664 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



from 15 days 2 hours to IGK days from the egg, 

 and a worker from 19 days 3 hours to 32 days 

 3 hours. Queen and worker larviB may have 

 their cells capped over In at least 7 days 15 

 hours after the eggs were laid. 



Alberti cut off a branch of a pine-tree which 

 was covered with tree-lice and honey-dew, 

 cleaned this branch very carefully, so that no 

 honey-dew or tree-lice were any more on the 

 twig, and placed it in his room. The next 

 morning the twig was again covered with 

 small drops of honey-dew — a stubborn fact that 

 honey-dew does not always consist of the ex- 

 crements of Ijhe tree-lice. — JGT. Reepen, in 

 A. B. J. 



In the discussion as to prevention of burr 

 and brace combs, it seems to me that hardly 

 the merited attention has been given to the 

 matter of the space between one top-bar and 

 its next neighbor. If a quarter of an inch is 

 the space left by the bees between two vertical 

 surfaces, and if that is the proper distance 

 between top-bar and section, will some good 

 brother please rise and say whether there is 

 any I'eason why J4 inch is not the best distance 

 between lop- bars? 



MORE ACCURATE OBSERVATIONS. 



WHAT AND WHAT IS NOT SWAKMING-FEVER; 

 HOW IT MAY BE DISTINGUISHED FROM OR- 

 DINARY SWARMING; SOME VALUABLE 

 DATA FROM E. E. HASTY. 



There has been a little breeze, in which 

 friends Doolittle and Alley participated, as to 

 whether eight days or nine days after the prime 

 swarm is the time to expect a second swarm. 

 It strikes me that here is the place to put,in an 

 earnest plea for more accurate observations 

 and real records. Most of us are trusting too 

 much to general impressions and memory; and 

 this sort of thing is not worthy of the high rank 

 which apiculture is taking as a science as well 

 as an art. Let us have the actual records of 

 two or three apiaries where swarm-fever has 

 prevailed, and also of two or three where the 

 swarming is normal, and of as many more 

 where swarming is scanty. Then we shall 

 have something on the question to which we 

 can. without blushing, invite the attention of 

 scientific men. I can open the ball by contrib- 

 uting a record of the first sort mentioned. If 

 the owners of large apiaries have all left off 

 keeping records, will they not next year favor 

 us with the actual dates of their second swarms'? 



Sw!\rm- fever is a real something, which is 

 sometimes present and somelinies not present 

 at swarming-time. Many use the term as a 

 mere expression for a troublesome amount of 

 swarming when every thing is perfectly nor- 

 mal. A dozen colonies may send out their 

 prime swarms the same forenoon, and make 

 their keeper sweat considerably, when there is 

 not a hit of swarm-fever in the yard. One of 

 the plainf^st manifestations of swarm-fever is 

 in causing the second swarms 10 come out later 

 than sdiedule time. A novice would expect 

 the opposite result— earlier time if the bees felt 

 in a hurry. The explanation is, that the mania 

 causes the first swarms to come out with less 

 preparation than usual, or none at all. Then, as 

 there must be a queen of some sort before the 

 seconds can get away in condition to set up in 

 housekeeping, there must be a longer period of 

 waiting for the young queens to emerge. 



I have for the present very swarmy year of 

 1893 the full records of 33 second swarms. Of 

 course, if either the first or second swarm gets 

 out without my seeing it, or without my seeing 



where it came from, the record is likely to be a 

 blank so far as that hive is concerned. Also 

 the cases of superseding queens at swarming- 

 time put out the colonies in which they occur. 

 These 33 second swarms were timed as follows: 



At 8 days 5 At 12 days 2 



At 9 days 2 At 13 days 2 



At 10 days 5 At 14 days 1 



At 11 days 4 At 17 days i 



The 17-day colony gave a third swarm at 19 

 days from the prime. On the previous day (the 

 18th) 1 examined the hive and found things as 

 they should be during after-swarming. So it 

 was not a case of the old queen returning and 

 coming out with another swarm later. Once 

 or twice before, I have had the last swarm 17 

 days from the prime. It seems to me that Mr. 

 Alley's assertion, in his new serial, that, if no 

 swarm comes out by the twelfth day, none need 

 be expected, is misleading and bad, except as to 

 locations where swarm-fever never prevails. 

 Mr. Doolittle remarks that cutting queen-cells 

 on the sixth day will result in swarms on the 

 16th, 17th, and 18th: but in the above case no 

 cells were cut; and I should fear to trust Mr. 

 D.'s sure plan (cutting on the 8th day), lest a 

 considerable percentage should swarm anyhow, 

 and leave the colonies queenless. 



Another manifestation of swarm-fever is the 

 great number of swarms that go back to their 

 hives again. June 14th I had 8 swarms in suc- 

 cession come out and go back, and not a clipped 

 queen in the yard. Fourteen of the 23 swarms 

 in the table above went back; so one day 

 should be added if the time when the second 

 swarm is ready to be hived is wanted. A fif- 

 teenth one came out three times the same day, 

 clustering the third time. A novice would sup- 

 pose going back into the hive indicates at- 

 tachment to it. and reluctance to go away. 

 The fact seems to be, that a few hot-heads get 

 so impatient to be away that they start a rush 

 prematurely, before the queen is ready, or. at 

 least, before all things are ready; and the 

 result is a fiasco. Three of the five eight-day 

 swarms clustered the first time. The fourteen- 

 day swarm went back and came out the next 

 day. 



As to authorities on the question, Quinby 

 says 8 or 9 days; Cook, 7 or 8 plus 2 or 3; i. e., 

 9 to 11 days; King, 8 or 9 plus 1; i. e.. 9 or 10 

 days. Langstroth says usually 9, but on rare 

 occasions as few as 3 or as many as 17. My A 

 B C seems not to go on record on the point. 

 The table of my this year's experience, as you 

 see, makes the average time between lu and 

 11 days. There being more than twice as many 

 on the eighth day as on the ninth may be a 

 slight indication that eight days is the true 

 normal. 



It is very well to have experiment stations 

 and paid experimenters; but there is much 

 work yet to be done which almost any intelli- 

 gent and enthusiastic young student could do. 

 For instance^ bees have twenty different styles 

 of swarming. Who will take eyes in his head, 

 and watch and note-book in his hand, and 

 describe each style accurately, as a scientific 

 work would require? Occasionally a swarm 

 comes out riding upon each other's shoulders, 

 and hurls itself in ragged heaps upon the 

 ground in front of the hive, sizzling and fum- 

 ing. Perchance, after a long time spent thus, 

 they get back on the front of the hive, and 

 gradually cool down — like an overheated cook- 

 stove slowly simmering itself into quiet. Oc- 

 casionally a swarm comes out rather slowly, 

 and half the bees quickly alight, scattered 

 everywhere, on the leaves of vegetation, on 

 surrounding hives, and on the ground, as if 

 there were going to be a ball-game, and they 



