THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



three pleasant days. After the rye and oat 

 meal was all gone, we give them wheat flour, 

 until our "better half" feared that the bees 

 would "eat us out of house and home." They 

 became seemingly almost demented, and would 

 dive into the flour and burrow into it, 

 until it seemed as though they themselves must 

 lose their identity. They would fly towards us, 

 and take it out of our hand, as we were carry- 

 ing it out to them ; and such an incessant jubi- 

 lant humming as they kept up while about it, 

 made one think that they could not be other than 

 the happiest little scamps on the face of the earth. 

 And the huge "little biscuits" (as our chil- 

 dren term them) which they had deftly padded 

 up on either leg, presented an appearance ludi- 

 crous in the extreme, as they scampered hur- 

 riedly into their hives. Alter the rain had wet 

 down their precious meal and it had become 

 baked over the top, they would not give it up, 

 but tunnelled and burrowed under it, until you 

 imagined they were not bees, but some liliputian 

 wild animals burrowing in the ground. The 

 Chicago tunnelling wasn't a comparison ! 



" But did all this meal really amount to any 

 positive good ?" some of the neighbors asked. 

 Of course it did. Our bees have never before 

 been in half so fine a condition. They have 

 been i^Jly prepared to take advantage, if the 

 apple tree blossoms had drawn them out before 

 the first of May ; and Mr. Editor, — will you be- 

 lieve it ? — we actually had a fine swarm from our 

 best stock, last Tuesday. Just think of it, on 

 the 10th of May, aud the usual time for black 



bees to swarm ubuiit here lmsbueii, of hil.c yuiirs, 

 about the fourth of July. A swarm of bees in 

 May here is something before unheard of. By 

 the way, Mr. Editor, we must tell you about 

 that swarm. 



We had begun to think that that stock might 

 swarm, they were getting so full, when our 

 "better half" came to the store hurriedly to say 

 that " the bees were swarming." Now, as we 

 had clipped all the queens' wings last season, 

 to prevent them from " going off," a la Giant- 

 ess, we knew they could not well swarm with- 

 out us ; and under the excitement of the min- 

 ute we caught our hat, and regardless of 

 slippers and shirt sleeves, "tore" down street, 

 for the scene of action. Notwithstanding the 

 aforesaid slippers would persist in "coming off" 

 whenever we allowed our "feelings" for a mo- 

 ment to get the better of us, we at last reached 

 home in safety. Sure enough, the bees were 

 in the air, and clustering all over the hive, on 

 the ground, and round about, showing evident 

 signs of something wruus; somewhere. We 

 searched all around unsuccessfully for the queen, 

 and concluded she had crawled back into the 

 hive. But, as we had got the swarming fever 

 too, we decided we must have a swarm any- 

 way, and accordingly commenced opening the 

 hive to hunt out the queen for the purpose, and 

 found her strangely in the upper part of the 

 hive. As one of the holes in the honey -board 

 was open, she had probably mistaken it for the 

 place of exit. After putting her in a queen 

 cage and suspending her among a few carpet 

 rags nailed to a board hurriedly for the bees to 

 cluster on, we commenced making them swarm 



over again, by shaking them from the frames 

 near her, nearly all of them having by that 

 time re-entered the hive. But it was " no go." 

 They had concluded not to swarm, nnd would 

 take no notice of the queen, but hastened back 

 into the hive. A lady friend who was witness- 

 ing the operation, suggested that we should 

 put the queen in the place of the hive, so that 

 they could not help finding her. We decided 

 to adopt the plan, and procaeded to plant the 

 queen and carpet rags in the proper position. 

 But as we had only succeeded in scattering 

 over the ground for a rod or two a multitude of 

 young bees who did not know which way to tra- 

 vel, we were probably a little excited ourselves, 

 and in trying to push the strip of board firmly into 

 the ground, it broke suddenly in two. In 

 answer to a remark to our friend whether she 

 was not afraid we would kill ourselves before 

 we got through, she replied that she had more 

 fear that we would kill all our bees, if we at- 

 tempted to stand on our head among them in 

 that fashion. So we took it more coolly and 

 put the balance of the board in its proper place 

 and had the supreme satisfaction of seeing that 

 the queen was recognized, and then such a 

 scampering as there was apparently by common 

 consent in one direction. As the board was 

 broken off, a dangling end of the carpet rag 

 hung down just to the ground, which they 

 seemed to decide upon as the readiest means of 

 ascending to her majesty. Soon we had a liv- 

 ing stream, as large as a man's arm, moving up- 

 ward, and as the wind waved it to and fro. it 

 was picturesque and amusing in the extreme. 

 There we let them hang just like any swarm, 

 until we got a hive ready, with a frame of 

 brood, and they were hived and have remained 

 just like any natural swarm. The bees remain- 

 ing on the combs were sufficient for the parent 

 stock, and both are doing finely. 



Now, would not the -above plan answer at 

 any time, by causing the bees to cluster about 

 their queen set in the place of their old hive, and 

 then moving them to a new location aud hiving 

 them ? Or would too many of them go back 

 to the old hive ? 



Mr. Editor, we have got a machine for re- 

 moving honey from the comb, too. Others, 

 according to the description we saw, were all 

 made of wood. We thought tin would benicer, 

 and so had a tin can made, about two feet high, 

 and eighteen inches across ; made the frame 

 for holding the wire-cloth of galvanized wire 

 such as is used for the white wire clothes lines. 

 As we use both the American and the Lang- 

 stroth liives, we made, it to accommodate both. 

 It works to a charm. We have had some labels 

 printed for our self-sealing fruit jars, of which 

 we send you a sample. You can give it to your 

 readers, if you think it worth while. The 

 blank is left so that we can fill it up with the 

 kind of blossoms from which the honey was 

 gathered. For instance, we have honey from 

 cherry blossoms, apple blossoms, raspberry, 

 locust, white clover, &c, &c. The idea seems 

 to please here. We find no trouble in getting 

 $ 1 each for quart jars holding three pounds, 

 jar aud all, and the different kinds of honey, as 

 we have labeled them, are readily distinguish!- 



