SEPTEMBER 1, 1915 



729 



Heads of Grsiie from DiffereM Fields 



The Backlot Buzzer 



BV J. H. DONAHKY 



.1 ffUow iran >hc city came out the other dan to 

 rui( th>; bees. Had a fly-swatter with him. They 

 put him ovt on the third strike. 



Excessive Swarming in Spite of Giving 



Room and Enlarging the Erlrancos; 



What was the Caase? 



I wish to ^ivi! my pxpfiionoc viih beos (his 

 |irin?, which is out of the usual order of thinas 

 Aith nip. My bees came through the winter strong 

 in numbers but rather lisht in stores. Fruit bloo^in 

 mine on in abundai'.ce, with plenty of dandelion 

 bloom. As I had about all the bees that T cared 

 for I set out to keep down swarming as much as 

 jiossible. T have some ten-frame hivc.s; and as I 

 luii mostly for bulk comb honey I got full-depth 

 supers for these and put them on early. 1 also gave 

 ihem larie entrances. Part of m»' eisht-frame hives 

 I treated in the ^anic wa.^ — that is. I put on supers 

 witli full-depth frames all equipped with starters — 

 iiot full sheets of foundation. But in spite of all I 

 did. s\\arn\insc be?ran the last of May and has kept 

 lip without intermission this far in June. Now, the 

 iinusual thins: is ;hat one swarm came out, and. 

 without sfttlins. went into another hive containing 

 " es in the sami- row. \t another time a swarm 

 ;ime out, and, without clustering, went into a hive 

 where I had iust put a swarm that had clustered. 

 The early swarms were large, but the late swarms 

 lia\e leen rather sm.'ill. so ! have been doubling 

 ilicm up and putting two of them in tlie same liivc. 

 Is there any obiecfion to this practice? In only 

 one case have T found ;iny trouble, and then I found 

 nUt'Ut a pint of dead bees .it the entrance after two 

 swarms had been put together. Now, as T have 

 ^witten before, T am a farmer beekeeper, and kei-p 

 ' ees largely for pleasure and because I like honey, 

 .iid will not go to the trouble of practi<ing " shook 



swarming" or looking through tlie hives to cut out 

 the (lueer-cells. Wh.Tt I want to know is: Aside 

 from these methods have I not done about all that 

 I could do to keep down swarming? I might say 

 Hint we have a good crop of white clover, but the 

 weather has been cool and very wet for the pa.st 

 .nnntli, so that clover, up to date, has not yielded 

 uiudi. The bees liave simply swarmed out, leaving 

 the hives light in stores. So far as I can determine 

 from an examination, not a pound of surplus has 

 :is yet been stored, and almo&t no foundation has 

 1 een drawn out. .",fter more or less experience with 

 iiees for more (h.nn thirty years I have never before 

 seen the like. 



Mendon, Mo., .Tune 21. Nathan Clair. 



fWe can hardly understand your trouble unless it 

 w.Ts because the conditions in your locality were 

 decidedly favorable for swarming. A light continu- 

 (lus flow of nectar will stimulate swarming much 

 morn than a heavy one. You say you secured no 

 surplus, but that there was just enough honey com- 

 ing in to keep the bees in a state of excitement. 



In the matter of giving extra room, you rather 

 overdid it. You gave too much and too early. Very 

 often bees will not enter a super with merely start- 

 ers. This is a co)nmon experience in the production 

 of '■nmh honey; and it often happens in the case of 

 extracted when frames with only starters are given. 

 Your bees probably went right on building swarm- 

 iiiir-cells when the brood-nest was crowded. If you 

 had put on shallow supers with drawn combs .just 

 at tiie time when tbe bees needed them, or given full 

 sheets, it would have been better. Apparently you 

 liave a strain of 1 ees that is inclined to swarm. If 

 ihey have a preponderanee of black blood, Carnio- 

 lans. or Caucasians, they will swarm much more 

 tlian pure leather-colored Italians. Usually, giving 

 room not too fast and not toO' early will have tbe 

 desired result, providing, also, the bees are pure 

 Kalians. But even then it is wise to look out for 

 .s-'/nrming-eells. These will usually force out swarm.s, 

 no matter what the conditions are. Next season, or 

 before that tittle, rather, we would advise Italianiz- 

 ing your stock; ;ind just about as the bees begin to 

 fill their brood-chamber, look over the combs for 

 .'luv indication of swarming-cells. If you have only 

 full-depth supers, take out two or three frames of 

 brood from below, replacing them with full sheets of 

 foundation, and fill out the empty space in the 

 s'ip"i- with empty combs or full sheets of foundation. 

 — Eu.l 



Following the Swarms 



My house is situated on a site overlooking the 

 beautiful Connecticut River at Holyoke, Mass. My 

 yard extends back from the house about 200 feet to 

 the brink of a deep lavinc with very steep banks. 

 I bad three colonies of bees in my yard. 



After dinner I was busy near the house when my 

 attention was called to the bees by three painters 

 who were working for me. I at once saw that I 

 had an early swarm coing off, and followed th(ni 

 as well as I could out of the yard and down the 

 bank of the ravine. The foliage was so thick on the 

 (rres that I lost sight of them but could hear them 

 l.uinming. .'\fter a time I succeeded in seeing the 

 cluster of bc&s up in a maple-tree about 70 feet 

 alcivc the base. The tree grew at the very bottom 

 of the ravine. 



T kni'W that T <-ould not climb np lO' reach them. 

 ■(> T returned to the house and asked two of (he 

 |.iiiiti'rs, who were young fellows about 18 or 20 

 \.;irs old, if tbfy wotild as.sist me. They were only 

 too glad to liave the diversion and experience. 



Wo took down a hive filled with empty combs in 



