166 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



time her loss is not so very great. There is no danger 

 of the swarm being lost ; it will return to the hive in a few 

 minutes, although I have known them to cluster for half 

 an hour or more before returning. It may happen, some- 

 times, that a swarm may go into a hive whose colony has 

 swarmed a little while before, and where it is always 

 peacefully received. I do not like this doubling up, but I 

 do not know that I lose anything by it, for the bees can 

 store up just as much in one hive as another. 



When the watcher finds the queen, she is caged. 

 Either the cage is held down for her to run into, or she is 

 caught and then caged. After the queen is in the cage, 

 the block is pushed in an inch or so, and the cage put 

 where the bees can take care of it. Usually it is thrust 

 into the entrance, close up against the bottom-bars, so that 

 if a cool night should come there will be no danger that 

 the bees will desert it. 



The watcher keeps a little memorandum book, and 

 puts down in it the number of the colony that swarmed ; 

 for it might make bad work if it should be forgotten and 

 neglected until the emergence of a young queen to lead 

 out an absconding swarm. 



doolittle's plan. 



Some years ago Mr. G. M. Doolittle gave a plan for 

 management of swarming colonies when no increase was 

 desired. I do not think that he uses it now. I do not 

 know that I shall ever use it again, and yet it was valuable 

 to me, and for some circumstances nothing may be better. 

 The plan, in brief, was this: The queen being caged 

 and left in the hive, all queen-cells are cut out in five days 

 from the time the swarm issued, and five days later all 

 queen-cells are again cut out and the queen set at liberty. 



I used this one season with great satisfaction, and I 

 do not remember that any colony thus treated swarmed 

 again. 



