Publisht Weekly at 118 Michigan St. 



George W. Yokk, Editor. 



$1.00 a Tear— Sample Copy Free. 



38tli Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., JULY 28, 1898. 



No. 30. 



{All rights reserved by the Northern Newspaper Syndicate, 

 of Kendal, Stigland.) 



PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING, 



HINTS TO BEGINNERS, 



■ BY 



Author of "Bees and Bee-Keeping," "Pleasurable Bee-Keeping," etc. 



No. 4.— SWARMING. 



During the months of May. June and July the bees in all 

 properly-managed hives become, very numerous, and so 

 crowded, particularly in hot weather, that they cluster around 

 outside the hive, and hang in a large bunch from the en- 

 trance, unless more room is given by means of supers or by 

 enlarging the brood-nest. This clustering outside is the 

 usual and almost certain sign of swarming-time being near. 



A swarm, composed of the queen and a few thousand 

 workers and drones, leaves the hive, and, after filling the air 

 for a few minutes generally forms a pear-shaped mass on the 

 branch of a tree close by. Unless the bee-keeper happens to 

 be at hand, the swarm may be lost to him, for in all probability 

 scouts sent out previous to the swarm, lead the merry throng 

 to a new home which they have prepared in a hollow of a tree 

 or elsewhere. Should that be the case, if they do not go direct 

 without clustering, they are almost certain to do so after be- 

 coming settled, unless they are quickly hived into a clean 

 straw skep, preparatory to being put into a hive of more 

 modern pattern. If the swarm is allowed to remain cluster- 

 ing for some hours, hiving becomes a difficult operation ; for, 

 altho when swarming, bees are good-tempered, they soon be- 

 come irritable if left in the sun ; therefore, hiving should take 

 place as soon as possible after the cluster has been formed. 

 Many bee-keepers suggest the advisability of hiving swarms 

 in the evening : this advice must refer to the re-hiving, be- 

 cause unless the swarm is secured as advised above, it may, 

 and most likely will, decamp. After it is safely hived it is 

 immaterial whether it is put into a modern hive then or in tin- 

 evening ; but certainly to ensure success the latter is advisable 

 as during a hot summer day the swarm, after being disturbed, 

 is more likely to take to flight than it is when hived, or ratler 

 re-hived in the evening. 



Swarms leave the hive into which they are first placid 

 either because they have chosen another home, because tlii-y 

 are left in the hot sun, or because the hive is daubed inside 

 with some vile concoction with the idea of inducing the bees to 

 accept their new home. If a swarm leaves the hive into whiih 

 it is placed in the evening, it must be from one or the other 

 of the above-mentioned reasons, or it may, and most probably 



is, due to the fact that it is a second swarm or cast. Casts are 

 headed or accompanied by virgin queens, which must leave 

 the hive to meet with the drone, and when they issue the bees 

 often accompany them. Sometimes they all return with the 

 queen from her wedding-trip, but it rarely happens that once 

 a cast leaves the new hive it again returns to found a colony. 

 The only satisfactory method of preventing this exodus and 

 frequent loss of the swarm is to put into the hive, when in- 

 troducing the bees, a frame of brood from another hive. Bees 

 very rarely desert brood, and the presence in the hive of such 

 a frame would doubtless keep the bulk of the bees at home 

 when the queen left the hive. 



NATURAL INCREASE. 



As soon as the flowers begin to bloom early in the new 

 year activity in the hive commences; and a slight examination 

 of the center combs on a warm day will reveal patches of 

 brood in the center of the combs. The queen commences lay- 

 ing slowly at first, but if the brood-chamber is not too large — 

 that is, if there are not too many combs in it, and it is well 

 protected from changes of outside temperature — a gradual in- 

 crease in the number of eggs laid daily will be maintained. 

 But if there is a scarcity of food, only a regular supply given 

 by the bee-keeper will have this desirable effect. 



The queen lays eggs for the first few months that produce 

 workers only ; then, as soon as the hive is becoming crowded, 

 she lays eggs in the larger, or drone, cells from which issue in 

 25 days drones. The appearance of drones is the first sign of 



Section Fitted with Foundation. 



the busy season, and should be taken as the guide for the time 

 when hives for swarms and supers for honey should be pre- 

 pared. 



When the bees in the hives have become so strong in num- 

 bers, it is almost certain ttiat honey is coming in freely, and 

 therefore, if it is honey and not swarms that is required, some 

 kind of receptacle, that is, a super, must be put above the 

 brood-chamber in which the surplus honey may be placed. If, 

 however, room for the surplus honey gathered is not provided 

 by giving extra chambers, the cells of the combs in the brood- 

 chamber will be tilled with honey instead of being used almost 

 solely for brood-rearing. The effect of this is that if swarm- 

 ing Is not thus caused the colony is spoiled, as tlie empty cells 

 become less and less in number uniil the queen is "crowded 



