1881 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



16 



are very much obliged to friend C. for his 

 vahiable communication, and I know by ex- 

 perience that he would necessarily be be- 

 sieged by api)lications for cuttings from the 

 Avillow, entailing, perhaps, an expensive cor- 

 respondence, did he not anticipate it by 

 offering them for sale as he has done. At 

 the very low price he offers them, no one can 

 well accuse him of wishing to make money 

 by it. I shall be very glad indeed to get one 

 of the trees. 



FRIEND Kl.EI^'OA^ 'S SWARMING TROl- 

 RliES, 



AND ?0ME OTHER TROUBLES NOT CAUSED BY 

 SWARMING. 



fTAKE the liberty to send you my report for 1880. 

 In the spring I had about 50 strong- colonies and 

 — ' a few weak ones (mostly Italians), and a few 

 hybrid colonies; 2t colonies in your chaff, 16 in your 

 Simplicity, and 10 in your l!i story hives; also 2 in 

 the "Patented Palace," 1 in King's "Patented Im- 

 proved Double W'all American," and 2 in box hives 

 of my own make. So you see, I had a variety of 

 hives. But the best report of comb honey I can 

 make is from one of your chaff hives. It is 60 of 

 your 1-pound sections, completely full, as white as 

 snow. The great trouble was in not having hives 

 and other implements ready in time; and I will just 

 tell you a little of my experience that I had last sea- 

 son. The middle of May I went to a carpenter here 

 in Detroit; showed him one of your Simplicity and 

 one of your IJi story hives in flat. He promised to 

 make me 60 of them, and to have the most of them 

 ready by the first of June (the rest by June 15th.) 

 After sending and going there myself about a dozen 

 times, I received 10 of them. When I came to nail 

 them together, there was no entrance on one side. 

 I took them back again, and he returned them July 

 1st; but then I could not use them. I then told him 

 to make no more. Then I sent to Mr. Bell, of Union 

 City, Mich., for some hives. He had sent me a pos- 

 tal, saying that he was making hives like A. I. Root's, 

 because he had the pattern to work by, from you; 

 but when I told him thej- would have to be just like 

 A. I. Root's hives, to be used two story high, he sent 

 me back my money, and said that they could not be 

 used two story high. Well, what was to be done? I 

 sent to you, friend Root. Well, you sent the hives 

 before I expected them, and that helped me out of 

 the swarming trouble some. The reason that I or- 

 dered the hives here in Detroit, and by rail, was, 



1 thought I could save the freight charges on them, 

 at least some of it ; and I knew you were very busy 

 at the time, and I would have to wait a long while. 

 But after all I had to send to you for them. 



Now I want to come to the groat swarming trou- 

 ble. During the time that I was waiting for the 

 hives, my bees commenced to swarm (the first 

 swarm issued May 15, the last swarm, Sept. 3.) Dur- 

 ing the month of June, my bees were swarming at 

 the rate of about 12 per day. Some would come out 



2 to 5 times in one day. One day 14 swarms came out 

 — nearly all first swarms; 4 swarms united, and 

 alighted on a cherry-tree, 4 inches thick. I had to 

 brace it to keep it from breaking over. It looked as 

 if there was a black flour-barrel in the tree. I had 

 the greater part of mj- old queens' wings clipped, 

 which came very handy, so I could always make the 

 swarm go back again. The reason I returned them 



again was, it was bringing me a little nearer to the 

 time of receiving the hives. But finally the young 

 and the old queen came out together. Well, there 

 was no more stop to them. I lost about 25 nice test- 

 ed queens. The bees would kill some of them by re- 

 turning them so often. When three or more swarms 

 would come out together, some of them would go in 

 the wrong hives, and get killed; sometimes, when 

 there were three or more swarms out together, they 

 would all return to one hive. So, you see, I did get 

 my bees pettry well mixed up. 



The honey season was about a half-crop. With all 

 my trouble, I received about 900 lbs. of honey, al- 

 most all in your 1-lb. sections, and about 25 lbs. of 

 beeswax. The reason that I did not get more honey, 

 I think, is, first, because I did not have the hives in 

 readiness when they swarmed. Of course, some of 

 them would have the swarming fever for about two 

 weeks; they would not work any during that time; 

 second, that it rained during the summer, especial- 

 ly during the white-clover bloom. It rained every 

 day and almost every night besides, so the white clo- 

 ver was always full of water. It got no chance to 

 get dry. If I had not had a large patch of raspber- 

 ries, and the Simpson honey-plant, I would not have 

 had any honey at all. One colony give me 60 lbs.; 6 

 gave me 50 lbs.; 12 give me 25 lbs.; the rest were 

 scattered through the other hives. Sometimes I 

 would take out about .500 section boxes, and would 

 not get a drop of honey in them. That was not very 

 encouraging, was it? I had over 5000 of your sec- 

 tion boxes, in the hives during the season. Now, in 

 the early spring, I put a section frame with sections 

 and starters on each side, in the lower story. When 

 the bees had started in them, I put the section 

 frames, bees and all, up in the second story, then 

 filled the upper story with section frames complete. 

 The reason that I put the section frames and the 

 second story on early was that 1 thought I could 

 stop swarming (at least to some extent), and secure 

 a good crop of honey. I did not want any increase in 

 bees; honpy was what I wanted. So, you see, I did 

 alllcoulato keep my bees from swarming; but it 

 was no use. During swarming season, I generally 

 put 2 or 3 swarms in one hive (2 or 3 story hives), to 

 have them strong. They would give 1, 2, or even 

 3 swarms; and some of them would not even touch 

 starters in lower or upper stories. On some of 

 them I put empty stories, just to keep them from 

 swarming; but there was no use. Even the new 

 swarms would swarm again after being in the hives 

 about a month or so; but they would store no honey. 

 Swarming was what they were after. Sometimes 

 they would hang on the outside of the hive, with 

 the empty upper story on. Well, they increased to 

 about 115, but I united to 91, that I have now. 



Detroit, Mich., Dec. 1, 1880. Otto Kleinow. 



Your bees had what we call the swarming 

 mania, friend K. If it will make you feel 

 any better about it, I can tell you that friend 

 Doolittle had about the same experience one 

 season, and I am not sure, either, that he 

 succeeded in devising any thing to prevent 

 it, to his satisfaction. You of course tried 

 the plan of hiving them on a comb of un- 

 sealed brood, did you not? It is bad to have 

 such a quantity of partly tilled and empty 

 sections on hand, but they will come in nice- 

 ly for another season ; and those partly built 

 out will be just what you Avant to get stub- 

 born stocks to take a start in the sections. 



