974 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1 



matter rarely if ever spoken of by any one; 

 and yet, if my experience is any criterion 

 to go by, this is something- which quite often 

 occurs in natural swarming, for I have had 

 several cases of the kind. I remember two 

 or three cases where I have been kept from 

 leaving home as I intended, by this very 

 thing. A swarm would come out near the 

 time I was to go awa}' to some funeral or to 

 church, and I would hive them, thinking I 

 had done a nice thing in a little time; but 

 by the time I would get the horse hitched up 

 and myself ready to go, the bees would be- 

 gin to show a commotion and cominence to 

 return to the old hives." 



"Do they always return to the old hive 

 when you have such trouble?" 



" They always will where the swarm is 

 hived on a new stand; but where the swarm 

 is hived on the returning plan, and the old 

 hive moved away, they will often scatter all 

 over, going into other hives only to be killed, 

 or received according to the condition of the 

 colonies where they went." 



"What! will the bees of other colonies kill 

 them sometimes?" 



"Yes. And this is more often the case 

 than otherwise, as it is a rare thing that 

 such bees will be accepted by another colo- 

 ny, unless such colony is queenless. A 

 queenless colony will generally accept 

 strange bees, no matter where they come 

 from; and all colonies having queens will 

 almost as surely kill all bees which try to 

 enter their hives." 



"That accounts for my having a little 

 swarm which I tried to run in with a weak 

 colony to strengthen it, all killed. But what 

 do you think was the reason the bees balled 

 my queen?" 



"I have carefully studied into the cause 

 of such procedure, and believe it comes 

 about by a few bees from other swarms or 

 hives entering the new hive with the new 

 swarm; and as these bees are strangers to 

 those composing the swarm, the queen is 

 balled for safe keeping till all get acquaint- 

 ed, or from some other reason best known to 

 beeologj^" 



" Well, why does the balling of the queen 

 cause the bees to run about and finally 

 straggle off home or enter other hives?" 



"As soon as a queen is balled for any 

 reason, the result is very nearly the same 

 as would be the removal of the queen, which, 

 -as nearly every bee keeper knows, means a 

 stampede and general search for her." 



"I did not know that such was the case. 

 I have taken away queens from colonies 

 many times, and I never saw any great 

 commotion, as you and others tell about." 



"You are talking of removing a queen 

 where there are combs containing honey and 

 brood in the hives. Where there is unseal- 

 ed brood in any hive the bees know that 

 there can be another queen reared by them, 

 so that such conditions are vastly different 

 from what they are where a swarm is hived 

 in an empty hive, when the loss of the queen 

 means the loss of all the bees in the swarm, 

 unless these bees can get back to the brood 



in the hive which they left. In this case, 

 failing to find their queen, their only alter- 

 native is to go home if they would preserve 

 their existence; for staj'ing where they are, 

 without a queen, means that they go out of 

 existence as a colony, when the bees which 

 make up the present swarm cease to exist, 

 from death by old age or otherwise." 



"I had not thought of the thing in that 

 light, but I guess you are right. But they 

 have not lest their queen. She is only in a 

 cluster of bees, and she would thus be were 

 she in the midst of the swarm. What is the 

 difference?" 



"When the queen has her liberty with 

 the swarm she is constantly moving about 

 among the bees, as I have many times seen 

 queens come out on the outside of a clustered 

 swarm, and then crawl in among- the bees 

 again, only to come out a few moments later 

 on the opposite side, or in some different 

 place in or on the cluster; but when she is 

 balled she is not only kept from running 

 around among the bees, but the bees seem 

 to lose scent of her as well. And so the 

 majority of them go on a stampede nearly or 

 quite as bad as they would were she taken 

 from them altogether." 



"I see; but what can be done — any thing, 

 save allowing them to go back?" 



"Knowing that the supposed loss of the 

 queen is the cause of the trouble, the only 

 way to remedy the matter is to help them 

 find their queen. This can be done by 

 opening the hive as soon as the bees are seen 

 to become agitated and lly out in the air, 

 and smoking the ball of bees till they re- 

 lease the queen, when a general hum of con- 

 tent will be set up, the bees who have miss- 

 ed 'mother' running about with fanning 

 wings, and those in the air returning- to the 

 hive with general rejoicing." 



"Is this all that is to be done?" 



"This once smoking generally restores 

 quietude with the swarm; but in exceptional 

 cases the bees will reball the queen in a 

 few minutes, when another stampede will 

 occur (unless we are on hand promptly with 

 our smoke) , many bees beinglikely togohome 

 to stay, so that, do the best we can, our 

 swarm is so weakened that they will be of 

 little profit to us during that season." 



"But is there no sure way to keep them?" 



"To obviate these exceptional cases I 

 made a few large flat wire-cloth cages, 

 large enough so that they would cover quite 

 a large part of the tops to the frames of the 

 hive; and when I had smoked the ball of 

 bees till the queen was liberated she was 

 put in this cage and placed over the frames. 

 As multitudes of bees could now get within 

 touch of the queen, and the whole colony be- 

 came aware of her presence, the same as 

 though she were among them, no more 

 trouble would occur with the bees, and no 

 other to the apiarist except the liberating 

 •of her majesty the next morning. A frame 

 of brood will also hold the bees, as a gen- 

 eral rule; but as they sometimes ball the 

 queen till she is so injured as to be of no 

 further value I prefer the cage." 



