SWARMING. 



430 



SWARMING. 



in the absence of an apiarist or attendant ; 

 and since out-apiaries have begun to as- 

 sume such importance wliere the produc- 

 tion of honey is carried on extensively, 

 some sort of device that will hive automat- 

 ically the swarms — yes, do the work just as 

 well as if the apiarist were present himself 

 is some thing greatly to be desired. A great 

 many devices have been introduced; but 

 most of them have been proven to be more 

 or less a failure. 



The general plan contemi>lates some 

 scheme having an empty hive placed near 

 the colony expected to swarm. This empty 

 hive may be alongside, in front, or below the 

 other one. In the case of the tirst-men- 



CARRYING A CAPTURED SWAKM ON BICYCLE. 



tioned plan, an entrance-guard is placed in 

 front of each hive; and connecting the two 

 is a tube of wire cloth or perforated zinc. 

 When the swarm comes forth, the queen, 

 finding herself barred by the perforated 

 metal, runs along until she finds the tube 

 communicating with the entrance-guard of 

 the other hive. In this tube she runs up 

 against a bee-escape or wire cloth cone. She 



passes this; but, 1 eing unable to return, is 

 compelled to enter the entrance-guard of 

 the new hive. Upon discovering that the 

 queen is not with them, the bees lush back 

 to the old stand; a part of them find the 

 queen in front of the new hive, enter with 

 the queen and " setup house-keeping." But 

 the plan fails, because the majority fail to 

 tind her, and re-enter the parent colony. See 

 page 423. 



We have tried these i)lans to some extent, 

 but, taking every thing into due considera- 

 tion, consider it cheaper and more practic- 

 able to hive the swarm on the clipped-wing 

 plan, or, better, practice bri:shed-swarming, 

 as described further on. 



now TO II1\E SWAUMS WITHOUT SI'ECIAL 



DEVICES. 



If the apiary is located in a locality wliere 

 there are no tall trees, l)ut only low-grow- 

 ing shrubbery, or, at most, dwarf fruit-trees, 

 or, better still, if the wings of all queens are 

 clipped, the special tools we have already 

 described will not be found absolutely nec- 

 essary, and perhaps not even a convenience, 

 if we except Manum's arrangement. Our 

 own apiary, illustrated in connection with 

 some of the factory engravings shown in 

 the picture-gallery at the close of this v\ork, 

 you will notice contained no tr( es. Out- 

 skirting it are rows of bushy evergieens 

 I hrnishing absolutely the only place for the 

 I tees to cluster in the immediate vicinity of 

 the apiary besides grapevines in the apiary 

 itself. Rarely do we have swarms cluster- 

 ing elsewhere. When a swarm alights on 

 one of the two places just mentioned we se- 

 lect a frame of unsealed larvae, the use of 

 which has been i reviously anticipated. As 

 the swarm is but rarely more than four or 

 live feet from the ground, this frame is gen- 

 tly thrust among the bees. A large major- 

 ity of them will very soon lodge upon the 

 frame. This together with the adhering 

 bees is placed in a hive on the shady side of 

 the evergreen or grapevine, in company 

 with three or four more frames. Those 

 btes which have already clustered on the 

 frames will begin to call their companions; 

 and as soon as a few bees find the entrance, 

 they announce their discovery by the usual 

 humming of the wings. Fut an enamel 

 sheet over the hive, and brush the bees out 

 of the way with a bunch of grass so the 

 cover can be shut down without killing any. 

 The hive is then left until the bees have all 

 entered, then they are removed to their per- 

 manent location in the apiary before they 

 have had time to tix a location. 



