1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE, 



1133 



BEES SWELLING, ETC. 



"Good morning, Mr. Doolittle. Basswood 

 now in full bloom this the 27th day of July. 

 How is that for a late season?" 



"Latest I ever knew. Are the trees yield- 

 ing any nectar in your locality?" 



"Basswood has yielded finely for us during 

 the last three days; and if this hot muggy 

 weather continues it looks as if we might get 

 a good yield of white honey in spite of the 

 drawbacks heretofore, but, say— did you 

 ever notice how a colony of bees seems to 

 swell when a good basswood flow comes on? 

 how a colony that seemed comfortable in the 

 hive, just before this, now can not find room 

 to work, so they pile out of the hive, espe- 

 cially toward night on warm days?" 



"Yes, I have noticed this scores of times." 



"I put on the supers at once; but I want 

 to know why the bees swell so, as soon as a 

 good flow of nectar is on." 



"You did the proper thing in putting on 

 the sections or supers; but why the oees 

 Svvelled is something which very many fail to 

 think any thing about." 



"What makes you think that way?" 



"Because many of our ablest bee-keepers 

 have told us, during the past, that the work- 

 er rs which come in loaded from the fields de- 

 posit their nectar immediately in the cells of 

 ihe comb, arguing that, for this reason, there 

 should be a direct passage from the outside 

 of the hive to the suplus arrangement, so the 

 field bees may be saved the trouble of crowd- 

 ing up through the massed bees in the brood- 

 chamber to get at the empty cells in the su- 

 pers in order to unload." 



"I have such direct passageways to my su- 

 pers; don't you?" 



"No." 



"Why not?" 



"The answer to that comes with the an- 

 swer to why the bees swell when a flow of 

 nectar comes on. The reason for the bees 

 swelling lies in this fact: Before the honey- 

 flow there was no nectar in the honey-sacs 

 of any of the bees in the hive, hence the seg- 

 ments of the abdomen telescoped over each 

 other, thus contracting the abdomen to the 

 smallest possible space, thus allowing thou- 

 sands of bees to mass themselves in the small- 

 est possible space. When the honey-flow 

 comes on, the field bees give their loads of 

 nectar to the hive bees, which causes their 

 abdomens to be drawn out, as it were, the 

 same as a telescope is drawn out, in order 

 that the now filled hone\-sac3 may find room 

 for the necessary expansion. And thus it 

 comes about that two bees now occupy the 

 place of that occupied by three or four Ix;- 



fore the flow of nectar was on, and only as 

 room is given can they be kept from crowd- 

 ing out on the outside of the hive, providing 

 the hive was filled with bees before the nec- 

 tar yield came on." 



" Then you claim that the field bees give 

 their loads of nectar to other bees instead of 

 depositing it in the cells." 



"Yes." 



"What do these other bees do with it?" 



" They hold it till it is properly evaporat- 

 ed, when it is deposited in the cells, more 

 taken from the field bees again, and so on 

 till the honey season closes, when all is de- 

 posited in the cells, and the abdomen tele- 

 scopes back together again, and the colony 

 assumes the same massed condition as at 

 first." 



"Well, if this is so then that entram-e to 

 the supers is surely unnecessary. But does 

 not this swelling of the bees bring on swarm- 

 ing?" 



"Has much to do with it, in all probabili- 

 ty-" 



"Then why does not the giving of room at 

 just the right time, when this expansion or 

 swelling begins, stop swarming?" 



"It will. '^ 



"But it does not. No matter how much 

 section room I give my colonies they will in- 

 sist on swarming." 



"But you are simply giving the bees emji- 

 ty space. Just fill that space with empty 

 comb and you will find that the bees will 

 not swarm. Listen to what that veteran 

 bee keeper, Moses Quinby, wrote: A large 

 amount of room filled with empty comb will 

 entirely prevent swarming; and years of ex- 

 perience and experimenting has proven that 

 Mr. Quinby was right. Let me illustrate 

 this thing for you a little further: Let a strong 

 colony occupy a drygoods box, the same be- 

 ing four feet square on the inside, they hav- 

 ing a space of only about 2000 cubic inches 

 occupied with comb, and that colony will 

 swarm, notwithstanding all the room there 

 is in the box. But if the whole box is filled 

 with comb, no swarm will issue under the 

 conditions described. Later on in the sea- 

 son, should there ever come a time, through 

 a continuous honey-flow, for months, when 

 the combs in the wnole box are fully occupi- 

 ed with bees, brood, and honey, thure might 

 be a possibility of a swarm is->uing, but not 

 a probability." 



" That is something I had never thought 

 about, and something I have never tried. 

 But there is one other thing 1 wish to talk 

 about before I go home. It is this: When 

 trying to stop all after swarming I open the 

 hive and cut otf all the queen-cells, but one, 

 saving the best-luoking one. Is that a good 

 way?" 



"Such a course will do, but I do not like 

 the plan In the first place, it prohibits the 

 shaking of the licesoff the comb that has the 

 cell ou which is to be saved; for should you 

 shake the frame, the inmate of the cell will 

 too often be injured to make it safe for y<»u 

 to do so If she is thus injured you williiot 

 have a good (niccn to head that colony, no 



