1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



21 



that the law was as it was hundreds 

 of years ago, that one lost the prop- 

 erty in a swarm if he did not imme- 

 diately go after it and catch it while 

 it was in his sight. 



As to whether trespass was com- 

 mitted, that was an entirely differ- 

 ent question, and did not arise except 

 in an action for trespass. 



The editor suggested that the law 

 should be altered so that a swarm 

 of bees on the premises, near to the 

 apiary of a beekeeper, should be his 

 property, unless, of course, another 

 beekeeper had seen the bees issue 

 from his own hives and followed 

 them. Under the interpretation as 

 given in this instance, it would be 

 open to any passer-by, seeing a 

 swarm of bees, in a garden or or- 

 chard, which had swarmed from hives 

 situated therein, to step in and "col- 

 lar" them, the owner having no 

 remedy except in action for trespass, 

 if he had not actually seen the bees 

 leave the hive and cluster. 



A Portable Wmter Case 



Edward C. Barber, of Massachu- 

 setts, sends us the accompanying 

 photographs of his portable winter 

 case, which he describes as follows : 

 Each case holds six colonies and can 

 be used as a summer shade ana a 

 winter packing box. There is six 

 inches of packing space around the 

 hives, which can be tiered up. The 

 case is 45 inches high in front and 55 

 inches high at the back. The front 

 doors are used for alighting boards 

 in summer, as shown in the picture. 

 On each side is a 2x4, which is 16 feet 

 long and which extends past the ends 

 of the case. Four men can easily 

 load the whole outfit onto a truck 

 and move it anywhere. They are 

 great for packing the bees for win- 

 ter, snug and tight and with the 

 packing removed provide a cool 

 shelter for summer. 



Robbing 



I am a novice and your article on 

 robbing, page 158, caught my eye. I 

 have been having quite a bit of rob- 

 bing. I have often read that if a 

 colony was not able to defend its 

 home against robbers they were not 

 worth fooling with. I have had sev- 

 eral cases of robbing and in each 

 case I have got them stopped, and my 

 plan is to get all the robbers in the 

 hive being robbed, close the entrance 

 with a block so no bee can pass. To 

 prevent smothering I drive an 8- 

 penny common nail under the cover 

 on one side, then I leave them im- 

 prisoned thus for 48 hours; then, af- 

 ter dark, I remove the block from en- 

 trance and draw the nail from under 

 the cover, and when I go next morn- 

 ing to see how things are, I usually 

 find them quiet. I presume if the 

 queen has not been harmed, in 48 

 hours' time, enough of those robbers 

 will become loyal and stay to defend 

 the hive. At least they have done so 

 for me. I hope someone else will 

 try the plan, and if not successful 

 close them up again for 48 hours. 



Another plan I tried was when I 

 discovered robbing late one evening 

 in October, last year. I closed the 

 entrance with the robbers in, and af- 

 ter dark I opened it up. The robbers 

 crawled out and covered the front of 

 the hive. The next morning when I 

 went out the robbers were going full 

 tilt. I looked around to find all my 

 bees quiet except at one hive, and of 

 course that was where the robbers 

 were coming from. I picked it up and 

 moved it back about one rod, and put 

 an empty in place of it. When the 

 robbers returned and found no place 

 to store their stolen sweets, they 

 were so demoralized that robbing 

 was not only stopped at once, but 

 some of the robbers seemed to return 

 with their loads to the pilfered hive 

 and proceed to defend it. In no case 

 have I ever moved the colonybeing 

 robbed. 



H. P. GANNAWAY. 



Queen Supersedure 



By Henry Brenner 



THE realization by the bees of a 

 condition in the hive necessitat- 

 .ng a change, and their subse- 

 quent activities to bring about the 

 change has been styled by Maeter- 

 linck as the operation of an intuitive 

 law which he designates under the 

 phrase "The Spirit of the Hive." 

 Whatever be the force of intelligence 

 that acquaints a colony of bees with 

 the necessity for a change they ruth- 

 lessly carry out the mandate. 



When a colony of bees realize that 

 the mother queen is failing, either 

 because of age or other, infirmitv, 

 queen-cells are started. The build- 

 ing of such cells is commonly called 

 supersedure. 



My observation is that in building 

 swarm-cells, under the normal repro- 

 ductive impulse, the bees and queen 

 work in unison. Supersedure, on the 

 contrary, seems to be only the work 

 of the bees. They work on their own 

 initiative. The queen takes no hand 

 in the work of superseding. 



My observations lead me to believe 

 that the bees build these cells with- 



out the knowledge of the queen. In 

 superseding, the bees often, I may 

 say generally, transfer larvae or egs;s 

 to queen-cells in remote parts of the 

 hive, which are seldom or never vis- 

 ited by the mother, or build new cells 

 over the larvae. 



Supersedure cells usually occur in 

 the outside combs of the brood-nest. 

 That the bees do transfer larvae to re- 

 mote portions of the hive for super- 

 seding is proved by my having found 

 in Porto Rico two colonies, one with 

 one cell, and one with two, above an 

 excluder. In both cases I examined 

 the brood-nest and found two or 

 three more cells, but these were on 

 the outside combs. 



Years ago, in Texas, I found very 

 little requeening necessary in my 

 outyards, while at my residence, in 

 my experimental apiary, I found 

 more than twice as many failing 

 queens. This troubled me for some 

 time. I could see no adequate reason 

 for it. At last an accident suggested 

 a solution. The bees of one of my 

 best breeders were found to be in 

 the act of superseding. I went, the 

 next day, to cut out the cells. I in- 

 tended to preserve the queen as long 

 as possible because of her former 

 good record and her type qualifica- 

 tions. I intended to use her to re.ir 

 drones for my mating yards. Judge 

 my surprise to find the cells gone. 

 The mark of the queen was upon 

 them, i. e., the opening at the side )i 

 the cell as made by an enraged queen 

 when finding a possible rival. This 

 gave me a clue which I followed. 



Investigation brought me to the 

 conclusion that the bees do the su- 

 perseding and that they watch or 

 guard the queen continually to pre- 

 vent her from tearing down the cells. 

 In my home apiary, where I open the 

 hives often, the bees become dis- 

 turbed by the smoker and are for a 

 time disorganized. In consequence, 

 the queen is given a chance to find 

 and destroy th j cells. In one-half of 

 the cases where I saw evidence of 

 supersedure I found that the cells 

 were destroyed the next day by the 

 queen when I opened the hives again. 



If supersedure cells are put above 



The doors of Barber's packing --ase are used for alighting boards in summer. 



