282 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[June, 



ceeds from a correct idea ; that is, that a swarm 

 will always alight when thoroughly alarmed, so 

 as to disconcert them. The past season I used 

 a large mirror and stopped by that means a 

 swarm, which I had hived a few days previously, 

 and which started to go off. I ran after it, flash- 

 ing the sun's rays among them most thoroughly — 

 the mirror being fourteen by twenty inches 

 square. I stopped them on the last tree in the 

 vicinity, and in five minutes had them nicely 

 hived. I have frequently stojjped them by 

 throwing water, chips, or dirt among them, 

 when starting to leave ; and once when passing 

 overhead, as I was bringing corn home. But I 

 failed once, last summer, with a swarm that had 

 come out and alighted 'unobserved by me. The 

 first I knew of it, it was taking wing from a tree 

 near my apiary, and I think it must have waited 

 for me over night, for it was quite early in the 

 day for a swarm to come out and then leave. I 

 did as in the other case, but the more I flashed 

 the faster they went. I think it must have been 

 an after-swarm with a young queen, as I found 

 no signs of a swarm having left a hive that had 

 not swarmed before, and found one that had 

 swarmed previously, much more depopulated 

 than it should have been. 



By the way, are not swarms with young queens 

 more capricious than first ones? Speaking of 

 swarms leaving, I will give to the i^ublic a 

 method which I have never had an opportunity 

 of trying, but which was told to me many years 

 ago by a very successful apiarian of my native 

 place, in whom I had great confidence. He told 

 me that by practising it in the presence of a 

 superstitious neighboi-, he got the name of a 

 wizard. It was a case where the swarm left with- 

 out alighting, and the neighbor attempted to 

 follow it. If I remember rightly, he stopped 

 the man, saying he would call the bees back. 

 His method was simply to remove the old hive 

 from the stand, and set in its place another as 

 nearly like it as possible. His theory was that 

 the swarm keeps up a communication with the 

 old hive for some length of time, and the mes- 

 sengers, finding the old hive gone and a good 

 vacant one in its place, would return to the 

 swarm, and in bee language tell the queen that 

 the coast was clear at home and they had better 

 go back. I think he must have been in the 

 practice of using bee-balm, as the use of it was 

 common among bee-keepers there in those days. 

 I have often thought I would try the plan, even if 

 it should set the old stock back somewhat. 

 Perhaps some bee-keeper may have an oppor- 

 tunity to test it and reijort. 



H. Hudson. 



Fenn's Mills, Mich. 



Every living thing, from man down to an 

 ephemeral insect, pursues the bee to its destruc- 

 tion for the sake of the honey that is deposited 

 in its cell or secreted in its honey-bag. To ob- 

 tain that which the bee is carrying to its hive, 

 numerous birds and insects are on the watch ; 

 and an incredible number of bees fall victims, in 

 consequence, to their enemies. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



House for Wintering Bees.— A Suggestion. 



jNIr. Editor : — I see there are almost as many 

 different plans for wintering bees as there are 

 people who keep them. Some prefer a cellar, 

 others a building constructed specially for the 

 purpose. Some succeed well in bui-ying them 

 in clamps or in trenches ; others again are suc- 

 cessful in wintering them on their summer stands, 

 with some peculiar arrangement or construction 

 of hive. We also see almost every conceivable 

 material used in the construction of those special 

 repositories or hives. Thus, we have stone, 

 brick, earth, boards, and tanbark or sawdust, 

 concretes, adobe, gravel walls, &c., of the former, 

 and boards, plank, calcined plaster, straw, corn- 

 cobs, carpets, &c. ; some with dead air space of 

 from one-sixteenth of an inch to two iuclies ; 

 some wholly of paper, carpet, corncobs, &c. ; 

 others lined or covered with such materials. 

 Now it is not the intention of the present article, 

 to express an opinion as to which of the above 

 enumerated plans is best. That must be deter- 

 mined by the location and the surroundings of 

 tlie apiarian, or by the means or i^articular 

 fancy and skill of the bee-keeper. But there are 

 certain fundamental principles whicli must be 

 observed in order to winter our bees successfully. 

 We must have a suitable cluster of bees, with 

 sufficient stores of honey within their reach, and 

 with proper ventilation. I believe a svt^arm thus 

 prepared will winter almost anywhere. I wish, 

 however, to bring to the notice of my bee-keep-- 

 ing friends a new combination of materials for 

 the construction of a building in which to winter 

 bees, or to manipulate with them in the summer, 

 to transfer in when other bees would rob if the 

 operation were done out of doors ; or you can build 

 yourself a house, to live in if you please. The 

 articles referred to are nothing more than com- 

 mon stove wood, sawed to the length of the de- 

 sired thickness of your walls, split up about two 

 inches square, and laid up in lime mortar. Any 

 person with skill enough to make mortar and 

 pile wood, can lay up the walls of such a build- 

 ing. He might require the assistance of a car- 

 penter, to make the window and door frames, 

 to lay the floors, and construct the roof. Au 

 operative mason may also be needed to plaster 

 the walls inside and out, and give it an artistic 

 finish to your liking. But when it is done, the 

 walls will not simat in clamp weather like brick 

 or stone. At least I am told such is the case 

 with buildings so constructed in this vicinity. 

 We have a large two-story dwelling-house, with 

 a cellar under the whole, in the village of Deer- 

 field, Lenawee county, Michigan ; also, a dwell- 

 ing-house in the village of Petersburg, Monroe 

 county, Michigan, constructed on the above j^lan; 

 and they are giving good satisfaction. The 

 foundation and cellar walls are plastered with 

 water lime. Any person who understands build- 

 ing concrete walls, will readily understand how 

 to construct a building on the above plan. You 

 can jjlumb your corners, set a wide board on 

 edge from one corner to another, and pile your 

 wood right against it ; and by putting the mor- 



