April 25, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



261 



Contributed Articles, i 



No. 3.— Practical Lessons for Beginners In Bee- 

 Culture. 



BY J. D. GEHRING. 

 iConliaued from pajfe 230.) 



••XTTELL, Mr. Bond," I continued, "you notice there is 

 Yy a piece of heavy, strong muslin as a cover on the 

 top of the super resting on the frames of the hive. 

 That cover is necessary because without it the bees would 

 get out into the space under the hive-cover and around the 

 super. Of course, you understand, when there are two or 

 more supers on a hive we put the cover on the topmost. I 

 use muslin instead of oilcloth, because muslin lets the 

 moisture and some of the surplus heat escape, and oilcloth 

 does not. 



" Now, before we can do anything inside the hive this 

 super must be removed. I have seen bee-keepers who would 

 first blow smoke under the muslin cover into the super to 

 make the bees go down into the hive, but I don't do that 

 because when driven down they are in the way. 



"Well,! declare, if there isn't a swarm coming out 

 yonder 1" 



With this exclamation I started on the run toward the 

 hive casting the swarm, bidding Mr. Bond to follow me. 



Arriving at the hive I stoopt over and shoved the en- 

 trance-blocks toward each other, thus contracting the 

 entrance-space. Mr. Bond was of course curious to know 

 why I did this, and I explained thus : 



" I do this in this case because I don't want the swarm 

 to get out so fast — they were rolling out by the pint, you 

 noticed. The object is this : As there is only a small 

 space for the bees to come out thru, it takes the swarm a 

 long time to get out, and those that are out first get tired 

 flying around. The queen is usuall)' out with the first 

 quarter of the swarm, and is flying around with those that 

 are out, but, as she isn't used to much exercise, she is 

 sooner tired out than the others, and hence, instead of wait- 

 ing for the rest of the swarm, alights on a convenient 

 branch of a bush or tree to rest, and the swarm clusters 

 there, completely covering the queen. If there is a large 

 bee-space, however, the bees will all get out in about two 

 minutes, and, being fresh on the wing, and excited, they 

 will fly off in a body, sometimes quite a distance away, and 

 then cluster away up in a tall tree, where you need a long 

 ladder and a rope and a saw, or an ax, to get them. 



" Now, watch this swarm," I said to Mr. Bond. "You 

 see they are flying around near the hive as tho they didn't 

 know what to do. They do that because they are waiting 

 for the rest of the swarm to join them. There I they are 

 settling on that apple-tree, on a limb low down. Now, I'll 

 show you how /hive a swarm of bees," I said to Mr. Bond, 

 pronouncing the personal pronoun with strong emphasis, 

 to remind him of /lis way. 



" Now, Mr. Bond," I continued, "the first thing in 

 order in this case is to move this brood-chamber far enough 

 away to make room for the hive I'm going to put in its 

 place. First, however, I open it and take the super off. It 

 is nearly full of honey or I would leave it on. You see I 

 figure to economize strength. The fact is, in my case this 

 is necessary because, as you know, I'm not very strong — 

 my left arm is nearly useless for lifting on account of par- 

 tial paralysis. 



" Why do you reverse the hive?" queried Mr. Bond, 

 after we had moved it to its new place. 



"Because," I replied, " if I don't do it the entrance 

 would be facin;,'- the same way it did before, and thousands 

 of the bees, as they come in from the fields, would enter the 

 old hive. But I don't want them there, but in the hive the 

 swarm is in. 



" But we must now hasten to get the new hive in order 

 and put it in position where the old one stood. We can 

 never know how long a swarm will stay where they settle. 

 You see, this is not the usual time of day for bees to swarm. 

 A swarm that will do one thing out of the usual order can't 

 be trusted not to do something else that is unusual. 



" Now," I said, when the new hive had been placed, 

 " we will take a look inside and see that everything is in 

 working order. This hive has eight frames in it, you see, 



every alternate one filled with three-quarter sheets of 

 comb foundation. The others are empty, because, when 

 the swarm is very large, like the one we are now dealing 

 with, it completely fills the hive. In a short time it be- 

 comes so hot inside that, when there are sheets of founda- 

 tion in each frame, some, and often all of them, get so soft 

 that they collapse to the bottom of the hive. But when 

 only half of the frames are filled with foundation sheets 

 the bees have more room and more air, and the accident 

 mentioned doesn't happen. But now we will get that 

 swarm." 



