1897 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



451 



once in five times where the old colony is re 

 moved to a new stand, the swarm being hived 

 where the old colony stood — at least, this has 

 boon my experience In a practice of nearly 'M) 

 years. The bees do not want those cells torn 

 down, for in them is cradled the choicest thing 

 they have — that which they valued more than 

 they did their own dear mother, and that 

 which sent her out from her own home to seek 

 a now one in, some strange land ; and if they 

 considered them belter than their own mother, 

 are they now going to sacrifice them for any 

 stranger, one on which they had bestowed no 

 care or wish? T?y no means, only as they are 

 forced to do so by being thrown out of a normal 

 condition by having all of the field-bees drawn 

 off by a removal of the hive from its old stand, 

 or by the apiarist cutting off all of these queen- 

 cells. And even in this latter case they will 

 often kill the virgin queen given, or destroy the 

 cell, preferring to rear a queen from their own 

 sisters in the egg or larval form, which still re- 

 main in the hive, rather than to accept a 

 stranger. 



But, in passing, let me notice that expres- 

 sion, " the young queen tearing down the cells." 

 We read it in this way more often than any 

 other ; but an experience of over a score of 

 years (watching) along this line proves to me 

 that, only where the queen has access to queen- 

 cells without other bees, or in very weak nu- 

 clei, does she do the work of tearing open the 

 cells, but the workers do it themselves. All 

 know that, when the bees wish to protect these 

 queen-cells, they can do it against the wishes of 

 the most enraged queen; and when they change 

 their mind they are just as ready to secure the 

 destruction of the inmates of the cells as is the 

 enraged queen; so all hands turn to, and the 

 inmates of the cells are dragged forth and cast 

 out of the hive, without even a single mourner. 

 Whenever an introduced young virgin queen is 

 accepted by the bees, of course the cells are all 

 torn down and all after-swarming given up; 

 but the rule is that it does not work that way, 

 but the cell or queen is destroyed ; and unless 

 they conclude not to swarm when the first of 

 the queen-cells left when the swarm issued 

 hatches, after-swarming is the result, just the 

 same as it would have been had we not given 

 the queen or cell, and we find we have had all 

 our labor of raising and giving the queen or 

 cell for naught. 



But, suppose we did succeed in this matter; 

 would there be any gain aside from stopping 

 after-swarming ? Well, that depends altogeth- 

 er upon the locality, and ine result in the end. 

 With a continuous honey flow from the time of 

 swarming to the end of the season there would 

 be considerable gain, provided the advantage 

 were not lost by swarming again. With such a 

 continued honey-flow the colony having such 

 queen given to it would be far more likely to 



conclude to swarm again than would the one 

 where the bees had their own way, and they 

 did not get a laying queen till near the time the 

 brood had all matured which was in the hive 

 when the old queen left. The conditions bring- 

 ing about prime swarming are, plenty of brood 

 in all stages, plenty of bees of all ages, and 

 honey coming in from the fields. With any of 

 these lacking, prime swarms rarely issue. 



Now, where the honey-flow keeps right up, 

 and the bees take their own course, or all after- 

 swarming is prevented by the apiarist cutting 

 all cells after the first young queen has hatch- 

 ed, the colony is without a laying queen for 

 from eighteen to twenty days, as a rule, which 

 makes a break in the usual hatching of bees for 

 that length of time, so that, when the bees 

 from the young queen begin to emerge from the 

 cells, the hive does not contain bees of all ages, 

 hence such a colony rarely ever swarms again 

 that season unless more prolonged than we 

 generally have it in the most part of the Unit- 

 ed States and Canada. But where a virgin 

 queen is given, this break in bees is not very 

 pronounced ; hence colonies having such queens 

 given them are quite likely to swarm with a 

 prolonged honey-flow. Where the honey-flow 

 is mainly from one or two sources, as it is with 

 us, I think such giving of a queen a positive 

 disadvantage, for the larvae from her eggs are 

 fed on honey which the bees are gathering 

 from the field, which otherwise would go into 

 the sections, that these larvae, when hatched 

 into bees, may become useless consumers of the 

 honey of the hive, they having come on the 

 stage of action after the honey-harvest from 

 basswood is past, and before fall flowers think 

 of giving any honey. 



Where the colony has its own way, no honey 

 is consumed by larvae for 30 days, hence that 

 much more is saved, and the break in bees 

 comes just at a time when they are not missed, 

 no honey-harvest being on, with enough bees 

 remaining to care for all the brood the young 

 queen produces, and this brood matures into 

 bees in just the right time to take advantage 

 of the honey-flow from fall flowers. A " weath- 

 er eye" sufficiently skilled to secure a maximum 

 of bees just in time for the honey-harvest, and 

 as few at all other times as is consistent with 

 this object, is something worth coveting by 

 every practical apiarist. 



M. L. R., Pa.— Where a colony is very strong, 

 having, as you say, half a bushel of bees, and 

 the hive is of good size so as to give them plen- 

 ty of room, they are not nearly so liable to 

 swarm as where the colony is smaller and their 

 quarters are cramped. The circumstance you 

 relate of this half-bushel of bees not having 

 swarmed for six years is perhaps a little out of 

 the ordinary, but by no means rare. 



