reward has given birth to many inven- 

 tions, some of which have been of in- 

 calculable value to the country, increas- 

 ing its wealth beyond our power to 

 estimate. True, the country has been 

 flooded with useless patent hives, but 

 how long will it be before the standard 

 hives of to-day will be equally useless ? 

 Is it not the case that what accom- 

 plished the greatest good in its day, is 

 at length out-grown and becomes an 

 embarrassment requiring to be wholly 

 modified or laid aside. 

 Carson City, Mich. 



Translated from the Bienen-Zeitung. 



Use of Electricty in Catching Swarms. 



O. FREIWIRTH. 



Every apiculturist knows from his 

 own experience, what colossal diffi- 

 culties present themselves to the expert 

 swarm catcher and yet more so to one 

 that is unskilled and timid, when it 

 becomes necessary to take in swarms. 

 Sometimes the swarm has chosen some 

 inaccessible hedge, the limbs of some 

 unclimbable tree or some other unat- 

 tainable object for their resting place. 

 Often swarm follows upon swarm, the 

 second one alighting upon the first, 

 while a third begins to get ready to 

 swarm. If, in such a case, the bee- 

 keeper has not his head in the right 

 place and firmly set — he will surely lose 

 it, and with it a few swarms of his beau- 

 tiful bees, which will bid him good-by, 

 never to return. 



Vexation and losses, and not unfre- 

 quently sneering mockery remain to the 

 bee-keeper as a reward for his sincere, 

 although unsuccessful painstaking. He 

 at last consoles himself with the resolu- 

 tion, to manage things better the next 

 time — but his unlucky star may again 

 play him a trick. 



In catching a swarm, especially if the 

 apiary be extensive, one has to exercise 

 much courage and skill, in mastering 

 his stinging-children that are at liberty. 



To obviate all painful stinging and 

 the many deeply felt losses of swarms, 

 I have constructed for my own use an 

 electric swarm catcher, by means of 

 which I can in a moment render a single 

 bee as well as the largest swarm inca- 

 pable either to sting or fly, and that 

 without killing a single bee. 



In the employment of the electric 

 current, I took into view the well known 

 fact, that, when any chosen number of 

 persons join hands, and the members at 

 the end of the chain touch a loaded 

 Leyden jar or the electrodes of an 

 active apparatus of induction, every 

 member composing that chain will feel 



the stroke, respectively the opening and 

 closing strokes, at the same moment, 

 and that these strokes, according to the 

 power of the inducted current, can be 

 made to extend until they have pro- 

 duced temporary lameness. 



In my experiments I used single bees 

 as well as small and large clusters, 

 treated them in the beginning very 

 considerately and tender ; later some- 

 what, more vigorous, and lastly even 

 merciless. The results of my experi- 

 ments have surpassed my expectations, 

 for the hospital which I had prepared 

 for that purpose, consisting of a num- 

 ber of labeled boxes of small and large 

 sizes, emptied themselves gradually, 

 and their occupants issued forth fresh 

 and sprightly. The duration of con- 

 valescence was in proportion to the 

 strength of the current employed, and 

 alternated from 10 minutes to fully 8 

 hours. 



Hereafter I have the assurance, that 

 there is a possibility of stupefying bees 

 within their hives, as well as swarms 

 hanging in the open air, by means of 

 electricity. As I have had no oppor- 

 tunity as yet to put my art to the test 

 upon swarms, I content myself with 

 having instituted the above mentioned 

 experiments, and of having obtained 

 proof within the bee-house of the cor- 

 rectness of my conjecture. $fea _ 



To present an opportunity to - the 

 friends of bee-keeping to construct 

 electric swarm catchers, or of having 

 them constructed, without costly ex- 

 periments. I will endeavor as far as 

 words will permit, to describe my ap- 

 paratus. In a small wooden box, about 

 5 inches deep and of the same width 

 and length, there is to be found in the 

 upper half a zinc-coal element, which is 

 filled half either with double chromate 

 of potash (3 parts of this potash, 4 parts 

 pure sulphuric acid and 18 parts of 

 w T ater), or with sulphuric oxide of 

 quicksilver (to be had at any drug store). 

 In the lower half of the box there is a 

 so-called sliding apparatus (Schlitten- 

 apparat) with a hammer interruption. 

 On the front side of the box is a knob, 

 with which to control the power of the 

 current or to interrupt it. The crotches 

 holding the conducting wires are 

 screwed down upon the cover of the 

 box; the conducting wires are given 

 a length at will, and when a case pre- 

 sents itself, they are fastened to a short 

 stick or long pole, just as the height 

 mav require which lays between you 

 and the swarm ; they are fastened either 

 with tacks or merely tied with cord. 

 The upper ends of the conducting 

 wires are not isolated (exposed metal), 

 and project several inches above the 



