DIAGNOSING COLONIES 
273 
Swarming, particularly under Swarming, 
Prevention of. 
During very hot sultry weather in the 
height of the honey flow,' half of the 
best colonies in the apiary may have a 
quart of bees clustered out in front at 
night. This indicates nothing abnormal; 
for when all the field bees are in the hive 
there is not room enough to accommodate 
them and yet allow for proper ventilation. 
When everything is progressing normal¬ 
ly, and the colony is doing just what it 
ought to do, there will be a contented roar 
at the entrance of each colony gathering 
honey. If a match be ignited and held 
near the entrance, it will be found by the 
direction of the flame, that the air is going 
in at one side and coining out at the other 
side of the entrance. The contented roar 
one hears in an apiary where the bees are 
evaporating nectar into honey can be ob¬ 
served distinctly as one goes down thru 
the yard. It is a kind of noise that is 
sweeter than music to the owner of the 
bees. They have toiled hard during the 
day, and are now working to evaporate the 
nectar that they have gathered. At the 
same time that they evaporate they are 
ripening and converting the nectar, or su¬ 
crose, into invert sugar, or honey. The 
mere fanning at the entrance only elimin¬ 
ates the surplus of water, and it is an in¬ 
dication that the colony during the day has 
done enough work to require night work. 
This contented roar that one hears in front 
of a strong colony occurs only during the 
height of the honey flow or during exces¬ 
sively hot weather, when there is no flow 
on. But the roar of honey evaporation, 
or nectar evaporation, rather, is much more 
pronounced than the buzz or noise from a 
hive on account of the heat. A colony can 
not stand a higher temperature, no mat¬ 
ter what the weather is, than 95 degrees F. 
THE PRESENCE AND KIND OF QUEEN. 
There is another indication of the in¬ 
ternal condition of the colony, and that is, 
the way bees carry in pollen. It used to 
be said that they will not bring in pollen 
if a colony is queenless. This is true only 
in part. When it needs pollen it will bring 
it in whether there is a queen or not. But 
a colony that has a good queen, and plenty 
of room for breeding, will require much 
more pollen than one that has no queen or 
a poor one. When it is possible to see many 
busy flying bees going into the hive, and 
a great deal of pollen going in, it indicates 
that that hive probably has a good queen, 
and that breeding is progressing in a per¬ 
fectly normal manner. Bnt when little or 
no pollen is coming in, and the bees are not 
flying much, it shows that the colony did 
not have a fair chance during winter or 
spring, or that it has a poor queen. On 
the other hand, the colony may have ever 
so good a queen; but if there is any large 
amount of foul brood, either American or 
European, there will be but little need of 
pollen. 
. DEAD BROOD AT THE ENTRANCE. 
If one can tell the difference between a 
young baby queen and young workers dead 
at the entrance he will be able to tell 
whether supersedure is taking place within 
the hive. If the old mother fails the bees 
will proceed to raise a number' of cells. 
The first virgin that emerges will be quite 
liable to puncture the cells of all of her 
rivals and sting them. These victims will 
be thrown out at the entrance, clearly in¬ 
dicating that some young miss is boss of 
the ranch. 
An inspection of the entrances will like¬ 
wise show, oftentimes, whether a colony is 
on the verge of starvation, whether its 
brood has been chilled or overheated, or 
whether there are moth worms in the hive 
When several full-grown larvae or perfect¬ 
ly formed young bees, brown or yellow, are 
found dead in front of the entrance, it may 
indicate any one of the possibilities just 
mentioned. When the bees are on the 
verge of starvation they will not only stop 
brood-rearing but they will carry out their 
young larvae. They apparently go on the 
principle that they should save able-bodied 
living bees rather than to lose all in the 
attempt to raise the babies. 
In early spring some of the young brood 
near the outside edges will become chilled. 
This brood will be taken out of the cells 
and deposited in front of the entrance. At 
other times, if the hive-entrance should be 
closed for a short time on a very hot day 
so that the bees are on the verge of suffo¬ 
cation, not a little of the brood will be 
