FEBRUARY 1, 1915 



117 



they would work better; but the average 

 beekeeper does uot keep bees that way. 



If 1 have any advice to offer a beginner it 

 would be: (iet a standard hive that suits 



yon, and then stick to it. It may not be the 

 best, but it will doubtless be better than to 

 keep changing. 

 Middlebury, Vt. 



BRINGING BEES HOME IN A SHIRT 



HY WM. ROSEMERGEY 



One day last month a friend and I went 

 out to find a bee-tree. We got up on the 

 mountain about two miles and walked right 

 up to a swarm on a little sapling. I tried to 

 cut it off near the ground ; but when nearly 

 cut through it went over and the bees all 

 fell to the ground. They seemed quite cross, 

 so I scattered a little thin honey on them 

 and retired for a little while. About fifty 

 yards away we found a big hemlock cut 

 down, and saw that some one had taken the 

 honey. So we came to the conclusion that 

 our swarm had come from there. 



We went back to look at the bees. They 

 were in tlie air, but soon settled on the bark 

 of a tree about six feet from the gi'ound. 

 My friend wanted that swarm of bees, but 

 we did not know how to get them off, and 

 had nothing to put them in unless we could 

 get them into a shirt (I carried one swarm 

 four miles in a shirt three yetivs ago). 



Well, to begin opei'ations I took my bee- 

 Imnting feeder, scooped a few bees off the 

 tree, and found the queen. Then I clipped 

 her wing and set her and a few bees in tfie 

 feeder on a limb where I wished them to 

 settle; but the bees flew back to the tree, and 

 the queen fell to the ground. I picked her 

 up and replaced her and a few bees on the 

 limb. This time she got out and I did not 

 see her. I soon saw that she was gone, 

 however; and, without moving my feet, I 

 stooped down and began looking for her 

 among the leaves. The bees also joined in 

 the search and closed in around me. My 

 friend said he thought they would swarm on 



my head ; so, not wanting that experience, 

 I stood up, and, to my surprise, the bees 

 were clustering on my legs and body. 

 Crawling ujDward they got around my neck. 

 1 imagined I looked like a picture I saw in 

 (Ileanings some time ago. 



My companion began looking for the 

 (i|ueen on my clothing. My coat was oft', and 

 niy vest open. He finally saw her go into 

 the inside pocket of my vest, so I thought 

 the best thing to do was to try to get the 

 \ est off, which I succeeded in doing by 

 being very careful not to hurt the bees. 

 Then I hung the vest on the end of a limb 

 and stepped back a few paces, when the 

 bees soon left me and went to the vest. In 

 a little while all was quiet. My friend took 

 off his open-front shirt. We tied a knot in 

 each sleeve, and, holding two cornel's each, 

 got under the vest, brought the four corners 

 together at the top, and that swarm was 

 fed and clothed without giving us a sting. 



On June 4 I opened a four-fi'ame nucleus 

 to cut out some cells, but had made a mis- 

 take of one day, as a queen had hatched and 

 three cells were torn open. The queen was 

 removed from one; the next was dead in 

 her cell, and the newly hatched queen was in 

 the act of stinging the third when I got my 

 eyes on her. She was in just about the same 

 position as a queen depositing an egg in a 

 cell. I rescued the queen in the cell, i^ut a 

 little wax on the hole, and caged the cell 

 with three others, and they all hatched in a 

 dav or two. 



Mayfield, Pa. 



A NUMBER OF PRACTICAL WAYS OF USING THE BEE=ESCAPE BOARD 



BY J. C. PARKS 



As a super-cover T find the bee-escape 

 board with a %-inch rim as regularly made 

 by bee-supply manufacturers to be more 

 satisfactory than the regular super-cover or 

 a wire-screen super-cover. The former is 

 too fragile and too easily warped out of 

 shape, and the latter is always so glued to 

 the frames with propolis that in prying it 

 off one soon bends the screen and destroys 

 the bee-space. 



If the beekef'jx'r wants a sealed covei- he 

 can just lay a small piece of tin or tliin 



wood over the hole; or if he is a crank 

 about upward ventilation he can cover the 

 hole with a piece of thin foundation, press 

 a piece of wire cloth down on that, then 

 cover with burlap and put on the telescope 

 cover. The bees will gnaw through the 

 foundation and make as large an opening 

 as they desire. As colder weather comes on 

 they will begin to close it up gradually, but 

 will never close it entirely unless there is 

 a very large entrance, or it has some small 

 opening somewhere else. 



