AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



47 



races where the drone is small, swarm- 

 ing is more frequent ; but if a queen of 

 such a race is mated with a larger and 

 more powerful type of drone, the re- 

 sulting stock will run longer without 

 swarming; also, that if "forcing" in 

 any form occurs, either by artificial 

 means or by reason of a climatic length- 

 ening of the working season, so surely 

 does swarming occur at shorter intervals. 



It will also account for many of the 

 vagaries of bees, such as a so-called 

 " hunger swarm ;" this is only that from 

 some reason swarming at the right time 

 was delayed, but at last the queen is 

 found so exhausted, that it is " now or 

 never." Nature will not allow " never," 

 so it must be "now"-— bad as the time 

 may be. 



" Swarm from a swarm " is another 

 case. From some secondary cause — say 

 over-crowding — the swarm has issued 

 before the queen was ripe for superses- 

 sion, so has been allowed to go on, but 

 now her time has come, and the law 

 must be obeyed — increase before her 

 destruction. Late and untimely swarms 

 are due to this cause entirely. 



Having thus arrived at the true and 

 sole cause of frequent swarming, the 

 prevention or control is not such a diffi- 

 cult problem : 1. Re-queen frequently, 

 and before the signs of approaching ex- 

 haustion show strongly. 2. Take every 

 precaution in rearing not only queens, 

 but the drones with whom they have to 

 mate, for upon the male depends en- 

 tirely the length of time the queen is of 

 use in the hive, which undoubtedly de- 

 termines the tendency to swarm. 



Panama. 



A Colony of Bees Under llie Ground, 



L. J. CLARK. 



On June 6, I took up and transferred 

 to a frame hive, a wild swarm of bees 

 found by an old man while looking for a 

 place to quarry rock. The tree was a 

 burr-oak, and stood on a steep side-hill 

 in a little hollow that had been washed 

 out by the water — it was at least 200 

 feet up from the valley, and stood all 

 alone unprotected by other timber, and 

 on the west side of the hill at that. I 

 mention these things because this tree 

 was the best I ever took up in the spring, 

 and I have taken up more than 100 of 

 them altogether. 



The bees were in the root, and went 

 in at least a foot below the ground on 

 the lower side of the tree ; the water 



had run over a root and washed the dirt 

 and stone away, while on the upper side 

 the dirt was 2 feet higher than the en- 

 trance. All the brood was below the 

 top of the ground, and most of the 

 honey. They had apparently been there 

 for several years, were very strong in 

 bees, with queen-cells started, also a 

 large amount of drone-brood nearly 

 ready to hatch, and about 40 pounds of 

 fine honey. They would have swarmed 

 within ten days. I have the bees now 

 in my yard, and better workers I never 

 saw. 



Now, the past was a very hard winter 

 and spring on bees here (many bee- 

 keepers have lost all), and why this col- 

 ony should be in such prosperous condi- 

 tion in that bleak, exposed situation, is 

 more than I can explain, unless it was 

 because they were below the top of the 

 ground. The cavity where the brood 

 was, was about 12 inches in diameter, 

 and about the same in height, when it 

 run up the tree about two feet, in two 

 forks, which then came together again. 

 These forks were not more than 3 inches 

 irregular diameter, and the upper cavity 

 some 6 inches one way and 8 the other, 

 by 12 inches high. The whole was 

 packed full of comb, all empty except 

 close to the brood. 



Wiscoy, Minn., June 16, 1892. 



Importing the Great Bees of India, 



FRANK BENTON. 



I have been requested to furnish in- 

 formation regarding the truth of a 

 report recently circulated by the news- 

 papers, to the effect that the Govern- 

 ment intended to undertake the impor- 

 tation of the Giant East-India bee, Apis 

 dorsata, and that this work was to be 

 entrusted to be. I have deferred some- 

 what my compliance with the request, 

 hoping later to be able to give definite 

 information — in fact, to be able to say 

 that this work, whose accomplishment 

 has been so long desired by the bee- 

 keepers of both Europe and America, 

 would be undertaken ; when the work 

 would be entered upon; and how we 

 proposed to accomplish it. I regretted 

 the appearance of the newspaper reports 

 referred to. They were premature, and 

 wholly unauthorized by myself or any 

 one connected with the Division. 



Something over a year ago Dr. C. V. 

 Riley, United States Entomologist, first 

 addressed me in regard to the Govern- 

 ment work in apiculture, supposing at 



