BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
The effect on the profits of the Apiary, of too frequent swarming, is discussed in the next chapter. If the beekeeper wants no casts, he can easily prevent their issue from my hives. About five days after the first swarm comes out, the parent-stock may be opened, and all the queen-cells removed, except one. If done earlier than this, the bees may start others, in the place of those removed. Those only who have thoroughly tried both plans, can appreciate how much better this is, than to attempt to return the after-swarms to the parent hive.
The Apiavian who desires by natural swarming to multiply his colonies as rapidly as possible, will find fall directions in the sequel, for building up all after-swarms, however small, so as to make vigorous stooks.
It will be remembered, that both the parent-stoek from which the swarm issues, and all the colonies, except the first, have a young queen. These queens never leave the hive for impregnation, until they are established as heads of independent families. They generally go out for this purpose, early in the afternoon of the first pleasant day, after being thus acknowledged, at which time, the drones are flying most numerously. On leaving their hive, they fly with their heads turned towards it, often entering and departing several times, before they finally soar into the air. Such precautions on the part of a young queen are highly necessary, that she may not, on her return, lose her life, by attempting, through mistake, to enter a strange hive. More queens are thus lost'than in any other way.
When a young queen leaves for impregnation, the bees, on missing her, are often filled with such alarm that they rush from the hive, as if intending to swarm. Their agitation is soon quieted, if she returns in safety.
The drone perishes in the act of impregnating the queen. Although, when cut into two pieces, each piece will retain its vitality for a long time, I accidentally ascertained, in the Summer of 1852, that if his abdomen is gently pressed, and sometimes if several are closely held in the warm hand, the male organ will often be permanently extruded, with a motion very like the popping of roasted pop-corn; and the insect, with a shiver, will curl up and die, as quickly as if blasted with the lightning's stroke. This singular provision is unquestionably intended to give additional security to the queen, when she leaves her hive to
so firmly to her body, that it could not be removed without tearing her to pieces.
The following facts will show that the impregnation of the queen by the drone, in the open air, may be made a matter of ocular demonstration: Lewis Shrimplin, of Wellsboro', Brook County, Virginia, purehssed a movable-eomb hive, in the Spring of 1857, into which he put a second swarm. Finding, after a few days, that the bees had built a number of very straight combs, he called some of his neighbors together, to witness the ease with which he could take out, and replace their combs. While standing in front of the hive, he saw the queen coming out, and the idea oceurred to him to catch her, and tie a very fine silk thread to one of her thighs. This he accomplished successfully; and as she began to asend,* the drones by which means these can act by pressure, in the interior of the body of the bee, upon the neighboring penis which is to be protruded.* "The following interesting experiment" (Parthenogenesis, p. 54) " was made by Berlepsch, in order to confirm the drone-predoestvenas of a virgin queen. He contrived the exclusion of queens at the end of September, 1964, and, therefore, at a time when there was no longer any male; he was backly enough to keep one of them through the Winter, and this produced drone-drypting on the 2d of March, in the following year, furnishing fifteen hundred cells with broad. That this drone-bearing queen translated a virgin, was peoved by the dissection which Leuckert undertook, at the request of Berlepsch. He found the state and contents of the seminal pouch of this queen to be exactly of the same nature as these fossil is virgin queens. The seminal receptacle in such families never contains cement-masses, with their characteristic spermatonsids, but only a limited fluid, dositits of cells and grannies, which is produced from the two spectacular glands of the seminal capsule; and, as I suppose, serves the purpose of keeping the semen transferred into the seminal capsule in a fresh state, and the spermatacids active, and, consequently, capsule of impregnation." By referring to pages 84, 86, the reader will see that Prof. Leidy dissected for me a drone-haying queen, nearly three years before this examination of Leuckert. Prof. Siebold, in 1943, examined the spermatacion of the queen-bee, and found it after compilation, filled with the seminal fluid of the drone. At that time, Arpitants paid no attention to his views, but considered them, as he says, to be only "theoretical stuff" It seems, then, that Prof. Leidy's dissection (pp. 84, 85) was not, as I had hitherto supposed, the first, of an impregnated spermaton. * Delieron supposed that, the sound of the queen's wings, when she is in the air, excites the drone. In the interior of the hive, they are never seen to notice collected around her in very large numbers. After remaining in the air a short time, she returned to the entrance of her hive, exhibiting to the spectators the organs of the drone still protruding from her body.
The queen usually begins laying about two days after impregnation, and for the first season, lays almost entirely the eggs of workers; no males* being needed in colonies which will throw no swarm till another season. She is seldom treated with much attention by the bees until after she has begun to replenish the cells with eggs; although if previously deprived of her, they show, by their despair, that they fully appreciated her importance to their welfare.
