30 FIFTY YEARS A.AIONG THE BEES 



lessness, so that with the two Grimm colonies I had still 

 only nineteen. 



June 25 I visited Alarengo again, and was surprised 

 to find very little gain in the strength of the colonies. 

 1 he season had been extremely unpropitious. July T I 

 made another visit, of three days, and found scarcely any 

 honey in the hives. I made a few new colonies, and by 

 giving empty combs and plenty of room I left them feel- 

 ing that there was little fear of any swarming for that 

 season. 



TROUBLE WITH SWARMING. 



But a sudden change must have come over the bees 

 and the season, and the bees must have built up with 

 great rapidity, for letters kept coming to me saying that 

 the bees had swarmed, and Mrs. Miller was kept busy 

 superintending the hiving, "Jefif" doing the work. It 

 was a mixed-up business for them, for I had left the 

 queens clipped, and swarms would issue only to return 

 again, and then in a few days there would be after- 

 swarms, and they didn't know which swarms wxre likely 

 to have young queens, and which clipped queens. Some 

 swarms probably got away, but in the round up when 

 I went out again, August 10, I found the whole number 

 of colonies had reached 40, there having been an increase 

 of 12 by natural swarming in addition to the nine colonies 

 I had formed artificially. 



BACK TO COUNTRY LIFE. 



Clearly, keeping bees at long range was a very unsat- 

 isfactory business. City life was also unsatisfactory ; a 

 traveling life was worse. So in spite of the reduced 

 chance of making money, I decided for a life in the 

 country, turned my back upon an offer of $2,500 and 

 expenses, and engaged to teach school at $1,200 and 

 bear my own expenses ; all because I wanted to be in the 

 country and have a chance to be with the bees all the 



