570 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Aug. 10, 1905 



I 



QDICK COVEKINO WITS ROBBER-CLOTH. 



r In any case where one wants to cover up a 

 hive quickly against robbers, as when open- 

 ing and closing the same hive frequently for 

 the sake of putting in or taking out combs, 

 this robber cloth will be found a great con- 

 venience. No careful adjustment is needed, 

 as in putting on a regular hive-cover, but one 



away the three flaps of cloth all but about l'^ 

 inches, and turn this IV-inch margin into the 

 inside of the tent and sew there with heavy 

 thread. 



Another way is a little easier to do, and it 

 is a little better, although a little harder to 

 describe. Take a piece of wire-cloth 22x9i., 

 inches. Mark a point at the middle of one of 

 the longer sides, and on the other side mark 



MILLER TENT-ESCAPE 



can take hold of the lath with one hand, and 

 with a single throw the hive is covered 

 securely, with no killing of bees if any 

 should happen to be in the way. 



MILLER TENT-ESCAPE. 



Having made the robber-cloth, an escape, 

 not in the shape of a cone, but in the shape 

 of a pyramid, is fastened centrally upon it. 

 Take three equilateral pieces of wire-cloth. 



a point o'.; inches from each end, as shown in 

 the figure. Make a fold at each of the dotted 

 lines The wire-cloth may be cut away at the 

 two outside dotted lines, or. what is better, 

 the end pieces may be folded over and sewed 

 down. Now bring the two parts of the upper 

 margin together and sew with wire, and then 

 proceed to fasten the tent in place as before. 

 In this latter case, of course, a hole must be 

 cut at the top of the tent. 



A 



/ \ 

 / \ 



/l 



\ / 



each of the three sides measuring 11 inches. 

 Put ihem together in the form of a tent, sew- 

 ing the edges together at the three sides by 

 weaving fine wire through. At the top, how- 

 ever, let each of the pieces be folded out, so 

 that a hole large enough to push your finger 

 in will be left. Lay the tent centrally on the 

 robber-cloth, and mark where the three corners 

 (if the tent come. Now starting at each of 

 these points, cut the cloth to the center. Cut 



I When one of these tent-escapes is placed on 

 a pile of supers, or on a hive containing bees, 

 the bees will pass out freely at the top, but 

 the bees that try to get in attempt to make 

 the entrance farther down. Once in a great 

 while there will gather a bunch of the out- 

 going bees at the top so as to clog the exit, 

 and then the robbers will settle on this bunch 

 of bees and work their way in, but a little 

 smoke will scatter the bunch of bees. 



The " Old Reliable " seen through New and Unreliable Glasset. 

 By E. E. Hasty, Sta. B. Rural, Toledo, Ohio, 



PERHAPS A CASE OF SWARMING ODT. 



On page 377, a friend interested in bees, but 

 quite uninformed about :hem, asks a long 

 stung of questions. The answer to the 10th 

 one struck me as deoidedly wrong — and being 

 an appointed meddUr. I meddle. The fact 

 that the bees clustered and allowed themselves 

 to be hived, although not jiosUive evidence 

 that they had a queen, seems to me a strong 

 indication that they had. Bees in a hive 

 which they consider home it they lose their 

 queen just stray helplessly and hopelessly till 

 they dwindle out by death, or by the inroads 

 of moths and robbers. They do not swariu. 



I In a hive which they have not accepted as 

 home yet, they are not likely to stay if the 

 queen is lost — unless there is young brood to 

 nurse, and rear a young queen from. With 

 young brood and a strange hive I think it is a 

 matter of some uncertainty whether they stay 

 or not. If they choose to leave they can 

 abandon the hive without doing it in exact 

 swarming style. " Indiana's ** bees had brood, 

 and if indeed they were queenless they chose 

 to slay. 



Another thing. Bees eight days after losing 

 their queen would have queen-cells, which 

 they are unlikely to leave. 1 would inter from 



this, also, that the queen was not lost. 

