170 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Improved Method of Swarming. 



Where bees are left to have their own way in 

 swarming, it is found sometimes that one colo- 

 ny will throw off swarm after swarm, nearly 

 swarming itself to death ; while some of the 

 families that came off are feeble and worthless. 

 Then again, another colony, full of workers and 

 rich in stores, and which should afford at least 

 one good swarm, will do no such thing, but 

 hang out and threaten, and yet make no deci- 

 ded movement. The following arrangement, it 

 is said, will prove a remedy for this state of 

 things. Suppose I have ten colonies, all num- 

 bered, as they should be. Number 1, on fixam- 

 ioation, is found to contain ten queens in em- 

 bryo, and is therefore capable of supplying ten 

 colonies, if the young queens are not destroyed. 

 Number 1 inaugurates the movement and sends 

 off a good strong swarm. Very well. Hive 

 them, and give them their position. Now num- 

 ber 1 has lost half its numbers, and, for the pres- 

 ent, its inhabitants are all in excited commo- 

 tion, and they are now ready to receive new 

 comers. Remove number 2 to a new stand, 

 and place number 1 on the old stand of number 

 2. The workers of number 2 that are out in the 

 fields, will, on their return, flock into number 

 1, and when the day closes number 1 is again 

 strong in numbers and immediately concludes 

 that it is best to send off another colony, and in 

 about a week a second swarm will come off, 

 hale and strong. Number 2 has lost enough 

 of its numbers to make a swarm; it has indeed 

 swarmed through number 1. It has a prolific 

 queen and is rapidly augmenting its numhers 

 every day, and will soon make up its loss. 

 Meantime number 1 must be placed on the stand 

 of number P>, and number 2 may be taken to the 

 first stand occupied by number 1. Number 1 

 will be rilled right up again as before, and in a 

 day or two will send out another strong vigor- 

 ous swarm, with a young queen. And thus the 

 process may go on until ten swarms, all stronar, 

 have all come through number 1. This plan 

 has been recommended, and is said to work 

 well. It looks reasonable, and is worthy of 

 trial. 



P. R. Russell. 

 Bolton, Mass. 



[For tbo American Bee Journal.] 



Candid Confessions. 



The senses evidently possessed by bees are 

 sight, feeling, taste, and smell ; but whether 

 they hear we cannot know, although the an- 

 tenna? have been supposed to be its organ, for 

 the apparant responsiveness of these to loud and 

 sudden sounds, may equally result from the 

 agitations of the air which those sounds pro- 

 duce. — Shuckakd. 



No study, like natural history, pursued in a 

 humble and docile spirit, so harmoniously 

 elicits the religion of the soul, or so fitly pre- 

 pares it to enter, by the pathway of the works 

 of God, the august temple of His revealed word. 



— SCHUOKAKD. 



To appease the wrath of Mr. Puckett, I sup- 

 pose I shall have to write a confession, or, in 

 other words, write a sort of preface to my bee- 

 book. 



AVhen I was a great green boy, and was left one 

 evening with others of my age, after exhausting 

 all the fun and mischief we could think of, we 

 caught the old tom-cat, and one was to hold him 

 and another to but him on the head with the 

 fi-t, merely to see what effect it would have ! 

 That disposition has never left us. If we re- 

 member rightly, about the first' man we hit in 

 the Bee Journal was Mr. Quinby ; and he 

 was hit on purpose to see what effect it would 

 have, and not for any malice or ill-will. Then, 

 knowing what was said against Mr. Laug- 

 stroth's hive, its defects, &c, we hit him, and 

 hit him hard. The object was to draw out 

 both sides of the question as much as possible ; 

 and that we have succeeded in doing to a con- 

 siderable extent. But, in order to keep up the 

 aioful muss , we have had to fight on both sides 

 of the question. 



Now, friend Puckett, you are considerably 

 gritty ; but we could take your side of the 

 question, and beat you, all hollow. At least 

 that is our opiuion. In one of your articles you 

 find considerable fault, because we did not ex- 

 plain everything as we went along. Well, if 

 we had written barely one article, and no more, 

 your fault-finding would have been just. But, 

 when we commenced writing for the Bee Jour- 

 nal, our intention was and still is, to keep on 

 writing our experience in beekeeping. Fur- 

 thermore, our object in said article was to draw 

 out Mr. Alley again. But, for some reason, he 

 saw fit to pitch into us in private, instead of do- 

 ing it through the Bee Journal. Enough, 

 hotcever, on this head at present. 



Of all the perplexing questions for a new be- 

 ginner to settle, on commencing bee-keeping, 

 this is probably the worst one — whose patent 

 hive shall I purchase; or whose form of hive is 

 the best ? Every patent hive man says that his 

 hive is the very best — no other can begin to 

 compare with it, &c, &c. Right here I will 

 state that the only money we ever invested in 

 any patent hive, was two dollars in T. B. Min- 

 ers's Great Equilateral, Cross-bar, Cot- 

 ton-cloth Humbug. Always having been a 

 prominent beekeeper, wherever w r e have 

 resided, we have had any number of hives 

 given us on trial, &c. We have never been 

 bribed to recommend any one's hive, and prob- 

 ably never shall be. On the other hand, we 

 have never asked for any other man's money, 

 in payment for any information or advice we 

 could give. So that you can safely say, that 

 Gallup has no design on your pockets — an inde- 

 pendent candidate in the fullest sense of the 

 word ! Furthermore, you may call Gallup the 

 new beginner's friend, and you will hit right 

 every time. Just such a blunt, out-spoken, put- 

 ty-head is wanted to write for the Bee Jour- 

 nal. 



Here comes one of our patent hive gentry. 



