April 12, 1906 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



323 



* (Eontributeb -fr 

 Special CCrttcles 



there was one queenless and two with drone-laying queens, ami 106 

 good, 6trong colonies. I am told it was a hard winter on bees in 

 Nebraska. 



I use the standard Hoffman frame wired and filled with full 

 sheets of foundation. I make my own foundation on a 10-inch mill, 

 which pays me big. 



I think the 10-frame bive is small enough. I keep my queens 

 clipped, and worn for both comb and extracted honey. 



1 think I shipped the first bees to this part of the State (Polk Co., 

 Nebr.) from Rock Island Co., Ill , in May, 1877. If lam not mis- 

 taken, I bought my first bees in 1862 or 1863, and we have had bees in 

 the family ever since. So I commenced my bee-keeping 43 or 44 years 

 ago. C. N. Seward. 



Mf. W. J. Davis, 1st, of Youngsville, Pa., could write 

 a book on " Sixty Years Among the Bees," but he probably ] 

 will not undertake it. He has also read all the volumes of 

 the American Bee Journal, and when renewing his sub- 

 scription for this year, wrote thus : 



I will not say as some of your subscribers, that " I could not get 

 along without the Journal," for, after 60 years' experience in hand- 

 ling bees and reading 45 volumes of your paper, I think I could. But 

 I do not think I m'ff, as it is worth more than it costs, to me. 



W. J. Davis, 1st. 



We value very highly such a generous testimonial, that 

 comes entirely unsolicited. It is a great encouragement to 

 us. And yet, we also like to get honest, sensible criticisms 

 and suggestions for the improvement of the American Bee 

 Journal, for we desire to make it increasingly valuable to 

 its readers. Our interests are mutual, and the larger success 

 of the readers should result in greater success for the Bee 

 Journal, and vice versa. 



Something About Prevention of Swarming 

 —When Young Bees Become Field-Bees 



BY L. STACHELHAUSEN. 



IN the Western Bee Journal for 1905, page 139, Adrian 

 Getaz published an article on "Prevention of Swarming," 



in which he recommends the caging of the queen for this 

 purpose. This is successful if the queen is not released until 

 the colony has been at least 4 days without unsealed brood. 

 To explain this Mr. Getaz said : 



"Exactly .how it works, I could not tell positively. I 

 think it is in this way: During these 4 days or more with- 

 out unsealed brood, the young bees, having no brood to feed, 

 take to the field, and become actually field-bees." ■ 



In an article in the same paper, page 181, I explained why 

 this is not correct, and gave another more probable and satis- 

 factory answer. Now Mr. Getaz, in the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, page 72, says I had made two "errors" in criticising his 

 guesses. 



I said that young bees are the nourishing bees, prepare the 

 larval food, and can't do any kind of field-work before they 

 are at least 12 days old. Mr. Getaz says this is an error, and 

 continues : 



"Experiments had been made where bees only 7, 5 and in 

 one case only 4 days old, have brought in nectar and pollen." 



I have read a number of bee-papers during more than 40 

 years, and I do not remember that any reliable man had such 

 an experience as Mr. Getaz says. Sometimes somebody not 

 used to close, scientific observation may have published a 

 similar assertion, but it was clearly seen where he had made 

 the mistake. 



The question itself is not difficult to settle, if we intro- 

 duce an Italian queen to a black colony, or if we give to 

 black colony a comb with eggs laid by an Italian queen, 

 observe closely afterward- 1 did this years ago, many times, 

 and found the young bees have a play-spell when aboul 

 days old, but I have not seen a single case where a young bee 

 had gathered pollen, nectar or water before she was IS d 

 old. It is true that at sonic times and under some circum- 

 stances the young bees leave the hive for a play-spell when 

 only 5 or 4 days old, but this has no bearing at all on our 

 question. The question is. At what age do bees gather pollen 

 or nectar, and so become actual field-bees? and can they, under 



pressing circumstances, becomi - Id-bees sooner than in a 

 normal condition ? 



