300 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



tain that this prevents 

 swarming to a great 

 extent. 



Nordhoff, Cal. 



HIVING A SWARM CLUS- 

 TERED ON A RAIL 

 FENCE 



BY J. L. BYER 



Fig. 1. — A swarm that chose a very convenient clustering-place. 



arations for swaruaing. When bees are 

 active on the combs there is little danger of 

 swarming. By nsing this method of judg- 

 ing when colonies are preparing to swarm 

 I have often gone over 500 or more colonies 

 in a day, and very seldom make a mistake 

 as to whether a colony will swarm within a 

 week. 



GOOD VENTILATION AN AID IN PREVENTION" 

 OF SWARMING. 



Another great preventive of swarming, 

 as all beekeepers know, is ventilation. All 

 our hive bottoms are loose, and have full- 

 width entrances on both ends. As soon as 

 warm weather comes, both of these en- 

 trances are opened full width. I am cer- 



FiG. 2. — Shakinig the cluster into a hive. 



Before a swarm 

 leaves the place where 

 it has clustered after 

 swarming, it is thought 

 that, as a rule, scouts 

 are sent out, and a 

 place is found before 

 leaving. This may be 

 the rule, but, like all 

 other rules, there are 

 excejitions to the rule, 

 aid a bit of experi- 

 ei'.ce wiih a sv,ar;n a short time ago proved 

 (his quite coixluirively. 



On Friday, May 28th, my brother-in-law 

 plioned me from the Casliel yard that a 

 large swarm had come out, and that he had 

 caged the clipped queen and had let the 

 bees go back to the hive. I felt pretty sure 

 that the bees were superseding the queen, 

 and knew that there was danger of their 

 coming out any time with a young queen, 

 departing for parts unknown. However, I 

 could not get ove.r before the following 

 Monday, so I let them take chances. 



When the family were at church Sunday 

 I suspect the colony swarmed again and 

 clustered in the top of an apple tree in the 



apiary. Any way, 



Monday forenoon the 

 swarm was noticed 

 leaving the tree and 

 starting off north. My 

 brother-in-law follow- 

 ed them, and they 

 went so slowly that he 

 just had to w^alk to 

 keep up with them, 

 notwitlostanding the 

 fact that the day was 

 calm with no wind to 

 hinder their flight. 

 They went less than a 

 quarter of a mile and 

 alighted on the top of 

 a rail fence. Fig. 1 

 shows the swarm nice- 

 ly clustered on the 

 lailfence. Fig. 2 shows 

 how the rail was lifted 



