obliquity of tlie stem to aid iiis ascent, jerk- 

 ing tlie stitf creepier a few feet higlier wlien 

 he had found a nrra liold for his bare foot. — 

 It almost made me giddj^ to look at him as 

 he rapidly got up,— 30, 40, 50 ft. above the 

 ground; and I kept wondering how he 

 could possibly mount the next few feet of 

 straight, smooth trunk. Still, however, he 

 kept on with as much coolness and apparent 

 certainty as if he were going up a ladder, 

 until he got within 10 or 15 ft. ot the bees; 

 then he stopped a moment and took care to 

 swing the torch (which hung just at his 

 feet) a little towards these dangerous insects, 

 so as to send up the stream of smoke be- 

 tween him and them. Still going on, in a 

 minute more he brought himself under the 

 limb, and in a manner quite uninteligible to 

 me, seeing that both hands were occupied 

 in supporting himself by the creeper, man- 

 aged to get upon it. 



By this time, the bees began to be alarmed, 

 and formed a dense, buzzing swarm just 

 over him, but he brought the torch up closer 

 to the hive, and cooly brushed away those 

 that settled on his arms and legs. Then 

 stretching himself along the limb, he crept 

 towards the nearest comb and swung the 

 torch just under it. The moment the smoke 

 touched it, its color changed in a most curi- 

 ous manner from black to white, the 

 myriads of bees that had covered it flying 

 off and forming a dense cloud above and 

 around. The man then lay at full length 

 along the limb, and brushed otf the remain- 

 ing bees with his hand, and then drawing 

 his knife, cut off the comb at one slice close 

 to the tree, and attaching the thin cord to it. 

 let it down to his companions below. He 

 was all this time enveloped in a crowd of 

 angry bees, and how he bore their stings so 

 cooly, and went on with his work at that 



fiddy height so deliberately, was more than 

 could understand. The bees were evi- 

 dently not stupified by the smoke or driven 

 away far by it, and it was impossible that 

 the small stream from the torch could pro- 

 tect his whole body wiien at work. There 

 were 3 other combs on the same tree, and all 

 were successfully taken, and furnished the 

 whole party with a luscious feast of honey 

 and young bees, and a valuable lot of wax. 



After 2 of the combs had been let down, 

 the bees became rather numerous below, 

 flying about wildly and stinging viciously. 

 Several of them got about me, and I was 

 soon stung, and had to run away, beating 

 them off with my net and capturing them 

 for specimens. Several of them followed 

 me for at least half a mile, getting into my 

 hair and persecuting me most pertina- 

 ciously, so that I was more astonished than 

 ever at the immunity of the natives. I am 

 inclined to think that slow and deliberate 

 motion, and no attempt at escape, are per- 

 haps the best safeguards. A bee settling 

 on a passive native probably behaves as it 

 would on a tree or other inanimate sub- 

 stance, which it does not attempt to sting. — 

 Still they must often suffer, but they are 

 used to the pain and learn to bear it impas- 

 sively, as without doing so no man could be 

 a bee hunter." 



I consider this a very remarkable descrip- 

 tion. Very few men not practical apiarists 

 would have observed as much and stated it 

 as clearly. I regret that the arrangement 

 of these " 3 combs " is not given. It is to be 

 hoped they were parallel and not a unicomb 

 arrangement, lengthwise with the limb. 



Two birds, bee eaters, are named Meropo- 

 gon-forsteni, and Merops-ornatus. 



I hope soon to be in possession of facts of 

 still greater, practical interest, which I will 

 communicate as soon as received. 



E. Parmly. 



19 W. 38th St. New York. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



My Bees. 



For the first time in many years, the sum- 

 mer of 1877 found me devoting my entire 

 time to the care of my bees', during the 

 honey harvest. I started with 98 colonies 

 in fair condition. Fruit blossoms were an 

 entire failure, so t!ie bees were late about 

 filling up in numbers. I took a ton of 

 extracted honey, and the same amount of 

 comb, and increased to 127 colonies, which 

 were put in the cellar during the last half of 

 Nov. My bees were inclined to swarm 

 more than I wished, and I suppose I was 

 the loser by trying to prevent it. At first, I 

 tried returning the swarms and cutting out 

 all queen cells; but that seemed to make 

 but little difference; they would come out 

 again in a day or two. I tried hiving them 

 in their own hive, and moving it to a new 

 place, but they swarmed out all the same. — 

 Then I hived the queen with a few of the 

 bees, and gave them a single frame of brood, 

 but the queen would swarm out with most 

 of her little colony. 



One trouble was that I had not prepared for 

 them beforehand. 1 had not supers ready 

 so as to give them plenty of room to work 

 in, and they swarmed so much that I could 

 only work mornings and evenings, making 

 supers and getting them ready. But after a 

 colony swarmed once, it did not seem to 

 make much difference how much room they 

 had. 



Perhaps the most determined colony in 

 the apiary was No. 30. June 16, I put on a 

 super of novice sections, filled with founda- 

 tion, and June 20 they swarmed. (I think 

 it quite possible, that if the sections had 

 been put on June 10 or sooner, they would 

 not have swarmed.) I returned the swarm, 

 or rather let it return itself, as the queen 

 was clipped; and cut out all qu^en cells, 

 taking away one frame of brood and giving 

 in its place a frame of foundation. Next 

 day, June 21, they swarmed again, and I 

 took away 3 more frames of brood. June 22, 

 they swarmed again, and as usual I caught 

 the queen and gave her back after their 

 return; and in a few minutes, outtheycame 

 again. Then 1 took away all their brood, 

 took off the supper, and left them nothing 

 but empty frames and a little foundation; 

 feeling determined that for once I would 

 have my own way, and that the colony 

 should not swarm anyhow. But in spite of 

 all, out they came the next day, and I very 

 humblj^ hived the swarm in an empty hive 

 where it clustered, and it remained content. 

 Examining No. 30, 1 found not a particle of 

 brood in any stage, and but 1 egg, which 

 was in a queen cell that was started on the 

 foundation. As there was a fair colony of 

 bees left, I gave them back their brood and 

 a sealed queen cell. 



I have liever thought that tlie queen had 

 anything to do with making a colony 

 swarm, but a number of cases this last sum- 

 mer point quite strongly in that direction, — 

 Frequently a queen has been spoken of as 