A first swarm will sometimes swarm again, about a month after it is lived; but in Northern climates this is a rare occurrence. In South-western Texas, I have known even second swarms to do the same thing, and colonies often swarm there in September and October, while in tropical climates, swarms issue at any season when forage is abundant. In our Northern and Middle States, swarming is usually over, three or four weeks after it begins. Inexperienced bee-keepers, unaware of this, often watch their Apiaries, long after the swarming season has passed.
I shall now, while giving such directions for living swarms as may aid even some experienced Apairians, attempt to make them sufficiently minute to guide those, her; so that she is not neglected, even if thousands are members of the same colony with herself.
* Huber supposed that male eggs were not developed in her ovaries until the second four; but as the sex depends upon the impregnation,of the agn, he was evidently mistaken. In warm climates, where after-swarms swarm again, drones are bred in large numbers in hives having young questions. The bee is evidently a native of a hot climate, although it can live wherever there is a Summer long enough for it to prepare for Winter. Its complete development, however, can be witnessed early in tropical regions, and I am persuaded that many things which, in colder climates, have been regarded as fixed laws, are only exceptional adaptations to unfavorable circumstances.
who, having never seen a swarm hived, are apt to imagine that the process must be quite formidable. Experience in this, as in other things, will speedily give then the requisite skill and confidence; and the cry of "the bees are swarming," will often be hailed with even greater pleasure than an invitation to a sumptuous banquet.
The hives for the new swarms should be painted long enough beforehand to be thoroughly dry. The smell of fresh paint is well known to be very injurious to human beings, and is so detested by bees, that they will often desert a new hive sooner than endure it. If the hives cannot be seasonally painted, paints should be used which contain no white-lead, and which are mixed so as to dry as quickly as possible.
The following recipe, taken from the Bienenzeitung, for a cheap and durable paint, for rough hives, is said to be preferable to oil paint: "Two parts, by measure, of fine sand, well sifted; one of best English cement"; one of eurd, from which the whey has been well expressed; one of buttermilk. These are to be thoroughly mixed. The paint is to be applied, amid repeated stirring, to the hives, by means of a common paint-brush. A second coat is to be given-after the lapse of half an hour. When this has become thoroughly dry, which will be in two or three days, it is to be brushed over lightly with a thin coat of boiled linseed oil, to which any desirable color may be given. The boards to which the paint is to be applied should not be planed, but remain rough as the saw leaves them. No more of the paint should be prepared at any one time, than can be used in the course of half an hour, as it quickly hardens. The hive may be used as soon as the paint stiffens,"
Hives that have stood in the sun, ought never to be used for new swarms. Bees, when they swarm, being unnaturally excited and heated, often refuse to enter such bives, and at best, are slow in taking possession of them. The temperature of the parent-stock, at the moment of swarming, rises very suddenly, and many bees are often so drenched with perspiration, that they are unable to take wing and join the emigrating colony.. To attempt to make swarming bees enter a heated hive in a blazing sun, is, therefore, as irrational as it would be to force a panting crowd of human beings into the suffoeating atmosphere of a close garret. If the process of living cannot be conducted in the shade, the hive should be covered with a sheet, or with leafy boughs.
In the movable-comb hive, the Aparian can use all his good worker-comb, by fastening it in the frames. Such, however, is the shape of the artificial guide-eombs in these frames, that the bees, even in an empty hive, will almost always build their combs with great regularity, if they are not furnished with too much empty room. I have, in a _fee instances_, known them to build their combs directly across, from frame to frame, so that they could not be removed without cutting them to pieces. This may easily be prevented, by attaching a piece of guide-comb to a single frame (see p. 72). While the hive should be set so as to ineline from rear to front, to shed the rain, there ought not to be the least pitch from _side to side_, or it will prevent the frames from hanging plumb, and -compel the bees to build crooked combs. Droeconhes should never be put in the frames, or the bees will follow the pattern, and build comb suitable only for breeding a horde of useless consumers. Such comb, if white, may be used to great advantage in the surplus honeyboxes; if old, it should be melted for wax.
Every piece of good worker-comb, if large enough to be attached to a frame, should be used, both for its intrinsic value, and because bees are so pleased when they find such unexpected treasures in a hivc, that they will seldom forsake it. A new swarm often takes possession of a deserted hivc, well stored with comb; whilst, if dozens of empty ones stand in the Apiary, they very seldom enter them of their own accord. It once seemed to me that an instinct impelling them to do so, would have been much better for us than the present arrangement; but further reflection has shown me that, on the contrary, it would have been the fruitful origin of interminable broils among neighboring bee-keepers; and that in this, as in so many other things, the instinets of the honey-bee have been devised with special reference to the welfare of man.
When the frames* are first used for a new swarm, the rabbets on which they rest should be smeared with flour-paste; this will keep the frames firm, till they are fastened with propolis by the bees. If hives are sweet and,clean, the rubbing of them with various kinds of herbs or washes, is always useless, and often positively injurious.
