922 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



again. A sort of musical buzz accompanied 

 each scoop as a score of angrj' bees, deter- 

 mined to do or die, stuck to my hand; but 

 this time it was too heavily covered, and an 

 occasional slight prick v^^as all that I suf- 

 fered through the rest of the fraj'. 



"Fortune favors the brave." I managed 

 to capture the queen, then the rest of my 

 task was comparatively easy. After a few 

 hours' labor I succeeded in having almost 

 every bee confined in my nucleus-box, and 

 wended my way home with feelings better 



imagined than described. 



******** 



The substance of the above story is mi- 

 nutely true. Reminiscences of my early 

 days of bee keeping often cause me plea- 

 sure, and not infrequently I have to laugh 

 at my peculiar method of doing things in 

 those days. This circumstance is one 

 which I shall always remember. The 

 yawning abyss, hot tropical sun, and hotter 

 bee-stings, created an impression upon my 

 mind not easily effaced. To the older 

 readers of Gleanings, whom this will 

 hardly interest, I humbly offer an apology. 

 At the same time I express the hope that, 

 among the younger folk — the amateurs — it 

 may be the means of stimulating when dis- 

 couraged by adverse fortune. Heed the les- 

 son taught in this — " where there's a will 

 there's a way." 



Medina, Ohio. 



BRUSHED SWARMING — ANOTHER METHOD. 



The Weight of Foundation in Wiring ; Spraying Wa- 

 ter to Stop Robbing a Failure. 



BY W. O. EASTWOOD. 



I have two suggestions to make for j'our 

 consideration. Insteadof shaking or brush- 

 ing as a means of effecting forced swarm- 

 ing, would it not be possible to effect the 

 same purpose more readily, and with less 

 disturbance, by putting the hive equipped 

 for the reception of the swarm underneath 

 the old (or parent) hive and then driving 

 the bees down with smoke from the one hive 

 into the other? In wiring frames I fancy 

 that I draw the wire rather tauter than 

 yju direct, and yet I never have had any 

 trouble with foundation buckling as a con- 

 sequence. Can it be, I wonder, whether 

 my practice of stretching the wire in the 

 first instance has any thing to do with my 

 freedom from the trouble? Taking up the 

 spool in my left hand I grasp the end of the 

 wire with a pair of pliers and give a mod- 

 erately sharp pull, having, 1 should have 

 premised, unwound three or four feet of the 

 wire. I take a second hold, and similarly 

 stretch as much more. By practice I am 

 able to tell within a foot or so how much 

 will be required for a frame, and I get the 

 length needed by repeating the process of 

 stretching in this way twice. I then break 

 the stretched portion from the spool. In 

 this way I take the kink out of the wire and 

 find it to work much more comfortably. 



Each time I pull the wire I find it gives 

 just so far to the strain, and then stops. 



Bees surely are queer creatures. Why 

 do they ball a queen at times? That was 

 a remarkable instance given in the last is- 

 sue of Gleanings, page 674, by Martin L. 

 Newman. This queen, it seems, had been 

 permitted to lay. Why this sudden exhibi- 

 tion of apparent ferocity? How will this 

 do for a theory by way of a suggested ex- 

 planation? May we suppose that there was 

 a laying worker present in the hive, or one 

 or more with the capacity to lay, and that 

 the ball was in the main made up of bees 

 desirous of protecting the queen from the 

 jealous onslaught of a laying worker or 

 workers? If this balling were a combined 

 attack of the whole force it might be ex- 

 pected that they would make short work of 

 the business, which does not appear to be 

 the case. 



Talk about spraying to stop robbing, I 

 tried the garden watering-can, with a fine 

 sprinkler on, just the other day, without 

 one bit of effect. I have the hive in the cel- 

 lar now, afraid to put it out. It is queen- 

 less; but I gave it a frame with brood, kept 

 it in the cellar two days, when, on putting 

 it out, a horde of bees fell on it again like 

 so many wolves; and in desperation I put 

 it back in the cellar again, being afraid 

 that it would spread the burglarious spirit 

 throughout the apiary. For making smoke 

 I use excelsior and cedar bark. 



Whitby, Ont., Can., Aug. 3. 



[The plan you speak of as a substitute 

 for brushed swarming might work ; but 

 when you can move bees from one compart- 

 ment to another by shaking or brushing, it 

 is much more to be preferred than by smok- 

 ing. To drive bees on the plan you de- 

 scribe would be almost cruel. Excessive 

 smoking, I am afraid, kills a good many 

 bees, and at the same time I know it sus- 

 pends operations for at least a whole day. 

 Excessive smoking should always be avoid- 

 ed if possible. 



If your wires are drawn tauter than I de- 

 scribed in these columns, and you don't get 

 buckled foundation or comb, it is because 

 you use a heavier grade of wax. While we 

 sell foundation, and should be glad to sell 

 lots of it, I consider it a great waste of 

 money on the part of bee-keepers to use a 

 grade of wax heavier than is absolutely 

 necessary to get straight combs. A light 

 brood foundation, if properly handled, will 

 give just as good results as the more expen- 

 sive medium brood. 



I never tried spraying robber bees with 

 water. I should imagine it would prove in- 

 effective in a very bad case of robbing. You 

 say nothing about contracting the entrances 

 down to a space just wide enough for one or 

 two bees to pass. Putting the bees down 

 cellar until the uproar is over is a good 

 plan. But before placing them outdoors 

 again, reduce the entrance to the space 

 mentioned, and I think you will find they 

 will put up a good defense. — Ed.] 



