224 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



April, 1922 



brood, it is advisable to have an excluder 

 between tlie bottom-board and brood-cham- 

 ber so that the shaken bees have no oppor- 

 tunity to abscond. A heat swarm is of rare 

 occurrence and is encountered only in a 



Entrance (alighting-board) to colony shown in 

 previous cut. A true type of leather-colored Ital- 

 ians, lined up in front of their home, abdomens 

 slightly elevated, fanning at a speed faster than 

 one thousand per second (photo taken at speed of 

 one-thonsandth of a second) and exuding and 

 driving away their scent, which emanates from a 

 gland (visible in picture) situated between the 

 seventh and eighth terga of the abdomen. 



very hot dry spell. When such excessive 

 weather prevails (115°F. in the shade) bees 

 will leave their homes in some instances and 

 cluster on trees. While on the subject of 

 swarms, it might be mentioned that it is an 

 excellent idea to set out several decoy hives 

 about each yard. 



One other point: Do not become so en- 

 grossed in your colony manipulations 

 tliroughout the day that you forget to look 



up occasionally and survey the apiary for 

 issuing swarms. Many a swarm has disap- 

 peared in just such fashion. 



Observations at the Colony Entrance. 



Having made the observations about the 

 apiary, which seldom take longer than two 

 or three minutes unless swarms be encoun- 

 tered, we next place our attention upon the 

 hive entrances. It is surprising, the amount 

 of valuable information that may be gath- 

 ered from a study of the entrance to a bee's 

 liome. The beekeeper detective can find 

 any amount of evidence at the threshold of 

 a colony, and the more observant he be- 

 comes, the greater are the number of clues 

 which he picks up. 



The act of (1) swarming is at once dis- 

 tinguishable by the "pouring out" at the 

 entrance and by the way in which bees fill 

 the air in their circular flying. After a 

 swarm has issued we notice, on the alight- 

 ing-board and adjacent thereto, the very 

 young hairy bees that were unable to take 

 wing with the swarm. Their presence fur- 

 nishes us with a clue, which tells us that 

 the colony' examined has cast a swarm. 



On the (2) return of a swarm we may 

 find a disabled queen about the entrance. 

 She may be clipped, wing-frayed, feeble or 

 too heavy to fly. We examine next the en- 

 trance for signs of queenlessness (see "6") 

 and, if such examination confirms our sus- 

 picion, we know that the swarm has re- 

 turned to the hive. When (3) young bees 

 take wing for the first time, which usually 

 occurs just after the noon hour, they do so 

 in a sort of an up and down movement fac- 

 ing the hive entrance. Gradually they in- 

 crease their radius of flight, apparently 

 marking all the while the spot where their 

 home stands. A little study of this activity 



Immense swarm taking possession of a decoy hive. 



