inter- 

 fered with the plans of the bees, which it 

 could not to such an extent once in a quar- 

 ter of a century. The rule for all first or 

 prime swarms is that they issue with the 

 sealing of the first queen-cell, queen-cells for 

 swarming being constructed in accord with 

 the prosperity of the colony. And as a flow 

 of nectar from the fields has much to do 

 with this prosperity, all good colonies, not 

 interfered with by plans for delaying swarm- 

 ing, may be expected to swarm during the 

 first half of a good flow of nectar, the sealing 

 of queen-cells telling the day when any in- 

 dividual colony will swarm. Very early 

 swarms do not issue till the hive is pretty 

 well crowded with bees, even to such an ex- 

 tent that a part of the bees are crowded on 

 the outside of the hive; but later swarms 

 may issue before the hives become crowrled 

 at all. Now, the pupa remains sealed over 

 in a queen-cell only seven days, on the aver- 

 age; and, after emerging, the queen from 

 this cell becomes strong enough to lead out 

 a second swarm two days later: so the rule 

 is, if the colony continvies prosperous the 

 second swarm will issue nine days after the 

 first one leaves the hive. 



"About ten or twelve hours after the first 

 young queen emerges from her cell she be- 

 gins to utter a peculiar sharp sound which 

 is called 'piping,' and this sound can be 

 heard by putting the ear to the side of the 

 hive the evening of the eighth day after the 

 first swarm left, if the first swarm issued ac- 

 cording to the general rule. When a young 

 queen commences to pipe I have never 

 known the issuing of a second swarm to 

 fail unless the object of the bees was thwart- 

 ed by man or by exceptionally bad weather. 

 An item worthy of note is that the weather 

 must be very bad to keep after-swarms from 

 issuing, for they often issue on cloudy days, 

 or at the least streak of sunshine on a rainy 

 day. Then, again, they come out at ail 

 hours of the day, from five in the morning 

 till seven at night, while the time of issuing 

 of the prime swarm is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 



"If the bees conclude to swarm still fur- 

 ther, another queen is allowed her liberty, 

 while the rest are kept confined in their 



cells, being fed through holes made by the 

 queens commencing to cut their way out, 

 so they are virtually of the same age and 

 strength as the one which has her liberty. 

 The queen that is let loose Ijegins piping at 

 once, keeping it up for about the same length 

 of time the others did, so that the third 

 swarm comes two days after the second, or 

 eleven days after the first. It sometimes 

 happens that a fourth and even a fifth swarm 

 issues, and in such cases they come out the 

 next day after the issuing of the preceding 

 swarm. But the issuing of all after-swarms 

 is announced by the piping of the queen; 

 and as long as you' can hear piping from 

 any hive you may know that a swarm is 

 expected to issue. As soon as the piping 

 of a queen is heard, shake the bees off every 

 comb, and cut off all the queen-cells, for the 

 queens in these cells are the disturbing fac- 

 tors. If you do not miss any, the colony 

 will swarm no inore." 



"But are there not more queens than one 

 heard piping at times?" 



"Yes. To make the matter a little plain- 

 er, a young queen may mature and emerge 

 from her cell two or more days before any 

 of her rival sisters come to maturity; but so 

 far as I have observed, she rarely if ever 

 pipes till some of those sisters do mature. 

 As soon as this occurs, the first emerged 

 seems to get in a rage and begins to pipe; 

 and from six to eight hours after maturity, 

 although kept back in their cells, these ri- 

 vals begin also, often half a dozen answer- 

 ing at a time. This last has been named 

 ' quahking,' I believe, although those in the 

 cells are doing the same as is the one having 

 her liberty, so far as they can in the restrict- 

 ed walls of the cells. 



" If any of the queens kept back in the 

 cells arrive at full maturity, and are strong 

 enough when the second swarm issues, they 

 will, during the confusion of swarming, fin- 

 ish biting the cover from their cells and rush 

 out with the swarm. However, it is a rare 

 thing to find more than two or three queens 

 with a second swarm, only one being the 

 general rule. Now, if a third swarm is to 

 issue, the guards collect about the cells 

 again, allowing only one of the mature 

 queens her liberty, and keeping the rest by 

 feeding them as 1 spoke of before. At thir ' 

 swarming there are fewer bees and more 

 mature queens, so that, when the cell-guards 

 become routed by the hurry and bustle of 

 another swarm, more queens leave the cells. 

 In one case I found 15 in one third swarm, 

 and 20 in a fourth from a Cyprian swarm. 



"All queens which can fly on emerg- 

 ing from their cells must have matured 

 from eight hours to a week before, being 

 kept back and fed in the cells by the guard- 

 bees. Young queens will emerge in the nur- 

 sery cages when they are so white and feeble 

 that they will stagger about like drunken 

 men. But it is no uncommon thing for 

 queens with the fourth or fifth after-swarm 

 to become fertile and laying three days afte--, 

 if the same swarm is placed in a hive con- 

 taining combs." 



