1897 



(}l>E.\NIN(iS IN I'.F.E CUr/niRE 



531 



boKinning to drop in at iho entrancos as if tiu>y 

 wfio getting honey sompwhero. Mr. Vernon 

 Hurt, a few miles north of us, is very certain 

 he will gpi some iionoy froai bassvvood, because 

 he has seen the promising buds on the big for- 

 est-trees. After all. I suspect it is these big trees 

 that really yield the bulk of linden honey. 

 Very often I have seen the small trees, loaded 

 with blossoms, turn brown and go to seed, 

 without a bee once going near them. 



During the last two or three weeks I have 

 spent many an hour helping the boys do the 

 work in the apiary. While I might hire some 

 one else to do it more cheaply, I believe nothing 

 in the world is so helpful to a bee-journal as for 

 its editor to go out into the apiary and see 

 what the bees have to say about many of the 

 problems that confront us. I believe, therefore, 

 Gleanings can afford to have me "waste" 

 a little time. There are several questions that 

 I have been holding back, waiting for the time 

 when I could lay them before the bees. Among 

 them was the question of 



BEES HANGING OUT— WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF IT ? 



I had a vague idea that, if we were to make 

 sure that the bees were never crowded for room, 

 in the first place, and the hives were properly 

 shaded, with good-sized entrances, there would 

 not be any of this hauging-oui; and the result 

 of careful experiment and observation this sea- 

 son seems to show that this is true. At our out- 

 yard there has been no hanging-out, but quite 

 a little of it at the home yard. The work in 

 the home apiary at the beginning of the flow 

 got behind. At the out-apiary I made sure to 

 keep pace with the bees. As there would be 

 no one present to look after swarms, it was de- 

 cidedly necessary that the bees should not get 

 into the hahit of loafing. There was no loafing 

 here, and only one swarm, and that came out 

 several limes while I was away. 



As every one knows, hanging out and sulking 

 at the front of the hives shows that something 

 is not quite right. A colony in the height of 

 the honey-flow should have no loafing or sulk- 

 ing bees. I told the boys I did not want to 

 have one hive with its bees hanging out in 

 front, even at night. They did not believe that 

 the poor bees could help coming out when the 

 nights were so hot; but I noticed that stronger 

 colonies in the same apiary were busy at work 

 in the sections, without a loafing bee in front. 

 I said to myself. "We must make these other 

 chaps fthe loafers) get down to business like 

 the others." 



As I found years before, so this year, smoking 

 them in did no good. They would come out 

 again just as soon as they got through "rub- 

 bing their eyes." Giving them frames of foun- 

 dation and plenty of room sometimes answered, 

 but generally they would cluster out even then. 

 Furnishing the bees a good deal of shade helped 

 somewhat. Giving them very wide deep en- 



trances sometimes cau?ed them to go into the 

 hives and go to work. 



This hanging out is Indicative of swarming. 

 Early in the season, perhaps the bees are a 

 little cramped for room, and they get into the 

 " habit " of loafing; and this habit, once estab- 

 lished, is hard to break up; or perhaps the en- 

 trance is too small, or the h've not properly 

 shaded. Any one or all of these conditions may 

 start the habit, and the only way to break it 

 up is to make the bees tldnk they have actually 

 swarmed. I am satisfied that, while the bees 

 are loafing and hanging out at the entrance, 

 they are waiting either for the queen or some 

 of their number to start a swarm forth. 



There were several of our colonies at the 

 home yard that seemed to be very stubborn. 

 Two of them would hang out in spite of the 

 fact that I personally alternated every one of 

 their frames of brood and honey with frames of 

 foundation. The Jutbit had been established, 

 and, no matter what I did, they would hang 

 out. Finally, the thought occurred to me to 

 take the hive away entirely (a big two-story 

 chaff one) and put in its place an entirely dif- 

 ferent hive— a single-walled Dovetailed made 

 up of three stories. This was done and the 

 frames put into the new hive. The greater 

 portion of the bees were shaken out in front, 

 and were made to crawl in at the entrance. 

 The bees went to work, and there was no loaf- 

 ing from that time on. Another hive was 

 treated in a like manner with the same result. 



I am fast coming to believe that, in a well- 

 regulated apiary, there should not be a hive 

 with bees hanging out in front. Just think of 

 the waste of over half a colony loafing and do- 

 ing nothing for days until they swarm, and a 

 super or two of sections without a bee in them! 

 We know perfectly well that, when bees swarm, 

 they will go to work— that is, providing they 

 are put into another hive, and their mania 

 satisfied. 



In the foregoing I have enumerated a number 

 of conditions that cause bees to hang out; but 

 one I did not mention; namely, that of queen- 

 lessness. Several of our good strong colonies 

 were working nicely until we took away their 

 queens. They Immediately began^to sulk, and 

 to hangout. They knew something was wrong, 

 and I think they had a sort of idea if they could 

 once swarm, all would go well again. So they 

 thought they would hang out. When these 

 same colonies were supplied with a queen, the 

 loafing ceased and the bees went to work. 



I have been watching the matter very nar- 

 rowly, and I have about come to the'conclusion 

 that, for our locality, we do not want a colony 

 with a caged queen or onequeenless in the hive. 

 Bees seem to do very much better when there 

 is a queen laying, and brood in all stages; yet I 

 recognize that some good apiarists succeed well 

 with caged queens. 