Observations with similar n nits were made by von 

 Berlepscli. Hopf, Graf, Stosch. Vogel, Donhof. and many 

 others; this was some time before 1866. Only a few reported 

 that in some cases they had seen bees 12 days old gathering 

 pollen. In Langstroth Revised, Dr. Donhofs experiments are 

 reported cntirelv. The other books in the English language 

 are not as detailed in this respect. In Cheshire's book I can't 

 find anything. A. J. Cook, in his "Manual." says: ". . . . 

 usually about 2 weeks if the colony is in a normal condition, 

 id. mgh if all the bees are very young it may be only one week 



these young bees do not leave the hive at all ' 



"A B C of Bee-Culture" says: "The first load of pollen is 

 usually brought in, when the young bee is about two weeks 

 old." T. \\ . Cowan says: "The bee leaves the hive to fly on 

 the 14th daw" 



So far all experiments and 1 ks teach that a young bee 



will be more than 12 days old before she becomes a field-bee. 

 Xow there are some, like Mr. Getaz, who are of the opinion 

 that under some pressing circumstances a young bee may go 

 to the field at a younger age. Baron Berlepscli made an ex- 

 periment in the year 1865 ; he formed a colony of young bees 

 only. As soon as the oldest bees were 8 days old they held 

 a play-spell. At a date when no bee could be older than 11 

 days, all honey and oollen was taken from the colony, to force 

 the bees into the held; but no bee gathered anything, and the 

 other dav the colony was in a starving condition. This proves 

 that no bee younger than 12 days can gather pollen or nectar 

 ever under most pressing circumstances. Quite different is 

 the fact that older bees, if necessary, can nurse the larvae. 

 This has no bearing on our question. 



In view of these many experiments, made by most promi- 

 nent bee-keepers, I will still stick to the opinion that bees 

 younger than 12 days (very probably 16 days) can't gather 

 pollen, honey or water, even under the most pressing circum- 

 stances. The simple assertion of Mr. Getaz that it is an 

 "error" can't change this opinion. 



The second error Mr. Getaz said I had made by the asser- 

 tion that if the young bees could become field-bees at any age, 

 if none or not enough brood is present in the hive, the swarm- 

 ing fever could never appear in any colony. He says : 



"Because young bees can go to the field, there is abso- 

 lutely no reason why this would prevent them from building 

 queen-cells before taking to the field. If they don't build any 

 when there is no unsealed brood, it is because they can't, and 

 not because they won't." 



It seems to me Mr. Getaz did not understand my reason- 

 ing, so I will explain. In the article mentioned above, Mr. 

 Getaz says : , 



"As long as the nurse-bees have all the brood to feed that 

 they can attend to, they will not build queen-cells, but as soon 

 as there is an insufficient amount of brood to consume all the 

 food they can prepare, queen-cells are started and queens 

 reared. And usually swarming follows." 



This is exactly my opinion, only I go a step farther : it 

 is a surplus of larval food prepared by the young bees in- 

 stinctively, that produces the swarming impulse, which influ- 

 ences all" the impulses of the bees. The question is not 

 whether we see a reason why the bees could build queen- 

 cells, or rather queen-cups, or not, but it is. Are the circum- 

 stances that way, that the impulses of the bees are driving 

 to this cell-building? It is easy to see, if a worker-bee of any 

 age could change from a nurse-bee to a field-bee. such a sur- 

 plus of nurse-bees, or rather of larval food, could never ap- 

 pear, and consequently no swarming impulse. It is true these 

 voting bees, before becoming field-bees, could build queen- 

 cells, but as no surplus of nurse-bets could come up in a 

 sufficient degree, the impulse for this cell-building will not 

 appear. If the young bee could change her occupation, if she 

 can't find employment in her regular one, such a state of un- 

 employed nurses were impossible, consequently no swarming 

 impulse would appear. 



Now a few words in reply to another assertion of Mr. 

 Getaz. He says: "If they [the bees] don't build any [queen- 

 cells] when there is no unsealed brood, it is because they 

 can't, and not because they won't." 



If we talk about regular swarming, the bees build queen- 

 cups and the queen will lav eggs in them. These queen-cups 

 can be built whether unsealed brood is in the hive or not. But 

 the caged queen can't lay eggs in them, consequently swarm- 

 ing is prevented. Further, the bees won't build queen-cells 

 over larvae, if they were present, because the queen, too, is 

 present. They would do it if the queen were removed entirely 

 and such cells must be cut out at proper time, if such a plan 

 is used for preventing swarming. When I said the swarming 



