260 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JulY 



ROBBING AND SWARMING OUT— A NEW 

 FEATURE. 



S 1 HAVE just had a new experience with bees. I 

 supposed I had learned some of their tricks, but 

 ■~ ' I give it up now. Mr. Itamage, a near neighbor 

 of mine, has a very strong swarm of bees, which 

 commenced robbing mine in early spring when first 

 set out of cellar, every warm day through March 

 and April. They first robbed 2 swarms of another 

 neighbor, and took home with them both bees and 

 honey, thus making them doubly strong. They 

 were in a large box hive, and had ample room, and 

 bred up very fast. 



They have kept at my bees so much, that they 

 could not go out to gather pollen at all, and I had to 

 keep them closed up most of the time through the 

 middle of the day, but they watched closer than I 

 could, and finally cleaned out 2 medium swarms in 

 Api-il, then kept at the others constantly, early and 

 late. It was nothing but fight and sting, from morn 

 till night. I closed the entrance to within one inch, 

 but finally they beat 2 heavy swarms and killed the 

 queens, and the bees joined them as the others had 

 done. I saved most of the honey in the last two by 

 taking them in the house. 



I offered to buy the swarm, but could not. I then 

 offered to divide them, transfer, and furnish him a 

 queen for the one part— anything to break them up. 

 He was very willing to do whatever could be done 

 to stop their mischief ; so, on the 10th, as I noticed 

 honey coming in lively from plum and apple blos- 

 soms, and plenty of drones flying, we divided 

 them, giving the old stand their own queen, and the 

 new one my queen, enclosing each in a wire cage. 

 But now comes the puzzle ; just as we were shak- 

 ing the bees from the skeps, in front of the hives, 

 there was an unusual buzzing, the air seemed full 

 of bees, and I noticed another swarm alighting with 

 them, and saw at once, they were my two banded 

 hybrids ; and still another swarm of black bees 

 pounced down and clustered in the pile. I at once 

 caught and caged both their queens, and placed 

 them in my pocket. I hastened home, and, as I sus- 

 pected, 2 hives were empty. The hybrid swarm was 

 a heavy one in a 10 frame hive, and on examination, 

 four frames were filled with capped brood hatching, 

 eggs, and larvae in all stages, and 5 frames of heavy 

 scaled honey. The black swarm was a medium one, 

 had 3 frames of eggs, larva?, and hatching brood, 

 and 5 frames of honey. When I left home at 12 

 o'clock, both were carrying in pollen lively. Did 

 such a thing ever happen before ? and what is the 

 cause of it ? Was it the great hum, or the smell of 

 honey? or did my swarms help them all the time 

 in their robbing, and joined them out of sympathy ? 



I placed my queens in their respective hives, car- 

 ried the hives over and shook in a portion of the 

 mass of bees in each, closed them up, and took them 

 out 3 miles to my father-in-law's, smoked them well, 

 and released the queens, and in V 2 hour they were 

 carrying in pollen. Did I do right, or what should I 

 have done ? The robber swarms are situated l .L m. 

 from mine. E. A. Morgan. 



Arcadia, Wis., May 12, 1879. 



I think the original cause of stich robbing, 

 was weak stocks, unable to defend them- 

 selves, and after the strong colony got to go- 

 ing in this way, it was hard for them to 

 stop. • Your colonies that swarmed out, 

 would have been very apt to swarm out any 

 way, and they went over to your neighbor's, 



where you were transferring, because — be- 

 cause — , well, I think they went over there 

 because bees, when they swarm out, most 

 always do go over to some body's apiary, 

 who can keep bees better than their owner. 

 If any body can give any better explanation 

 for the queer doings of these bees, let him 

 stand up. 



P. S.— Will he please tell us while up, 

 how bees know that there is an apiary a half 

 mile, or a mile away ? especially^ how does 

 the queen know about things out doors, 

 when she always stays inside of the hive V 

 that is, if she really has anything to do with 

 governing the swarming out, and the direc- 

 tionfin which the bees shall go. 



CHAFF HIVES DURING THE HONEY 



SEASON. 



ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT PATENT HIVES. 



^ifr> HAVE been experimenting somewhat this 



I spring and have observed one thing, that, al- 

 though written up many times before, has not 

 been emphasized sufficiently, I think. 



We advocate protecting bees from the cold blasts 

 of winter, and the scorching rays of the summer 

 sun, but the intermediate temperatures we say but 

 little about. I had one colony, this spring, in a 

 Langstroth hive, so reduced in numbers that all 

 must stay at home to keep the brood warm and a- 

 live, no increase in stores bti:ig possible. This 

 seemed to manifest itself particularly on windy 

 days, of which we have had many this spring. I 

 removed them into a chaff hive, and ever since then 

 as many workers have gone out from this colony as 

 from others twice as strong. 



I transferred two very strong colonies, last week, 

 from old boxes to chaff hives. They had stored al- 

 most no honey, although we have had a good supply 

 of white clover for two weeks, and fruit blossoms 

 were plentiful in their season. 



Quite a number of the bee raisers on a small scale 

 had become enthusiastic over the plan of enclosing 

 their box hives in a large box, placing them in a 

 barn or other out-buildiDg, and allowing the bees to 

 build surplus honey on the outside of the hive. 

 Last season, large stores were obtained in this way. 

 This spring, many of these colonies were destroyed 

 during the robbing mania. The cause is doubtless 

 apparent. 



Most people here have a supreme contempt for 

 any kind of a hive that assumes to be more than a 

 cubical box, with two cross-sticks, and it seems but 

 natural that such should be the case. A few years 

 ago, a man by the name of Moon, I believe, divided 

 the bees about all out of existence. What few sur- 

 vived this ordeal, fell a prey to moths in the Thomas 

 hive, farm rights of which were sold all over the 

 county. Mitchell has been here also. 



Odell, 111., June 9, '79. J. L. Hartwell. 



It is said that Millard Fillmore, when he was Vice 

 President, on receiving a box of honey from an old 

 friend in the country, paid the following simple and 

 touching compliment to the modern system of bee 

 culture : 



The honey is uncommonly fine, and its pure sweet- 

 ness enhanced by the thought that no life of the 

 little, industrious insects— a splendid pattern for 

 man in his highest condition to follow— was sacri- 

 ficed by depriving them of this portion of their 

 precious hoard. 



