June 1, 1905 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



391 



on while they are clustered out on a limb, they build some 

 comb ; and if the weather is warm, and plenty of honey is 

 found near when it clears up again, they may cease to look 

 further for a home, making a home of a limb, rearing brood 

 and storing honey, the same as if in a hollow tree, a cleft 

 in the rocks, or a hive ; for the cases are by no means iso- 

 lated where colonies have been found with plenty of combs, 

 brood and honey for wintering, with nothing to shield them 

 from the elements save the twigs and the few leaves above 

 them. A few years ago a friend living in New Jersey sent 

 me a queen taken from a colony which was found in October 

 having combs and honey enough for wintering on the un- 

 derside of a grape-vine. And she proved a queen above the 

 ordinary value, too, living and doing good work for 2 years 

 after I received her. 



But there are colonies which send out scouts to look for 

 a future home before said colonies swarm, as is often proven 

 by swarms going from the hive to such selected home with- 

 out clustering at all, or staying not more than 10 or IS min- 

 utes after clustering. When but a boy I remember seeing 

 bees searching all up and down the body of large trees, and 

 wondered what they were doing, and later on I saw quite a 

 number going in and out of a hole in a very large tree that 

 stood on the edge of the woods near where we had a field of 

 corn in which I was at work. And this continued for sev- 

 eral days, so that I shonld have thought there was a small 

 swarm in there had it not been that the bees worked through 

 that hole only from about 9 a.m. till 4 p.m. A few days 

 later a swarm came from one of the few hives which my 

 father kept at that time, and went straight to this tree with- 

 out clustering at all. 



About this time a person about 4 miles from me pur- 

 chased some Italian bees, the first that had come into this 

 part of the country, and, being interested in the same, I 

 often went to see them. One day, on going to see him, he 

 told me that at an out-apiary which he was working, which 

 contained only black bees, he had noticed in the forenoon 

 Italian bees at work cleaning out an old hive which was left 

 there by the person of whom he bought the bees, the same 

 having some empty comb in it. As this was something new 

 to him, he seemed considerably excited over the matter, and 

 said he should keep watch and see what became of it. I 

 was also much interested and told him what I had seen, as 

 related above. 



The next time I went to see him he told me that the 

 bees which he saw cleaning the hive were his own, as a few 

 days later a swarm came from one of his Italian colonies, 

 and, after circling around a few times, they started off in 

 the direction of this out-apiary. Having a fleet horse near 

 at hand, and being a fearless rider, he jumped upon it, and 

 in a moment was going at railroad speed for his out-apiary, 

 arriving there in time to see his swarm rushing pell-mell 

 into the hive that the bees had been cleaning out. As he 

 kept the wings of all his queens clipped, he knew that he 

 could soon tell for a certainty whether these were his bees 

 or not, although he had no reason to doubt that they were ; 

 for if they were, he had their queen at home in a cage, and 

 sooner or later they must return to her unless they had come 

 across some queen in their flight. In about half an hour 

 they became uneasy and began to leave the hive, seeing 

 which, he returned home only to find them coming back and 

 running into the hive from which they went, and clustering 

 about the cage containing the queen which he had left at . 

 the entrance of the old hive. Wishing to see more of the 

 matter he liberated the queen, allowing her to return back 

 with the bees. The next day they swarmed again, and 

 again went to this hive at the out-apiary, the same as be- 

 fore. This they kept up for 4 or 5 days, the bees going to 

 that hive which they had cleaned out, without clustering at 

 all, each time they swarmed. After he became satisfied 

 that colonies did select a home before they left their old 

 home, and becoming tired of having them swarm so much, 

 he divided the colony, thus putting a stop to their swarm- 

 ing. 



A neighbor to whom he told this circumstance, took 

 advantage of it by way of procuring some hives and a few 

 frames of empty comb, which he placed in these hives and 

 put them in trees and out-of-the-way places, till he soon had 

 an apiary of his own, without even so much as hiving a 

 single swarm. 