 Queenless bees abandoning a hive which they 

 do not consider home, would not cluster in a 

 natural way, if I am right — might begin a 

 cluster, but unlikely to form a complete and 

 quiet one — most likely to throw themselves 

 upon some other hive and try to enter, or, in 

 case DO other colony was by, to roam off in 

 search of one. If any remains of their former 

 home were to be found, they might go there 

 and devote themselves to crawling helplessly 

 around. 



I should incline to say that the case in band 

 was a case of "swarming out,'' so-called. 

 Queen stopped laying when the old colony 

 was broken up. Probably had nearly stopped 

 before by reason of short supplies. Hungry 

 and discontented they felt still more discon- 

 tented when the last brood was sealed. When 

 there is little to eat, and nothing to do, a 

 "hungry swarm," as they call it over in 

 Europe, is quite in order. When put back 

 they might be expected to stay for awhile. 

 (Roosting in a tree-top did not strike them, 

 on trying it, as improving the situation much. ) 

 And it transpired directly after that the 

 honey-supply improved; and on that account 

 they gratified their owner by flying out and in 

 more. After all is said, however, I will grant 

 the possibility of bees lojig time queenless 

 forming a quiet cluster in a tree. 



TIME REQUIRED FOR 9WARM-CLD9TERING. 



When I first read Mr. Doolittle's article on 

 how bees find their future home, I was taken 

 a-back by the statement that a swarm clusters 

 in from two to five minutes after coming out. 

 Had it been some of our rank and file I should 

 have smiled and said. He never actually timed 

 bees with a watch, and his guess was quite a 

 bit too small. But Mr. Doolittle rarely, if 

 ever, lets things go with a mere wild guess. 

 My first query was with myself. Does time 

 seem longer to me just because a swarm is 

 out? and have I lieen greatly overestimating? 

 Well, swarms galore have been out this sea- 

 son, and (when not too much rushed) I have 

 been timing them by the watch. I was not 

 mistaken, so far as the strain of bees in my 

 yard is concerned. They spend from 7 to 15 

 minutes on the wing. 



Now the much more important question 

 recurs. Do different strains of bees, and dif- 

 ferent yards, have different habits in this re- 

 gard? Jf that's the case, it would explain 

 some differences of opinion about certain 

 other matters. Presumption favorable to the 

 affirmative, to begin with. It's too late to 

 ask for observations this season, but will not 

 those who have the actual time of their bees 

 please report? It's possible we shall find that 

 different years differ. Quite possibly I have 

 had, some time, a swarm comeout and cluster 

 in two minutes, but it is very, very rare if 

 ever. The behavior of swarms in nearly all 

 respects certainly lakes a great range of 

 variation I think I wrote long ago that bees 

 have forty different ways of swarming. Page 

 390. 



POTTING WEAK COLONIES OVER STRONG ONES. 



Edwin Bevins gives us, on page 452, a 

 timely though small experiment — two weak 

 colonies put over two strong ones without 

 intending to unite. Total failure, so far as 

 the object in view was concerned. Both 

 queensoE the weak colonies disappeared in 

 ten days. The scheme is important enough 

 to justify many more reports, small and large. 



BEE ODORS AND SENSE OF SMELL. 



And so Arthur C. Miller must be getting 

 after the bee's sense of smell as one of the 

 old superstitions. All right. I'll hold his 

 " bunnit " if somebody else doesn't get the 

 job ahead of me. But until he ;j)-o/r« some- 

 thing (as his tirst onslaught does not seem 

 to), he must let us keep on using the familiar 

 language about the bee's keenness of scent. 

 Time enough to "go ahead" with new 

 phrases when we are sure they are right. The 

 dog (to an absolute certainty) recognizes his 

 master by smell— and it's also certain that he 

 has other means of recognizing him besides 

 smell. Probibiliiy pretty strong that the 

 same is the case with bees recognizing each 

 other — also, that they are sometimes quite 

 hateful to hiveinates when they do recognize 