If there are no small trees or bushes near the Apiary, from which the swarms, when clustered, can be easily gathered, limbs of evergreen or other trees may be fastened into the ground, a few rods in front of the hives, which will answer a very good temporary purpose. If there are high trees near his stocks, the bee-master, unless some special precautions are used, will lose much time in hiving his swarms.
Having noticed that a new swarm will almost always alight wherever they see a mass of clustering bees, I find that they can be determined to some _selected_ spot by an old black hat, or even a mullen stalk, which, when colored black, can hardly be distinguished, at a distance, from a clustering swarm. A black woolen stocking or piece of cloth, fastened to a shady limb, in plain sight of the hives, and where the bees can be most conveniently lived, would probably answer as good a purpose. Swarms are not only attracted by the bee-like color of such objects, but are more readily induced to alight upon them, if they furnish something to which they can easily cling, the better to support their grape-like clusters. By proper precautions, before the first swarms issue, the bee-keeper may so educate his favorites that they will seldom alight anywhere but on the spot which he has previously selected.
The Rev. Thomas P. Hunt, of Wyoming, Penn, has devised an amusing plan, by which he says that he can, at all times, prevent a swarm of bees from leaving his premises. Before his stocks swarm, he collects a number of dead bees, and, stringing them with a needle and thread, as worms are strung for eatching eels, he makes of them a ball about the size of an egg, leaving a few strands loose. By carrying--fastened to a pole--this "_bee-body_," about his Apiary, when the bees are swarming; or by placing it in some central position, he invariably secures every swarm! It will inspire the inexperienced Apiarian with more confidence, to remember that almost all the bees in a swarm, are in a very peaceable mood, having filled themselves with honey before leaving the parent-stock. If he is timid, or suffers severely from the sting of a bee, he should, by all means, furnish himself with the protection of a bee-dress.
A new swarm should be hired as soon as they have quietly clustered around their queen ; although there is no necessity for the headlong haste practiced by some, which, by exciting profuse perspiration, increases their liability to be stung. Those who show so little self-possession, must not be surprised, if they are stung by the bees of other likes, which, instead of being gorged with honey, are on the alert, and very naturally mistake the object of such excited demonstrations. The fact that the swarm has clustered, makes it almost certain, that, unless the weather is very hot, or they are exposed to the burning heat of the sun, they will not leave for at least one or two hours. All convenient dispatch, however, should be used in living a swarm, lest it send out scouts, which may entice it from the new hive, or lest other colonies issue, and attempt to add themselves to it.
If my hives are used, the whole entrance should be opened, that the bees may get in as soon as possible ; and a sheet should be securely fastened to the alighting-board, to keep them from becoming separated, or soiled by dirt; for, if separated, they are a long time in entering ; and a bee covered with dust or dirt is very apt to persist. The common hives should be propped up on the sheet, in such a way as to give the bees the readiest admission.
When the limb on which the bees have clustered can be easily reached, it should be shaken, with one hand, so that they may gently fall into a basket held under them, with the other. The basket should be open sufficiently to admit the air freely, but not enough to allow the bees to get through its sides. They should now be gently shaken or poured out on the sheet, in front of their new home. If they seem at all reluctant to enter it, gently seoop up a few of them with a large spoon, and shake them close to its entrance. As they go in with fanning wings, they will raise a peculiar note, which communicates to their companions the joyful news that they have found a home ; and in a short time, the whole swarm will enter, without injury to a single bee.
When bees are once shaken down on the sheet, they are quite unwilling to take wing again ; for, being loaded with honey, they desire, like heavily-armed troops, to march slowly and sedutely to their place of encampment. Bees are much obstructed in their travel, by any _corner_, or great inequality of surface ; and if the sheet is not smoothly stretched, they are often so confused, that they take a long time to find the entrance to the hive. If they are too dilatory in entering the new hive, they may be gently separated, with a spoon, or leafy twig, where they gather in bunches on the sheet ; or, they may be carefully "spooned up," and emptied before the entrance of the hive. If they cluster in the portico of my hive, they should be treated in the same way ; or else the queen, mistaking this open place for her intended abode, may decamp with the bees.
On first shaking them down into the hiving-basket, some will take wing, and others will remain on the tree ; but if the queen has been secured, they will quickly form a line of communication with those on the sheet. If the queen has not been secured, the bees will either refuse to enter the hive, or will speedily come out, and take wing, to join her again. This happens oftenest with after-swarms, whose young queens, instead of exhibiting the gravity of an old matron, are apt to be frisking in the air. When the bees cluster again on the tree, the process of hiving must be repeated.
If the Apiarian has a pair of sharp pruning-shears, and the limb on which the bees have clustered is so small, that it can be cut without jarring then off, they may be gently carried on it to the hiving-sheet.
