THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



405 



For tbe American Bee Journ<il. 



The Bees are Swarming. 



For the American Beo JoumaL 



Winter of 1883-1884. 



JAMES nEDDON. 



ALICE WAVEKLEY. 



"Hurruli '. hurrah ! " cnme the father's voice. 

 From the onion-bed down by the peas. 

 "The bees! they are swarming: so hurry outquick; 

 Hurrah! don't .tou hear them— the bees?" 



"Now, Where's my old bucket, and where is my 



stick. 

 And what makes ye all so slow ? 

 If ye don't hurry out and rattle them quick. 

 They'll be off to the woods, I know." 



There's a hurry and scamper for bonnets and hats, 



A lookint: for kettles and tins. 



Then out we'll all no, and stand in a row. 



All ready to rattle them in. 



Mother stands iinder the round apple tree. 

 The flre-shovel and poker are doine their best; 

 She must keep well out of the reach of those bees. 

 Or a swelled face, for days, to their skill would 

 attest. 



Father stands under another old tree. 

 His face well hid in its sheltering leaves: 

 While he hammers away with bucket and stick- 

 He's doing his duty in settling the bees. 



From the back of the vineyard there comes a faint 



sound. 

 Like the tinkling notes of some far away bell, 

 "Tis only the echo of Maggie's tin pan— 

 She cannot t;et stung, 1 think, very well. 



Kit has a milk-pan, wide over and roomy: 



But it sends out a very good sound " for a "that." 



And should the bees gather too near for good 



manners. 

 This pan serves the place of a shield, or a hat, 



Fannie goes flitting now here, and now there, 

 Down through the vineyard, then over the fence: 

 Through uncle .Jim's garden she treads with great 



care— 

 If they don't get away, she'll make fifty cents. 



"Tum-dum, tum-dum!" goes the stick on the 



bucket. 

 This "old oaken bucket" serves for bass in the play. 

 "Tinp-a-ling-ling," goes Fannie's old pendulum 



now, 

 •As with the wire poker she hammers away. 



TVell. well ! after spending an hour, or so. 



In climbing, and jumping and skipping around, 



Going backward and forward, then in, and then 



out— 

 They're now going to settle, I think, by the sound. 



There: now they have lit on a tall apple tree. 

 And some one must hurry the ladder to get ; 

 And the barrel and board, with the WMtering-can, 

 The smoker, the feathers, the hat with the net. 



Outside of the feooe stand our cousins and neigh- 

 bors, 



For" distance lends charms" when the bees are 

 about. 



And no one is anxious to get very near them. 



For fear some stray skirmisher might find them out. 



"INow Fannie :" calls father from under the tree, 

 "Vou take np my grape-hoe and give them a shake. 

 "When I call out ready, you just pull away. 

 And short work we'll out of them make. 



"All ready! " a shake, and*" run. Daddy, run !" 

 For the bees fall on him, instead of the hive ; 

 A moment's confusion, but no one was hurt. 

 And strait ht for the branch with the Queen do 

 they dive. 



■■ Ah, sure, we must try some ot'ner new plan — 

 We never can shake them down. 1 see. 

 Some one must saw those branches off. — 



So ril take the ladder, and climb the tree." 



Down came the branches one by one. 

 Up go the bees as the branches fall. 

 "Now, if we dcin't try some other way. 

 We never can hive these bees at all." 



In the midst of our flurry, home comes John- 

 Runs up the tree— quick aa a flash, you know; 

 Cuts off the branches, and carries them down. 

 Straight into the hive every bee win now go. 



At last they're all in and the racket is over : 

 And the hive is put down in a rt>w with the rest. 

 Liketlie lull af ter storm, our e-\cite men t has ended. 

 And each one thinks— "I was the one who did best." 

 —Macomb, Ills. 



Last autumn I found that my home 

 apiary contained lilii; colonies of bees. 

 Most ot tlu'sc colonies had been 

 worked, durintr the preceding season, 

 upon a plan aiUipting some new meth- 

 ods destined to bring them out at the 

 close of the season with as little 

 honey and bee-bread in their combs 

 as possible. Though the season 

 closed very much against isuch a re- 

 sult, still our hearts were gladened to 

 find on an average not halt the usual 

 amount of either. 



The honey was stored above, and 

 the pollen not at all. To these colo- 

 nies we fed 11 iiounds of granulated 

 sugar made into syrup, which made 

 on an average about 10 pounds to each 

 colony, as about 70 colonies received 

 none at all. The ones which •uere 

 fed, received on an average of about 

 Impounds each. We wintered them 

 out-of-doors, lioth with and without 

 protection, ami about 30 colonies in 

 the cellar. All except about 12 colo- 

 nies of those out-of-doors were packed. 



