590 



GLEAKINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



plicated, and too much machinery. A great 

 many of lliem are the same thin.i:^ over again ; 

 and a great many have taken the trouble to 

 send us models of exactly what we have il- 

 lustrated in GLKANiXfis during the past 

 year. 



^ ■ ^i— 



DO BEES EVER SWARM WITHOUT A 

 QUEEN? 



S(1ME rUETTV C;ONCl.USlVE EVIDENCE THAT THEY 

 DO SOMETIMES. 



On page 517, Jas. Huffman decides that 

 they do not, and his logic is equal to that of 

 the judge in the case of the man who stole 

 the sheep. He ruled that, as only one wit- 

 ness saw the prisoner take the sheep, and 

 ten witnesses did not, therefore the prisoner should 

 be discharged. 



1 have charg-e of a black apiary belonging to 

 neighbor S., about forty rods distant from home. 

 I am Italianizing them, and in June last I gave a 

 queen-cell to a certain colony which I will call No. 1. 

 Of course I had removed the queen; but the cell 

 was torn down, and ha% ing no more readj% I gave a 

 few eggs, from which they built two queen-cells. 

 One of these was removed, leaving no possibilitj^ of 

 raising more than one queen. This cell was ex- 

 pected to hatch on the 39th or 30th of June. On the 

 first day of July, while I was absent from home, a 

 small swarm issued, but returned in a few minutes, 

 as might be expected. On July 4th they issued 

 again, and again returned. On July 6th (Sunday), 

 Mr. S. saw them issue again from the same hive, 

 and hived them. I examined them the next day, 

 found them to be queenless. and gave them a coll 

 from which they raised a queen. In a short time 

 the queen in No. 1 commenced laying. Now, it 

 seems to me the above is sufiiciently conclusive. 



There is another interesting fact connected with 

 the new swarm mentioned above: July 4th (Fri- 

 day), during Mr. S.'s absence, I attempted to hive 

 about half a bushel of stray bees which had clus- 

 tered on a tree in his apiary. I hastily took a comb 

 from a hive, and found it to contain only a few eggs. 

 This was put with empty combs in an empty hive, 

 and the bees shaken in, but I supi)ose they had 

 their location selected, for they did not take 

 time to investigate, but left in less than a minute. 

 Being in a hurry I left the comb containing the 

 eggs, in the hive; and when Mr. S. hived the swarm 

 on Sunday he put them into that hive, and the next 

 day they had queen-cells started on that comb. 



I will add, that this season's work has completely 

 disgusted me with black bees. " I'll none of them." 



A USE FOR ANTS. 



I have often read that ants take care of large 

 herds of aphides; and some who write for the in- 

 stniction of children assert that they keep them as 

 cows, and mi t/f them. For four or five summers 1 

 have noticed a steady stream of ants running up 

 and down the trunks of pine-trees; and after notic- 

 ing the article on " bug honey " from the pine, on 

 page 531, I examined the trees and found large 

 numbers of aphides inhabiting the twigs, and the 

 ants appeared to be eating some substance from 

 these twigs— no doubt the so-called "honey-dew," 

 which causes so much trouble; for who wants it, 

 either for human use or for wintering bees? Now, 

 if the ants get this and prevent the bees from getting 

 It, they do some good, don't they? I think I should 



prefer something that would destroy the aphides, 

 though perhaps they are of some use. Can any of 

 our entomologists give us any light on this point? 



BURDETT HASSETT. 



Howard Center, la., Aug. 9, 1884. 



Thank you, friend II. Your evidence is 

 pretty conclusive, that the bees swarmed out 

 and clustered without a (lueen. We were 

 well awaie that tltey would do this, and 

 hang for a short time; luit the supposition 

 has been, that, as s(»(Ui as they discovered 

 no queen was in tlie cluster, they would dis- 

 band and go back to their old home; and in 

 your case were tliey not hived before they 

 had an opportunity'to tind they were queen- 

 less? The point would be, how long did they 

 remain in the hive where Mr. S. put them, 

 before you examined them and gave them a 

 cell? Probably next day, as you state it, so 

 they stayed at least over night without a 

 queen, and, if I understand you, without 

 brood. I think this is rather unusual. My 

 experience has been, that, in hiving a colony 

 without a queen of any kind, or brood, they 

 w'ill not stay over an hour. — Your plan of 

 making ants useful, it seems to me, is a little 

 bit questionable. If they destroyed the 

 aphides, it might have a little more consis- 

 tency. By the way, the aphides seem to be 

 a pretty good thing aroimd near Medina, for 

 our queen-rearing apiaries; for just as nice 

 queens are reared from aphis honey as any 

 other. Should we, however, have a disaster 

 in wintering, it might not turn out so well. 



SOME SUGGESTIONS IN REGARD TO 

 THE PREVENTION OP SWARMING. 



ALSO SOMETHING ABOUT BEES THAT "DROP." 



'jr. FTER having experimented pretty thoi-oughly 

 nft^, in trying to pi'cvent swarming, I have come 



jRK to the conclusion that the best plan is, try 

 -*^ to prevent swarming only by giving the bees 

 plenty of room, both over the cluster and at 

 sides, and keeping the brood-combs empty with 

 the extractor when they begin to crowd the queen; 

 then if they arc bound to swarm, let them have the 

 satisfaction of swarming; but, instead of hiving 

 them in an empty hive in the usual way, 1 hive 

 them right back into the old hive, with every thing 

 just as they left it, except that I first look the combs 

 over carefully, and cut out all the queen-cells, being 

 very careful to get them all. I also remove one or 

 two frames of brood, and supply their place with 

 empty combs. Thus you see we have them nearly 

 as strong as they were before they swarmed ; and as 

 bees will always work with greater energy after 

 they have swarmed in the natural way, we have a 

 powerful colony which go right on at work in 

 boxes. 



I know friend Doolittle says, that bees swarm to 

 get away from brood, and that he can not make 

 them stay if hived with even one frame of brood ; 

 but my experience has been different. Beginning 

 three years ago, first by giving them one frame of 

 brood, then three or four, and Anally hiving back 

 into the old hive, as I have described above, out of 

 35 or 30 swarms managed in this way, but two have 

 issued the second time. The first of these I found, 

 on examination, queen-cells that I had overlooked. 

 The second one swarmed while I was absent from 



