1889 



(MEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



361 



few hours. For many years I have not had an op- 

 portunity to observe the time, nor have I taken 

 special pains to experiment in this direction. 



Geo. Grimm. 



a. From 2 p. M. to 10 a. m., when the weather was 

 pleasant. If a storm comes on during the night 

 they hang till they starve, or a pleasant day comes, 

 b. I have known of their going off without cluster- 

 ing at all. When they do cluster it is a rare thing 

 that they stay less than half an hour. 



G. M. Doolittle. 



T knew a swarm to settle on a gooseberry bush 

 and stay there until they had built combs and 

 hatched bees. They were then hived and worked 

 well in the hive. The queen's wing was not cut. 

 I have known a swarm to cluster and stay 24 hours, 

 and then go off. I have known swarms to go to the 

 woods, right from the hive, without clustering at 

 all. E. France. 



What queer creatures we are! Notwithstanding 

 long experience with hundreds of swarms, I don't 

 know that T can answer either question precisely. 

 Bees which come out without being seen, I often 

 discover when they start to go off. This is often 

 the next morning, about the time it gets to be nije 

 and warm and dry. From the nature of the case, 

 the exact number of hours can not often be told. 

 And how am I to know but that in some cases they 

 may have huDg waiting for two nights? I think 

 three or four days has been reported. Sometimes 

 they stay always, and build comb, and continue 

 camping out until the winter kills them off ; but I 

 have never had such a case. As to b, I dimly re- 

 member a big swarm that alighted in the pear-tree 

 after I was tired and disgusted with swarms. I con- 

 tinued reading for a little while before going to at- 

 tend to them; and when 1 went, lo, they were gone! 

 If you will take the number of minutes a body 

 reads when he just reads a little while, and subtract 

 the number of minutes they had been gone when I 

 looked— why, that will save me the trouble. If we 

 take prime swarms inside of half an hour after they 

 become quiet we shall not lose many, I think. 



E. E. Hasty. 



One or two speak of swarms remaining 

 where they cluster, not only lor several 

 hours, but for days, weeks, and months. In 

 California it is very common for them to 

 build comb right where the swarm alights, 

 and stay there permanently ; but I believe 

 that Prof. Cook and E. France are the only 

 ones who say they have kuown a swarm not 

 to alight at all. Where they have selected a 

 location before swarming, I think quite a 

 good many go straight from the hive to the 

 hollow tree. The reason why so little is said 

 about cases of this kind is because nobody 

 sees them at all. 



Question 122.— When do you prefer to hive a 

 swarm— as soon as possible niter it ixsue*, and before 

 nil hare clustered, or after all have fully settled, or some 

 time after, settling? 



As soon as they have settled. E. France. 



As soon as possible after it issues. 



Geo. Grimm. 

 Just as soon as the majority are clustered. 



P. L. VlALLON. 



As soon as they have fully settled. 



Mrs. L. Harrison. 

 Just as soon as possible after they issue. 



H. R. Boardman. 



I prefer to hive a swarm immediately after they 

 have fully settled. C. F. Muth. 



The hiving succeeds both ways; but it is a little 

 easier after all the bees have settled. 



Dadant & Son. 



If not expecting other swarms, I prefer to allow 

 nearly all to cluster, but I do not consider this at all 

 material. O. O. Poppleton. 



As soon as convenient, after all or nearly all have 

 clustered. Generally, though, I make them return 

 and hive themselves. James A. Green. 



I have had so little experience that I don't know; 

 but I suspect it may be best to hive them just as 

 soon as they are fully settled. C. C. Miller. 



I should prefer to hive a swarm as soon as possi- 

 ble after it issues. The most of my swarms cluster 

 in a hive on the old stand. I keep one wing of all 

 fertile queens clipped. A. B. Mason. 



If I had a natural swarm I would secure them in 

 the hive as soon as I could after they had settled; 

 but I am not an advocate of natural swarming. If 

 I had a box hive I would practice a better method. 



L. C. Root. 



I prefer to catch the queen, whose wing is always 

 clipped, and let the bees hive themselves. They 

 usually come back in less than one hour, often in 

 ten or fifteen minutes. They rarely fail, however, 

 to cluster. A. J. Cook. 



I prefer to hive a swarm after nearly all the bees 

 have clustered, under ordinary circumstances. The 

 kind of bees and the alighting-place have some- 

 thing to do with it; also your method of hiving; 

 just the right amount of fine sprinkling helps won- 

 derfully. James Heddon. 



I aim to hive bees as soon as they have clustered 

 enough so that my working will not prevent their 

 settling; or, rather, I place my swarming-box 

 among the bees and let them enter so as to be car- 

 ried, as soon as settled, to the hive, thus lessening 

 the danger of other swarms joining them. 



R. Wilkin. 



When I get ready. As all of my queens have 

 their wings clipped, I can hold them in the cluster 

 as long as I please. I have many times had them 

 get tired of my motions, uncluster, and go off, 

 leaving the queen banging in a large wire-cloth 

 cage to a limb or swarming-pole; but they soon 

 came back and clustered with the queen again. 

 If I did not clip my queens I should hive the swarm 

 as soon as two-thirds of the bees had clustered, if I 

 could get to it as soon as this. G. M. Doolittle. 



Don't try to make beds before people get up, nor 

 to hive bees before they have had their flurry out. 

 It would probably be a little better to keep them 

 waiting awhile; but the difference is so trifling, and 

 the danger of losing them so serious, that no time 

 should be lost after all are quiet. In my own prac- 

 tice I often make them wait until nearly sundown 

 before they are hived, when so many swarms come 

 out that I have not time to attend to them. This I 

 can readily do, as I always keep a plenty of little 

 pits in the ground handy by, into which I can chuck 

 them; and the baskets in which 1 take swarms all 

 have legs tacked on to them. When things work 

 just right, most of the swarm alights on the basket 

 in the first instance, and never on the limb at all. 



E. E. Hasty. 



Quite unanimous. Friend Hasty, how- 

 ever, says, " Don't be in a hurry."" I have 



