168 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Jan., 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



To guard against Swarms leaving for the 

 Woo:ls. 



Mr. Ecitor : — I will give your readers a little 

 sketch of the main cause of bees leaving for the 

 woods in swarming time, 



I can say I have lost only one swarm of bees 

 in more tlian twenty-five years, and can give 

 the reason for that. I was absent, shearing 

 sheep, a few years ago, and left some of the little 

 folks to watch my bees ; but they did not watch 

 close enough to see them come out and settle. 

 So when the swarm was ready to seek a new 

 home, it came right by where I was at work, 

 and that was the last I saw of it. They were 

 gone, like the fellow's sheep ; and sure enough 

 when I retuined to my apiary, I found it was my 

 swarm that had left. I saw a few bees still fly- 

 ing about a limb, and when I went there to ex- 

 amine, I found little particles of wax stuck all 

 along the limb where the bees had clustered. 



In another case I know of, the hive was rather 

 small and the covering got knocked oft" on a 

 very hot day. The bees became so heated in the 

 hive that they left for the woods. They had 

 been only about ten days in the hive, which was 

 mostly filled with combs and honey ; yet almost 

 every bee left. 



The cause of their leaving thus, is that when 

 swarming in hot weather, and hived, the hive is 

 left standing in the sun without shelter, and the 

 hive gets so heated that the bees are almost suf- 

 focated, which compels them to come out and 

 seek for some cooler place. 



When hiving a swarm, as soon as nearly all 

 the bees are in, especially the young ones, though 

 there should be some hundi-eds of the older ones 

 still flying, I pick up the hive and carry it to the 

 place in my stand where I intend it to remain 

 for the season, cover it well, and set up a board 

 or other screen on tJhe west side to shelter 

 it from the hot evening sun ; that is, if I have 

 no shed to set it in. I know of lots of swarms 

 that went to the woods in this section, just from 

 being unprotected from the hot sun after hiving. 



1 sold a man, living about a mile from here, a 

 colony of Italians, two years ago, and he came 

 running to me to say that one of his neighbors 

 told him that the Italian swarms would all go to 

 the woods, and he was afraid it was too true. I 

 asked him where he set them when he put them 

 in a hive, and he said, "Just where they lit on 

 the tree." "Did you cover them to keep the 

 hot sun off?" "No," replied he, "I did not 

 know that that would hurt them ;" though the 

 weather was almost hot enough then to cook 

 them. He sold out to another man this summer, 

 whose first swarm served him the same way. 

 He came running to inquire what was the cause 

 of his bees leaving him, and said one of his 

 neighbors told him they had left the year before 

 in the same way. I asked him if he didn't leave 

 them setting in the hot sun ; and he replied that 

 he did. 



Another colony that I sold to another man, left 

 in the same manner, and from tlie same cause. 

 A man living about five miles from here lost 



seven or eight swarms this summer, under like 

 circumstances ; but not one swarm out of a 

 hundred will desert, if properly attended to in 

 due time. I use no looking-glass, or old bells, or 

 anything of the kind, when hiving swarms, but 

 only give them a good clear hive, and a good 

 roof over them to keep oft' the rain and the hot 

 sun, thus making them comfortable in their new 

 home. 



There is much superstition among bee-keepers 

 in some districts. They have singular notions 

 of witchcraft, and queer ideas of luck, such as 

 selling or buying a man's luck. So, too, it is be- 

 lieved by many that if the head of a family dies, 

 the bees will die too. In this there is just so much 

 trutii that the head of the family is generally the 

 bee-keeper, by whose care and attention tlie bees 

 were kept in a thriving condition ; and when he 

 dies, the rising generation don't attend to them, 

 and the result is the bees die, and the story stands 

 afresh — "there's no luck for bees when the 

 father dies !" 



All this notion of selling luck is a mere hum- 

 bug. I will and do sell bees whenever I can make 

 something out of them, or get for them nearly 

 what they are worth. Bad luck arises only from 

 no management or mi.smanagement. Good man- 

 agement always makes good luck, for the Higher 

 Power has promised to give seed time and harvest 

 to the end, and sendeth rain on the just and on 

 the unjust. Alfred Chapman. 



Ifew Cumberland, West Va., Nov. 28, 1870. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Balm use 1 for Alighting Bees. An Inquiry. 



?vIr. Editor : — Over forty years ago, my 

 father, in Canada, kept a few bees for a term 

 of year's. When they swarmed, we were accus- 

 tomed to pick a sjirig of balm, and go as near as 

 convenient to the main body of the bees and se- 

 lect a limb of a fruit tree convenient to hive 

 them from, and with one hand rub on the balm ; 

 and if the bees alighted near the place, it was 

 always on the very limb and place thus rubbed. 

 The balm was called Low Balm or Bee Balm. It 

 was perennial, and always large enough for use 

 at swarming time. If any one has knowledge of 

 the kind, and of its use as above, I shall be happy 

 to be informed. I have not found the right 

 kind here. In the Journal for December, Vol. 

 VI, page 120, there is a notice of balm {Melissa 

 officinalis,) as having an agreeable smell for the 

 bees. ^Perhaps that is the kind. Who will tell, 

 and also where it is to be had ? 



Alonzo Barnard. 



Bangor, Me., Dec, 1870. 



[For the American Bee Journal,] 



Mr. Editor : — As several parties are inquir- 

 ing if there is a Bee-keeper's Association in On- 

 tario, I would answer through tlie .Toirrnal, 

 "There is, and it meets annually at the time 

 and place of the Provincial Fair. Next year it 

 will meet at Kingston, Ontario. President, Rev. 

 W. T. Clark, Guelph ; Vice President, J. H. 

 Thomas, Brooklin ; Seci-etary, A. C. Atwood, 

 Vanneck." J. H. T. 



