into the box about 1 inch. One side of 

 this box is covered or made of a frame 

 or door covered with line wire-cloth ; 

 the whole costing about 50c. One of 

 these was fitted to each hive just before 

 the swarming season commenced. The 

 •drones and queen not being able to pass 

 through the openings in the tube, pass 

 on into the box and on the wire cloth, 

 the swarm, on returning, settling with 

 them. 



Now, when a swarm starts out, if 

 some one is on hand, by covering the 

 openings on the top of the tube with a 

 piece of board, cut to just fit over and 

 -close all the openings, all the bees are 

 run into the box ; now draw the tube 

 out from the hive, close the end of the 

 tube, and remove it and the swarm any- 

 where you wish, and hive them in the 

 usual way ; or, what is better, remove 

 the old hive to anew stand, and put the 

 new hive in its place; or, if you have 

 good, close, new hives, with glass in one 

 side to admit the light, you may use 

 one of them in place of the box, and 

 run your swarm directly into their new 

 home ; but I could never get them to 

 enter a dark hive or box. 



I have had as many as 4 swarms all 

 issue within a few minutes of each oth- 

 er, and by running them into these 

 boxes have kept them all separate and 

 hived them at leisure. 



Second or after-swarms may be hived 

 in the same way, taking care to remove 

 the catcher from the hive in about 12 

 days after the first swarm has left, so 

 that the young queen can go out to meet 

 a drone. 



As this same arrangement confines all 

 the drones, it may be useful in Italian- 

 izing, as all the common drones can be 

 controlled. I may say that a few of the 

 worker bees will go .out through the 

 tube, and find themselves in the box; to 

 let them out I enlarge a few meshes of 

 the wire cloth in the front of the box, 

 and close to the top ; this can be done 

 with a scratch-awl, taking care that the 

 openings are not more than 5-32 of an 

 inch, or your queen may go out through 

 them. 



I tried a great many shapes, forms 

 and experiments before I got anything 

 to work to my satisfaction, and although 

 I always managed to get the queen, I 

 found some improvement could be made, 

 and have no doubt this can be much 

 improved yet. 



For the benefit of any who may be 

 disposed to experiment, I may say that 

 I first tried perforated tin w r ith round 

 holes, for the bees to pass through ; this 

 let the bees out all right, but would take 

 all the pollen from a loaded bee in try- 

 ing to get into the hive again. 



I then tried openings 5-32x1 inch ; this 

 worked better ; but still, if a bee passed 

 through close to either end, it would 

 take the pollen from the side that came 

 against the end. 



I then made the opening the whole 

 width of the tube, the tin being cut in 

 the centre of the opening, and both 

 edges folded back so as to leave no rough 

 edges for the bees to wear out their 

 wings on. 



Now, after using these from necessity 

 for several years, I find it better to ex- 

 amine hives often, and divide and in- 

 crease artificially, rather than go to the 

 expense of these swarm catchers, and 

 they would be in the way when extract- 

 ing. I have now removed my apiary to 

 a place where my neighbors will not be 

 troubled, and have this year increased 

 them from 90 in the spring to 142, only 

 10 of these being natural swarms. I 

 have discarded the swarm catchers, and 

 they are lying around my apiary, their 

 usefulness gone— killed by progressive 

 bee-culture, the extractor, frame hives 

 and artificial swarming. 



The honey season here has been poor 

 this year ; not over y% a crop. I am 

 putting mine in tin cans, holding 10, 20 

 and 60 lbs. each. 



Warsaw, Ont., Canada, Sept. 8, 1880. 



From Western Agriculturist. 



Carrying Bees to Pasturage. 



C. P. DADANT. 



The present season has been the 

 worst to my knowledge of a great num- 

 ber of years in the bee business. The 

 white clover was scarce, owing to the 

 drouth of last year and there was there- 

 fore no June crop of honey. The bees 

 were short of supplies ever since the 

 beginning of spring, and instead of 

 breeding and increasing in numbers, 

 they became weaker and weaker, and 

 July saw us with depopulated hives and 

 a dry summer in the bargain. The 

 drouth in these hills had parched the 

 corn so that by August 15th it was fit 

 to cut for fodder. Starvation stared at 

 our bees. On the other hand, the bot- 

 toms of the Mississippi, wiiich have 

 been overflowed, were covered with a 

 luxuriant vegetation and abounded in 

 wild flowers. We therefore concluded 

 to move them to those low lands. 



On July 14th we started, with two 

 teams and hay racks on which to liaul 

 the hives. Our intention was to haul 

 them during the night to prevent the 

 smothering of bees which the heat of 

 the day would cause. We began pack- 

 ing and nailing at 9 p.m., and finished 

 at 3 a.m., when we started. Arrived at 



