The sea coast echo., 1907-08-24
WONDERS OF BEE LIFE.
How swarmin0 May BE Controlled
Bees Manage Better than Keepers.

HeW SWarmino May Be controlleo--
Bees Manage Better than Keepers.
As to the populous colonies Of bees
swarming more than the others. there
ts no doubt about room they need in
time. or Ii they are left exposed to
the direct rays Of the sun, or il their
entrance room is inadequate to their
requirements for travel and ventila-
ton, or IL they are allowed to rear too
large quantity of drones, which annoy
them by their bulk. There are many
things to be considered on this Ques-
ton of swarming, and 1t may be al
most entirely prevented II properly at
tended to. Ventilating Is. believe,
one of the points In bee keeping that
is not understood or given the attea-
ton 1t should receive. My plan for
yentilating my bees is as follows: Raise
the front end of the hive; slip under
the two front corners one inch blocks.
This gives the incoming bees easy ac-
cess to the hive and also supplies the
colony with ample ventilation. Top
or bottom ventilation of hives has been
vexed question with me, and anu
not sure on this point now, but l have
come to this conclusion: II such bot
tom ventilation is given, little at the
top is needed; and If much top ventil-
alton, little at the bottom. / am In
clined to large opening at the bot
tom and none at the top, for the rea-
son that it seems to preserve the nat
ural heat of the cluster.
So far as l can see with our pres
ent knowledge, l should say that
swarming is a succession of events:
First the lack of space, or rather
empty cells, prevents the queen from
laying sufficient number OF eggs
Then the young bees, having more lar
val food on hand than the queen and
the brood can consume, begin cell cups
to store it. Eventually, as the space
gets scarce, eggs are deposited in
these cups and queens are reared. BY
and by the queen gets excited by the
presence of the cells. The excitement
and dissatisfaction are communicated
to the bees, which finally swarm out,
taking away the queen with them.
do not think that the queen leads or
even starts the swarm herself. What
she does is to destroy the queen cells.
But when the tumult of swarming oc-
ours she goes out with the rest. When
a swarm issues with clipped queen,
if no one is by to see the swarm, or IL
there is no alley trap to catch the
queen, the queen will come out and
try to go with the swarm; not being
able to do so, she will generally crawl
back into the hive. The swarm Will
usually return to the hive when they
find there is no queen with them; but
sometimes they may return to the
wrong hive. Then the swarm may is-
sue in a day or two again, and If they
are left entirely to themselves In about
eight days from the time of the first
swarm a young queen will be Matched
out and the old swarm will have killed
the old queen. The young queen Will
then go with the swarm.
Bees are smarter than beekeepers,
and when they undertake to cut out
queen cells they do not miss any. So
you can manage to get them to cut out
the cells without missing any and with
much less time on the beekeepers
part. When the prime swarm issues,
put It on the old stand, setting the
mother colony beside it. In five to
seven days remove the mother colony
to a. new location, and the field bees
will desert 1t and join the swarm. The
depletion and the fact that no honey Is
coming in discourages any idea of fur
their swarming, and all cells are de-
stroyed after the young queen
emerges, or if any are left they are
destroyed after emerging.
A marvellous phase of bee life Is the
power which they possess to raise the
queens, or mother bees, from eggs or
very young brood that would in the
ordinary course produce workers.
which are neuters, or undeveloped fe-
males. If by any chance a queen is
killed or lost, the whole colony would
perish were it not for this wonderful
provision of nature. Much perturbed
at first at their loss, the bees after
some hours settle down and deliberate
ly build pear-shaped structure, known
as a queen CELL This is much larger
than an ordinary cell, rough. irregu-
lar and strong.
In this the selected eggs, or larvae,
are lavishly supplied with royal jelly"
which is highly stimulatfve and in
which the baby queen literally floats
during her period of growth. The re-
suit is that certain organs and ovaries
which remain dormant in worker
bee are perfected, and the new queen
matches out in about fifteen days, or
six days sooner than the workers.-F.
C. Herman in the New York Tribune
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