86 



THE ILLIINTOIS FA.IIMER. 



TUE APIARY. 



SWARMING OF BEES. 



The time when sTf arms may be expect- 

 ed, depends of course, upon climate, sea- 

 son, and the strength of the stocka. In 

 the Northern and Middle States, bees 

 seldom swarm before the latter part of 

 May ; and June may be considered as 

 the great swarming month. 



In the spring, as ioon ns a hive well 

 filled with comb and bees, becomes too 

 much crowded to accommodate its teem- 

 ing population, the bees begin the nec- 

 essary preparations for emigration. A 

 number of royal cells are commenced 

 about the time that the drones first make 

 their appearance; and by the time that 

 the young queens arrive at maturity, the 

 drones are always found in the greatest 

 abundance. The first swarm is invaria- 

 bly led off by the old queen, unless she 

 has previously died from accident or dis- 

 ease, in which case it is accompanied by 

 one of the young queens, reared to sup- 

 ply her loss. The old mother leaves 

 soon after the royal cells .arc sealed over, 

 unless delayed by unfavorable weather. 

 There are no signs from which the Api- 

 arian can, with certainty, predict the 

 issue of a first swarm. I devoted annu- 

 ally, much attention to this point, vainly 

 hoping to discover some infallible indi- 

 cations of first swarming ; until taught 

 by further reflection, that, from the very 

 nature of the case, there can be no such 

 indications. The bees, from an unfa- 

 vorable state of the weather, or the fail- 

 ure of the blossoms to yield an abundant 

 supply of honey, often change their 

 minds, and refuse to swarm, even after 

 all their preparations have been com- 

 pleted. Nay, more, they sometimes 

 send out no new colonies that season, 

 when a sudden change of weather has in- 

 terrupted them on the very day when 

 they were intending to emigrate, and af- 

 ter they had taken a full supply of hon- 

 ey for their journey. • 



If on a fair, warm day in the swarm- 

 ing season, but few bees leave a strong 

 hive, while other colonies are busily at 

 work, we may, unless the weather sud- 

 denly prove unfavorable, look with great 

 confidence for a swarm. As the old 

 queens which accompany the first swarm, 

 are heavy with eggs, and fly with con- 

 siderable difficulty, they are shy of ven- 

 turing out, except on fair, still days. 

 If the weather is very sultry, a swarm 

 will sometimes issue as early as 7 o'clock 

 in the morning; but from 10 to 2 is the 

 usual time, and the majority of swarms 

 come off from 11 to 1. Occasionally, a 

 swarm will venture out as late as 5 v. m. 

 An old queen is seldom guilty of such a 

 piece of indiscretion. 



I have in repeated instances, witness- 

 ed the whole process of swarming, in my 

 observing hives. On the day fixed for 



their departure, the queen appears to be 

 very restless, and instead of depositing 

 her eggs in the cells, she travels over 

 the combs, and communicates her agita- 

 tion to the whole colony. The emigrat- 

 ing bees fill themselves with honey, some 

 time before their departure : in one in- 

 stance, I noticed them laying in their 

 supplies, more than two hours before 

 they left. A short time before the swarm 

 rises, a few bees may generally be seen 

 sporting in the air, with their heads turn- 

 ed always to the hive, occasionally flying 

 in and out, as though they were impa- 

 tient for the important event to take 

 placj. At length, a very violent agita- 

 tion commences in the hive : the bees 

 appear almost frantic, whirling around 

 in a circle, which continually enlarges, 

 like the circles made by a stone thrown 

 into still water, until at last the whole 

 hive is in the greatest ferment, and the 

 bees rush impetuously to the entrance, 

 and pour forth in one steady stream. 

 Not a bee looks behind, but each one 

 pushes stright ahead, as though Hying 

 "for dear life," or urged on by some 

 invisible power, in its headlong career. 

 The queen often does not come out until 

 a largo number have left, and she is fre- 

 quently so heavy, from the large number 

 of eggs in her ovaries, that she falls to 

 the ground, incapable of rising with the 

 colony into the air. 



