458 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



any function whatever. And 1o these must 

 be added the more and more restricted func- 

 tion of the increasing numlaer of young bees 

 whose duty it is to care for the larva^ which 

 now are born in decreasing numbers. And 

 here, in passing, let me call particular atten- 

 tion to the truth that swarming is incited 

 by congestion of emerged bees. It is most 

 forcibly illustrated in the Aspinwall hive, 

 in which, by means of slatted dummies and 

 additional end-bars, abundant room is pro- 

 vided for the increase of numbers, thus re- 

 lieving obstructed movement and facilitat- 

 ing function. 



But while, by this congestion of brood, 

 bees, honey, and pollen, the functions of 

 all are restricted, the force which sustains 

 and impels these functions remains unre- 

 stricted. What must occur? The condi- 

 tions in the hive interfering, as they do, 

 with the vital activities of bee life, some 

 other habitat must be sought where the 

 hampering limitations are absent; hence 

 the act of swarming. 



That this is the correct solution may be 

 quickly shown by considering some of the 

 evidence which is continually appearing in 

 the bee-journals. In a late issue of Glean- 

 ings the editor states that the ten-frame 

 hive is becoming more popular, the eight- 

 frame hive having proved too small. Mr. 

 G. M. Doolittle states that swarming from 

 the ten-frame hive is delayed a week longer 

 than in the eight-frame hive; and all know 

 that, before cells are commenced, the re- 

 moval of frames of brood which are replaced 

 by empty combs delays swarming consider- 

 ably, and that giving full-depth bodies full 

 of combs over excluders often prevents 

 swarming during the entire season; while, 

 if the queen-excluder is omitted, swarming 

 seldom occurs. Furthermore, the control of 

 swarming is secured by forcing it in what is 

 called shook swarming — even Mr. Doolittle, 

 after sixteen years of study, having been 

 forced to the expediency of giving to the 

 queen a full set of cleaned combs (one comb 

 containing eggs and brood to establish the 

 brood-nest), and to the workers a superful 

 of drawn combs in which to store honey im- 

 mediately, and over this a superful of sec- 

 tions containing full sheets, supplying 

 room for the future. And let me say here 

 that, to me, his plan seems superior to any 

 which have, up to this time, been promul- 

 gated; for it sup})lies all of the conditions 

 which enable all of the bees to perform all 

 of their respective functions. To this, some 

 of the more critical readers will ask, "What 

 about the young bees with only a patch of 

 brood to care for?" To this I reply, the 

 combs upon which the bees were shaken 

 contain a considerable quantity of honey 

 which must be removed to make room for 

 the queen, which, it will be remembered, is 

 not in the condition of a queen with a nat- 

 ural swarm, but is laying to her full capac- 

 ity. Removal of this honey, and care for 

 the nectar, therefore, give amjile scoi)e for 

 the first three or four days for the perform- 

 ance of proper bee-functions, at the end of 



which time from 2000 to oOOO eggs have 

 hatched, requiring immediate care. 



We may now deal with the subject from 

 the standpoint of the physicist — a position, 

 many will think, from which little that is 

 practical can be seen. We shall find, how- 

 ever, that this is not so. 



All changes take place according to nat- 

 ural law; but changes are motions. There 

 are no such things as changes without mo- 

 tions, and no such things as motions with- 

 out changes. The law of change is, there- 

 fore, the law of motion; and in studying 

 the laws of changes which are occurring in 

 a hive we are, though it may be uncon- 

 sciously, studying the laws of motion. 

 What are these laws ? The first, as given 

 by Newton, is as follows: Every body con- 

 tinues in its state of rest or of uniform mo- 

 tion in a straight line except in so far as it 

 is compelled, by force, to change that state. 



A colony of bees in the cellar is in a state 

 of rest, and it remains in that state as long 

 as the light is excluded and the temperature 

 remains uniform. As soon in the spring as 

 the colony is placed upon its summer stand, 

 the forces from without (light and heat) 

 start those locomotive actions by which for- 

 aging is begun, and which in time bring in 

 those stores of force (nectar ami pollen), 

 which, when liberated in the body of the 

 bee, initiate the motions incident to brood- 

 rearing. The colony is thus changed from 

 a state of rest to a state of motion; and if 

 this motion (gathering honey and pollen, 

 and rearing brood) is represented by a line, 

 the motion will be found to continue in a 

 straight line in a fairly good colony (in this 

 latitude) from the 15th of April until the 

 15th of .Jvuie. Motion now ceases (compar- 

 atively speaking) for a brief interval in this 

 direction, and starts in a new one — that is, 

 in the direction of finding, jireparing for oc- 

 cupancy, and moving to a new home, or, as 

 we call it, swarming. But what was the 

 force which initiated the new line of mo- 

 tion? Obviously it was the hive. Motion, 

 that of the life functions of the bees, con- 

 tinued in a straight line until the limits or 

 confines of the hive were reached, and then 

 was deflected, for a hive is matter, and mat- 

 ter, though it has no specific name, is a 

 kind of force — the s])ace-occupying kind of 

 force. Or, as otherwise expressed, motion 

 continued in a straight line until the walls 

 of the hive imposed impassable limits when 

 motion followed a new line — a line of less 

 resistance — that of migrating or swarming. 



We have thus far dealt with those normal 

 swarms which issue during what is called 

 the swarming season. It remains, however, 

 to consider those seemingly anomalous 

 swarms which, with one exception, do not 

 issue during the swarming season, but be- 

 fore that time, when food is not abundant 

 in the fields, and when numbers are not 

 great in the hive — conditions which are the 

 reverse of those under which normal swarms 

 issue. How, then, can a law be formulated 

 which shall embrace changes that occur un- 

 der opposite sets of conditions? Let us see. 



