46 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mai{ 



WHY »0 BEES DESEKT TUEIR HIVES 1 



^^IDITOR GLEANINGS :— This moruiirr wasl'beauti- 

 mm ful but sDiTiewliat windy ana the byes wero on the 

 i^^r-^ wina:froni all our hives, and carr>nu|i in pollen 

 iToelv. The Jai)anf'se quinces, which are in full bloom, 

 wer." tlnoii'-'ed with bees. It was from this they were 

 :^ath('rin'.c pollen. 



Well, we had a very, very stninare freak occur with our 

 l)ees to-dav. We had been around to every hive and dis- 

 covered nothinu wrons. We then went to the house and 

 had been seated but a short time, when a nei.Lrhbor came 

 in. and infonned us that a swarm of bees had ah','hted on 

 .and entered one of his hives. We visited the spot and 

 found that a c>msiderab!e warfare iiad been s^oinsr on. He 

 informad us that the swarm came from tlie direction of our 

 apiary, so we returned and found one of our hives hesiej^- 

 ed by robbers. We opencil and examined it— found f re.sh- 

 ly la'id eggs in abundance— showin'i- that they were not 

 quoenless. also larv£e, sealed brood and an aliundanee of 

 .stores, iK)llcn, capped and uncapped hone.\ . Now, for the 

 life of mo I can not conceive what made them desert their 

 hive. Can yon give us any light ? 



I never lieard'of anvtliing of the kind l>efore ; on the 

 cxmtrary, my understandiu'; has been that they would not 

 desert Ijroo'd, but here they desert hone.v, pollen, eggs, 

 larva; and brood. Wm. J. Andrews. 



Columbia. Tenn., Jan. -23. 187G. 



Since the wlutering maladies, such case.s 

 have been quite frequent in. some localities, al- 

 though as a general thin;:, we believe it is 

 mostly confined to weak colonies. In our own 

 apiary, it seems most lilcely to occur on some 

 very warm pleasant day, say the first one after 

 a long cold spell ; and it seems to happen es- 

 pecially, in hives where they have just com- 

 menced to hatch out their first lot of brood. 

 One of our neighbors, a few years ago, had 

 something like 40 colonies swarm out thus in 

 one day, but they were all properly nuclei. As 

 a general thing, strong, full colonies will not 

 do this, although there may be exceptions. 

 The want of pollen has been ascribed as a 

 cause, but such seems not to have been the 

 trouble in your case ; we think diflerent causes 

 may have produced the discontent, for discon- 

 tent it undoubtedly is; but that feebleness in 

 numbers is the great main one. At one time it 

 was suggested that indoor wintering had 

 something to do with it, and that a poor queen 

 might be the cause of the stampede ; but many 

 reports, and introducing such queens to other 

 strong colonies, have dispelled all such theo- 

 I'ies. That they evidently are dissatisfied with 

 something, and wish to shake it off, or that 

 they, like some "humanity" cannot let well 

 enough alone, is about as far as we can go. 

 We believe we liave had no case reported 

 wliere a -very strong colony with plenty of 

 everything tlius deserted. 



Since writing the above we see by the Maga- 

 zine, that "Walks and Talks" had even a more 

 serious time than did we on that pleasant 

 New Year's day ; his, in the shape of this same 

 swarming out mania. The reason suggested 

 by tlie Editors, will hardly apply to the cases 

 that have come under our ovrn observation, for 

 we have seen the bees go through all the 

 swarming movements at such times — page 53, 

 Vol. Ill — and our neighbor Shaw mentioned 

 above, tried caging the queens witli a great 

 number, but it made no difference at all;"they 

 swarmed out all the same. We trust friend 

 Burch will suffer no serious loss by the strange 

 freak ; as we gather by hi;^ remarks that liis 

 colonies were quite strong,Mt mystifies tliis 

 trouble more than ever, and we would advise 

 a careful watch when the bees arc first 

 put out. 