The bees are very soon aware of her 

 absence, and a most interesting scene 

 may now be witnessed. A diligent 

 search is immediately made for their 

 missing mother; the swarm scatters in 

 all directions, and I have frequently seen 

 the leaves of the adjoining trees and 

 bushes, almost as thickly covered with 

 the anxious explorers, as they are with 

 drops of rain after a copious shower. If 

 she cannot be found, they return to the 

 old hive, or join themselves to another 

 swarm if any is still unhived. 



The ringing of bells, and the beating 

 of kettles and frying pans, is one of the 

 good old ways more honored by the 

 breach than the observance; it may an- 

 swer a very good purpose in amusing 

 the children, but I believe that as far as 

 the bees are concerned, it is all time 

 thrown away; and that it is not a whit 

 more efficacious than the custom prac- 

 ticed by some savage tribes, who, when 

 the sun is eclipsed, imagining that it has 

 been swallowed by an enormous dragon, 

 resort to the most frightful noises, to 

 compel his snakeship to disgorge their 

 favorite luminary. If a swarm has se- 

 lected a new home previous to their de- 

 parture, no amount of noise will ever 

 compel them to alight, but as soon as all 

 the bees which compose the emigrating 

 colony have left the hive, they fly in a 

 direct course, or " bee-line," to the 

 chosen spot. I have noticed that when 

 bees are much neglected by those who 



pretend to take care of them, such un- 

 ceremonious leave-taking is quite com- 

 mon ; on the contrary, when the proper 

 attention is bestowed upon them, it sel- 

 dom occurs. 



If the Apiarian perceives that his 

 swarm instead of clustering, begins to 

 rise higher and higher in the air, and 

 evidently mean to depart, not a moment 

 is to be lost : instead of empty noises, 

 he must resort to means much more ef- 

 fective to stay their vagrant propensi- 

 ties. Handfuls of dirt cast into the air, 

 or water thrown among them, will often 

 so disorganize them as to compel them 

 to alight. Of all devices for stopping 

 them, the most original one that I have 

 ever heard of, is to flash the sun's rays 

 among them by the use of a looking- 

 glass ! I have never had occasion to try 

 it, but the anonymous writer who recom- 

 mends it, says that he nevei'knew it to 

 faih ' 



The hives for the new swarms should 

 all be in readiness before the swarming 

 season begins, and should be painted 

 lonfj enoueh beforehand, to have tho 

 paint most thoroughly dried. The smell 

 of fresh paint is well known to be ex- 

 ceedingly injurious to human beings, 

 and is an abomination to the bees, that 

 they will often desert a new hive sooner 

 than put up with it. If the hive cannot 

 bo paintod iu ample leason, then Such 

 paints should be used as contain no 

 white lead, and they should be mixed in 

 such a manner as to dry as quick as pos- 

 sible. Thin hives ought never to stand 

 in the sun, and then, when heated to an 

 insufferable degree, be used for a new 

 swarm. Beos often refuse to enter such 

 hives at all, and at best, are very slow 

 in taking possession of them. It should 

 be borne in mind, that bees, when they 

 swarm, are greatly excited, and unnat- 

 urally heated. The temperature of the 

 hive at the moment of swarming, rises 

 very suddenly, and many of the bees are 

 often drenched with such a profuse pres- 

 piration that they are unable to take 

 wing and join the departing colony. — 

 The attempt to make bees enter a heated 

 hive in a blazing sun, is as irrational as 

 it would be to try to force a panting 

 crowd of human beings into the suffocat- 

 ing atmosphere of a close garret. If 

 bees are to be put in hives through which 

 the heat of the sun can penetrate, the 

 process should be accomplished in the 

 shade, or if this cannot conveniently be 

 done, the hive should be covered with a 

 sheet, or shaded with leafy boughs. 



When the bees alight where they can 

 be easily reached from the ground, tho 

 limb on which they have clustered, 

 should, with one hand, be shaken, so 

 that they may gently fall into a basket 

 held under them by the other. If tho 

 basket is sufficiently open to admit the 

 air freely, and not so open as to allow 



