u 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mail 



them a queen or a frame of brood in the new 

 hive, as in artificial swarming, and 

 make them go to work at something. You 

 can do it every time, although it may be a 

 few days before they get over their stub- 

 bornness, and get to work fully. Sometimes 

 a very large, new swarm will hang out, and 

 refuse to work. I have several times made 

 such go in and attend to business, simply by 

 the use of a smoker. If bees hang put dur- 

 ing the hot weather of Aug., after honey has 

 ceased coming, you can still set them to 

 work by feeding, but unless you want more 

 colonies, more combs built out, or can rear 

 queens for sale, it may not pay to try to keep 

 them at work. Towards night, after very 

 sultry days, bees will sometimes hang out so 

 as to cover their hives, and there may be no 

 harm in allowing them to do this, although I 

 should prefer to have them better occupied 

 by doing something in doors. A really en- 

 ergetic colony will often be at work rearing 

 brood at such a time, if they are gathering 

 honey enough. Bees should always have 

 room enough during the working season, to 

 prevent their being crowded out, but we 

 should not go to the opposite extreme, and 

 give them so much that they feel cold drafts 

 in their hive, and cannot keep up the requi- 

 site heat for comb building and brood rearing. 



preparations for swarming, to be made 

 by the bee-keeper. 

 Every apiarist, even if he have but a cou- 

 ple of hives, should make preparations for 

 swarming, at least to some extent; for, even 

 though artificial swarming is practiced, and 

 the utmost care used to prevent any other, 

 there will always be a chance that swarms 

 may come out unexpectedly. Hives should 

 be in readiness, and at least one should be 

 fixed on the stand where you wish your next 

 colony placed. Bank it round with sawdust, 

 and fix it just as nice and level, as if it con- 

 tained bees. Have some extra combs if pos- 

 sible, and have them placed in the honey 

 house where you can put your hand on 

 them at any minute ; I would also have some 

 hives where I could get a comb of unsealed 

 larvae, without very much trouble ; that is, 

 make up your mind what hive you are to go 

 to, in case you should want such a comb in 

 a hurry. Bees will often swarm on Sunday, 

 and as we would not wish to work with our 

 bees on the Sabbath more than is absolutely 

 necessary, it behooves us to be at all times 

 prepared to take care of a swarm, should it 

 come, with very little trouble. I can re- 

 member having swarms on Sunday, when it 

 became necessary to hunt up a hive, decide 



on its location, hunt up some empty combs, 

 and then look over my hives to see where 

 there was one with no surplus boxes on, that 

 I might get at a brood comb with as little 

 trouble as possible, to put in the new hive, 

 to prevent them from decamping. All these 

 things take time, and more than one swarm 

 has departed while a hive was being made 

 ready to receive them. If you keep the 

 wings of your queens clipped as I have ad- 

 vised, you will need some queen cages where 

 you can lay your hands on them at a min- 

 ute's notice, for there are times when you 

 need to step about as lively as you would if 

 a house were on fire, and you do not want to 

 be bothered by hunting for things. 



In our June No. for last year, N. N. Shep- 

 ard, of Cochranton, Pa., gave us a plan of an 

 apparatus for hiving swarms, with some ex- 

 cellent instructions for using it. One of our 

 hands uses an apparatus for catching 

 swarms, as shown below. 



=£ 



The hoop is made of stout wire, and is 

 about 20 inches in diameter. The ends are 

 soldered into a tin socket that will receive a 

 rake handle, or for tall trees, something still 

 longer. The bag is to be put up under the 

 swarm, and the hoop is then made to gently 

 cut off the cluster so that the bees will fall 

 into the bag. It is then turned edgewise, so 

 as to confine them while it is taken down 

 and carried to the hive. As the bag is made 

 of cheese cloth, they have plenty of air. To 

 get the bees out, turn it inside outward. The 

 bag has the same diameter as the hoop, and 

 is about four feet long. The whole appara- 

 tus would cost about 75c. This machine an- 

 swers very well, where the cluster hangs 

 straight downward, but where they get 

 among the small limbs of trees, and in in- 

 convenient places, the basswood box is the 

 handiest, and I am inclined to give it the 

 preference, as a general thing. In the en- 

 graving which we gave last year, the handle 

 was represented as being put in the end of 

 the box; Mr. Shepard writes that it should 

 be put in the side, as shown below. 



siiepard's htvtng box for swarms. 



