by David Cardillo, DDNP Staff
Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.), 20 May 1908. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
The May 20, 1908 edition of the Evening Journal contained the 11th article on what appears to have been a fairly new trend at the time: bee keeping. This particular article is about bee-havior, specifically swarming behavior. It seems a swarm will form when a new queen is hatched or in the area. There is a technique, or at least was in 1908, where a bee keeper would capture a queen, clip her wings, and leave her on the ground a short distance away. The bees in the current hive would swarm to her and begin to establish a new hive while the keeper would then get the old hive and move it to a new location. It seems the bees would then see this as a “new” hive and would re-inhabit it, especially if the keeper had another queen or managed to place the first young queen into it. Some keepers likely increased their supply of bees this way, while others were more than content to simply keep continuity with the bees they already had and simply replace a dead queen. The article warns that bees don’t typically swarm more than once, especially if the swarm splits, as this then yields two weakened swarms that likely are too small to produce honey. This would speculatively have an impact on the local environment as, via the lens of environmental science more than 100 years later, a weakened swarm too weak to produce honey would also be too weak to pollinate and cross-pollinate the local flora, allowing some plant species to disappear from a particular area.
So, bee kind if one of these insects is buzzing about, and bee careful if you are allergic to stings from them.
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