March, 1917 



183 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE |; 



m 



FROM THE"FlELDt)F EXPERIENCE 



Conversations with Doolittle 



Mr. Albert Szukiewicz, from Brazil, de- 

 sires me to answer the following questions : 

 "How do you tell when bees intend to 

 supersede their queen, from swarming indi- 

 cations?" 



When bees have the " swarming fever " it 

 generally comes near the beginning of some 

 copious flow of nectar, with the hive com- 

 paratively well filled with bees of all ages, 

 combs filled with brood, and many young 

 bees emerging daily. Queen-cells without 

 stint often 15 to 20 are started with eggs 

 and larvae in them — ^^vhile the bees cluster 

 c|uite thickly over them. Most of the colo- 

 nies in an apiary, which are strong enough 

 in bees, will jjrepare for swarming at about 

 the same time, or within 20 days, so that 

 we have what is termed the " swarming 

 season." A case of supersedure is liable 

 to happen at any time when there is some 

 brood in the hive, but more especially at 

 the end of the main flow of nectar, when 

 bees first show a disposition to rob, as at 

 this time, after the stress of the breeding 

 season is over, queens may fail rapidly. 

 In a supersedure case the bees rarely start 

 more than two or three queen-cells, and 

 generally only one at first, and rarely 

 have more than from two to five, the last 

 one being only just started with au egg in it, 

 while the first one may be fully ripe. In 

 a case of supersedure the bees pay vei'y 

 little attention to these queen-cells except 

 to supply them abundantly with royal 

 jelly, allowing the mother-queen to go 

 about them as she pleases; and often the 

 first one emerging becomes fertile and lay- 

 ing, with the mother doing the duties of 

 the hive as far as she is able. 



" In your book, Scientific Queen-rearing, 

 you speak of taking a laying queen from 

 a nucleus, having her between two combs, 

 taking bees and all, and, after taking 

 out a failing queen which you wish to 

 supersede, and two combs from her hive, 

 set in the two combs of bees in place of 

 the two removed from the full colony, 

 thus being sure of a safe introduction 49 

 times out of 50. Would not a battle ensue 

 unless some means were used to give all 

 the same odor?" 



I have never known of such a thing. 

 If in time of a robbing craze, there might 

 be, unless precaution were taken to do this 

 work at about sunset, or at a time when 



the bees were mostly quiet so for as ju-owl- 

 ing about was concerned. 



'' In Scientjific Queen-rearing you tell 

 of rolling a virgin queen in honey and 

 dropi^ing her in a nucleus or any colony 

 in which you find sealed queen-cells, and, 

 in a week or so, you find such queen lay- 

 ing. Are sealed queen-cells a proof that 

 a colony is queenless?" 



Not where a colony is preparing to 

 swarm; but, outside of the swarming sea- 

 son, sealed queen-cells are good proof that 

 a colony is queenless in so far as a laying 

 queen is concerned, or that they are about 

 to sui)ersede their queen, when in either 

 case tliej' will, nine times out of ten. accept 

 a queen dropped in at the top of tlie hive, 

 between the combs, when rolled or cover- 

 ed with a spoonful of honey. 



" On page 85 of the same book you tell 

 how to make a cage for introducing queens 

 so it will stick to the side of the hive 

 with two nails. Could such a cage be 

 purchased from any supply house t" 



I doubt it. If you will get out the differ- 

 ent pieces as there described, and then 

 put them in place, you should be able to 

 make the cage from the description there 

 given. 



" On page 86 you tell of shaking the 

 bees of a colony off from, all the frames 

 of brood which they have, and giving 

 said frames to another colony. Should it 

 happen that this other colony had all the 

 brood they could care for or covei', would 

 not this extra brood given perish?" 



As most of this work with queen-rearing 

 and changing of queens is done during 

 the mild or warm montlis, there is little 

 danger from brood perishing when prop- 

 erly handled. Put a queen-excluder on 

 top of a moderately prosperous colony, 

 and then put a hive of brood on top of 

 the excluder, and see how soon the bees 

 from below will spread out so as to care 

 for the whole. It is rare that any brood 

 ever suffers from a prime swarm leaving 

 the parent colony, even should it turn 

 cold just after, altho three-fourths of the 

 bees go with the swarm. 



" On page 120 you tell of contracting 

 hives by means of a division-board to suit 

 the size of the cluster at the opening of the 

 working season for the bees, and say, ' Hon- 

 ey enough is provided to keej) them for two 

 weeks.' How much is that?" 



I there si:)eak of colonies that do not 