If the bees settle too high to be easily reached, the basket may be fastened to a pole, and raised directly under them ; when a quick upward push will secure most of the swarm. When the basket cannot be easily elevated to them, it may be carried to the cluster, and the be keeper, after shaking the bees into it, may gently lower it, by a string, to an assistant below.
When a colony allights on the trunk of a tree, or on anything from which they cannot easily be gathered in a basket, fasteu a leafy bough over them, without jarring, by a ginlet, and with a little smoke compel them to ascend it. If the place is inaccessible, they will enter a well-shaded basket, inverted, and elevated just above the mass of the bees. I once hived a neighbor's swarm which settled in a thieket, on the inaccessible body of a tree, by throwing water upon them, so as to compel them gradually to ascend the tree, and enter an elevated box. If proper alighting places are not furnished, the trouble of living a swarm will often be greater than its value.
Swarming bees make a singular hissing or whispering sound, which often causes other hives in the Apiary to swarm. This is a frequent occurrence with discouraged or dissatisfied stocks, and I have occasionally had swarms which had only immature queens in their hive issue, on hearing this sound. This peculiar swarming sound _may_ be produced merely by the great numbers of bees flying idly, at such times, to and fro in the air; but it seems to me to differ in its character, as it certainly does in its effect upon the bees, from the noise produced by the ordinary flight of busy workers, however numerous. My observations on this point, have satisfied me that those Apiarians are mistaken who deny to the bee the sense of hearing. This sense, on the contrary, seems to be acute. If the Apiarian fears that another swarm will issue, to unite with the one he is hiving, he may confine its queen with my movable-blocks; or he may quickly envelope the swarming hive with a sheet. If his new colony has been shaken upon the swarming-sheet, he may cover it from the sight of other swarms, with another sheet. The hive, with the new swarm, should be removed to its permanent stand as soon as the bees have entered; or the scouts, on their return, will find them, and will often entiee them to flee to the woods. There is the more danger of this, if the bees remained long on the tree before they were hired. I have almost invariably found that swarms which abandon a suitable hive for the woods, were hired near the spot where they clustered, the beeskeeper intending to remove them in the evening, or early next morning. Bees which swarm early in the day, will generally begin to range the fields in a few hours after they are hired, or even in a few minutes, if they have empty comb; and the fewest bees will be lost, when the hive is removed to its permanent stand, as soon as the bees have entered it. If it is desirable, for any reason, to remove the hive before all the bees have gone in, the sheet, on which the bees are lying, may be so folded that the colony can be easily carried to their new stand, where the bees may enter at their leisure.
Swarming and living.
Swarms sometimes come off when no suitable hives are in readiness to receive them. In such an emergency, hive then in any old box, cask, or measure, and place them, with suitable protection against the sun, where their new hive is to stand; when this is ready, they may, by a quick, jerking motion, be easily shaken out before it, on a hiving-sheet.
I have endeavored, even at the risk of being thought too minute, to give such directions as will qualify the novice to hive a swarm of bees, under almost any circumstances; knowing that however necessary, suitable information is seldom found even in the best treatises on beose keeping.
Vague or incomplete directions fail, at the very moment that the inexperienced attempt to put them into practice.
Natural swarming may, unquestionably, be made highly profitable; and as it is the most obvious way of multiplying colonies, and requires the least knowledge or skill, it will undoubtedly be the favorite method with most beelepers, for many years, at least. I shall, therefore, show how it may be conducted more profitably than ever, by the use of my hives; many of its most embarrassing difficulties being effectually obviated.
1. A serious objection to reliance on natural swarming, is the vexatious fact, that most swarming-hives are so constructed, that, although bees often refuse to swarm at all, they cannot furnish to their crowded occupants the proper accommodations for storing honey. Under such circumstances, hordes of useless consumers often blacken, for months, the outside of the hives, to the great loss of their disappointed owners. In the movable-comb hives, an abundance of storage-room can always be given to the bees; so that, if inclisposed to swarm, they have receptacles easily accessible, and made doubly attractive by empty comb, in which to store up any quantity of honey they can possibly gather.
2. Another objection to natural swarming arises from the disheartening fact, that bees are liable to swarm so often, as to destroy the value of both the parent-stock, and its after-swarms. Experienced bee-keepers obviate this difficulty, by making one good colony out of two second swarms, and returning to the parent-stock all swarms after the second, and even this if the season is far advanced. Such operations often consume more time than they are worth. By removing all the queen-cells but one, after the first swarm has left, second swarming may be prevented in my hives; and by removing all but two, provision may be made for the issue of second swarms, and yet all further swarming be prevented. After-swarms, in many instances, have to be returned again and again, before one queen is allowed by the bees to destroy the others. In this way, a large part of the gathering season is wasted; as bees often seem unwilling to work with their wanted energy, so long as the pretensions of several rival queens are unsettled.1