1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



593 



CONVERSATIONS WITH 

 DOOLITTLE 



AT Borodino, New York. 



UNITING BEES IN THE FALL. 



A correspondent writfs: "I have quite a 

 few weak colonies of bees that I wish to 

 unite this fall. How should it be done?" 



Select two weak colonies as close toj^ether 

 as possible, and bring them, say, two or 

 three feet toward each other every time the 

 bees have days of flight until the hives stand 

 side by side. Then leave them until the bees 

 have had one good flight while the hives are 

 close together, and after this the colonies 

 may be united at any time when the temper- 

 ature is 55° F., or above. Sort out from the 

 two hives combs containing the most honey, 

 or at least sufficient for v/inter stores — an 

 amount that should not be less than 25 lbs. 

 Set these combs in the hive the best way to 

 occupy in the winter, alternating combs from 

 each hive so that the bees will not quarrel. 

 Having these combs of honey in the hive, 

 put the cover on and shake all the bees from 

 the remaining combs, shaking a comb first 

 from one hive then from the other. The 

 work is now done as soon as the bees have 

 run into the hive and the empty hive with 

 the remaining combs is stored away. 



Where there are many weak colonies to 

 unite, or if, as in the case of a queen-breed- 

 er, there are from 50 to 500 nuclei to unite, 

 the above plan involves a large amount of 

 work, especially if such weak colonies are 

 scattered some distance apart. Years ago 

 Elisha Gallup told how to make natural 

 swarms artificially by first smoking the bees 

 and then alarming them by rapping on the 

 hive with a stick, thus causing them to fill 

 themselves with honey. After they were 

 filled with honey, the larger part of them 

 were drummed into a box by the means usu- 

 ally pursued in drumming out bees. When 

 a suificient number were in the box it was 

 carried to the new location and left leaning 

 up against something for a couple of hours. 

 After this the bees could be hived the same 

 as though they were from a natural swarm. 



I tried this same plan for uniting, except 

 that I got all of the bees from two hives into 

 the box, and it worked fairly well until I tried 

 uniting queenless bees from nuclei from 

 which I had previously sold the queens. I 

 found that I could not make the queenless 

 bees stay in the box, as the mother-queen is 

 needed to keep them contented. To over- 

 come this difficulty I made a cage from the 

 upper story of a tiered-up hive, putting wire 

 cloth on the top and bottom, the bottom piece 

 being nailed to a frame that was fastened 

 with hooks to the hive so that I could remove 

 it when I wished. A hole was bored through 

 one side of the hive, which side now became 

 the top of the cage. The hole was iust right 

 to permit the small end of a funnel, such as 

 was used for putting up bees by the pound 

 for shipping over the country on the plan so 

 much m vogue fifteen or twenty years ago. 

 Over the hole was arranged a large ilat 



wooden button which could be turned so as 

 to open or close the opening as desired. 



With this cage I proceeded to a queenless 

 nucleus and blew smoke in at the entrance, 

 after which I gave the side of its hive several 

 blows with my foot or fist. Then I went to 

 another hive and did the same thing. After 

 this I returned to the first hive and repeated 

 the performance, and then again on the sec- 

 ond hive. By this time the roaring of the 

 bees inside indicated that they were filling 

 with honey — just what I wished them to do. 

 I therefore waited a minute or two for the 

 bees to take all the honey they would, and 

 as soon as they were filled I shook them into 

 the funnel so that they rolled down through 

 it into the cage below. I soon had in the 

 cage all the bees of the nucleus except the 

 few that were in the corners of the hive or 

 those that took wing before they struck the 

 funnel. Then closing the hole with the but- 

 ton I went to the next nucleus, removed the 

 cover, etc., ready for shaking, and set the 

 cage down quickly so as to jar all the bees 

 in it to the bottom. I soon had the bees of 

 that nucleus in the cage also. 



If 1 wished to get the bees from more than 

 two nuclei I prepared three or four in the 

 manner described before I shook any, so 

 that no time would be lost in waiting for the 

 bees to fill with honey. If four nuclei were 

 smoked and drummed, the first one would 

 be filled with honey by the time I got around 

 to it again to commence shaking. I often 

 put as many as six or eight small nuclei to- 

 gether to make one good colony for winter; 

 but four is about the maximum number that 

 can be drummed and shaken at one time; for 

 if more are attempted the bees of the last two 

 or three commence to unload their honey be- 

 fore they are shaken. 



When I had all that I wished in the cage, 

 the funnel was taken out and the hole closed, 

 and I proceeded to get the queen that I wish- 

 ed to introduce to them. By bumping the 

 cage on the ground I again jarred the bees 

 down to the bottom, and then I immediately 

 opened the funnel-hole and allowed the 

 queen to run in. Then I rolled and tumbled 

 the bees about in the box until all were thor- 

 oughly mixed up and demoralized so that all 

 thoughts of fighting or harming the queen 

 had disappeared. After this I put the cage 

 in some darkened room where the tempera- 

 ture was about 60 degrees and left it until 

 near sunset, when I prepared a hive with 

 combs of sealed honey sufficient for winter 

 stores. By this time I brought the box of 

 bees from the cellar, took off the movable 

 wire-cloth side, dumped out the bees, and 

 hived them as I would a natural swarm. If 

 I did not have enough combs of sealed hon- 

 ey for all, I gave empty combs and fed sugar 

 syrup, as I oescribea lately in Gleanings. 



A very essential part in the above method 

 of uniting is to have the bees well filled with 

 honey. If I am afraid that a certain lot of 

 bees m a cage are not full of honey I jar them 

 down and put a quarter of a pound of honey 

 or syrup on them, and then by rolling ihem 

 about each one gets its share until all are full. 