WHY DOES THE QUEEIV EAY ERGS 

 THAT A«E TVEVER USEO ? ETC. 



fF the weather coiiti:)ue.s wann ought rye meal to be 

 given the lx«s a.s early as they will carr.y it in V 1 

 , notice that they destnjy the eggs — or rciiiove them 



from tlie combs. Is it because they have no bread of» 

 which to rear brood ? The weather for twent.v days has 

 been warm enough to matui-o brood. And the \vant of 

 bread is the only reason I can assisii for their not re-arimc 

 brood plentifully. Is it because the pix»per time has not 

 arrived, and tlieir instinct teaches that it wilt not do to 

 attempt to rear brood, when a cold snap is liable to come 

 at any time and chill it V Then why don't the same in- 

 stinct teach the queen not to la.v egss ? I will have 32 

 colonies to begin with this sca.son, is of them with pure 

 Italian queens. Seventeen >n Langstroth, and the re- 

 maining hfteen in the American hive. I intend to trans- 

 fer them all into the Langstroth, as that is my choice. 



I am only an amateur apiarian, and the veriest novicf^ 

 at that. I only began it to employ my time when uoj 

 profcssionallv en^a.'.-ed — liut am very fond of it. 



.Tso. E. Fky 31. I).. Lynnvdle. Tenn.. Jan. 0th. ■;';. 



We don't know, but are inclined to fear that 

 feeding them too early sometimes is a detri- 

 ment. We have often noticed that the queen 

 lays many eggs in the spring that are never 

 used, especially if the colony is small. Some- 

 times it is on account of a want of pollen, 

 again it may be paucity of numbers ; and most, 

 of us have seen the qu«en clear outside of the 

 cluster when an occasional v/arm day inter 

 vcnes ; but these eggs disappear daily and 

 others talie their place, showing that the queen 

 at least is dispo.sed to do her part. Just how 

 far a nicely fitting division board and con- 

 i tracted brood nest may help matters, we arc at 

 i present unable to say ; but we hope our read- 

 ers will help us to experiment in tlie matter. 

 ! That the proper season has little or nothing to 

 ' do with it, we demonstrated perfectly in our 

 ! experiments with the glass house, for we rear- 

 I ed brood and perfectly formed Vices every 

 I month in the year, by giving them an artificial 

 warm temperature. With a very populous 

 colony tlie eggs will be cared for, and hatch 

 ! health}' bees even when we have a zero temper- 

 1 ature. And we are much inclined to thiuk the 

 ! queen is perfectly in the right, and that it is 

 • an unnatural state of affairs when there are 

 I not bees enough to care for the eggs she lays. 

 ! After the honey season has closed and the 

 I great time of brood rearing is over for the sea- 

 i son, the queens are much disposed to take a 

 } sort of a rest, hut projier temperature, and 

 I fresh daily accession to their stores will very 

 ; soon start them up again, as we have rei:)eated- 

 ly proved, both out doors and in the glass 

 ! house. 



i The L., or some other shallow form of frame, 

 I we think is to be the one most generally used 

 ! in the future. One of the very best essays on 

 j hives and frames that we have ever seen, is 

 given by the Rev. J. W. Shearer, in the Feb. 

 j No. of the Bee-Keener's Magazine. 



EIGHT COEOKEO BEES. 



^ HAVE to record the past season as the most unfavor- 

 j![| able for hone.v in this locality v/e have had for man.v 

 ~i] .years. No snrjjlus honijy, not even etiough to spread 

 one "piece." Only an average of seven lbs. to the hive 

 lirst of Oct. Bees iti abundance all summer. H.ave led 

 most of them and stored in cellar, where my bees have 

 always wintered to m.y entire satisfaction for man.v ye?irs. 

 Some colonics that were entirely destitute of honey Oct. 

 1st, were allowed to perish outrij:ht— althou?rh they were 

 fine lookiuiT Italiuis, wc did not deem it economy to keep 

 such iioor honey gaiherer.s. 



I was among the lirst if not the first to introflucc th'; 

 Italian bee in the state of Tirjiuia ; and have always 



