98 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Experience of a Novice. 



No. 8. 



MY ONE EXCEPTION TO ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 



Those of my readers who have followed me 

 thus far may recollect that iv my first attempts 

 at que en-raisiug I finally removed my Italian 

 queen from_ her hive (which hive was theLnng- 

 strotli I had so carefully made from the book), 

 and that I succeeded in getting quite a number 

 of queen -cells. 



Well, as the Italians had built queen-cells so 

 readily, and, most of all, were so much quieter 

 and easier to handle than my black bees, I con- 

 cluded to keep them at the business. Accord- 

 ingly I used all the cells and gave them fresh 

 bmod to raise more. This time I left them one 

 cell; but, strange to say, they clung to the young 

 queen, and killed her almost as soon as hatched. 



Well, "my beauties," thinks I, I will have to 

 trj^ once more; and I gave them a whole frame 

 of brood to encourage them to keep up their 

 spii its for ten days more. In eight days and 

 twenty hours, according to a memorandum 

 kept at the time, I opened the hives to count 

 my queen-cells. I found them all torn open, and 

 on looking further found the largest queen I 

 have ever seen — "a young giantess," as some 

 one has expressed it. The bees were then 

 working on the blossoms of the basswood — a 

 coincidence with the case of the great number 

 of queen-cells raised on one occasion by Mr 

 Grimm, as stated in the Bee Jouknal, Vol. 2, 

 page 170 



in a few days more I found that she had al- 

 most filled the combs with eggs, which hatched 

 in due time. The bees proved to be hybrids. 

 A s our fall last year atforded no pasturage, it took 

 nearly all of their honey to raise the brood; and 

 in November they were nearly desttutc. I 

 treatetl them to twenty pounds of sugar syrup 

 with the rest of my stock, and did not see my 

 "tall" queen again till the warm weither in 

 February. Then I found her tilling her combs 

 with eggs at a great rate, and some days alter 

 found quite a quantity of larvse and immature 

 brood in front of the hive. I let it pass, how- 

 ever, supposing some of the brood had got 

 chilled and were carried out by the bees. 



Toward the last of March, on opening the 

 hive I could not find a pai tide of brood, and 

 scarcely any honej', and the bees much dwind- 

 led down. I had no Langstroth frame con- 

 taining any honey; but near by stood and 

 American hive that had died out from being 

 too old. as mentioned before. I now saw the 

 inconvenience of having two kinds in an apiary. 

 The American was nearly full, l)Ut I could not 

 exchange tlie frames; so I decided on what I 

 then considered a bold expeiimeut, as it was 

 pretty cold weather at the time. I put the 

 American hive in place of theirs, and brushed 

 them otf, "giantess" and all, nearly starved 

 and stupid with cold, into the cold hive, picked 

 up those that fell on the ground, tumbled them 

 in and left them to do the best they could. But 



towards evening, feeling some remorse about 

 the rough manner in AvhichI had treated them, 

 I ventured to look in u-pon them, and found 

 that they had so far recovered as to remember 

 that they were hybrids, and objected to any 

 further assistance. Still I managed to get a 

 peep at "giantess" and the preparations they 

 had made for housekeeping with the benefit 

 of plentiful supplies. 



After that, as they had become quite weak, 

 I decided to let them build up as fast as they 

 liked; and when I began to take frames from 

 the rest to raise queens, my wife bade me let 

 the one with the large queen alone and see how 

 strong they would get, as she had doubts of 

 "my policy" in artificial swarming, &c. 



Towards June tliey seemed pretty strong, but 

 had not got their combs cpiite down, and had 

 not clustered out any; yet, for fear they might 

 swarm, I did remove a comb from the centre. 



Two days after this, it being necessary ior 

 my wife to be away, I requested a neighbor's 

 wife to watch and inform me at the store, which 

 was not far off, if my bees sliould swarm. Sure 

 enough, about ten o'clock, she came in out of 

 breath to tell me they had swarmed. Contrary 

 to all known rule and regulation, they had not 

 waited to cluster or anything of the kind, but 

 poured out of the hive "pell-mell," as if Old 

 Nick himself was after them; hurried up into 

 the air, and ofi" in a northeasterly direction — 

 the largest swarm that had ever been seen, as 

 all 'agreed. 



Of course it was "giantess" on the rampage. 

 I had been thinking of clipping her wings only 

 that very morning, and now she was gone. In 

 despair I seized my hat and set otf in the direc- 

 tion indicated; but only succeeded in learning 

 that they had been seen to pass over a certain 

 house, perhaps twenty rods, from my apiary. 

 Resolving that I would get them yet, if within 

 the bounds of possibility, I rel-urued home to 

 make examinations 



I found the hive almost entirely destitute of 

 bees, but every cell filled with brood and honey; 

 even the frame I l)ad given them, partly filled 

 with empty comb, was full nearly to the bot- 

 tom, and the outside frames solid with sealed 

 honey. But, strange to tell, not a qu'cn-cell 

 in any stage was to be seen, and scarcely bees 

 enough to build one, as it then seemed. 



Perlmps it may be as well now to follow the 

 fortunes of this hive to the end, as the novelists 

 say, if my readers will allow the digression. I 

 have always had much trouble with my young 

 queens, just before or al)out the time tlu-y began 

 to lay. One in particular, I used to expect to 

 find "clustered Avith her quart of bees on some 

 neighboring tree in spite of brood, larva}, or 

 eggs, almost every evening when I camiiliome. 

 Well, just the Sunday morning previous to the 

 event narrated, as I was enjoying the cool air 

 in the girdeu among my bees, with rather a 

 disregard to habilinients, that is, without hat, 

 coat, or shoes, I Avas surprised to hear faintly 

 the peculiar hum of swarming bees, and just 

 caught sight of my AVOcdd-be truant nucleus 

 going over the fence. As its queen Avas a fine 

 one, I started in pursuit, seizing my bee-hat and 

 a queen cage on the way. Over the fences and 