Bees seem more inclined to go into places where there 

 is a little comb than into places with no comb ; but where 

 comb is left in hives for such purposes, said comb must be 

 free from pollen and spread well apart, or the moth will lay 

 eggs in them, and they be eaten up with worms unless the 

 bees happen to take possession of them before the larvas of 

 the wax moth do. Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Unreliable Bee-Information 



A gopd friend in Michigan sends a clipping 

 from that excellent periodical, The Epworth 

 Herald, which emphasizes anew the fact that 

 it is not a safe thing for any other than a bee- 

 paper to publish matter about bees without 

 first submitting it to some practical bee- 

 keeper. The article is styled, " Safeguarding 

 the Queen," is reliable in the main, and writ- 

 ten in an interesting manner, but some of the 

 items would hardly be endorsed in their en- 

 tirety by a two-thirds vote of the sisters. For 

 example : 



" Indeed, it is practically impossible for an 

 intruder to enter a strange hive without dis- 

 covery. And discovery means instant death 

 and dismemberment." 



And yet thousands of bees, upon returning 

 from the fields, have entered wrong hives and 

 received a Itindly welcome. Did any of the 

 Bisters ever observe a case of " dismember- 

 ment," as mentioned? 



" These honey-gatherers are not permitted 

 to feed the queen direct. When they enter a 

 hive they must give a mouthful to two drones 

 waiting on guard. If the sample proves sat- 

 isfactory the bees carry the nectar to the 

 storeroom, where it is mixed with what the 

 other worliers have gathered. When the hive- 

 cells are full, the workers and drones sample 

 the mixture again, and then seal up the cells." 



That leaves.us^alljlagapeifor fuller informa- 



tion. During the weeks when no drones are 

 in the hive, what is done with the mouthful 

 that should be given to the " two drones 

 waiting on guard?" What weapons of offense 

 or defense do those " two drones waiting on 

 guard" use? "If the sample proves satis- 

 factory the bees carry the nectar to the store- 

 room," but if ;thB "two drones" do not 0. K. 

 it, what is done with it? Is there not danger 

 that the "two drones" will be overworlied 

 when the workers are pouring into the hive 

 with their loads at the rate of a hundred or 

 more in a minute! When the cells are full, 

 and the mixture is sampled again, do the 

 same " two drones " do the second sampling? 



Other questions may be asked when the 

 foregoing are answered. 



An Austrian Sister "Skirts" Bees 



The following account of what one of the 

 sisters did in Austria is from the American 

 Bee-Keoper : 



" Jungklaus also telle how a young woman 

 captured a swarm of bees. Being on a tramp, 

 she found a swarm of bees hanging on a bush. 

 Wishing to secui u it, she took off one of her 

 skirts, tied up uiie end, and, by the help of 

 sticks, spread it out in such a way that she 

 could hive the swarm into it. After the bees 

 had all moved in, she tied up the other end of 

 the skirt and thu; carried the swarm several 

 miles to her home. (' Well done.') " 



We have twice had a somewhat similar ex- 

 perience. Once on our way to the Hastings 

 apiary — which is about 5 miles distant — when 

 about half way there we were offered by one 

 of the neighbors a small swarm of bees which 

 hung on a willow-tree by the roadside. Dr. 

 Miller thought it would not pay to bother 

 with tliem, as we had no way of carrying 

 them, when I suggested my bee-hat — a broad 

 brimmed straw-hat with a veil sewed around 

 the outer brim, having a rubber cord run in 

 the lower edge. He rather thought it might 

 work, and as the bees were hanging on a con- 

 venient lower limb, we commenced operations 

 at once. 



Dr. Miller trimmed everything down as 

 close to the swarm as possible, then carefully 

 cut off the limb with the swarm, and while I 

 held the hat upside down and stretched the 

 rubber cord as much as possible, he slipped 

 the swarm inside, while the veil was secured 

 about the limb above the swarm, and we 

 started on our way once more, 1 carrying the 

 swarm by the end of the limb. When we 

 reached the apiary we got a hive full of 

 empty combs ready and let the bees run in, 

 and I once more had possession of my hat. 



Once later, when we had occasion to hive a 

 small swarm at some distance from the Wil- 

 son apiary, we used the hat again in prefer- 

 ence to carrying a hive that distance. 



Wintering Bees— Good Prospects 



I want to report on my good luck in win- 

 tering the bees last winter, as it was very cold. 

 I was away from home last fall when I ought 

 to have been packing my bees, so I left them 

 on the summer stands. The stands are from 

 S to 24 inches from the ground. I lost 3 colo- 

 nies out of 31, so I now have 18, all in good 

 condition. Tlie 3 that died were late swarms, 

 and they did not store honey enough to feed 

 them. We did not have a very good honey 

 crop last season. A hail-storm ruined the 



