482 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



their liberty it would take a great deal less. 

 His figures were between six and seven 

 pounds. Just how he could take account 

 of the neetar brought in and converted into 

 wax, we do not now recall. Perhaps some 

 one has definite figures that will bear on. 

 this question. — Ed.] 



The Vindicator, a Prohibition paper, has 

 a " vision " of all the opponents of the 

 liquor-traffic getting together as one body in 

 the more or less " near future," based on 

 the idea that the Anti-saloon League medi- 

 tates constitutional prohibition for the whole 

 country. It thinks that will necessitate sep- 

 aration from all parties not committed 

 against the saloon, and that Anti-saloonists 

 and Prohibitionists will unite as one party. 

 That " vision " may or may not be an idle 

 dream; but it seems unthinkable that the 

 enemies of the saloon shall go on for ever 

 •making faces at each other in two separate 

 camps. As a consistent Prohibitionist, lo ! 

 these many years, I'm ready to vote that, 

 if the great body of Anti-saloonists can 

 make good use of the machinery of the little 

 Prohibition party, they can have it at a 

 bargain; or if the Anti-saloonists organize 

 a political party of their own, I vote to 

 scrap the machinery of the Prohibition 

 party, and crawl under the canvas to get 

 into the tent of the new party. 



June 11 I saw something new to me. 

 Bees were bunched on the front of No. 54 

 as if it might have recently swarmed and 

 returned. My assistant opened the hive to 

 look for the queen, leaning the super, which 

 was very full of bees, against an adjoining 

 hiv,e. Happening near I saw the bees be- 

 ginning to leave the super, not in the ordi- 

 nary way, but pouring out like a swarm. I 

 said, " The queen has gone up into the 

 super, and that has induced the bees to 

 swarm out of it." So I began to look on 

 the gTound for the clipped quen; but my 

 assistant continued her search in the hive. 

 Presently she said, " You needn't look any 

 longer for the queen ; here she is in the 

 hive." Sure enough, there she was. The 

 bees sailed around a while like any other 

 swarm, and then returned, not to the super, 

 but to the regular hive-entrance. All this 

 while the bees in the hive were quiet. Now, 

 what did it all mean? Had those bees in 

 the super failed to swarm out with the bees 

 in the hive and then decided to swarm on 

 their own account afterward, or how was 

 it ? Don't tell me those bees were not swarm- 

 ing. There's a lot of things I don't know 

 about bees; but I know a swarm when I 

 see it is issuing, and I know that was a 

 swarm. [There are some things about the 

 causes that induce a swarm to light out that 



we do not understand. Years ago we heard 

 a zeep, zep, zeep, in front of the entrance. 

 Presently the queen came out, and then 

 with her the bees. At other times the bees 

 apparently take the initiative and the queen 

 follows. When this takes place, some sort 

 of signal or commotion is needed to start 

 things going. AjDparently this signal, or 

 whatever it was, was given in that super, 

 and apparently, too, that signal was not 

 communicated to the brood-nest. This is 

 a place where most of us will have to say, 

 " I don't know." If any one does know 

 what the exact procedure is that induces a 

 swarm to hike out suddenly from the hive, 

 let him tell us. — Ed.] 



J. L. Byer, you ask, p. 439, whether in 

 five weeks bees will scoop out enough of a 

 winter nest to accommodate even one quar- 

 ter of the bees. I don't know. I doubt if 

 they will. Yet even that small space is 

 enough for that editor to claim that they 

 have a brood-nest. But let me say some- 

 thing that I do know. I know that empty 

 cells — in other words a brood-nest — are not 

 needed for all the bees. In winter I see a 

 big cluster of bees hanging below the bot- 

 tom-bars in some of my colonies; and the 

 bigger the cluster the better it looks to me. 

 Below the bottom-bars is surely outside the 

 brood-nest. Now if those bees — possibly a 

 third or more of the colony — can winter all 

 right outside of any brood-nest, you ask 

 that editor why it isn't possible for the rest 

 of the colony to do the same thing. [Doc- 

 tor, you are confusing the issue. You are 

 talking about indoor wintering. It is per- 

 fectly practical for bees to cluster below 

 the frames when they are in the cellar; but 

 did you ever know of a ease of their doing 

 so wlien the hives were outdoors in cold 

 weather? We have contended that a small 

 Avinter nest below the honey is important 

 in getting g:ood results in outdoor Avintei-- 

 ing. This winter nest will gradually en- 

 large. 



It is hard for us to believe that solid 

 combs of honey — combs an inch thick, di- 

 viding up a cluster of bees when wintered 

 outdoors, is an ideal condition. A colony 

 that is wintering nicely outdoors has a win- 

 ter nest. The bees are thickly crowded in 

 the cells, and the only separation is the 

 walls themselves and the midrib on the 

 combs. Such a condition is natural, and 

 allows the heat to be communicated from 

 bee to bee, while solid slabs of lioney an 

 inch thick act as a non-conductor, breaking 

 tlie cluster up into a series of thin slabs. 



In talking about this winter nest, do not 

 confuse outdoor and indoor wintering- 

 En.] 



