1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



449 



kewitch, Manual of Beekeeping (Rus- 

 sian), St. Petersburg, 1911), may be 

 of some value to the practical bee- 

 keeper: 



The bees do not entirely suspend 

 their work on the day they intend to 

 leave their hive. I frequently ob- 

 served colonies where the bees were 

 going on with gathering nectar in the 

 morning about the same as usual, yet 

 they swarmed in the afternoon. 

 Neither do the clusters hanging out- 

 side the hives invariably signify that 

 those particular colonies are prepar- 

 ing to swarm. Such "hanging out" is 

 probably in most cases due to hot 

 weather and to lack of ventilation. 



The colony is often unusually quiet 

 before the swarm is to issue, remind- 

 ing one of the quietude of the 

 weather before the coming storm. 

 The first signs of excitement are fre- 

 quently revealed by the queen, who 

 seems to be very restless on the day 

 she is to leave. Instead of her regu- 

 lar routine of work of laying eggs, 

 she is somewhat agitated, aimlessly 

 running around over the combs. Soon 

 the whole colony is in an upi'oar. Sev- 

 eral bees fly and dance in the air in 

 front of the hive with their heads to- 

 ward it, as though anticipating the 

 coming rush. Yet in the midst of 

 their great agitation they do not for- 

 get to provide themselves with a good 

 supply of honey to last them for a 

 few days. 



Meanwhile the commotion in the 

 hive is growing very rapidly. Young 

 and old are literally "pouring out" of 

 the hive, as though some mysterious 

 force is relentlessly driving them from 

 their old home. They rush onward 

 as fast as they can, tending to go up- 

 ward, take wing, and begin to gyrate 

 rythmically, at first around the hive, 

 then extending the area of their 

 merry-making larger and larger until 

 it occupies a large portion of the 

 apiary. There is something elemental 

 in the whole procedure. They seem 

 to abandon themselves completely to 

 their hilarious joy, ringing their wings 

 in great excitement, with a certain 

 rhythm in all their motions. 



There is no set rule when the queen 

 leaves the hive. The idea that she 

 leads the swarm is erroneous, for she 

 frequently leaves the hive when 

 about a third or a half of the emi- 

 grants are out. She sometimes falls 

 to the ground in her attempt to take 

 wing together with the madly rushing 

 bees, being heavily loaded with eggs 

 and probably dazzled by the bright 

 light of the sun. After a short rest in 

 front of the hive she is up again in 

 the air among her family. 



The number of bees participating in 

 a swarm is estimated variously. The 

 Russian beekeepers consider a good 



prime swarm at six to seven pounds, 

 which quantity coincides with Dr. 

 Phillips' estimate of 35,000 (Beekeep- 

 ing, 1915, p. 39), considering about 

 5,000 bees to the pound. 



The old idea that all kinds of 

 noise made while the swarm is in the 

 air would induce it to settle is dis- 

 proved by modern investigators, al- 

 though Cheshire thinks that there is 

 some truth in it, and on the whole it 

 is correct. It was also probably done 

 in order to inform the neighbors about 

 the issuance of a swarm and thus sus- 

 tain its ownership. Langstroth re- 

 ports that flashing the rays of the sun 

 by means of a mirror would make it 

 settle, while many old beekeepers used 

 to throw mud or water for the same 

 purpose, as well as for preventing the 

 joining of two or more swarms to- 

 gether. 



Bees, participating in the swarm, be- 

 ing filled with honey are not apt to 

 sting. Yet the general idea among 

 the beekeepers that they will never 

 sting is probably wrong, because they 

 do sting under provocation, even 

 while swarming. 



But here our merry-makers in the 

 air, after whirling in large circles 

 and dancing for a while, begin to set- 

 tie in a cluster not very far from their 

 old home. The old queen, heavy with 

 eggs, weak and not used to light and 

 flying, cannot ordinarily make a long 

 flight without first resting, and 

 wherever she alights, the bees cluster 

 with her. Frequently she alights on 

 a spot where some bees have been 

 c'ustering previous to her arrival. 



The wind seems to have a great 

 deal to do with the direction in which 

 a swarm flies. The apiary where I 

 had the opportunity to study swarm- 

 ing last year had a windbreak of eu- 

 calyptus trees, the hives being situ- 

 ated, of course, on the side from the 

 wind, where its force was broken by 

 the trees. On the other side of the 

 apiary was an alfalfa field in which 

 direction the wind was blowing. Out 

 of fifty cases of swarming that I wit- 

 nessed there, not a single one alighted 

 on a tree, most of them settling right 

 on the ground in the alfalfa, while 



many got into the empty hives that 

 were spread in windward direction 

 for that purpose, notwithstanding the 

 fact that swarming took place on very 

 quiet, bright sunny days. 



Something has probably to do with 

 the fact that bees have a peculiar 

 way of settling on same spots where 

 previous swarms have selected to 

 alight. It is explained by beekeepers 

 that a swarm leaves a special odor at 

 the place where it clustered, and 

 other swarms are thereby attracted to 

 the same place. Some Russian bee- 

 keepers think the odor of the queen 

 attracts the bees to the place where 

 she once alighted. 



It has also been observed that after- 

 swarms frequently fly farther and 

 settle on more elevated places than 

 pi'ime swarms. Young queens are 

 more vigorous and not as heavy as 

 their mother, therefore they can per- 

 form better flying feats than the for- 

 mer. 



Now that the swarm has settled in 

 a cluster, scouts are sent out to look 

 for a new home. Whether the scouts 

 depart before the swarm leaves the 

 parent hive or shortly thereafter is 

 rather difficult to determine. There 

 happened cases where emigrants left 

 their hive and went straight in an air 

 line to a new home without ever stop- 

 ping to cluster. More often, however, 

 they clustered for a length of time, 

 from fifteen minutes to perhaps a 

 day or more, until they depart for a 

 new home. 



When they get to their new home, 

 a number of the first comers stand on 

 the alighting board and on the walls 

 of the hive with abdomens lifted in 

 the air and fan with their wings. This 

 is probably their mode of notifying 

 the bees left behind them of the new 

 home they located. Soon they begin 

 their steady, uninterrupted march 

 homeward, if the queen is with them. 



They settle to work presently with- 

 out much loss of time. They form a 

 curtain-like cluster and begin to build 

 comb. There is not even a trace of 

 that elemental, hilarious joy to which 

 they have abandoned themselves com- 

 pletely just a short while ago. They 



Apiary of J. G. Levac, of Quebec, Canada. As high as 27,500 pounds from 180 colonies have 

 been secured, or 150 pounds per colony 



