June, 1919 



GLEANINGS IN BEE (MT L T U R E 



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SWARMS — 

 s w a r 111 s — 

 swarms. Still 

 more swarms. 

 This is sureh- 

 "a s w a r 111 i II g 

 season. ' ' F r o in 

 all a r o u n d us 

 comes the report, 

 " U 11 u s u a 1 1 y 



heavy swaniiiiig. " Not for years has there 

 been in this section the tendency to such 

 hea\y or such early swarming. It really 

 isn 't any particularly difficult problem with 

 us usually. Now, with white clover just 

 coining into bloom (ISfay 2), bees have been 

 swarming, or trying to, for a month. Large 

 hives, of themselves, will not always pre- 

 vent it. Last month, speaking of big brood- 

 chambers in this department, I said, ' ' There 

 is plenty of room for brood-rearing as well 

 as supplies. ' ' Well this year it seems there 

 wasn 't. Apiaries where there are very few 

 colonies in single brood-cliainbers have had 

 real swarming problems this season. Oc- 

 casionally the queen has not entered the sec- 

 ond story (usually the lower) when queen- 

 cups were started in the first. Sometimes 

 they swarmed with plenty of room in both 

 the double brood-chamber and a super, tho 

 usually that was wh^ the extra room had 

 been given after the first symptoms had 

 developed — preventive measures that did 

 not prevent. It seems as tho there must be 

 some sound reason for the increased general 

 tendency. It sounds illogical and superfi- 

 cial to say, ' ' Well, it 's just a swarming 

 year. ' ' 



In the big majority of cases here there 

 was such a generous supply of stores on 

 hand and such vigorous laying, that the 

 two stories were really filled early and a 

 seriously crowded condition actually existed. 

 Evidently three important factors, each one 

 distinctly favorable, combined to bring 

 about these results; the heavy fall flow, 

 the mild winter, the early spring. 



One thing is sure. If colonies are boom- 

 ing in spring, and there come several days 

 of bad weather riglit during a good nectar 

 flow, and then that bad weather breaks into 

 fine, warm, bright days, the beekeeper bet- 

 ter be on his jol). There will be swarms. 



The next time I ask anyone whether he 

 keeps bees for pleasure or profit, I am going 

 to add, "Or for discipline?" Certainly 

 your self-control, your serenity, your pa- 

 tience, and either your philosophy or re- 

 ligion, whichever you have, and both if you 

 can claim the double blessing, do get most 

 thoroly tested and developed at times. We 

 have just passed with varying degrees of 

 equanimity thru such a period. Black locust 

 came into blossom so early, so beautifully, 

 so generously; and promptly the weather- 

 man began to pull out his stops and work 

 his pedals, until ho had produced the weird- 

 est weather effects imaginable — rain, frost, 

 wind, more rain, more frost, more wind, 

 cold and rain and wind all together. And 



Beekeeping as a Side Line 



u 



1 



Grace Allen 



LJ 



thru dark dis- 

 mal day after 

 dark dismal day 

 the bees were 

 steadily in the 

 hives and the 

 time of locust 

 1 1 1 o 111 passing 

 by. (Then when 

 it cleared for a 

 few hours, they swarmed!) "It is costing 

 me a hundred dollars a day," one beekeeper 

 announced gloomily. Now it is warm and 

 bright. And now the locust is practically 

 gone. But beekeepers are a forward-looking 

 )>eople. And white clover is coming into 

 bloom. 



It is these things, moreover, that test 

 the skill of the producer. Anyone can get 

 honey when the conditions are ideal; the 

 aim must be to learn how to do it when con- 

 ditions are against us. There is generally 

 ample opportunity for practice. 



(Will E.McC. and M.-A.-O. kindly skip this 

 paragraph? Thanks.) In accordance with 

 all advice about packing, we left the bees 

 in the quadruple winter case until late in 

 the spring, or at least until we found the 

 unpacked bees getting dangerously crowded. 

 Then off came the top and sides of the big 

 case, the packing was put away, and the 

 four colonies examined. They were no bet- 

 ter and no worse than the" others. They 

 really couldn't be much better, tho, and be 

 contained within the boundaries of the 

 hives. They would probably have classified; 

 one fair, one strong, and two very strong. 

 And that about represented the yard as a 

 whole, except a few weak ones — especially 

 the four or five in a row that had had 

 mouse complications. (We assumed, by the 

 way, these particular colonies were weak 

 because of the mice getting in, but some- 

 body tells us the mice got in because they 

 were weak. That is true of moths that do 

 their damage in summer, but is it true of 

 mice that do their damage in winter?) 



So again we feel discouraged about pack- 

 ing bees. To be sure, this is only the sec- 

 ond time with the big case, and it was a 

 mild open winter, leaning as far towards ex- 

 treme mildness as last winter did towards 

 extreme severity. Maybe the packing cases 

 operate more advantageously in just ordi- 

 nary winters; so maybe we'll try it again. 

 I say maybe, because I have to have help 

 with this job, both spring and fall, and the 

 man I most naturally depend on is a trifle 

 out of sympathy with the packing system. 

 He might succeed in dissuading me. 



Eecently I heard a side-line beekeeper 

 complain that one certainly got conflicting 

 ideas of the way to handle bees by watching 

 different beekeepers. The two being espe 

 cially contrasted did almost everything dif- 

 ferently. One worked slowly and gently, 

 the other ruthlessly and fast. One used 

 little smoke, the other a great deal. One 

 disturbed the bees very slightly, whi'e the 

 other shook them off the combs. And one, I 



