1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



771 



job was evidently a bigger one than was an- 

 ticipated, for it appears the roof had to be 

 torn apart several feet each way; and two 

 tubs of honey— that would indicate that the 

 bees had had possession of the church for 

 at least two years— possibly longer. 



It is well known that a powerful colony 

 that has all the room it requires will keep 

 on storing honey in garrets or other places 

 without the probability of swarming. It is 

 apparent in the case before us that these 

 bees had no desire to swarm out. No pat- 

 ent hive nor any fancy notions of man put 

 any limit on their inclosure. Indeed, they 

 were free to occupy, if they 

 chose, thousands of feet of 

 rafter space. 



Why were they disturbed in 

 their peaceful possession? 

 Well, I can or.ly guess at two 

 reasons. One is that the at- 

 tachments of the combs right 

 next to the roof would, on a 

 warm day, melt away, letting 

 the honey crush on the lath 

 and plaster. The result would 

 be that the mellifluous sweet- 

 ness would ooze out here and 

 there, soiling the frescoing 

 within, and every now and then 

 stray bees would be hovering 

 over the heads of the audience. 

 Something would have to be 

 done, and the services of some 

 bee-man would have to be en- 

 gaged. Perhaps he might have 

 trapped them out with bee- 

 escapes ; but how about the 

 honey, the thing that was caus- 

 ing the real trouble? 



But I will now answer the question that 

 has been put to me so many times, '"How 

 can we get the bees out from between the 

 two walls of buildings, or in this case, we 

 will say, from between the outer and inner 

 lining of the roof, without mutilating the 

 building? Two or three plans have been 

 suggested. The most feasible one, in my 

 opinion, is the use of Porter bee-escapes at 

 the entrance or entrances leading to the 

 space within the building. The bees will 

 l)ass out readily but will be barred from go- 

 ing back, and in the course of a day or two 

 there will be quite a swarm outside. Within 

 a week or so there will be only a few bees 

 to take care of the brood, and the queen 

 will ease up on laying and some of the brood 

 will die. As the bees hatch out and become 

 of flying age they too will join the bees out- 

 side. But how are we going to take care of 

 the bees as they come forth and are debar- 

 red from going back ? A frame of unsealed 

 brood placed in a hive close to the old 

 entrance would hold the first bunch of bees 

 that were trapped out. As the young bees 

 fly out they will be drawn by the other clus- 

 ter, and go into the hive outside and join 

 the old original crowd. In the mean time 

 the queen within the old inclosure is having 

 fewer and fewer bees until they are all gone, 

 and she herself has no more nurses to take 



care of the young brood from the eggs she 

 has laid. The brood all dies and she herself 

 soon follows suit. What happens next ? 

 When no more bees come out of the space 

 in the building for a matter of two or three 

 weeks or a month it may be surmised that 

 the queen is dead, as also the brood. Now 

 remove the bee escape or escapes; and if it 

 be in the fall of the year the bees in the 

 outer hive will rob out the honey that was 

 stored inside of the building. They will do 

 a thriving business for several days. As 

 fast as they store it in the hive remove the 

 filled combs and give them others. When 



A SWARM OF BEES TAKES POSSESSION OF A HAY-RAKE. 



they stop robbing it will be reasonable to 

 suppose there will be nothing in the lining- 

 of the buildings but combs and some dead' 

 brood that will do no harm. In the fall take 

 the colony enti7ely away or put it into win- 

 ter quarters. In the case of the swarm on 

 the church the hive could have been located 

 right on the roof near the corner. It would 

 be an odd place for a hive, especially if 

 shaded by boards, as it would have to he in 

 such a hot place, but this would be for only 

 a short time and would save the expense of 

 mutilating and repairing the buildinsr. 



This plan of removing a colony from with- 

 in the walls of a building has been success- 

 fully accomplished in several instances, and 

 could have been carried out in the case be- 

 fore us. 



THE SWARM THAT TOOK POSSESSION OF A 

 HAY- RAKE. 



The other day there was an account in the 

 papers of how a swarm of bees took posses- 

 sion of a train, compelling the engineer and 

 fireman to vacate the locomotive while they 

 themselves began to cluster in the cab. 

 While I do not believe one-fourth < f the 

 stories about bees in the newspapers, yet 

 such an incident is entirely within the range 

 of possibilities. 



Sometimes a swarm will be bent on clus-- 



