470 



TH® MMERicar* mmm jQumMmL,. 



tVliat Intakes tlie Summer? 



It is not the lark's clear tone 



Cleaving: the morning air with a soaring- crj-. 



Nor the nightingale's dulcet melodj' all "the 

 balmy night— 



Not these alone 



Malse the sweet sounds of summer ; 



But the drone of beetle and bee, the murmur- 

 ous hum of the fly. 



And the chirp of the cricket hidden out of 

 sight— 



These help to make the summer. 



Not roses redly blown. 



Nor golden lilies, lighting the dusky mead. 



Nor proud, imperial pansies, nor queen-cups 



quaint and rare— 

 Not these alone 



Make the sweet sights of summer ; 

 But the countless forest leaves, the myriad 



wayside weeds. 

 And slender grasses.springing up everywhere. 

 These help to make the summer. 



One heaven bends above : 



The lowliest head of ttimes hath sweetest rest : 



O'er song-bird in the pine, and bee in the ivy 



low. 

 Is the same love, it is all God's summer ; 

 Well pleased is He if we patiently do our best. 

 So hum, little bee. and low green grasses grow, 

 Tou help to make the summer. 



—Marietta HoUey. in Queries. 



THE SEASON. 



S\i'arinjiig^ Out, Comb Surface 

 Measuring, Failures, etc. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



I am asked to tell why bees swarm 

 out in early spring;, upon the tirst 

 really warm day which occurs, as they 

 frequently do. This is a hard rjues- 

 tion to answer, for I have had them do 

 so at times when I could see no cause 

 for it at all. At other times I was sat- 

 isfied that moldy combs, together with 

 many dead bees upon the bottom- 

 board, which emitted a foul odor, was 

 the cause. 



Again, when bees come near to 

 stai'vation, in early spring, swarming 

 out is quite liable to occur ; for where 

 there is anything about the hive which 

 causes great dissatisfaction, the bees 

 seem determined to see if they cannot 

 better their condition, by leaving their 

 imcomfortable quarters in the hopes of 

 finding something more pleasant. So 

 far all bee-keepers seem to. agree, and 

 were it not that I have had bees swarm 

 out, when all about the hive was sweet 

 and clean, with plenty of honey and 

 brood in the hive, I might believe that 

 I knew something certain about it. 



In several instances I have had small 

 swarms come out apparently under 

 almost the same conditions which they 

 do in summer, except they were not 

 getting honey and pollen. Some try 

 to account for this kind of swarming, 

 by supposing that it always happens 

 before any young bees hatch out in 



the spring, consequently when the old 

 bees go out for their first play-spell, 

 the queen is left alone, and not liking 

 to be so left, she goes out after the 

 bees. There must be some mistake in 

 this, for I have had them swarm out 

 many times when there would be many 

 young bees that were so young that 

 thej- were unable to fly, and would be 

 left on the ground in front of the hive 

 after the rest of the bees had gone, as 

 we frequently see them after a swarm 

 has issued in the summer time. 



One thing I have noticed, however, 

 that while we cannot fullj- account for 

 the reason why bees thus swarm out, 

 we can tell pretty nearly when they 

 will be likely to do so. After a very 

 severe winter, when the bees have 

 suffered from being long confined to 

 the hive, this thing is the most likely 

 to occur ; while after a mild winter, 

 during which the bees have had fre- 

 quent chances to fly, and have conse- 

 quently wintered vyell, very little, if 

 any, swarming out occurs. 



::VIea»>Hrinsr Comb Surface. 



There seems to be a confusion of 

 ideas regarding what is meant, when 

 the comb surface and square inches 

 of comb are mentioned in our dift'er- 

 ent bee-papers. As I understand it, 

 when any one speaks of comb surface, 

 he means the surface measure of the 

 combs, measuring each comb on both 

 sides, and multiplying the amount thus 

 obtained for one comb, by tlie number 

 of combs that there are in the hive. 

 Thus, one Gallup frame gives a sur- 

 face measure of 115 square inches on 

 one side, and the same on the other, 

 hence we have 230 square inches of 

 comb surface as the amount contained 

 by one frame. As I use nine of tliese 

 frames in a hive, this gives 2,070 

 square inches of comb surface for the 

 whole hive. 



Now, for myself, I rarely use the 

 term " comb surface," but nearly al- 

 ways speak of the number of square 

 inches of comb which a hive contains. 

 Thus, in speaking of the amount of 

 comb contained in one of my frames, 

 I say that it contains so many square 

 inches of comb, the same as I would 

 say that a board was so many inches 

 long and so many inches wide, giving 

 so many square inches, or so many 

 feet. Surely, we do not measure a 

 board on each side to tell us how many 

 feet there is in it. 



So when I say that one of my frames 

 contains 115 square inches of comb, I 

 measure the comb the same as I would 

 a board, for one of my division-boards 

 contain just as many square inches .as 

 does one of tlie frames. As I use nine 

 frames in a hive, this gives me 1,035 

 square inches of comb, which amount 

 I claim is sufficient for any brood- 



chamber, where we are working for 

 comb honey. 



Mr. Editor, if I am not right, will 

 you please set us all right on this 

 subject ?* 



18S9 Almost a Failure. 



So far the present season has come 

 the nearest to being a failure of any 

 that I have ever passed through in my 

 bee-keeping life, unless it was the sea- 

 son of 1869, and as that was the year 

 in which I commenced to keep bees, I 

 cannot tell just what might have been 

 accomplished by a skillful apiarist. 



The sjiring opened very propitiously 

 this year, and kept so till May 20, when 

 it came oif cold and rainy, and con- 

 tinued so up to .June 18, at which time 

 we had a couple of days of warmer 

 weather that let the bees out for a 

 play-spell, for there was very little that 

 they could do but play, as there was 

 no honey in the flowers on account of 

 the wet. 



It soon 'began to rain again, and 

 has kept it up for about one-half of the 

 time ever since. For the past week, 

 when it has not rained, the bees have 

 got a little more than a living, for the 

 weather has been very warm during 

 this latter time ; j-et there is not a hive 

 in the apiary which has five pounds of 

 honey in it. 



This wann weather has given me a 

 chance to get started in the queen- 

 business again, for to try to do any- 

 thing at queen-re.aring was onlj- a waste 

 of time and bees, as a rule, although I 

 have succeeded in filling some orders. 



Man}' things which have worked 

 well in the past have failed to work at 

 all this season, and among other 

 things has been the getting of queens 

 fertilized over a queen-e.\cluding 

 honey-board, as I described in my 

 book. As I had in pi-evious years sold 

 my apiary short of bees, and used so 

 man}' from my stronger colonies to 

 start the queen-business early, I had 

 not tiered any hives for extracted 

 honey, till the basswood was in bloom, 

 which may, in a measure, account for 

 this failure in a time when no honey 

 was coming in, and the bees using all 

 their energj"^ at brood-rearing when 

 the weather would permit. 



The queens have been allowed to 

 hatch in the upper stories, the same as 

 usual, but soon the bees would begin 

 to persecute them, which would finally 

 result in their death, and sometimes in 

 a general row " up-stairs," in which 

 many bees would be killed. Now, 

 while this part has failed, the getting 

 of nice queen-cells built above the 

 queen-excludei's has been a perfect 

 success where the colonies so tiered 

 were strong enough to occupy the 

 upper stories as they should be oc- 

 cupied to do good work. In fact, I 



