170 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.. 



W:itat and Jioxu. 



ANSWERS BY 



James Eeddon, Dowagiac, Mich. 



Excessive Swarming- 



In the spring of 1883 I bought 2 col- 

 onies of black bees. When swarming 

 time came I found that I had my 

 hands full of business. I knew just 

 enough about bees to know how to get 

 a swarm into a hive, but one colony 

 seemed to have the swarming fever, 

 for it swarmed six times in the month 

 of June (three times in one week), and 

 twice in one day. Now, where there 

 is such an effect, there must be a 

 cause. What is it 'i 



J. A. Kino. 



Rochester, Minnesota. 



Answer.— Such excessive swarm- 

 ing usually happens under the follow- 

 ing conditions : 1. The old colony is 

 very strong. 2. A part of its prime 

 swarm returns to the parent colony. 

 3. The same thing takes place with 

 some of its second swarms. 4. The 

 second swarms are not large. 5. Often 

 a swarm comes along, or from some 

 other hive in the apiary, and, un- 

 noticed, enters the old colony. We 

 know of no cause .which can produce 

 the following effect: That one bushel 

 of bees can be divided into six parts, 

 and each part will contain a bushel 

 and a half of bees. Ex nihilo nihil fit. 



in the hive, and put frames in the new 

 hive, on the old stand. I looked them 

 over carefully, let them fly back to 

 the other hive, but I found no queen. 

 It was a warm day, and I let them 

 take their time to return. I had lib- 

 erated the queen in the new hive. 

 When the bees had nearly all gone to 

 their new home, I looked in, to see if 

 the queen was received or not. To 

 my utter surprise, I found her again 

 balled. I released and caged her ; as 

 she did not appear hurt in any way, 

 may it not be a friendly balling, to 

 keep her out of danger's way. Did 

 Mr. Ileddon tell us why she was 

 balled ? G. W. Ashby. 



Valley Station, Ky. 



Answer. — Your case acts like the 

 clustering of bees from different colo- 

 nies, when some bees are antagouistic 

 to every queen in the cluster, even if 

 there be a dozen. It is seldom that 

 they hold their malice so long a time. 

 I do not think the " bailers " had any 

 feelings of friendship toward the 

 balled queen. She was, in my opin- 

 ion, all the time balled by hathig bees 

 of no relation. 



A Curious Freak of Bees. 



One colony swarmed out on Nov. 6, 

 and settled in two clusters near each 

 other. I was looking them over, to 

 find the queen, not thinking that there 

 were two. As they crawled back and 

 forth from each cluster, I saw they 

 had balled a queen. I threw the ball 

 into some water near by ; when re- 

 leased I caged tlie queen, intending to 

 clip her wings and put her back, as 

 they had plenty of honey. I got my 

 swarming box," in which to gather the 

 bees, when I discovered that they had 

 another queen balled. I released her 

 in the same way, but they had wound- 

 ed her so that she soon died. I then 

 gathered the bees, looking all tlie time 

 for another queen, but I found none. 

 I put them l)ack where they came 

 from, with a caged queen over the 

 cluster or centre of the hive, and 

 spread a piece of carpet over them. 

 In three days I opened the cage 

 gently, let lier come out, and the bees 

 met her, and seemed satisfied. jVfter 

 a while more came around, and one 

 seized her and they commenced to 

 fight her. I caged her again with 

 .some bees still holding her. I smoked 

 them till they released her, and left 

 her in a cage for seven days. Then 

 let her out gently, on the top of the 

 frames ; slie started down, when some 

 unfriendly bees met her and seized 

 her, and 1 caged her again. I looked 

 them over three times for anotlier 

 queen, but found none. I then moved 

 the hive away and put another in its 

 place. I theii brushed the bees all off 



Lime to Prevent Dampness. 



Has dampness in hives ever been 

 prevented by the use of fresh-burnt 

 lime t)eing stored in the bee cellar V 

 As it absorbs water from the atmos- 

 phere, would it not also from the 

 hives V or would the resulting gases 

 prove deterious to the bees V 



S. KuFus Mason. 



Purple Cane, Neb., Feb. 25, 1884. 



Answer.— Lime has been used in 

 repositories for bees, both in and out 

 of the liives, but it has not yet come 

 into general use, nor do I think it ever 

 will. It is by no means settled, that 

 dampness has much to do with tlie loss 

 of bees in winter. Yon will find, how- 

 ever, that repositories are much drier 

 than out-door air during the winter, 

 even where streams of water pass 

 through them. 



