638 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



NOTES ON SWARMING. 



SOME OP\,THE DIFFICULTIES. 



By O. C. Qreiner. 



The swarming season, with its various trials 

 and tribulations, has again passed by. Among 

 the mishaps was a tumble which I took when 

 trying to hive a swarm some fourteen or sixteen 

 feet from the ground. The ladder slipped in 

 such a way that 1 was thrown right among the 

 cluster, but was fortunate enough to stick to 

 the ladder as the bees stuck to me. A few dozen 

 stings were all the inconvenience I su'ffered in 

 the affair. 



Not so fortunate was a friend who lives a few 

 miles from here. In trying to hive a swarm 

 nearly on top of an eighteen-foot ladder, he had 

 the hiving- box in one hand, and, reaching with 

 the other to shake off the swarm, the ladder 

 turned over, precipitating him head first 

 through the tree on to the ground. 

 A badly sprained shoulder and 

 nearly broken wrist was the result, 

 which disabled him from doing any 

 work for some days, and he is still 

 suffering from the effects of that 

 fall. 



The past swarming season has 

 brought some peculiar features to 

 our notice. Bees have swarmed 

 quite freely — uncommonly so— this 

 year. Every thing from strong to 

 medium has sent out a second 

 swarm. Even some weaker ones, 

 from which we could hardly expect 

 any swarms, have followed suit. 

 Many of them (I believe I am safe 

 to say that more than one- half of 

 the 45 or 50 swarms which I hived) 

 swarmed with superseding queens — 

 not only one or two to each swarm, 

 but anywhere from two to five or 

 six; ard in many instances the old 

 fertile queen would be with them 

 too. In rwo cases I have seen a 

 laying qiifon enter the hive and 

 then pickiti (two out of one and four 

 out of the ether) virgin queens from 

 the hive-enterirg swarms. I had 

 occasion to lOok for a comb of brood with a 

 capped queen-cell. On opening a hive from 

 which a first swarm had just issued, I found a 

 dozen or more cells in the different stages of 

 hatching. Some queens had already emerged; 

 others about ready to raise the little cover, 

 and others just beginning to gnaw the cappings. 

 Undoubtedly this young swarm had, like many 

 others, a good supply of virgin queens. 



Many of the young first swarms did not be- 

 have in the usual way. 



It is a very simple and easy matter to hive a 

 normal swarm. After issuing, and having a 

 short playspell in the air, they will soon find a 



place to alight, form a solid, quiet cluster in a 

 few minutes more, and, when hived, enter the 

 hive, seemingly thankful that a home has been 

 provided for them, and all is well. How differ- 

 ent this year! They remained on the wing for 

 a long time; would try to alight in one place; 

 take wing again, and try another; and when 

 they finally did cluster it was not with the 

 quietude and contentment which we are accus- 

 tomed to see with normal swarms. Besides, 

 they would cluster in irregular shapes, some- 

 thing like our illustrations, Nos. 1. and 3. 

 When hived, in being shaken in front of the 

 hive many would again take wing, fly back to 

 the place where they had clustered, or around 

 the hive in a suspicious way, showing plainly 

 that every thing was not to their satisfaction. 

 When at last they had entered the hive, which 

 generally required a great amount of coaxing 

 and driving, they would stay only a few min- 



G. C. GREINEK'S METHOD OF HIVING SWARMS. 



utes, then run out on the alighting-board, or up 

 and down the front of the hive, one after an- 

 other; take wing until the whole swarm would 

 be in the air again, to have the same operation 

 performed a secoii'd time. 



We generally suppose that, when swarms act 

 in this way, their queens have failed to enter 

 the hive, and are somewhere among the bees 

 on the outside. This is not always the cause of 

 their contrariness. I have repeatedly seen 

 queens enter the hive with the bees, and felt 

 somewhat relieved on account of it, when, soon 

 after, I had to be disappointed as described. 



If one swarm alone causes us trouble of this 



