The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1878-05-14 00:00:00

APIARY.

Pummel. 824-1111111140 —May may he considered one
of the busiest month. for the bees and their owners. At
the timisl ant writing the orchards and gardens are ow
with the fruit blossoms, among which myriads of bass are
culling their sweet plunder to supply their daily wants of
their increasing family and to lay up store forth, future.
Sawing and swarming are the order of the day, and to
the latter I would now direct attention. Natural swarms
are generally foretold by the bees hanging out of the hive
In • dense cluster, from the aimple reason that within.
doors is too crowded to be comfortable, and the instinct
of the bees tells them it is time to start this colony.
Although the bees may hang out. • 0/widarabla delay
often occurs before the all-important exodus Mks. place,
and it becomes vexatious to the bee-coaster to wait in
expectation so long, and then perhaps after all Ices the
swarm from accidental absence at the right moment.
This disappointment may be easily avoided by making a
forced swarm by the simple operation of driving, eci often
described and now known to most people who make any
pretence of managing their bees. Instead of welting two
or three weeks in endow expectation for the swarm,
half-an-hour's work at driving will attain the desired end,
and the forced swarm set comfortably to work on its
proper stand. The users of f nune-hives can make their
swarms in still lass time by simply
_shaking the begs from
the combs into the new hive, placed on the stand of the
stand of the old one, where it may be allowed to remain
or be removed to a distal:ma after rundown. In the
former tam • new position most be found for the wren
stack, and in the latter it should be shut up until Its obi
plus is vacant, which it may Man re-appropriate. Where
much hooey is desired it is bad policy to en
exasedire swarming, and, indeed, at most timr
advisable in making so artificial swarm to take from the
gnawing tha whole of the mature Wee which should
make a strong swarm, and removing another Perilous
Mock to • new locality, fill the vacant place with the hive
from which the Wes have just been removed. The bass
who are abroad return of owns to their old spot, take
readily to the new order of things, and build gown cells
at once to replace their lost sovereign. Ten or twelve
days afterwards it will be men that this hive hw
number of coils containing young queens shame reedy to
hatch, and then if the bee-minter has more hives from
which he obtains swarms, the surplus queen cells may be
among them, saying 10 or 11 days of queenlesa-
ama in the height of the mason. To uansplant • queen
cell it la only necessary to cut it out with • small
trisagulm pieoe of comb attached, and graft this in •
comb of the selected stock. Grant cam should be taken
not to injure the cell, ss if ever so slightly bruised the
Wary will probably prove fatal. When the bare are :
allowed to have their own will and swarm naturally, the :
risk of losing them by temporally absence may be avoided
he cutting the queen • wings on one side ; la this event,
idiot the queen issues she is unable to rim in !IWO. and
falls to the ground, or on a low shrub, where the swarm
will nataralY gat/wand probably remain. If they 'Wald. :
however. Warn to the:lA.lEo°r wean must not be I
forXotra
,and she will be found with a little
knot of followers fel ul an death ; she will now I
require carrying back, and will most likely again come
out with a swarm next day. If the bee-keeper expects I
new swarms to do well, they should be steadily if the
weather following the swarming should be for we I
must not forget they have coma from a house plenty
to one where the cupboard is bare—and if they can get no
supply abroad, combs cannot be built or bellies filled. li'
is astonishing how much a swarm deriadlas before the :
tirst young bees are hatched to replace the dead. At this
time of the year bees work very hard and die hist: it may
be safely asserted that the individuals of a May swarm
Muses steered/ sever "Melee six weak' to that It will
at once be apparent If time be lost in commencing breed-
ing bow fatally it acts on the well-doing of the stock. A
swarm tube styled a good one should weigh 41b. ; Istb. Is
better. sad not an macs too mach. Straw steps of the
eiss commonly used seldom throw such desirable weighty
swarm& and where they are small it is far bettas to put
two together than start two colonies with spares popula-
tions ; the firit will probably do well with little atten-
tion; the latter etre a world of trouble, and only in
exceptional C• 1141 are ever prosperous. Artificial
swarming hare shows advantageously, as the strength of
the swarm can be regulated at will, for If the hive
operated on be not strong awash to give • lib. swarm it
bad better be left alone. Sayers of swarms would do well
to buy their bees by weight. In and near London for
00013D011 Smash bees Is, a ponied is • fair and usual price,
while in more rural &grids St. Id. will go as fm. halim
bees have • market value nearly double the above. My
own Wee am all Italians, and 1 lixo often questioned as to
their eeperkettr WIC the natives, My reply je that y
beam then be be a better variety for working and
hmadoriciamindent of which the/ are handsomer ; and
eel sell their swarm I safer the stock that
movieb.. Bebe la the Joha Kaaba'.
As lit Careaiela
• .