1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



541 



DIAGNOSIS FKOM THE OUTSIDE. 



"Good morning, Mr. Doolittle." 



"Good morning, Mr. Wolfe." 



' ' I have come again for another conversa- 

 tion on the diagnosing, from the outside, of 

 a bee-hive, so as to tell what is going on in- 

 side. But before asking further questions I 

 wish to thank you for telling us what you did 

 in this matter in the May 1st Gleanings." 



"That is all right, Mr. Wolfe, and I shall 

 be just as pleased to serve you further, so 

 far as I am able, as I was to tell you what 

 I could before, so go ahead. What do you 

 wish this morning." 



"The first thing I wish to know about is, 

 what it means when bees cluster all over the 

 front of the hive, and hang down on and 

 under the alighting-board?" 



"It generally means one of two things, 

 and quite often both of them— first, that it 

 is very hot; second, that the colony has 

 become numerous in bees." 



"Why do you put the hot first ? " 



"Because, when it is very hot even weak 

 colonies will cluster on the outside of the 

 hive— many times those which do not have 

 more than a quart or two of bees. I have 

 seen the bees in a comparatively weak nu- 

 cleus come out on the outside of the hive in 

 nearly proportionate numbers with full col- 

 onies on days when the mercury went from 

 90 to 95 degrees in the shade ? " 



"That is something new to me. I did not 

 suppose such colonies would hang out at all. 

 I have read that such hanging out was a 

 sure sign that the bees were going to 

 swarm, and so I expected that would be the 

 answer you would give to my question." 



"Clustering out in hot weather has very 

 little to do with the matter of swarming ; 

 for with us, in this locality, far more clus- 

 tering-out is done out of the swarming sea- 

 son than in that season. In hot weather, 

 during the latter part of July and the first 

 half of August, we often have the hives 

 ' black ' with bees for days and nights at a 

 time, and that at times when we know the 

 bees will not swarm, because there is an 

 absolute honey dearth— so much so that, 

 should we try to open hives, we should have 

 robber bees about in short order. All know 

 that bees do not swarm when there is such 

 a honey dearth on." 



" But do you not think that it is a sign of 



FIG. 1.— rood's home apiary SHOWING STRENGTH OF THE THREE-STORY HIVES, FLORIDA. 