AVhen all were prepared, I said to 

 the assistants. "Novf, for the tirst 

 time in my life, 1 liope for a trying 

 winter for bees." ^\'ell, in fact, we 

 had such a winter. The confinement 

 was not very long, but the cold 

 weather was quite steady^ and severe. 

 .Judging from 1.5 years of experience 

 and observation, I sliould have ex- 

 pected a loss of at least one-half of all 

 my colonies liad the usual amount of 

 pollen and lioney alone constituted 

 their winter stores. Such, however, 

 were not the condition of the colonies. 

 Even those which were not fed or 

 specially manipulated during the pre- 

 ceding "honey season, had "less bee- 

 bread thiin iisual ; and those which 

 were fetl, I think I am S'afe in saying, 

 had not one-fourth as much bee-bread 

 as the others. I lost about 30 colonies 

 by diarrht^a ; but I think none iu the 

 cellar had it. 



Taking the reports of all, I think 

 statistics show that cellar wintering 

 is the safest method. It is clear to 

 me tliat when cold is the greater auxil- 

 iary to the cause of diarrhtea, bees in 

 cellars come out best ; but when con- 

 finement is its special aid. then out- 

 door wintering is ahead. 



We prepared 45 colonies without a 

 cell of pollen, and about '2o of them 

 without one drop of honey, while 

 the other 20 had practically none or 

 only a little in the out-corners of an 

 occasional comb. These i'> colonies 

 we fed liberally with the sugar syrup. 

 During the examinations in early 

 spring, the first cover I raised, my 

 assistant exclaimed, " O ! what little 

 lean looking things !" We had pre- 

 viously been overliauling a few sick 

 colonies, and many in comparatively 

 good condition ; but all whose hives 

 contained mostly nattiral stores, had 

 distended bodies. Did I say all the 

 45 wintered well V No, they did not. 

 All were in perfect condition except 

 one, which died— and that died with 

 diarrhwa. As I j'aised the cover, I 

 said to my foreman who superintended 



the fall feeding under my directions, 

 *' Here is one of our non-iiollen colo- 

 nies dead : and died with diarrhoea as 

 sure as you are born." I lifted a comb 

 from near the centre of the cluster, 

 and up came a little brood and a 

 comb nearly half full of bee-bread. 

 ■' Why ! what is this V" said I. " O ! 

 this is niy fault. Mr. lleddon," said 

 the foreiiiau. " I remember that in 

 this one hive the queen bred very late 

 in the fall, and this comb had a patch 

 of sealed brood nearly as large as my 

 hand, which 1 left to" hatch out, de- 

 termined to remove it in a few days, 

 wliich I forgot to do." 



The above are a few of the facts re- 

 garding last winter's experiments and 

 the results, as witnessed by myself 

 and my foreman, Mr. William Stolley. 

 We are so well convinced of the 

 correctness of the pollen theory ; i. e., 

 that floating pollen in the honey or 

 bee-bread, or both, if consumed dur- 

 ing confinement, is the direct cause 

 of bee-diarrhci-a, that we are laying 

 our plans to henceforth prepare our 

 bees for winter in accordance with 

 that theory. As the reader will nat- 

 urally supiiose, after the discovery of 

 certain tacts, causing disease, and 

 consequent methods of prevention, 

 comes tlie best, cheapest and most 

 practical methods of bringing about 

 preventive conditions. 



This we are and have been, for the 

 past year, studying and also experi- 

 menting upon. That bee-culture of 

 the future, which will not move ofl 

 readily and practically with a busi- 

 ness-like speed, will be forced to suc- 

 cumb to tlie survival of that which 

 will. We do not propose to dig the 

 bee- bread from the cells with tooth 

 picks ; we do not propose to remove 

 it by removing the combs containing 

 it ; but we do propose to prevent its 

 being stored in any considerable or 

 dangerous quantity. Again, we do 

 not propose to extract natural stores 

 after the flow of honey has passed ; 

 but we do propose to prevent the ex- 

 istence of stored brood-chambers at 

 the end of each year's honey flow. 



That it can be done, we have ex- 

 perimented enough to become con- 

 vinced. The next question in the 

 wintering problem, will be : " Now 

 that I can winter mj^ bees with suc- 

 cess, how can I do it with the least 

 capital and labor V" We have ideas 

 which we believe are correct regarding 

 tiiese points, which we shall write 

 upon in the future. 



The reason why I have delayed this 

 report is, that I might be able to re- 

 port the standing of these colonies 

 which could not and did not hatch an 

 egg till they gathered the pollen of 

 l,s,s4 ; while some other colonies be- 

 gan breeding in February. My fore- 

 man and students have examined 

 them carefully, and report that if any 

 difference can be detected between 

 them and the other colonies which be- 

 gan to breed nearly two months 

 earlier, is, that these conservative 

 ones are now the strongest in bees 

 and brood. This is just what I should 

 expect. 



I have for several years claimed, 

 against the clamor of our ever-present 

 corps of inexperienced apicultural 



