1911 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



297 



countries, where things are primitive, or, at 

 least, primitive with things here, as serious- 

 ly as they should." 

 Middlebury, Vt. 



WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE QUEEN WITH 

 A SWARM IS KILLED. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



An Indiana correspondent writes: "If a 

 swarm is about to issue, and I place a queen- 

 trap in front of the hive, and catch the 

 queen and kill her, will the swarm go back 

 to the old hive and do as well as they did 

 before they swarmed? Have you ever had 

 such a case in all your experience? " 



I never caught a queen in a trap and kill- 

 ed her, but I have had practically the same 

 thing a number of times. My queens are 

 clipped; and when a swarm with a clipped 

 queen issues, it sometimes happens that the 

 queen fails to return to the hive, and then 

 we have the same thing as if I had caught 

 and killed the queen. 



Generally the swarm will circle about for 

 some time, and then return to the hive. 

 Sometimes, however, the swarm will settle 

 on a tree or other object, and remain clus- 

 tered, may be three minutes, may be fifteen 

 minutes, before returning. 



In a large apiary, at a time when a good 

 deal of swarming is going on, there are 

 sometimes unpleasant variations of the 

 program. Suppose No. 25 has swarmed, 

 and the swarm has returned to its hive. 

 Just at this time No. 41 swarms. After cir- 

 cling about a little while, the swarm from 

 No. 41 discovers its queenless condition; 

 but. hearing the roaring made by the bees 

 at No. 25, it enters No. 25 and peaceably 

 uni es there. This does not occur very oft- 

 en, and there is no great loss, for all the 

 bees are yet in the apiary; but still one 

 M ould rather each swarm would stay where 

 it properly belongs. 



As to conditions in the hive after the re- 

 turn of the swarm, of course they are not 

 the same as before. The colony is queen- 

 less, with a number of queen-cells present. 

 I don't know how much difference there is 

 in the matter of industry, but I think not 

 such a great deal. Somewhere in the neigh- 

 borhood of eight days from the time the 

 swarm issued, the first virgin is ready to is- 

 sue with a swarm. In rare cases the stop- 

 page of the honey-fl,ow a few days before 

 this time drives out all thought of swarm- 

 ing, and all the other virgins are killed in 

 their cradles. 



For a day or so before the young queen 

 issues with the swarm, she spends her time 

 scurrying about and piping. When all is 

 still in the evening, put your ear to the hive 

 and you will plainly hear her. Next morn- 

 ing, before the swarm has time to issue, go 

 to the hive and destroy all queen-cells — no 

 need to find the free virgin; for if she was 

 piping she is all right, and that ends all 

 swarming and leaves the colony in fine con- 

 dition for work. 



SECTIONS CAPPED DARK WHEN PRODUCED 

 NEAR OLD BROOD-COMBS. 



From far-ofif Australia comes this letter: 



Dr. Miller: ^\ have read your "Forty Years 

 Among the Bees," and Gleanings for about eight 

 years, and I am rather surprised to find how gen- 

 erally dirty black brood-combs are used in produc- 

 ing comb honey. In most of the plans for dealing 

 with swarming, the old combs are retained (in fact, 

 I remember what good capital you consider 

 brood-combs perfectly built — all worker-cells). 

 In any case, where colonies do not swarm, or are 

 prevented, the supers are given over the old brood- 

 nest. In my limited experience in producing comb 

 honey I have found it impossible to get nice clean 

 sections above dark brood-combs, either with an 

 excluder or without, The bees always seal the low- 

 er part of the sectfons perceptibly darker, owing to 

 the proximity to the dark brood-combs. No doubt 

 they mix some of the brood-capplngs in when seal- 

 ing the sections. I can manage to get clean sec- 

 tions by hiving, or shaking swarms on starters or 

 foundation (or new combs of sealed honey from the 

 previous season, « la Doolittle) . Of course, in these 

 cases the bees have nothing but clean wax to cap 

 the comb with; but even then after several genera- 

 tions of brood have been reared the combs darken, 

 and the secMons also are not capped quite as white 

 as at first. 



A point that may have some bearing on the sub- 

 ject is that our honey-llow from eucalyptus gums 

 lasts lor several months, and is not often very heavy, 

 so that bees may be more inclined to appropri- 

 ate available wax than to secrete all fresh for cap- 

 ping. My hives are Danzenbaker, and so the brood 

 comes very near the sections, being often right up 

 to the top-bars of the brood-combs. During an ex- 

 traordinarily good flow from '"stringy-bark" gum 

 (season before last). I noticed that the sections 

 were very clean, even though It was dark honey, 

 and at the latter end of the season. 



I take ofl' sections as soon as they are sealed, so 

 that if any are dirty it is not on account of age. 



What I should like to know is, how you manage 

 In America (and yourself particularly) to get clean 

 sections built over old brood-combs. In your book 

 I do not find that you advise giving the bees a clean 

 start each season. What do you think of the plan 

 of shaving brood-combs down to the foundation? 

 The bees accept them readily, and build them into 

 new combs very nicely. 



Hahndorf, So. Australia. L. W. Darby. 



I'm not sure I know enough to help you 

 out, but I shall be glad to tell all I know on 

 the subject. You are quite right in sup- 

 posing my sections are produced over old 

 black combs. No brood-comb is ever dis- 

 carded on account of age. You are also 

 right in thinking that proximity to the 

 black combs favors darker sections. And 

 in that, according to my first thought, was 

 the secret of your trouble. That is, I 

 thought the distance was too small from 

 brood-comb to section. To be sure, my 

 brood, as well as yours, in the height of the 

 season, comes clean up to the top-bar (al- 

 though I use Langstroth combs), but still 

 a bee must travel 1% inches to get from the 

 top of a brood-comb to the bottom of the 

 comb in a section; for the top-bars of my 

 brood-combs are % thick. But, as I read on, 

 that theory was knocked out, for you say 

 that you have the trouble still with exclu- 

 ders. 



There may be something in your sugges- 

 tion as to the slow yield; but I sometimes 

 have slow yields, and I never noticed much 

 difference as to whiteness in a slow yield. 

 Yet there may be some. 



There is just one guess left me that may 

 possibly work — possibly, and possibly not. 

 That guess is that you allow the sections to 

 be finished close to the block combs. I 



