738 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



trees, and getting ready to go to house- 

 keeping. They were lugging twigs and 

 things into the little blue boxes on the 

 tree trunks, and none of the females 

 had begun to sit. The new swarm was 

 an unusually large one, and when it left 

 the hive and started to sail away through 

 the orchard, every wren in the flock 

 dropped its work and began to squall as 

 though something very much out of the 

 ordinary was about to happen. 



Mr. Adams had a new hive all ready 

 to brush the bees into, as soon as they 

 had settled down on a limb somewhere, 

 and liB was carefully noting the course 

 of the swarm when the commotion made 

 by the excited wrens attracted his at- 

 tention. Instead of alighting in the 

 orchard, the bees sailed right through it 

 and started on a straight line for the 

 opposite side of the creek. 



The wrens flew after the swarm just 

 as it left the orchard, overtook it before 

 it had got half way to the stream, sailed 

 in front of it in a group, and turned its 

 course toward Harvey Brown's place on 

 the south. A few rods" further on the 

 birds headed the bees off again, nearly 

 reversed the course, and drove them 

 back to the orchard, where they alighted 

 on an apple-tree limb. Then the wrens 

 separated and resumed their family 

 duties, and Mr. Adams easily hived the 

 bees. 



Whenever a swarm did not fly beyond 

 the bounds of the orchard, the wrens 

 made no effort to chase them. The little 

 birds were on the alert every time a 

 swarm came out, acting as though it 

 was their duty to see that none of the 

 bees were allowed to go far enough 

 away from the orchard to get lost. 



All of the females were sitting in the 

 boxes when the next swarm tried to 

 make for the woods. It was late in the 

 afternoon, and the male wrens were 

 loafing around with not much to do. 

 They were flitting from tree to tree, but 

 their sharp eyes caught sight of the new 

 swarm the moment it streamed from 

 the hive and sailed over the knoll toward 

 Jackson Hollow, and they gathered in a 

 bunch at once and went after the fugi- 

 tive insects in a hurry. The bees took 

 it easy, and the birds soon headed them 

 off and kept them flying in a circle until 

 tli(!y became tired and settled on the 

 limb of a maple tree in the meadow. 

 Then the; birds sailed around the tree 

 until Parmer Adams had got there with 

 his hive, when they immediately hurried 

 back to the orchard to look after their 

 wiv(!s. 



Mr. Adams declared that the wrens 

 saved 5 swarms for him last year. He 



is very proud of his flock of wrens, and 

 expects by next summer to have 25 

 pairs of the confiding little songsters 

 making music in his orchard, s(nd assist- 

 ing him in keeping his bees from ab- 

 sconding. — New York Sun. 



Honey In tie Home Market, Etc. 



L. B. TOLAR. 



Our honey-flow in this part of the 

 country has been cut off by too much 

 rain. It has rained some almost every 

 day or night for the last three weeks, 

 yet we have had no very big rains— just 

 enough to wash out the honey. It is the 

 first failure for many years, so we ought 

 not to grumble, though we would like 

 to have had a good honey-flow. 



I do not think that I will get over 

 2,000 pounds of honey from 120 colo- 

 nies, when I ought to have gotten at 

 least 6,000 pounds. I think I have too 

 many bees in one place. I have now 

 over 130 colonies. I would much like to 

 find some good location for an apiary 

 where I could get a better class of honey 

 than I get here. Our honey is dark 

 amber color, but good flavor. I would 

 like to go where the honey is white or 

 light-amber color, within 100 miles of 

 Memphis, Tenn., and where there is 

 plenty of Spanish-needle. 



We have a good country here for pro- 

 ducing honey if the quality was good, or 

 would command a good price in the 

 market. The flavor of our honey is 

 good, but the color puts it down where 

 the price is low. Our home market is 

 what we had to rely on until the last 

 year or so, and since then the home 

 market has not been able to take the 

 product, and we are forced to ship to 

 some other market at a much lower 

 price. If our honey was of the quality 

 that would command a good price, I do 

 not think I would want a better place to 

 keep bees. 



Kerrville, Tenn., May 20, 1892. 



Several SeasonaMe Sn^estions. 



C. II. DUiBKRN. 



Take cart; of the unoccupic^d brood- 

 combs now — in fact care for them all 

 the tim(! — never allow a hive to remain 

 in the apiary filled with combs, to be- 

 come a breeding hot-bed for the moth.. 



If your bees are protected by spring 

 packing, or are in chafi hives, do not 



