1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



639 



kind'we can get along very well, although it Is 

 not pleasant to be obliged to do the same work 

 over and over again; but when one or more 

 swarms issue at the same time we are at work 

 with the first, the matter becomes somewhat 

 complicated. I had a swarm out about 8 o'clock 

 A. M., which acted very much in this stubborn 

 way; and when it left the hive after having 

 been hived the second time, two others came 

 out and united with the first one in the air.Glt 

 took them a long time to cluster, first here and 

 then there; but at last they managed to string 

 along on a limb five or six feet long. I had to 

 hive them in two sections by brushing the bees 

 aside and cutting the limb through the middle. 

 This worked very well, and I began to flatter 

 myself concerning my success, when, to my 

 annoyance, they again showed signs of restless- 

 ness and dissatisfaction. Just then another 

 swarm came out; and before this was fairly in 

 the air a fifth one started. Of course, the one 

 just hived, already a triple swarm, could not 

 resist the temptation to join the others in their 

 frolic. This made five strong swarms in the 

 air at the same time. I have been among bees 

 for twenty years, but never experienced such a 

 display of flying bees before. Their roaring 

 was almost deafening, and the air seemed to 

 vibrate from the action of the many thousand 

 wings. They remained in the air for nearly 

 two hours. Sometimes they would try to alight 

 in three or four places at a time, then disband 

 again and have another fly, until late in the 

 afternoon, when they clustered like Fig. 3 ; 

 and the way I hived them, making two swarms 

 of the Ifive, is shown in Fig. 3. zThe smaller 

 part of the cluster was hived first by holding 

 the hiving-box under the same, and, with a 

 large turkey feather, cut or detached them 

 from their support. The box was then hung 

 right to the place which the swarm had occu- 

 pied only a few seconds before; and in a short 

 time all the bees that had dropped in the oper- 

 ation, and were flying, had quietly settled in 

 and on the outside of the box. C The hiving was 

 then an easy job, being late in the day; and the 

 bees, undoubtedly tired of their jubilee, took to 

 the ofl'ered hive quite readily, and remained. 

 The other part, which had hardly noticed the 

 separation, was treated in nearly the same way 

 and with the same result. 



If the production of honey, and not increase 

 of colonies, is our aim, it does not pay to hive 

 strong or even very strong swarms separate. 

 Nothing but extra strong, or, better, enormous- 

 ly strong, such as we get by hiving two or more 

 togeuuer, are profitable. If the five above- 

 mentioned swarms had occupied five hives, the 

 chance to receive section honey would have 

 been greatly reduced. I have a number of 

 single swarms which I considered, at the time 

 of hiving, sufficiently strong to work in supers, 

 that have not made any surplus at all, while 



others have made a little. From the smaller 

 part of the united five I have taken 48 one- 

 pound sections, and from the larger 73, all per- 

 fect, finished sections of first-class basswood 

 honey, most of them overweight on account of 

 their being so completely filled. Besides, they 

 have now on their hives a considerable amount 

 of unfinished and drawn-out sections — just the 

 thing for the buckwheat flow, which we expect 

 soon. All this work has been accomplished 

 inside of two weeks, the result of hives full of 

 bees. 



When swarms unite in the air, or when clus- 

 tering, they do not always show an entirely ♦ 

 friendly disposition toward each other while 

 and after being hived. I have noticed in a 

 number of cases little piles of dead and dying 

 bees in front of the hive, soon after hiving. 

 There were not as many of them as we might 

 expect if one swarm had annihilated the other, 

 but a sufficient quantity to show that it took 

 quite a little fighting to get acquainted. 



Balled virgin queens in front of the hives, 

 where united swarms had been hived, were also 

 very frequent occurrences. In walking along 

 in front of these swarms I have seen at two 

 hives out of five these little balls, and as many 

 as three at one stand. 



The basswood-honey flow was all we could 

 wish for. The dry spell when the buds first 

 opened reduced the period of honey secretion a 

 number of days, may be a week; but the bees 

 made up the shortage after they began work.a 



Naples, N. Y., July 35. 



[I want to emphasize especially your point, 

 to the effect that there is an advantage in hav- 

 ing one or more swarms together for the pro- 

 duction of honey. I believe one of the follies of 

 present bee-keeping is the fussing away with 

 colonies that are too small. Our big colonies 

 will store more than double as much honey as 

 the combined yield of two colonies of half 

 strength. And then, too, the big colony takes 

 less manipulation, and is decidedly less inclined 

 to swarm. — Ed.1 



THE BOARDMAN FEEDEK, AND DROUTH AND 

 NO HONEY IN ARKANSAS. 



The Boardman feeders ordered came prompt- 

 ly to hand, and on trial I find they work like a 

 charm. There is but little trouble in feeding 

 by his plan. But it gives me the blues some- 

 what to see in last Gleanings that Dr. Miller 

 has taken as many as five supers from some of 

 his colonies by the middle of July, when at this 

 date (Aug. 4) I have not even so much as one 

 sealed section from my apiary of 40 colonies. 

 The same drouth in the honey-flow is in all 

 this section of country, so far as I can hear 

 from. While Dr. Miller was taking off his fifth 

 super I was feeding mine to keep them alive. 

 Well, I shall not grumble. May be my time will 

 come next year. J. H. McCargo. 



Danville, Ark., Aug. 4. 



