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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



MaR. 



microscopic world, we find simple forms of 

 animal life contracting themselves in the 

 middle until they break in two, and then 

 each separate part, after a time, breaks in 

 two, and so on. With bees, we have a some- 

 what similar phenomenon. When a colony 

 gets excessively strong, the inmates of the 

 hive, by a sort of preconcerted, mutual agree- 

 ment, divide themselves off into two parties, 

 one party remaining in the old hive, and the 

 other starting out to seek their fortunes else- 

 where. 



I have carefully watched this proceeding, 

 with a view of determining how the matter 

 comes about, and whether it is because a 

 part of the bees become dissatisfied with 

 their old home, and seek to better their con- 

 dition, or because the queen leaves, for some 

 reason of her own (because she has not room 

 to lay her eggs, for instance), and the bees 

 simply follow from a sort of natural instinct, 

 because she is the mother of the colony, and 

 an absolute necessity to their prosperity. 

 After seeing a number of swarms issue, and 

 finding that the queen was among the last to 

 leave the hive, I concluded that the bees 

 take the lead, and that the queen simply fol- 

 lowed as a matter of course, in the general 

 melee. Suppose, however, that the queen 

 should not take a notion to join the new ad- 

 venture ; well, swarms do often start out, 

 with no queen accompanying them, and they 

 usually go back to the hive after a time, to 

 try it again next day. If she does not go 

 then, nor at the next attempt, they often 

 wait until they can rear a new queen, and 

 then go off with her. After I was pretty 

 well satisfied that this is the correct idea of 

 their plan, a little circumstance seemed to 

 upset it all. A neighbor, wanting to make 

 an observatory hive, drummed perhaps a 

 quart of bees from one of his old hives. As 

 he had no queen, I gave him a black queen 

 taken from a hive purchased several miles 

 away. I mention this to show that the queen 

 had never been out of the hive, in the loca- 

 tion which it then occupied. After a day or 

 two, this neighbor informed me that I had 

 played a fine trick on him, for my queen had 

 gone home, and taken his quart of bees with 

 her. I told him it was impossible, for she 

 had never been out of the hive, only when I 

 carried her over in the cage. 



We went and looked in the hive she came 

 from, and there she was, true enough, with 

 the bees she had brought with her stung to 

 death, in front and on the bottom board. It 

 is possible that the bees swarmed out first, 

 but even if they did, they certainly followed 



the queen in going back to her old home. 

 We also know that bees sometimes follow 

 a young queen, when she goes out to take 

 her wedding flight. 



It is my opinion that it is neither the queen 

 nor the workers alone, that make the first 

 start, but that all hands join together, and 

 act in concert. 



WHY KEES SWARM. 



If you can contract the size of the hive, 

 when honey is coming in bountifully, the 

 bees will be very apt to take measures 

 toward swarming, about as soon as the 

 combs are full of brood, eggs, pollen, and 

 honey. They will often wait several days 

 after the hive is seemingly full, and this 

 course may not cause them to swarm at all, 

 but it is very likely to. As soon as it has 

 been decided that the hive is too small, and 

 that there is no feasible place for storing an 

 extra supply of honey where it can be pro- 

 cured in the winter, when needed, they gen- 

 erally commence queen cells. Before doing 

 this, I have known them to go so far as to 

 store their honey outside on the portico, or 

 even underneath the hive, thus indicating 

 most clearly, their wants in the shape of ex- 

 tra space for their stores, where they could 

 protect them. 



I believe want of room is the most general 

 cause of swarming, although it is not the 

 only cause ; for bees often swarm incessant- 

 ly, when they have a hive only partly filled 

 with comb. First swarms usually come 

 about from the cause I have mentioned, but 

 after swarming (which see) often gets to 

 be a sort of mania with the bees, and they 

 swarm, apparently, without a reason. 



AT WHAT SEASON BEES USUALLY SWARM. 



The old adage runs, — 



"A swarm of bees in May, 

 Is worth a load of hay; 

 A swarm of bees in June, 

 Is worth a silver spoon; 

 A swarm of bees in July. 

 Is not worth a fly." 



There is much truth in this, especially if 

 managed on the old plan ; but with modern 

 improvements, a swarm in July may be 

 worth a silver spoon, or even a load of hay; 

 possibly, both together. See after savarm- 

 ino. A colony that was very populous in 

 the fall, and has wintered finely, may cast 

 the first swarm in May, in this latitude, but 

 such events were very unusual before the 

 advent of Italians. The latter often swarm 

 during fruit bloom, and in some cases even 

 earlier. In our locality, swarms do not us- 

 ually issue until the middle or last of June. 

 If the season is a little late, sometimes the 

 greater part of them will come in July, and 



