1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



443 



THE FIRM OF JANE MEEK & BROTHER. 



A Serial Story in Ten Chapters. 



BY KEV. W. I). H.il.STON. 



CHAPTER VI. 



A TALK ON SWARMING. 



"JIP S the Meek family gathered around the diii- 

 gfm ner-table that day it would have been difH- 

 ^^ cult to introduce a conversation on any 

 •^ subject but bees, all were so excited by 

 what had occurred. The reader niig-ht be in- 

 terested in some things there said. 



Jane remarked, " It was too funny to see the bees 

 pouring- biit of the old nail-keg:, as they seeliied so 

 very anxious to g-et out; they seemed ivs if anxious 

 CO leave the old hive. It seems strange to me that 

 they should want to leave the old hive, which has 

 pleutj- of honej', and go out into the world without 

 knowing whether or not they could find a hive or 

 hollow tree in which to live." 



Her father replied, " In like manner 1 have often 

 wondered that a young- lady will leave her father's 

 house, nice!}' furnished, where she can have all her 

 heart could wish, and go away, often to a distant 

 State, with a young man who is not able to afford 

 her even a comfortable house." 



Jane said, "I will never do such a thing. I will 

 always stay with you and mamma, and my dear 

 brother Tommy." 



Said her father, " Voii no doubt feel so now; but I 

 tliink when you are a woman you will change your 

 mind. At least, I could hardly expect that you 

 would do differently from what your mother did; 

 and I know she left a nice comfortable home, the 

 society of parents, brothers, and sisters, and came 

 awaj- here with me, a poor ^linister, who had no 

 home of my own to otter her." 



Jane replied, very innocently, "But then, it was 

 to live with yoi(, papa; I would go anywhere to 

 live with you; but I will never leave you and ina, 

 and go anywhere to live with a strange man or 

 boy." 



Mr. Meek looked over at his wife. Then' was a 

 smile on the faces of both. He then said, " I tliink 

 it is this way about the swarming. God has plant- 

 ed in the heart of all living things a desire to multi- 

 ply their kind. Ilees multiply by swarming. When 

 they become numerous in the hive, and begin ft) be 

 crowded for room, they swarm, and thus form a 

 new colony." 



" I wish, papa," said .lane, "you would tell us all 

 about bees swarming, for to me it is a very stia;igc 

 and curious thing." 



He accordingly began. " I ha\ e told you tiiat the 

 <iueen is not the ruler of the hive. If there are 

 rulers in it, 1 think they are the busy little workers. 

 I imagine some pleasant day, when honey is com- 

 ing in nicely, and the hive is rapidly ii'creasing in 

 population, a number of these l)usy fellows put 

 their heads together and ask each other, 'Don't you 

 think we had better have a swarmV All present 

 being of that mind, they then i)ass througii the 

 hive, saying-, in bee-language, to every one the,^- 

 meet, ' We must itrepare for swarming.' \\'ell, the 

 first i)reparation they make is to l)egin raising 

 <lrones. The (lueen lays two kinds of eggs, called 

 drone and worker eggs. Bees also build two kinds 

 of comb, called drone and worker comb. The 

 drone-comb has larger cells than the worker, and 

 in it drone-eggs are laid, and in it drones are 



hatched. Both kinds of comb are also used for 

 storing honey and pollen. If the bees have no 

 tlioughfs of swarming, the ijueen either does not 

 lay in drone-cells, or, if she docs, the bees destroy 

 the eggs. But when once they get what is termed 

 the swarming fever they are as careful of the 

 drone as of the worker brood. The next step is to 

 construct queen-cells. These cells are very differ- 

 ent from the other two kinds. They are placed in 

 an opposite direction on the combs, the open end 

 being downward, and they are never used as store- 

 cells. The (jueen either lays worker-eggs in these 

 cells, or the workers remove eggs into them. 

 Queens can not be hatched from drone-eggs. It is 

 believed that it is the kind of colls in which queens 

 are hatched, with the kind of food given them by 

 the workers, that makes them queens. When bees 

 want to raise a queen they are not satisfied with 

 one merely, but build a number of cells, and raise a 

 number of queens. For a time after the queen- 

 cells are formed, the queen does not seem to pay 

 any attention to them. Eight days after the eggs 

 are laid, the young <juecns are large enough to be 

 sealed over. It is then that the first swarm comes 

 off. The old queen, impelled by some motive, 

 leaves the hive, accompanied by a great number 

 of bees, and form what we call a swarm. Re- 

 member, the old queen always goes with the first 

 swarm." 



Tommy here inquired if the queen Mr. Brown 

 gave them in the nail-keg was now in the new hive. 



His father said she certainly was, unless she had 

 died, and the bees had raised another to take her 

 place. 



" There is no queen in the nail keg now, but 

 there arc little baby queens in their royal cells, or 

 cradles. In eight days these cells will hatch, and 

 then pi-obably a second swarm will come from the 

 old hivo." 



"Oh! I remember," said Jane. "The book tells 

 us that, if we put our ear to the old hive, just be- 

 fore the second swarm comes off, we can hear tlie 

 queens saying peep, peep; just like little chicks 

 when they chip their shells, and I will hear tlieni if 

 I can." 



Her father continued. "The first queen that 

 hatches out wants to tear up the other cells and 

 kill the young (jueens in them. She may then de- 

 part with the second swarm, which is always a 

 smaller swarm than the first; and, if the weather is 

 favorable, it may be expected on the eighth or ninth 

 day after the first. If there is a third swarm it will 

 probably be the same day or the second or the day 

 following. It will be still smaller than the second. 

 There ought to be no third swarm, and it would be 

 better if there were no second; but the bees ina 

 hive seem at times to be seized with this swarujing- 

 fever so badly that they will swarm until the old 

 colony is almost broken up." 



"I should like to ask you, papa," said Jane, " i€ 

 bees hunt up a future home for theniselves before 

 they come off as a swarm." 



"That is a thing not positively known," said her 

 father; " but the general belief is, that bees swarm, 

 and settle as ours did to-day, and then a company 

 start out as scouts to look up a new home. If the 

 swarm is hived before long, and the hive then re- 

 moved to its stand l)efore these scouts return, all is 

 well; but if not, and the scouts find a tree, and then 

 return to the colony, they may induce it to lease 

 the hive and go to the woods, even after it has 



