1883 



GLEANINGS IK BEE CULTUBE. 



621 



queen-cups built on this frame of nvseahdhrccd, 

 and eggs laid therein, just as Is often done when the 

 bees swarm from the parent hive in a hurry, which 

 proves Mr. Betsinger's idea correct, that the bees 

 considered themselves placed in the same condition 

 they were before they swarmed, and so swarmed to 

 get away from the brood. In all the cases, from a 

 teacupful to a pint of bees stayed to care for these 

 queen-cells and brood, which pgain proves that the 

 swarm left under the same conditions in which they 

 leave the parent hive. In answer to the question, 

 Why do they go right to rearing brood again? 1 will 

 say, that after the queen has had a little rest she 

 goes to laying as new comb is built, and it is at 

 least six days before the swarm gets brood in the 

 state of that which is given them; and by this time 

 the desire to swarm has been changed to a desire to 

 keep their numbers good, and thus continue their 

 existence as one colony; while up to this time brood 

 only Increased their desire to " multiply and replen- 

 ish the earth." Localities differ much, and bees 

 act differently iu accordance therewith, hence no 

 rule will apply to bees in all portions of the world. 

 I but speak what I know to be true In this locality, 

 and accord to all the same privilege. 



Now I will stop right here, by requesting all who 

 read this to try next season 10 first swarms, giving 5 

 a frame of unsealed brood upon being hived, and 

 hiving 5 without brood, and see which is the more 

 inclined to stay. By so doing we shall arrive, not at 

 my conclusion, and not at friend Root's conclusion; 

 but at a conclusion whice will be beneficial alike to 



all. G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Borodino, N. Y., Aug. 13, 1883. 



Here is another friend who has something 

 to say on the other side of the matter. 



On page 376 is an article from Mr. Doolittle, in 

 which he gives his experience with sheets of brood 

 used in swarming-time. I am not going to dispute 

 friend Doolittle's sicceritj', for I think he speaks 

 according to his experience; but it is not at all like 

 mine. In an experience of seven years handling 

 bees, I have had but one swarm leave me. That oc- 

 curred in 1878; they came out, and they did not 

 alight, but left for parts unknown. I was a little 

 greener in the business than I am now, and knew 

 nothing about putting a sheet of brood in, and I 

 think I am indebted to Gleanings for that informa- 

 tion in 1879; but I will not speak positively about 

 that. Well, since I saw the article I have practiced 

 it, and, as I think, with the most favorable results, 

 for I have yet to have the first swarm leave a sheet 

 of eggs and larvae. 



CLIPPING QUEENS. 



Now, I do not clip queens' wings, for I think I 

 have been rather unfortunate with three valuable 

 queens, all of which I clipped (one we got from 

 friend D. this spring), and the bees have invariably 

 superseded them in a few weeks; but perhaps it 

 was not owing to the clipping. Friend D.'s plan of 

 managing (if he has his queens' wings clipped), will 

 work all right with two or more swarms when they 

 come out and go together; that is, if he is right at 

 the entrance, and can pick the queen up and cage 

 her. But we will suppose friend D. is up in the top 

 of a tree trying to capture a swarm that has just 

 alighted; is there not danger of one or more of the 

 queens that have their wings clipped crawling away 

 In the grass, or under some hive, and get lost? I 

 should think the loss in this way would be fully as 



great as it would where the queens are allowed to 

 fly with the swarm. I have this summer had as high 

 as 8 swarms in the air at one time, and all went to- 

 gether; 5 of the queens I found, and three of them I 

 did not find; but all were divided asnearly as Icould, 

 and given sppsrale hives; but, mind you, there was 

 the sheet of eggs and larvse in every hive, and in i 

 days I was able to tell which had a queen and which 

 not. Now, for me I would almost as soon ihink of 

 not hiving a swnrm at all. as to think of hiving them 

 without the sheet of brood. 



I am not prepared to believe Mr. Betsinger's 

 theory (though it be indorsed by friend D.); I.e., 

 that putting in the sheet of brood is the cause of 

 their absconding. No, no, friend D., don't let's be- 

 lieve all that, but take another view of the matter. 

 " Bees swarm to get away from their brood." What, 

 when we have so many evidences that they are so 

 fondly attached to their brood that you may take 

 a young sheet of larva? with the adhering bees from 

 the parent hive, and put it where you choose, and 

 enough young bees will stay with it to care for and 

 nurse their young sisters? Now, this is not an ev- 

 idence, in my mind, that they want to get away from 

 it. I think it is clear, to my understanding of the 

 matter, that when bees swarm, the principal reason 

 is, that their hive is too small to hold the rapidly in- 

 creasing numbers, and the queen is either compel- 

 led to stop laying, or hunt new and more com- 

 modious quarters. How is it when you divide a col- 

 ony? You take the old queen and one-half the 

 brood to a new stand; it is not usual, I think, for 

 the bees to desert the brood, queen, and all, and go 

 off. Any one who has doubts about the quieting 

 and consoling influence of a sheet of young brood 

 upon a colony, let him hive a second swarm with a 

 young queen on a hive full of foundation, atid, as 

 you will many times see them do, run out and in the 

 hive, over the front, and show great signs of dissat- 

 isfaction; give them a sheet of young larvfe, and 

 note the instantaneous change. They are content- 

 ed and quiet at once. When I see a swarm coming 

 out, I no more think they are going to the woods 

 than I think the sun will not go down behind the 

 western horizon that evening; and after they are 

 hived I have no more thoughts of their leaving the 

 hive than I had of their going off. 



I have had, this summer, several cases where the 

 queen was lost in swarming, and the bees, after 

 they were hived, would, a portion of them, go back 

 to the old hive; but in no case did they desert the 

 brood so but that there would be a good strong nu- 

 cleus left, and those nuclei now are good strong col- 

 onies. A. W. OSBURN. 



Water Valley, N. Y. 



And here is still another letter in regard to 

 the same matter, and this time it is from a 

 lady ; and she gives us some very valuable 

 suggestions besides : 



A CHAPTER ON ABSCONDING SWARMS. 



Having had quite a large experience with new 

 swarms absconding, or endeavoring to do so, I will 

 give you a few items in regard to it, which I think 

 will be of interest to many bee-keepers who arc los- 

 ers in this way. For two or three years after we be- 

 gan to keep bees we had no trouble frotn this cause, 

 and wondered why so many of our neighbors' bees 

 left and went to the woods. We thought it must be 

 some mismanagement of theirs; but in the summer 

 of 1881 we began to have some experience of our 



