IS'.l'J 



(JLEANINGS IN HEE CULTURE. 



409 



irrowii iiri' foiirui nn Mr. W.'s raiioli. His In^os 

 \V('n> atlliricd laiju'ly witli tin' tr(Mi\MinK tlis- 

 t'usc. or i)aralysis. 1 fear, however, tliat Mr. 

 \V. has •• loo many irons in liu- tire."' and tiie 

 hoc iron is tlu' ono tiiat sntTcrs. 



The reader will jierliaps hegin to thinl\ tiiat 

 tlie al)o\e enumeration of bee-keepers, witli 

 tlieir tiundreds and tiiousands of eoionies, is 

 enough for one eoiinty: l)ut tiiere art' more to 

 foiknv. Not half of the wonders of tiiis beauti- 

 ful eountry iiave ever been told: neither can 

 thev all be rehearsed h\ the Ua.mulkh. 



CARRYING BEES FROM THE CELLAR, ETC. 



now AND W IIK.N I'M DO IT SO AS NOT TO IIAVK 

 THE BEKS FI,Y OUT. 



In a back number of Gi.kamxgs I tihd this 

 question: "I see quite a good many of the 

 brethren who practice cellar wintering advise 

 putting tlie bees in the cellar without any bot- 

 tom-boards to the hives. I should like to liave 

 them tell me iiow they manage in the spring to 

 keep the bees from getting in an uproar when 

 being phiced on their summer stands." I have 

 waited some time to see if some one else would 

 not answer this question, as I should like to 

 hear the plans of others; but as no one has 

 done so. -and as I have a request privately, to 

 answer this question. I will try my hand at it. 



One of the most dreaded things" which I used 

 to do was the setting of the bees out of the cel- 

 lar, where the hives had no bottom-boards on 

 them during the winter, as the bees would fly 

 out in spite of all the carefulness in handling 

 which I could do. and these bees which flew out 

 were the most wicked to sting of any which I 

 had to encounter. Also, all the bees which flew 

 out on the journey from the cellar to their 

 stands apparently marked the spot where they 

 left the hive, and would hover about there for 

 some time after, ready to sting whatever came 

 along, as well as being a loss to the colony and 

 the apiarist. -Studying on the matter for some 

 time 1 Anally resolved to smoke each colony as 

 soon as out of the cellar-door: and ujjon trying 

 it I found that smoke would drive the few bees 

 that were ready to rush out and fly, right back 

 to the cluster, where they would stay for a mo- 

 ment or two before attempting to fly out again. 

 In this way I got along very well unle.ss the 

 stand the colony was to occupy was so far from 

 th(; cellar door that the cluster would break up, 

 and a general rush would be mad(! for the light 

 and warm air which greeted them, after being 

 in the dark cellar four f)r five 'uonths. 



One day I thought of the spring wheelbarrow, 

 so I tried setting them on th;it and wheeling 

 them to their stands. This was much easier 

 for me: but there was a cf^rtain amount of jar- 

 ring to it, in spite of the springs, that irritated 

 the bees so that they were ready to rush out 

 en mf<8.S'e when I waslitting the hive from the 

 barrow to the stand; and often the bottom of 

 the baiTOW would be covered with the Vjees 

 which had come down before the stand was 

 reached. This saved all of the bees, as they all 

 marked the right spot, but did not do away 

 with tlie stinging from the bees which flew in 

 the air before the hive was on the stand. I next 

 took an old sheet and wet it. and. after doub- 

 ling, put that on the bottom of the wheelbar- 

 row and tip over the front end- board. This 

 took off all the jar. and also kept the few bees 

 which might straggle down on to the bottom of 

 the l)arro;v from staying there ; for as soon as 

 they came in contact with the wet sheet they 

 would run hack. 



I now went into the cellar, took a hive of bees, 

 and placed it on the sheet, tipped it up a little 



in frontso as to blow under three or four jtull's 

 of smoke, lowered it to its place, and put a wet 

 rag down in front ovei- the entrance, when I 

 had the thing just as I wanted it, for 1 could 

 wheel them wherever I wished, without their 

 apparently bicaking tht^ cluster at all. The 

 wet sheet gave a chill to the air inside of the 

 hive so the i)ces did not fe<!l the warmth, and 

 th(^ wet rag at the entrance excluded the light, 

 so that they apparently did not realize but that 

 they were still in the cellar till they weiv safely 

 on theirstands. I now have no dread of setting 

 th(! bees out of the cellar, and they also are not 

 in such a huiTy to rush out but that they prop- 

 erly mark tlieir entrance!, thus saving the mix- 

 ing of iii'es so frequently occurring in the old 

 way, by which some colonies liavi; more bees 

 than th(!y should, and others being deficient. 



WIIKX SVVAKMS MAY BE p:xrECTED. 



A party wishes to know when he may expect 

 swarms fi'om his colonies. It should be no 

 trouble to tell when the first swarm of the sea- 

 son will issue, with any one who is thoroughly 

 conversant with the inside of a bee-hive; but 

 when the swarming fever runs high, swarms 

 may be expected contrary to almost any of the 

 rules. With me I never had the first swarm of 

 the season issue except under the following 

 conditions, which are those upon which the 

 larger part of all first or prime swarms issue, 

 except when we have the swarming fever as 

 mentioned above. The hive becomes populous 

 with bees and brood: drones are under headway 

 in the drone comb, and eggs are deposited in the 

 queen-cells. These eggs hatch out, and are 

 cared for abundantly by the bees, the queen- 

 cells being sealed nine days after the egg svas 

 laid by the queen, and six days from the time 

 the larva hatches. Now, if this cell is sealed 

 previous to 6 o'clock a. m., the swarm will issue 

 on that day. if the day is pleasant: if not pleas- 

 ant, then the next pleasant day. If the cell is 

 sealed after fi o'clock, then the swarm, as a 

 rule, will not come till the next day. This I be- 

 lieve to be the rule with all first swarms, and a 

 positive thing with the lii'st swarm of the sea- 

 son, after twenty years' experieiiLC Some 

 writer has said that the time of expecting 

 swarms is when we find several queen-cells 

 which will hatch in 24 to 48 hours; but I can 

 not but think that this is a mistake. This state 

 of afifairs nuty exist where a swarm has been 

 kept back by bad weather ; but where one 

 swarm issues under these conditions, a hundred 

 will issue under the conditions described above, 

 and five issue under the swarming fever, under 

 which fever they generally issue as soon as the 

 eggs are placed in the queen-cells, or as soon 

 as the larva hatches. Some Italian colonies 

 will send out swarms under a high pressure of 

 swar'Tiing. without any preparations for swarm- 

 ing being made, except for drones; but I never 

 knew a colony to wait till within 48 hours of 

 the time of the hatching of the first queen-cell, 

 unless kept back by unfavorable circumstances. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Borodino, N. Y., May 14. 



[Bees should never be carried out of the cellar 

 on a warm or hot day. or else, with all the pre- 

 cautions taken, they will fly out and hover 

 about the cellar-opening for hours: and. worse 

 than all, attack persons going to and from the 

 house. A cool morning should be selected, 

 when few if any bees are flying, and the en- 

 trance, as Doolittle says, smoked a little, to 

 drive back the guards and those chaps that are 

 ready to fly out. We find it very convenient, 

 also, to close the entrance entirely in some 

 cases, and, after the hive is set carefully on its 

 stand, remove the entrance screen or stopper. 



