THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



175 



divided I hem into three parts, to rest till towards 

 evening;,-, taking the precaution to keep out roh- 

 bors. Wont to the renewed task about half past 

 throe in the al\ernoou, and the queen was found 

 just as it was still light enough to distinguisii a 

 big 1)00 from a small one, and in ticelve days 

 i'roiu the time I commenced I 



If the reader will pardon this lengthy detailed 

 account of the search for and finding of a queen, 

 I will tell something better in my next. 



P. S. — The above colony had not swarmed 

 that season. How do you account for the pres- 

 ence of two queens, or was I inistakeu V 



LowELi., Ky. a. 



E;^Wc think you were not mistaken. There 

 were doubtless two queens present in the hive 

 — which may be accounted for, by supposing 

 that the bees had reared a j'oung queen, and 

 were actually engaged in superseding the old 

 one, when you began your preliminary opera- 

 tion for Italianizing. The expiring queen found 

 enveloped in a cluster of workers, explains the 

 seeming anomaly. 



[For the American Bee Jotirnal.] 



Bees in Hollow Trees. 



Mr. Editor: — I saw in a late number of the 

 Journal an inquiry to which an answer is de- 

 sired. I am no correspondent of any paper, 

 nor a practised writ' r, but a plain matter of 

 fact man, and may be able to give some infor- 

 mation with regard to bees located in the top 

 of a tree, and offer some suggestions how to get 

 them down, as I have had considerable expe- 

 rience in such matters. Hence I propose to tell 

 how I would get Giantess down, and our friend 

 can judge whether it will jiuy or not. 



For some time I have been very successful in 

 Imnticg and finding bees, and then taking them 

 down in the log. I always considered it hard 

 and barbarous to fall the tree, and thus destroy 

 the bees and lose most of the honey. Now for 

 the first one. I found a swarm in the spring of 

 the year, and was anxious to save them. They 

 were in a hemlock tree, about eighty feet from 

 the ground. I managed to get a rope over a 

 limb about forty feet from the ground, then 

 climbed the rope, and went up to examine the 

 location of the bees. When I go up a tree I 

 always carry a line in my pocket. Willi this I 

 draw up an auger and then bore in, to ascer- 

 tain where the honey and the bees are located. 

 I llion slop them in, and then draw up mj^ saw. 

 If the top stands perpendicular, I ascend to it 

 and cut off the limbs on one side of the tree — 

 thus throwing the heft of the tree fop on the 

 opposite side. Then feeling sure which way it 

 will fall, I saw above bees and honey and let 

 the top fall. I noAV draw up a line of sufficient 

 strength to sustain a pole about ten feet long 

 and three or four inches in diameter; having 

 prepared the pole before I ascend or having an 

 assistant to do it, as follows: Bore a ho!e near 

 the larger end of the polo, another about three 

 feet higher up, and a third near the top or 

 smaller end. 1 now draw m\) this I'ole and place 

 xt wliere I need it, the top end about as high as 



the log containing the bees. Now take a strong 

 rope about thirty feet long, pass it through the 

 lower holes and around the tree. Be thorough 

 in this ujattcr, tying the pole to the tree, and 

 making it secure. Now take another rope, 

 about twice the length from the bees to the 

 ground, pass it through the upper hole in the 

 polo and around the log containing the bees, 

 having the other end of this rope extending to 

 and on the ground. Have the rope kept taught. 

 Two men below v ill hold it, but it may be well 

 to take a turn around a log or tree, thuj making 

 it more safe and easiei- to hold. Then go below 

 whore the bees are located, and saw off the log 

 containing them. Give the saw a direction in- 

 clining obliquely down, and as the log is cut off 

 it will slip from the stub and be suspended be- 

 tween heaven Und earth. Now, ease away be- 

 low, and your giantess commences to tiesceud 

 to the ground. 



It may be well to smoke the bees before you 

 begin to disturb them. After they are down, 

 fasten them in with cloths or tack on boards; 

 and on a spring wagon carry them to their new 

 location. 



I have taken down twenty swarms from the 

 woods. One from a tree 110 feet six inches high 

 by actual measure. If the tree is clear of limbs 

 seventy or eighty feet up just as well. Per- 

 haps you wouid like to know how I get up, when 

 I cannot ascend with my climbers. There it 

 is. Just take a pound weight, (I prefer lead 

 cast in an egg shell set in sand, placing a wire 

 for a loop in the shell, and running in the 

 melted lead, which gives you such an imple- 

 ment as I use). Tie a small line in this loop, 

 unwind and lay it an clean ground or free from 

 bushes. Take a stout string or piece of eel 

 skin about two feet long, and make it fast to 

 the loop in the lead, and now with a little prac- 

 tice — or perhaps considerable — you will be able 

 to toss the lead ball where you wish it. This 

 weight carries your small line, that will in turn 

 draw up a clothes' line, and that a line suffi- 

 ciently stout and strong to operate with. Now 

 make a fast loof) in one end of the rope; put 

 your leg through; take the other rope in j'our 

 hands, passing the rope that suspends you with- 

 in the folds of your arms. Let one or two men 

 take hold of the rope and pull, and up you go. 

 But there is danger, and as you fix and arrange 

 mattojs, use discretion, and think I may not 

 lake down any more; although if I had an Ital- 

 ian giantess up there, she would soon find her- 

 self Jocated in my apiary. 



I have at this time about eighty stocks. They 

 have done finely the past summer. Some log? 

 are standing in my yard at this time. I may 

 transfer them in the spring. By and by I may 

 give my experience in hunting bees in Virginiti 

 on the James. W. C. Newtok. 



Fulton, N. Y. 



Among all the creatures which our bountiful 

 God hath made for the use and service of man, 

 in respect of great profit with small cost, of their 

 ubiquity or being found in all countries, and of 

 their continual labor and comely order, the beei 

 are most to be admired. — Butlkk. 



