1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



445 



All right, my friend; but it's just as natural for the 

 swarm to go off, so we must let it go off. At any rate, 

 I think I would give more to find out the best possi- 

 ble way to prevent swarming than to find out any 

 other one thing connected with bee-keeping. In the 

 answers given to the two questions, there is consid- 

 erable agreement. Only in the last answer, Hasty 

 starts off on a track all by himself, and says that 

 there is probably only one necessary condition to 

 induce swarming— " a turgid condition of the ves- 

 sels in the bee anatomy in which are stored the 

 supplies for future brood-rearing." Is the man 

 crazy, or only a natural born fool, to fly off in that 

 sort of style? Well, if you take Hasty for a fool 

 you are altogether too hasty. 1 confess I had never 

 thought of just the reason that he gives for swarm- 

 ing, but I had thought about some things closely 

 connected therewith. I think generally, if not al- 

 ways, the hive from which a swarm has issued for 

 me, has been found to have an unusually large 

 quantity of its brood sealed. Have others found 

 this to be generally true? If so, Hasty's theory 

 would say, "The bees have been feeding a large 

 quantity of brood, and somewhat suddenly they 

 find the brood all sealed, little young brood to feed, 

 and no place to dispose of the food they have se- 

 creted in such abundance for the larva 1 . So, in 

 some way, this engorgement leads to the swarming 

 fever." I once had a colony swarm when put on 

 nothing but foundation, leaving nothing in the way 

 of brood except one egg in the queen-cell. They 

 had been baffled several times in the attempt to 

 swarm, each time having a part of their combs tak- 

 en away. Perhaps Hasty's theory, if 1 have inter- 

 preted it correctly, might apply to this. It is com- 

 monly believed that a young queen is much less 

 likely to swarm than an old one. Try Hasty's theory 

 on this. If a queen from old age should suddenly 

 drop off in her laying, the nurse-bees are checked in 

 their feeding, and engorgement occurs. But I have 

 had a young queen swarm before she had been 

 laying a week. Say No. 1 with an old queen swarms 

 and is returned to the hive, and the queen replaced 

 by a queen taken from No. 2, this latter queen 

 having just commenced laying. If the swarm is- 

 sued because the cells were filled with sealed brood, 

 a change of queens does not make any difference in 

 the condition of the turgid vessels, and this young 

 queen comes out next day with the swarm; where- 

 as if she had been left in No. 2 she would not have 

 swarmed that year. As a general rule, a young 

 queen is not so apt to swarm; but is it not because, 

 commencing later in the season, there is never that 

 condition of affairs in the brood-chamber that pre- 

 vents the nurses from disposing of all the food they 

 have prepared? Here's an experiment that might 

 be worth trying: From a colony that has just 

 swarmed, take away its frames of sealed brood and 

 give it frames of unsealed brood, either before or 

 after the swarm with its queen has been returned, 

 and see whether it will swarm again. I have failed 

 so many times in trying to thwart a swarming colo- 

 ny, that I am not sanguine about the success of 

 this experiment. Indeed, I'm not sanguine about 

 ever knowing how to successfully prevent swarm- 

 ing; but I'm anxious to learn all I can about it. 

 Marengo, 111., May 22, 18s«.i. (J. C. Miller. 



Friend M., I once gave you quite a talk- 

 ing-to for using rough language when you 

 were in fun, and I feel just like scolding 

 you now. I remember very well indeed 



that queer expression of Hasty's. I said to 

 myself, " Well, what does the fellow mean, 

 any way ?" but I afterward reflected that 

 Hasty is by no means one of the kind who 

 purposely mystify. I did not follow the 

 idea very much, but I did have a dim im- 

 pression something in the line you have in- 

 terpreted it ; and I believe you have got it 

 about right. The bees swarm because they 

 are in the right condition, and all loaded up, 

 as one might say, to raise great quantities 

 of brood, and, lo and behold, there is not 

 any brood except that which is sealed ; and 

 oftentimes there are not any cells to clean 

 out, that the queen may start some more. 

 At this crisis the house is too small ; the ac- 

 commodations are altogether too limited, 

 and without relief in some direction the 

 great business of populating the world with 

 their own kind must come to a standstill. 

 Nature herself has made provision, as she 

 always does, by a sort of safety-valve. When 

 the pressure gets up to the proper limit, 

 open goes the valve, and off goes the steam 

 in the shape of myriads of bees pouring out 

 over the hives with a great jubilee, all 

 hands eager for the new enterprise. Now, 

 good friend Hasty, I beg pardon for taking 

 the matter out of your own hands, and put- 

 ting my own interpretation on it ; but I 

 have done so. taking it for granted you 

 would supply the missing links, and set me 

 right where I am wrong. Now you have the 

 floor.- If Dr. Miller says any more saucy 

 words, I will scold him some more. 



WINTERING BEES OUTDOORS. 



PLENTY OF STORES, AND PROTECTION FROM WIND, 

 PRIME ESSENTIALS. 



WILL mention a few things that I think we 

 must have, to insure success. We want some 



I sort of a windbreak, such as a good grove of 

 timber or high hills, or a high board fence. It 

 is hard on the bees to have a strong wind blow- 

 ing into the hives in cold weather. In the spring 

 time, when the bees come out for a fly they should 

 be protected from the wind as much as possible. 

 Then for me I want a quadruple hive, chaff lined all 

 around the sides and over the bees. Putting four 

 hives together is a great help to save heat and keep 

 the little folks comfortable. 



But the most essential of all things is an abun- 

 dance of something good to eat. Good honey is 

 good enough, if there is enough of it. I am satisfied 

 that we have lost more bees (since I commenced 

 keeping bees) by scarcity of honey to winter on 

 than from all other causes combined. Our motto 

 from this on will be, that a great deal too much 

 honey is just enough. There is nothing lost by let- 

 ting them have more than they will use up. If it is 

 not all used up before we start the extractor, the 

 next year we will get it then. Bees won't breed up 

 fast in the spring if they are short of feed. They 

 may pull through in a weak condition, but be of no 

 use as far as gathering surplus is concerned ; when 

 if they had had plenty of feed in the spring they 

 would have built up strong and been a profit to 

 their owner. Now, I believe in feeding during the 

 spring months, if I have to, to save the bees and 

 build them up for business; but I don't like to be 

 obliged to do it. I don't like to be feeding bees in 



