352 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Capturing Swarms from Limbs of Trees 



Last Thursday, June 22, I was spraying my ap- 

 ple-trees. Early in the afternoon I became aware 

 that a swarm of bees was near. I heard them some 

 time before I saw them. As soon as they came in 

 sight I threw my old straw hat among them three or 

 four times, and then began to throw dirt. After 

 following the swarm as far as the river, the bees 

 seemed to stop for a moment in the air, as if un- 

 certain, then swung to the right and clustered on 

 the limb of a sycamore standing on an island in the 

 river. 



While they were settling I went after a twenty- 

 foot ladder and a saw and smoker. The ladder was 

 long enough to reach the first limb of the tree, but 

 I found that the limb above it was just beyond my 

 reach. By walking out on the first limb, however, 

 I found that I could swing over to a small tree, 

 and, by climbing that, I could reach the second limb 

 of the sycamore. I then went up without any trou- 

 ble. I discovered that the tree was hollow, and that 

 the main crotch was open. The bees had settled 

 there, and I could touch them by reaching down my 

 hand the length of my arm. 



I first tried to smoke them out, but they did not 

 respond to this method of treatment; so I called to 

 one of the neighbors, whose house was near, asking 

 her to telephone to my wife, directing her to bring 

 me a brace and bit. By making use of these new 

 means of warfare I bored a %-inch hole below 

 them, and they began to move. I then placed a small 

 box in the crotch of the tree; but the bees sought 

 refuge in flight, and clustered on a good-sized elm, 

 away out on a large limb, ten feet beyond reach. 



I tied some twine around the limb and sawed it 

 off. The bees then clustered in two places — one 

 section in the top of a small group of maples, the 

 other on still another large limb of the elm. I sawed 

 the large limb off; and when it struck the ground 

 the bees joined their companions in the top of the 

 maple-tree. This was within reach of my ladder, so 

 I found it an easy matter to cut off a few small 

 limbs and hive the bees. 



The next day one of our neighbors telephoned 

 that there was a swarm of bees in their dooryard, 

 which I could have. In the evening another neigh- 

 bor reported that a swarm of bees had alighted on 

 their cornfield fence, and that if I wanted them I 

 could get them and pay whatever I thought they 

 were worth. I found them on a rail. They seemed 

 to be at work, as they were flying to and fro. After 

 I have hived them I found a very little comb on the 



Union City, Mich. 



John L. Swan. 



[Much of the nuisance of climbing trees and chas- 

 ing swarms a mile or so crosslots can be avoided by 

 clipping the queen's wings. However, it sometimes 

 happens that a swarm will go out with a virgin from 

 a cell that has escaped notice, and then there is 

 nothing to do but to go after them, whether they may 

 be up a tree or across the fields. If any one can in- 

 vent a process for getting a swarm out of an inac- 

 cessible place on a high limb, he ought to be awarded 

 a gold medal. It is sometimes nearly worth one's life 

 to climb a tree, to say nothing of getting the swarm 

 and bringing it down after securing it ; and some 

 swarms, after they are captured, are very ugly. 

 When the limb is in the right position, one can slip 

 a bag up under and around the swarm, tie the bag 

 around the limb, and then let the limb down. But 

 more often the swarm is located out on the end of a 

 branch where it is impossible for any human being 

 to go. To saw the limb off has a strong tendency to 

 dislodge the bees; and if the limb is a large one it 

 can not be handled, even after it is cut off. All of 

 this emphasizes the importance of clipping, or using 

 drone-traps ; but clipping is much to be preferred. 

 — Ed.I 



Bees Wintered Outside Have Opportunity for Early 

 Flights when They Can Get Pollen 



In Gleanings for April 1 some one asks why it is 

 that bees commence brood-rearing so much earlier 

 when wintered outdoors than when wintered in the 

 cellar ; and also asks if it is not because of difference 

 in temperature. Allow me to suggest that it is not due 

 so much to difference in temperature as because of 

 other conditions. Bees wintered outside, if thej' have 

 opportunity for flight, are more vigorous than when 

 wintered in the cellar, and will be likely to commence 

 brood-rearing sooner. And, again, with a very late 

 winter flight or a very early spring flight, they may 

 secure more or less pollen, which is an inciting cause 

 of brood-rearing. 



If bees are taken from the cellar in February, and 

 given a good cleansing flight, and then returned to 

 the cellar again, I think that brood-rearing would be 

 started as soon as though they were wintered out- 

 doors. 



Evanston, 111., April 3. Wm. M. Whitney. 



[It does not always happen that outdoor bees will 

 have more brood in early spring than those that are 

 wintered indoors. Last winter our inside bees rear- 

 ed brood earlier, and had more of it when set out, 

 than the bees outdoors. Why it was so will be dis- 

 cussed at a later time. — Ed.] 



Bees Working on Shorts as a Substitute for Pollen 



I have been much interested in watching the bees 

 gathering shorts, for, or in lieu of pollen, my bees 

 have been foraging in the stables all over town the 

 last few days after the ground feed. Several persons 

 have told me that there were so many in the stable 

 that they thought there was a swarm. To-day I plac- 

 ed some shorts in a.pan in my beeyard, and some 

 of the bees soon found it. They seemed to be afraid 

 to alight on the feed — at least so I thought, but I 

 found they would fly down into it and gather all 

 they could in their mandibles and on their feet, using 

 their feet to push the shorts into their mandibles 

 and on their tongues, which latter were extended all 

 the time. They would then rise up an inch or two, 

 and with their feet brush off their mandibles and 

 tongues, and pack the material on the pollen-baskets 

 on their hind legs, repeating the operation till they 

 had a load. They were not still an instant, wings 

 and legs working rapidly all the time. 



I have often wondered how they could pack the 

 di'y meal on their legs ; but they seem to moisten it 

 with their tongues, and then pack it on, using all 

 their legs in doing so. I have never before had oc- 

 casion to furnish my bees with artificial pollen ; but 

 we are having summer weather just now, and there 

 are few flowers in bloom, so the bees are ravenous 

 for some substitute for pollen. 



Nederland, Texas, Jan. 23. J. H. Weeks. 



Origin of Custom of Beating Tin Pans when a 

 Swarm Issues 



With reference to a recent statement in Glean- 

 ings about the practice of making a noise with pans, 

 etc., when swarms are on the wing, and the origin 

 of the custom, allow me to say that this is a relic of 

 an old English law which says that any beekeeper, 

 by giving notice to the public in this manner, has a 

 legal right to follow a swarm wherever it may go 

 so long as he can keep the swarm in sight. If, how- 

 ever, the beekeeper loses sight of his bees after giv- 

 ing this warning, they become the property of the 

 person on whose land they alight. 



J. C. Booth, 

 Second-class expert of the British Beekeepers' Ass'r 



"ensselaer, N. Y. 



