ArRiL, 1923 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



225 



will at oiiee c-oiitrast itself with the flight 

 of the (4) incoming honey gatherers. The 

 latter do not tarry about the entrance, as 

 do the young bees, but soon drop on the 

 alighting-board and disappear within. The 

 outgoing honey gatherers leave the hive 

 like a shot and soon vanish from sight. (5) 

 The pollen-laden bees are indicative of 

 breeding. When little or no pollen is car- 

 ried into a certain colony, as contrasted 

 with a considerable amount of pollen-bear- 

 ers entering most other colonies, it is a 

 sign of either a failing queen or queenless- 

 ness in the former. (6) Qucenlessness means 

 restlessness, intermittent fanning of wings 

 of some of the bees and a running about, 

 along the hive entrance, over side walls of 

 the hive, and even on the ground, in search 

 of their queen. 



trance or on tlie ground, the "ball" is 

 likely to be found on the floor-board. Ball- 

 ing of queens is very rare when colonies 

 are not manipulated and may be due to bad 

 weather, or the abrupt stoppage of a honey 

 flow, and is confined, as far as we know, to 

 the black race of bees. 



Young bees learning to fly at 1 p. m. They mark 



their location, facing the hives, and widen their 



flight radius as may be observed by the photo. 



View of cokiny entrance during a honey flow. The 



heavily laden bees, some carrying pollen, are 



alighting slowly at the entrance. 



When we see (11) drones flying for the 

 first time in spring, we know that almost 

 any day thereafter virgin queens are li- 

 able to emerge. This is a valuable obser- 

 vation, as it is an indication that treat- 

 ment for swarming is in order. We must 

 all know that (12) expulsion of drones indi- 

 cates that the honey flow is over. When 

 we notice, however, that some colonies tol- 

 erate drones several weeks after most colo- 

 nies have expelled their male inhabitants, 

 we know that we have colonies that are 

 either (13) supersedure ones, or that they 

 are queenless, laying-worker or drone-laying 

 colonies. Dead queens before colony en- 

 trances may be attributed to supersedure, 

 if she be a worn-out queen; to a balled 

 queen when she shows the effects of much 

 abuse (it is practically impossible, however, 

 to distinguish between the two) ; and if 

 there be one or more virgins or immature 

 queens, to swarming. 



The bees (14) fanning at the entrance 

 are the A^entilators of the hive and ripeners 



In (7) laying-worker and drone-laying 

 colonies as well as queenless colonies there 

 is a certain amount of apathy towards work 

 as contrasted with normal colonies. Nor- 

 mal colonies have their guards, ventilators, 

 incoming and outgoing bees, etc., perform- 

 ing their tasks regularly but in "6" and 

 "7" we see little groups of bees idling 

 away their time, as it were, and the gen- 

 eral inactivity of such colonies is at once 

 noticeable. 



Unusually agitated or excited bees, with 

 no other apparent reason for such condition, 

 may be attributed to the (8) mating of a 

 virgin queen, to the process of (9) feeding, 

 and to the (10) balling of a queen. From 

 the time that a virgin queen leaves a colony 

 until a short time after she returns, there 

 is usually an undue amount of agitation 

 about the entrance'; soon after bees are fed 

 there is a decided "investigative turn of 

 mind" at the entrance; and in "10," if 

 we do not see a knot of bees at the en- 



Expelling from and hindering the entrance of 

 drones into the hive after a honey flow. 



