196 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEh 



ness, a success is not simply a knowledge of 

 minor details but a grasp of the broad gen- 

 eral principles underlying each trade. Of 

 late years there has been much talked and 

 written about easy methods of catching and 

 hiving swarms and many kinds of swarm 

 catchers and self-hivers have been invented 

 and some of them patented and the public 

 has been nearly persuaded that the good 

 time was at hand when we could just leave 

 our bees to hive themselves and make us 

 rich while we rested without care. I have 

 given all these devices such a prolonged and 

 critical investigation and trial as few have 

 attempted. In theory they seemed reason- 

 able, and I sought to realize the theory in 

 practice and now after years of hopeful and 

 pleasure-giving work I have lost faith in 

 them and abandoned the field, as none of 

 the new fangled notions except the swarm 

 citcher have proved a success with me ; 

 the swarm catcher is useful if rightly 

 used in handling swarms, especially 

 in a yard of many colonies. To get 

 its full use the hives in a yard should 

 all be of one uniform width, and af- 

 ter every thing is lu order the catcher is a 

 great aid and will have a prominent place in 

 my yard while I keep bees. Even if I never 

 caught swarms as they issued from the hives 

 I would have at least half a dozen wire cloth 

 boxes three feet long and eighteen inches 

 square, with one end easily removed and re- 

 placed ; in this I can keep swarms until I 

 am ready to hive them. I use my swarm 

 catchers frequently in that way. I take 

 swarms that I have clustered upon a bunch 

 of bushes and taking out the movable end of 

 the catcher gently put the swarm, bush and 

 all, into the catcher, close it and the swarm is 

 in prison to be put into the cellar and hived 

 at my convenience. I frequently have eight 

 or more swarms in the wintering cellar at 

 one time and they frequently remain over 

 night, sometimes 4S hours. When they re- 

 main so long it is swarms that have been 

 hived a day or two, and then have deserted 

 their hives. Such swarms go straight away 

 and are lost. Some years our loss has teen 

 very great in this way ; dozens of swarms 

 leaving, some after half tilliugtheir hive with 

 comb and starting brood. Now when we see 

 such a swarm coming out, a catcher is clap- 

 ped to the hive entrance and the captured 

 swarm imprisoned in the calaboose (cellar) 

 from 40 to 48 hours and then returned .to 

 their hive and all danger of their leaving is 



past. Or if I don't want increase I catch the 

 swarms, hold them 40 hours, and then return 

 them whence they came and they will not 

 swarm again if plenty of room is given in 

 the surplus department. Yes, the swarm 

 catcher is truly helpful in many ways. We 

 have always had tine fruit trees near our api- 

 ary, and the swarms would settle on the 

 limbs and the limbs would have to be cut or 

 would be broken, or the fruit knocked ofif. 

 To avoid this I made a very useful invention. 

 It requires but little skill, no expense, there 

 is no patent on it, so all can have it. It is 

 made by tying some slender bushes together 

 in a bunch as large as a small sheaf of grain 

 and 23.2 feet long. On one end is a hook to 

 hang it up by. When a swarm commences 

 to alight I wait until part of the bees have 

 settled, then, if on the small limbs, I shake 

 them onto the said bunch of bushes. If they 

 settle on the main limbs or trunk of the tree 

 or other place where they cannot be shaken 

 off I take a dipper and dip a quantity of 

 bees from the cluster and pour them gently 

 on the swarming bush. I now shake all the 

 bees possible from the aligtiting place, im- 

 mediately hang up the bush near by, and 

 with the smoker the bees are prevented from 

 alighting there again. They will soon find 

 the cluster on the bush and all alight there, 

 after whicli if business is not rushing I hive 

 them, but if many swarms are likely to come 

 I slip the swarm, bushes and all into one of 

 the swarm catchers or boxes I have men- 

 tioned, carry them into the cellar or a shady 

 place, and hive them after the rush is over. 

 After 1 get a swarm in the catcher and an- 

 other one is coming, if I bring the impris- 

 oned swarm near the swarm in the air they 

 will immediately settle on the catcher from 

 which they can be bruslied and hived with- 

 out disturbing the swarm witliin. I have 

 carried the catcher into the sliade with one 

 swarm iunide and auotlier outside and left 

 tliem for liours, and 1 have reason to believe 

 that tlie swarm on the outside will not leave 

 while there is one imprisoned within. Some- 

 times in catching a swarm, many of the bees 

 are out before the catcher is in place but if 

 the (jueen is caught the bees already out will 

 settle on the outside and can bd carried to 

 the cellar where they will stay until hived. 

 Not one (lueen in ten comes out in the first 

 half of the swarm and she is nearly always 

 caught. If she is not caught, the bees will 

 not become (luiot aud cau be liberated to re- 

 turn home. 



