286 



GT. EANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May, 1921 



A^ 



C 



ur 



he wate-lios 

 a c o 1 iiy 

 of bees 

 thruout a year, 

 the sideline stu- 

 dent is impress- 

 ed with four 

 important o ii t- 

 standing activi- 

 ties. These are 



brood-rearing, the storage of honey, swarm- 

 ing, winter-clustering. 



Brood-rearing in a normal colony begins 

 in late winter and continues increasingly 

 into early summer; then decreasingly thru 

 late summer into autumn, when it ceases. 



Nectar-gathering depends, of course, upon 

 the presence of nectar in the fields or for- 

 ests. It usually begins when the earliest 

 spring flings the blossoms of the elms and 

 red maples against the cloud-filled skies of 

 February and March. It, too, continues in- 

 creasingly into the spring — increasingly, yet 

 not continuously, for often there are periods 

 of practical dearth, as just after fruit 

 bloom. It reaches its peak in the white- 

 clover section when that most important 

 plant itself comes into full bloom in May 

 or June, decreasing as it wanes. It con- 

 tinues, however, with some irregularity, 

 thruout the summer and fall, closing only 

 when the early frosts finally become definite 

 freezes and so write finale on the late-bloom- 

 ing asters. 



The swarming tendency is chiefly char- 

 acteristic of spring and early summer. Un- 

 der certain conditions swarms appear either 

 earlier or later, but May and June are the 

 months most likely to see them issue. 



Clustering is a phenomenon of winter. It 

 is the normal method of heat conservation 

 in the hive. 



In reviewing the history of a colony, it 

 is customary — and wisely so — to begin with 

 the spring, when activity recommences after 

 the long winter. Everything in the hive at 

 that time is at low ebb — not many bees and 

 not much honey. Brood-rearing, however, 

 has already begun. For even before the 

 first nectar appears in the earliest blossoms, 

 the queen has started laying, so even by 

 early spring there is brood in various stages 

 in the guarded brood-nest at the heart of 

 the hive, where the temperature is main- 

 tained fairly evenly at 95 degrees F. or a 

 little less. In concentric rings she has de- 

 posited the tiny ivory specks, these rings 

 growing constantly larger and appearing on 

 more and more combs. The rapidity of this 

 increase depends upon the amount of stores 

 in the hive and the number of bees to care 

 for the brood. As the earliest laid e.o:gs 

 complete their final development and emerge 

 as bees, they leave empty cells ready for 

 more eggs, while the new bees themselves 

 add strength and numbers to the working 

 force of the hive. Thus the brood-rearing 

 activity can be rapidly increased and the 

 brood-nest expanded. 



For about the first two weeks of their 



Beekeeping as a Side Line 



1 



Grace Allen 



W^^^^^^^ 



E 



lives these 

 young worker 

 bees are unable 

 to take the long 

 flights to the 

 field for nectar, 

 or for pollen 

 or water. So at 

 this age they 

 are the nurses, 

 faithfully feeding the larvae; or they hang, 

 a living consecrated curtain, producing the 

 mysterious wax in what seems a very 

 ecstasy of motionless effort; and they do 

 the cleaning of the hive and the ventilat- 

 ing, and other home duties. When about 

 a week old, wings are strong enough to 

 allow them short flights around the hive. 

 Beekeepers speak of the "play spell" of 

 the young bees, when in the warm hour 

 of the day they fly and hum so thrill- 

 ingly around the entrance. And it has the 

 feel of play, somehow, even tho it may be a 

 fairly serious business, by which they not 

 only gain strength but also become so fa- 

 miliar with their hive that they can readily 

 locate it when a little later they come hur- 

 rying home from clover fields or blossom- 

 ing trees. When they are about two weeks 

 old, they begin this great work of their 

 lives, garnering and storing the life-sustain- 

 ing sweet hidden in living beauty. And 

 still, while they pass thus from duty to 

 duty, the queen continues to deposit eggs 

 for still more workers; and eggs, also, to 

 produce drones. 



Then soon the day will probably come 

 when the colony will be uncomfortably pop- 

 ulous. And preparations for swarming will 

 begin. Those who have studied these mat- 

 ters with that thoro-going, cool, definite 

 precision that mere enthusiastic lovers 

 sometimes lack, make no claim to under- 

 stand positively the real scientific cause of 

 swarming. But the general impression is 

 that with these great numbers of young 

 bees coming out every day, one or two or 

 three thousand a day, things get crowded; 

 perhaps, too, there isn 't enough to do at 

 home to keep these youngsters busy. At 

 any rate, it is usually (not always, how- 

 ever) at about this time — May and June — 

 thousands of young bees emerging daily, the 

 queen laving heavily and nectar coming in 

 rapidly — that preparations arc made for 

 swarming. This swarming instinct is most 

 unique. Tu the natural state this is the only 

 way new colonies are formed and the race 

 perpetuated, perhaps increased. And the 

 swarm itself is something more than unique, 

 it is strangely thrilling and exciting and 

 beautiful. And often — let us be honest — 

 inconvenient — aye, and unprofitable. 



The first step the bees make towards cast- 

 ing a swarm is the building of a goodly 

 number of queen-cells. These are large and 

 long, and in each one a tiny egg develops 

 into a larva, which, fairly swimming in a 

 wealth of royal jelly, grows to a size to be 

 sealed over. Usually when one or two of 