The swarm was secured by standing upon a box, taking 

 a firm hold of the small limb at the end of which most of 

 the bees were clustered, getting hold with my left hand just 

 back of the cluster, and then cutting the limb off carefully 

 with a large and very sharp pocket-knife. Great care had 

 to be taken, of course, not to jar the limb in the act of cut- 

 ting, and thus dislodge the cluster. 



"Now," I said to Mr. Bond, as I was yet standing upon 

 the box with the limb in my hand, " as you are taking prac- 

 tical lessons in bee-keeping, suppose you take hold as near 

 my hand as you can and carry these bees over to the hive. 

 You needn't be afraid if they crawl on your hand, they'll 

 not sting you." 



Mr. i5ond did as requested, a little timidly, to be sure, 

 but successfully. "Now just lay the limb down carefully 

 in front of the hive, and as close as possible to the en- 

 trance, and then watch them run in,'' I said. 



"And is that all there is to it ?" askt Mr. Bond, look- 

 ing surprised, and, I thought, a little disappointed. 



" By that you mean, I suppose, that tliere is much more 

 to it when you hive a swarm of bees," I replied. "Well, I 

 have a much more simple and easy way than even this. 

 But I will tell you about it some other time. 



" There is an important secret, however, about this 

 swarming business that you ought to know before you hive 

 any more swarms in the way you learned of your father. I 

 think if you examine all the hives standing around under 

 trees and hedge fences on your farm you will discover that 

 some of them are empty, and I can explain why : 



" When a swarm of bees issues from a hive, and the 

 queen has selected a place, or location, foi it to cluster, a 

 lot of bees which we call a ' scouting party,' composed of a 

 hundred or more, immediately leave the cluster to find a 

 new home. This advance party usually goes to the nearest 

 piece of timber-land where they look for, and usually find, 

 a suitable cavity in a tree, which they examine and proceed 

 to clean out, if found large enough. This is known as a 

 fact, because bee-hunters have been misled by such pro- 

 ceedings into believing that a bee-tree had been found. 



" One such case occurred in the bee-hunting experience 

 of a brother of mine. On looking up into a tree for signs 

 of bees, he saw a large number flying in and out at a hole 

 in the trunk, as tho busily at work in the usual manner of 

 a colony. He then set to work to mark the tree as his prop- 

 erty — or the bees, rather — by cutting the initials of his 

 name and the date of the discovery in the bark of the tree. 

 While thus engaged he suddenly heard a great noise of 

 humming, as of a swarm of bees above him, and looking 

 up he saw a large swarm in the act of entering the hollow 

 in the tree. 



" This, and like observations by experienced bee-men, 

 has led to the theory of the ' scouting party,' and also to 

 the belief that when these pioneers have the selected home 

 about ready for occupation thej' either return to the swarm 

 in a body, or else a detachment onlj- goes back, to escort 

 the swarm to the new home. This is doubtless the reason 

 why a clustered swarm will sometimes very suddenly depart 

 for the woods while the bee-keeper is actually engaged in 

 hiving it. And, sometimes, such a swarm will leave a 

 beautiful and well-furnisht hive soon after being put there. 



" O, I know this very much resembles a ' fish-story, ' " 

 I said, noticing a skeptical smile on Mr. Bond's face. 

 "But I can give you substantiating facts from my own 

 experience : 



" One day last year a neighbor a few blocks away sent 

 word that a swarm of bees had settled on the limb of a 

 peach-tree standing near his woodshed in the back yard, 

 and that if I wanted it I should come and get it. Taking 

 ;ny swarm-box, specially made for such occasions to secure 

 and carry the bees home in, I went over to my neighbor's 

 vard. The swarm was a large one, and hung over the 

 wood-shed roof within easy reach. I took my box and 

 limbed upon the roof, and, holding the open end of the box 

 lirectly under the cluster, I was just in the act of reaching 

 p to give the limb a shake when I heard, directly above 

 my head, a loud buzzing noise as of a small swarm of bees. 



