AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



109 



and SCO right back to the old hive '? Did 

 you ever see a beo come back to a clus- 

 ter on a tree, heavily loaded ? Have 

 you ever watched tlie scouts, how they 

 twist and turn, and shake, when they 

 return to the swarm on the limb ? Why 

 is it that some scouts sent out by a 

 swarm will persist in finding their com- 

 rades? They will often fly around the 

 tree and spot where the cluster was. for 

 several days, while the scouts from 

 another swarm will all return to the 

 parent hive in a few hours. I believe 

 that the scouts that will not give up and 

 go back, have found a new location to 

 which they wish to conduct their com- 

 rades. The easily discouraged scouts 

 are those that have not succeeded in 

 finding a new home, hence ©n returning 

 and not finding the cluster, they go back 

 to their old home early. 



I followed a swarm of bees through an 

 open field ; they were low down, and 

 going slow. Just before us was a nar- 

 row briar thicket, in which stood a large 

 ash tree. When the bees came to the 

 edge of the thicket, they rose right up 

 to the top of the ash tree, and went in 

 the tree. These bees seemed to be 

 about tired out, but were determined to 

 reach their new home. I am satisfied 

 that there were bees in that swarm that 

 knew where the hole in the Ash tree 

 was, before they started for the tree. 



Another instance : A neighbor of 

 mine, Mr. William Canupp, found, as he 

 thought, a strong swarm in a large snag 

 of a tree : bees flying in and out strong. 

 A few days after this, in passing by he 

 saw a large swarm clustered on a tree 

 close to the snag. He was sure that the 

 swarm came out of the old tree, so he 

 cut the tree down, when, to his surprise, 

 the swarm had not yet entered the tree ; 

 or if they had, for some reason they had 

 come out and clustered again. We be- 

 lieved there were scouts among these 

 bees. 



Another thing : Does any one think 

 that a swarm of bees really has to fly 

 about in a haphazard kind of way until 

 they in this way find a new location ? 

 No, sir; methinks that a kind Provi- 

 dence has given to our beautiful little 

 pets the instinct, or reason enough, that 

 all know just as soon as a swarm has 

 clustered, a new home must be found, 

 and pretty soon some start out on that 

 business. If unsuccessful, the whole 

 cluster will arise and go a mile or more, 

 and cluster, and another search for a 

 home is made, and so on until a home is 

 found. Or they get tired of hunting for 

 one, and build comb iust where they are. 



Woodside, N. C, Dec. 31, 1891. 



Hiyii Bees on Empt? Comte, Etc. 



I use empty comb, or new comb, for 

 new colonies, as I get better results 

 from them. I have a few colonies of 

 black bees that I keep for building 

 comb. I take the comb from them be- 

 fore they start to fill it with honey, and 

 fill my new hives with the comb. I have 

 no trouble with drones, as one writer 

 stated last year, but, on the contrary, 1 

 have good results in honey. 



I put a swarm into a new hive where 

 the sections were all filled with comb, 

 and they had no new comb to build. I 

 put them in on June 22, 1891, and 

 took off the honey on July 18, being 39 

 pounds of nice clover honey. I left off 

 the pound sections, and let the bees fill 

 up the frames, which are 12.xl6 inches, 

 and 13 of them in each hive. Then I 

 put on the pound sections, and on Sept. 

 2 I took ofl' 31 pounds of nice, clover 

 honey, and put on the third case, and 

 took it off in October, when I packed the 

 bees. I did not think they had any 

 honey to amount to anything, but I 

 found 21 full, well-capped sections, and 

 the lower frames were all full, each 

 weighing 8 pounds, which would be 104 

 pounds in the 13 frames taken off, and 

 91 pounds of honey in the sections, 

 making 195 pounds in all. That is 

 what the colony stored in three months. 

 They did not offer to swarm. 



I hived some swarms on starters, and 

 the surplus was, on an average, about 

 50 pounds of comb-honey in the sections, 

 and about 30 pounds of extracted-honey! 

 I was brought up with bees from a little 

 child. In my younger days it was all 

 box-hives with sticks across in the cen- 

 ter; then we would put on caps to get 

 the surplus, unless we destroyed the hive 

 and took it all. 



In those days the black bees were all 

 we knew anything about. I used to 

 watch their habits. We used to have 

 them go to the woods, when there would 

 be a rush, for we had from 150 to 20(J 

 colonies, but the Italians are not apt to 

 go to the wciods. I have not lost a 

 swarm in ten years, and I let them have 

 their own way. 



My bees arc not as cross as some 

 around here. I can take off a case of 

 sections, and not a bee will leave the 

 hive. I believe that my theory is about 

 right, and that is this : I give the bees 

 the best honey stored, and do not keep 

 them all the time stripped of their 

 honey. I think that this has a great 



