JANUARY 1, 191c 



I saw them, I i-eligiously cut out. In doing 

 this I Avas following a bit of advice that 

 some one had given me. I did this daily 

 until the fourteenth day after I had re- 

 ceived my bees. On the fifteenth, confident 

 that things were in a safe eonditon, I left 

 home to attend a convention that was to 

 last a week. 



It was on Tuesday afternoon, about 2 

 o'clock, when I returned home. I found a 

 great uproar within my household. My 

 wife was pale and panting; my mother-in- 

 law was half sick; and the farmer from the 

 neighboring field sat on his plow, scratch- 

 ing his head. My bees had just swarmed 

 and hied themselves to regions unknown. 



I have always been by nature somewhat 

 of a fatalist ; and when I was confronted 

 with this situation all I said, or at least 

 thought, was: " Well, it's too bad; but then, 

 if they are gone they are gone, and that is 

 the end of it." One colony of bees I still 

 had, so why should I lament about the other 

 that I didn't have? 



Now another bit, not of advice, but of 

 ignorance, came into play. Where I re- 

 ceived this information, or whether I re- 

 •ceived it at all, I am unable to say. At any 

 rate, I was firmly of the opinion that it is 

 not the old queen, but the young one that 

 leaves with the swarm. I reasoned thus : 

 The young queen left with the swarm, 

 therefore the old queen is still in the hive. 

 I found numerous queen-cells. But, I 

 thought, if the old queen is here, what is 

 the use of the queen-cells ? Out with them ! 

 I didn't want any after-swarms. 



And the result? Well, it was something 

 like this : Every day I went do"<vn there and 

 looked for eggs and brood. I found nei- 

 ther. Whatever of queen-cells those very 

 foolish and very frivolous bees had the te- 

 merity to build, I forthwith cut out. After 

 two weeks had passed by I began to get 

 worried, and telephoned to Mr. K. " That's 

 bad, awfully bad!" he said. He promised 

 to come out the next day. He was true to 

 his word. Moreover, he brought another 

 hive of bees with him. 



For the purpose of getting queen-cells 

 we put a frame of eggs and brood from 

 Mr. K.'s hive into mine. Then we waited 

 for results. A week later, when Mr. K. 

 came again, not one cell had been built. 

 Looking over the combs we found eggs 

 promiscuously scattered about in the cells. 

 Instead, however, of being attached to the 

 bottom of the cells as they should have 

 been, they were attached to the sides. Mr. 

 K. said: "Laying workers!" 



We carried the hive about 60 yards away, 

 and there shook and brushed all the bees 



into a large patch of tall weeds. Then we 

 returned the hive and frames to the original 

 location, and gave another frame of brood 

 to it. Several daj^s later, when I looked 

 over the hive, I found some more eggs. 

 The laying workers were still present in the 

 hive. By telephone I told Mr. K. of it. 

 He came again, three days later, and brought 

 a young queen wuth him. Again we carried 

 the hive away — fully a hundred yards this 

 time. We were careful to shake off every 

 bee, Tjoth from the combs and from the 

 hive. Having returned them we put the 

 new queen, caged, into it. Mr. K. warned 

 me not to go near it during the next week. 

 When he returned we found that the Cjueen 

 had been killed. Moreover, we still found 

 the eggs of laying workers. What is worse, 

 there was not a drop of honey in my hive, 

 and thousands of dead bees lay scattered 

 about — a case of robbing. Worst of all, 

 Mr. K. discovered traces of American foul 

 brood, not only in my hive, but also in his. 

 You have probably heard of that cataclysm 

 when thunder struck th« toad I A very 

 thrilling sensation, to be sure! I can sym- 

 pathize wuth the toad. 



]\Ir. K. was much worried. He had had 

 the disease in his apiary the year before, 

 but thought it was cured — indeed, had been 

 sure of it. He immediately proceeded to 

 treat the hives. There was but a handful 

 of bees in my hive, so he broke it up entire- 

 ly, burying the diseased combs (there were 

 only a few of them) and putting the others 

 into his own colony, from which he likewise 

 removed combs on which he could find the 

 disease. He was sure that he would thus 

 get rid of all trouble. I was not quite so 

 certain of it. Indeed, after I had thorough- 

 ly gone over the matter in my books and 

 pamphlets I was certain that he would not 

 succeed. And he did not. As the weeks 

 went by we buried comb after comb, giving 

 in their place frames of foundation. About 

 the first of September Mr. K. thought the 

 bees were free from disease, and so brought 

 another colony out. He exjDected a fine fall 

 flow of honey. Half of all that would come 

 in was to be mine. But there was no fall 

 flow, except barely sufficient for wintering. 



In spite of all this, however. I managed 

 so to manipulate that I was able to credit 

 my bees, though they were dead, with some 

 Ijrofit. Here is where the gi'and finale comes 

 in. 



Mr. K. invited me down to see him ex- 

 tract his crop of honey. I was glad to go. 

 When he had finished he put up twenty 

 pounds of fine white-clover honey and in- 

 sisted on my taking it home with me. I 

 thankfully refused. Mr. K. is an Irishman. 