Lifeless Bees. 



There are only two apiaries of Ital- 

 ian bees in this'section of Pennsylva- 

 nia (my own and a friend's), and we 

 have Italianized ours since June 1.5, 

 1883. My own only averages 10 lbs. 

 of comb honey per colony. The spring 

 opened cold and rainy, and I trans- 

 ferred mine from box hives to frames, 

 and gave them Italian queens, so they 

 have not had a chance, but I will state 

 that after all, that one of my colonies 

 gave me over 30 lbs. of conib honey, 

 but none of my colonies stored any 

 surplus after Aug. 1 ; it was so drv 

 after that until frost killed all the 

 flowers. The buckwheat and fall 

 flowers yielded but little honey. A 

 neighbor of mine stated he has had an 

 average of 50 lbs. to the colony ; a 

 good yield for the season, but I tliink 

 the average for this section will not 

 run over 15 lbs, per colony. My hives 

 are all tucked up for winter in forest 

 leaves, and I hope, next year, to re- 

 port a better yield, as I shall use one 

 and two pound sections instead of two 

 and five pound boxes, as I used last 



year. I purchased my queens from D. 

 A. Pike ; they are very prolific queens, 

 and the bees are good honey gather- 

 ers. I have a strong colony of bees, 

 and they are well tucked up for win- 

 ter. We had on Nov. U to 16 cold 

 weather for the time of year, the mer- 

 cury went down to 14^ above zero!; and, 

 on looking on the foreboard of this 

 hive, I saw several bees apparently 

 dead. After being brought in a warm 

 room, I found they came to life, so 

 that lead me to think something was 

 wrong, so I made an examination next 

 day (it being a little warm), and I 

 found the bottom-board covered with 

 bees, not dead, but just able to crawl 

 about, also, all through the hive it 

 seems as if they had no life in them, 

 but after they were warmed up in the 

 sun they seemed to be all right, only 

 they, or some of them, would crawl 

 out and fall on the ground, and the 

 other bees would pull some out, in 

 the same condition. For 2 or 3 days, 

 the weather being warm. I found they 

 had plenty of good sealed honey with- 

 in easy access at any time, and plenty 

 of bees for the space they occupy, but 

 I cannot account for this lifeless con- 

 dition at the time mentioned. I found 

 a little moisture in the hive ; they 

 liad a honey-board over them, with a 

 thick pad over that, with a packing 

 of leaves over that. Please tell me 

 the cause of this condition, and 

 dwindling so early in the season. 

 Fallsington, Pa, J. E. 



Answer.— I can give no solution to 

 the above case, except that possibly 

 there might be some poisonous or 

 stupefying honey in the hive. It is 

 entirely unlike any thing I have ever 

 seen. 



Spring Management. 



Bees brought in pollen on the 13th, 

 but since that, it has been raining, or 

 cloudy and cool, nearly every day ; but 

 to-day it promises to be clear and 

 pleasant, and already they are begin- 

 ning to fly at 8 a. m. Last season was 

 a failure in the honey crop here. 

 From 100 colonies, spring count, I only 

 got about 1 ,500 lbs. of comb honey. 

 Increased to 155, and put into winter 

 quarters 152 (on summer stands); lost 

 2, leaving now 150 in fine condition. 

 If spring dwindling should not be too 

 bad, they will be strong at the open- 

 ing of spring. I desire to use one- 

 pound sections this year. My hives 

 are Langstroth 2-story ; would it be 

 best to leave off the honey board when 

 the one one-pound sections are used ? 

 Will the use of these sections prevent 

 swarming, if put on in time V 



Kenton, Tenn. J. W. Howell. 



Answer. — It would depend entirely 

 upon the style of the honey board you 

 use. If it is like our skeleton honey 

 board, by all means we should leave it 

 on. If of the style of the old Langs- 

 troth, we should be sure to take it oil. 

 Plenty of comb-surplus-rooui has a 

 tendency to prevent swarming. Plenty 

 of extracting-surplus-room (that is, 

 empty combs), exerts a still greater 

 tendency ; but in some localities in 

 certain seasons, bees will swarm ex- 

 cessively for all of these. 



