1883 



GLEAHIKGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



741 



BEES GOING OFF WITHOUT CLUS- 

 TERING. 



SOMETHING FROM OLEFOGY HIMSELF ON THE 

 SUBJECT. 



r 



iiELL, well! here comes Olefogy ag-ain with 

 his batch of stuff about bees swarming and 

 going off without settling. We thought we 

 had him snowed under so deep that he'd never smile 

 again. Oh, no ! I was not dead, only sleeping; or, 

 rather, waiting for you to muster up all your score 

 of witnesses, and I believe now about that number 

 have testified to having seen such phenomena as 

 bees swarming and going right off without ever set- 

 tling "at all at all." And now let us hear the coa- 

 clusion of the whole matter. What per cent of the 

 bees that swarm go off without clustering ? Is it one- 

 tenth of one per cent ? I have an idea it is not more 

 than one in ten thousand, and may be not more than 

 one in a million, for I believe that God created bees 

 for the use of man — domestic insects, if you please ; 

 and when he gave them the swarming instinct, and 

 blessed them, and commanded them to multiply, etc., 

 he also gave them the clustering instinct that man 

 might make them useful, if he would (I don't be- 

 lieve that bees were evolved from gnats or ants, 

 but they were made bees at the beginning); and I 

 suppose when father Adam fell from his tirst estate 

 the bees became somewhat demoralized, and hence 

 their disposition to sometimes give us the "cold 

 shoulder," and sometimes the "hot tail," and some- 

 times they cut all kinds of queer and unaccountable 

 tantrums; but for all that, I don't see that we need 

 be afraid of losing many bees by their going off 

 without clustering, to give us a chance to hive them; 

 and no one in all this mighty snow-storm of witness- 

 es seenas to be alarmed, except friend Train, of 

 Mauston, Wis. (see page 380, Gleanings for July, 

 1883), whose bees are so possessed that he has to 

 stand guard over himself ( it won't do to trust a 

 small boy or woman) with a big looking-glass and 

 double-barreled shotgun loaded with shot— dear 

 me ! I should think when the bees see themselves 

 in that looking-glass they'd be ashamed of them- 

 selves, and "hasten down and beg the old man's 

 pardon;" but I infer from what he says, that some 

 of them cheek it out till he tries what virtue there is 

 in shot — ah me ! That is a deplorable state of affairs. 

 I believe if I were in his place I would move my 

 bees all to that heavy basswood forest so as to put a 

 stop to that kind of business; for it seems to me he 

 is in a fair way to breed the clustering instinct all 

 out of his bees while the swarming instinct is inten- 

 sified. Oh ! well, they will replenish the earth all the 

 same, and make a good opening for bee-hunters; so, 

 perhaps, it will be all right in the end, any way. 



" Know nature's children all divide their care; 

 The fur that warms a monarch warmed a bear. 

 While man exclaims, See all things for my use. 

 See man for mine, replies a pampered goose." 



I have something to say in regard to swarms de- 

 serting the hive when they have unsealed brood 

 given them; but this is, perhaps, already too long, 

 so I will subscribe myself, Yours truly, Olefogy. 



Allendale, III., Nov. 6, 1883. 



Friend Olefogy, we are glad indeed to hear 

 from you again ; but it seems to me you are 

 a little stubborn. After all tbis accumulation 

 of evidence, ought you not to own up in a 

 little more teachable spirit? May be I am 

 stubborn too ; but to make an off-hand esti- 



mate, I should think that about one swarm 

 in a hundred goes off without clustering ; 

 but may be one in 500 would be more modest. 

 Perhaps it is not a matter of very great im- 

 portance, after all; only if bees do go off 

 without clustering, now and then, it is well 

 for the bee-keeper to know it. I agree with 

 you, that there may be a providence in hav- 

 ing them go off now and then in just that 

 way, just as there seems to be a sort of prov- 

 idence in having uneasy people who are al- 

 ways moving about, and thus help to settle 

 new countries. There is one thing certain : 

 You seem to have a happy faculty for mak- 

 ing a " stir in the meeting," and inducing 

 many of the brethern — aye, and some of the 

 sisters too — to stand up and relate their expe- 

 rience, who might otherwise have never let 

 anybody know that they kept bees or read 

 the bee-journals. 



A HARDV AND DESIRABLE STRAIN OF 

 BEES. 



IS IT A MERE MATTER OF ACCIDENT, OR AN ESTAB- 

 LISHED CHARACTERISTIC OF THIS PARTICULAR 

 STRAIN OF BEES? 



WELL, i will try to tell you about them, or, 

 rather, all that I know of them. A Mr. Ba- 



-" ^ ker, formerly of Vanburen, O., but now 

 living in the West, kept, for quite a series of years, 

 an apiary, taking an interest in obtaining the best 

 strains of bees that he could buy from different 

 breeders. Just prior to Mr. Baker's selling out and 

 going west, a Mr. Baird purchased a fine selected 

 stock of bees from this apiary, being the spring of 

 1879. One year later, Mr. Baird sold these same bees 

 to a neighbor of mine, Mr. A. J. Shirk. Mr. S., not 

 being suited with the hive used by Mr. Baker, came 

 to me, and had his bees ti-ansferred to the L. frame 

 and Simplicity hive. This was in the spring of 1880. 



Now, for results: These bees were wintered in the 

 same hive, on their summer stands, without any ar- 

 tificial protection, not even a windbreak, except an 

 ordinary board fence, and that stood 3 or 4 rods from 

 the hives. You will all doubtless remember the ter- 

 rible results of the following winter, 1880 and '81, in 

 which many lost all the bees they had. Yet these 

 bees came through the ordeal of that winter without 

 any loss, and showing no signs of the hardships they 

 had passed through, being strong, clean, and healthy. 



I will now compare these bees with others, to il- 

 lustrate their i-emarkable hardiness in withstanding 

 the rigors of winter as well as the active voyaging 

 of wing in summer. During the same spring I 

 transferred 46 stocks for other parties in the same 

 vicinity, putting all in Simplicity hives; these 46 

 stocks consisted of blacks, hybrids, and full-blood 

 Italians, and were wintered in like manner, except 

 in three cases, where windbreaks were provided. 

 When spring came, three out of this number had 

 survived; loss 43, and the increase 31; total loss, 64 

 stocks. My own loss was 21 stocks out of 30; all 

 were packed with 3 inches of dry chaff around body 

 of hive, and chaff cushions over brood-chamber. A 

 Mr. Lee, of our vicinity, a box-hive man, lost 38 out 

 of 31. A Mr. Night lost 133 out of 136; these last 

 were in Gallup hives. 



Well, with these facts and figures before one, la it 

 any wonder that I should have an eye upon this 

 strain of bees? and as I am strongly opposed to 



