346 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mak. 15 



attempt is made to set them on the stands 

 they occupied the previous season; for I 

 have found that it makes no difference as to 

 the mixing of the bees whether the hives oc- 

 cupy the same stands year after year or not. 

 Unless precautions are taken, the bees will 

 drift to one side of the yard when the hives 

 are taken from the cellar, all of them trying, 

 apparently, to enter a very few hives. This 

 means that, in some cases, a hive will be de- 

 serted; and even the queen, thinking she is 

 being left alone, will fly out and join the 

 busy throng, trying to get into the few hives 

 at one side of the yard. I have had this ex- 

 perience two or three times; and after the 

 mixing is started I have found that it pays 

 to contract the entrances of the strong colo- 

 nies so that only a few bees can emerge at a 

 time. When this is done the flying forces of 

 all the colonies are more nearly equalized. 

 After this the colonies should be shifted about 

 to some extent; that is, if a certain hive al- 

 ready has its share of bees, and if more bees 

 keep coming to it so that the prospects are 

 that it will become overcrowded, it should 

 be carried to some part of the yard where 

 the hives are not getting their share. One 

 of the hives light in bees is set in the place 

 occupied by the strong colony. This should 

 be kept up until all the colonies are as near 

 alike in regard to strength as it is possible to 

 get them. After finishing such work, how- 

 ever, it is generally found that the plan is 

 not very satisfactory; hence it is well to pre- 

 vent such drifting on the part of the bees in 

 the future. 



HOW TO PREVENT DRIFTING. 



In order to prevent this state of affairs it 

 is necessary, first, to understand what causes 

 the trouble. Improper methods in wintering 

 account for some of it; for, if the bees are 

 "just dying" for a fly, they are more likely 

 to boil out of the hives without carefully 

 marking their locations. This, of course, 

 means a general mix-up. 



Removing the colonies from the cellar on a 

 very warm day also tends to cause drifting. 

 The disturbance and the warm air together 

 cause the bees to leave the hives in such 

 numbers that they are almost demoralized. 

 A large entrance is detrimental in this case, 

 for it allows the bees to leave the hives too 

 rapidly, so that, in a short space of time, the 

 air is almost full of lost bees. A high wind 

 aggravates matters, for this surging mass of 

 lo-t bees may be blown to one side of the 

 yard. It would seem that the leeward side of 

 the yard (the side toward which the wind 

 blows) would get the greatest number of 

 bees; but such is not the case. I have found 

 that the windward side gets the bees — that 

 is, the side toward the wind. 



Hubbard Bros., of Boyne Falls, Mich., had 

 a peculiar case of drifting last spring. Their 

 yard is located on a ridge, one side of which 

 slopes to the east and the other to the west. 

 The hives were set out of the cellar in the 

 night, and in the morning the sun shone 

 brightly and the bees on the east side were 

 attracted out by the morning sun, and were 

 flying strongly before those on the west side 



even started to fly. The result was that the 

 bees from the west side were so attracted by 

 the great commotion on the east side that a 

 good share of them went over and mingled 

 with the flying throng so that there were 

 finally entirely too many bees on the side of 

 the yard which got the sunlight first, while 

 the other side had but a few. It seems to me 

 that in such a case I would try shading the 

 east side until the sun is high enough to 

 shine on all the hives at once; and then when 

 the bees have begun to fly to some extent the 

 shadeboards. or whatever had been used for 

 shade, could be removed. In this way it 

 seems to me the flying of the bees could be 

 regulated, especially if the precaution is 

 taken to contract the entrance down to 

 about |X2 inches. 



It must be borne in mind that the bees from 

 the strong colonies are the ones that make 

 the great demonstration at the entrance, so 

 that bees from other weak colonies are at- 

 tracted to them. I know of no better way 

 to regulate this than to contract the entrances 

 of the strong colonies as explained above. 

 This means that the bees from such hives 

 can not fly any faster than those from the 

 weaker ones, so that all are flying with 

 about the same force. 



If the hives are removed from the cellar in 

 the early part of the season, before the 

 weather gets too warm, there will be less 

 mixing on the part of the bees when they fly 

 for the first time. This is a good point in 

 favor of removing the bees earlier, for such 

 mixing is quite a serious matter to the hon- 

 ey-producer. 



THE BEST TIME TO REMOVE COLONIES FROM 

 THE CELLAR. 



Whenever the indications are that the next 

 day will be a suitable one for the bees to fly 

 I go to one of the clamps and remove all but 

 about two inches of dirt from the straw that 

 covers the hives. This is left on so that the 

 bees will not try to fly before they are final- 

 ly uncovered. In the evening, after it is so 

 late that bees would not try to fly from the 

 pits, I remove the rest of the dirt and the 

 straw. When this is done, there is quite a 

 demonstration among the bees on account of 

 the fresh air which reaches them; but, since 

 it is now so dark that they can not fly, there 

 is no mixing. By morning the bees will have 

 quieted down, since the nights are usually 

 cool at this time of the year. As soon as it 

 is light in the morning I quietly place the 

 hives on the permanent stands, and hardly 

 a bee will come out. By this time they are 

 so used to the fresh air that they usually fly 

 very moderately, and rarely get mixed up 

 An ideal day for the first fly would be one 

 when the air is warm but the sky hazy. 

 With these conditions the flying is very mod- 

 erate and there is no mixing. 



Any colonies that are light in stores are 

 placed in a row by themselves near the hon- 

 ey-house. This saves a good deal of work, 

 and such weak colonies are not so likely to 

 be forgotten as if they were placed in some 

 remote corner of the yard, for they may be 

 seen every time the honey-house is entered. 



