HOW TO KEEP BEES FOR PROFIT 



removed or caged as one whose queen was 

 present, to say nothing of the loss of brood 

 during the period that the queen was caged, 

 but the captain met this by the statement 

 that any eggs she might lay would be so long 

 in developing that the flow would be over 

 before they were field bees. 



The old-fashioned practice of ringing bells 

 and banging on tin pans to cause a swarm to 

 alight is really laughable, and as a matter of 

 fact had no influence on the swarm whatever. 

 That they did soon alight was only a coin- 

 cidence, as they would sooner or later have 

 done so. It has been said that the custom 

 dates back to the days of Alfred the Great 

 of England, who, in order to stop the disputes 

 among his subjects as to the ownership of 

 swarms that came forth, decreed that when 

 a man's bees swarmed, he should ring a bell 

 or make some other noise to notify his neigh- 

 bors that the swarm was his. Another amus- 

 ing custom still in vogue in some parts is the 

 placing of empty hives in the woods as decoys 



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