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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Aira, 



wtich any choice of mine must be ? 



I had never heard the pipings of a young queen. 

 Should I deprive myself of this pleasure — the 

 pleasure of listening to an entirely new sound? 



I had, withall, considerable curiosity to know 

 how the bees would wish to manage affairs for 

 themselves. Should I forego the chance of learn- 

 ing something respecting their plans ? of study- 

 ing their caprices ? Of course I should have my 

 own way in the end. (So little had experience 

 taught me.) Of course I should keep the closest 

 ■watch— but might I not wait a little ? 



The days went by. I waited and watched, and 

 meanwhile such numbers of baby bees crept forth 

 from their little cribs in this hive, that I began to 

 ask myself if another colony might not be taken 

 from it without the slightest risk. Ere long I 

 had assured myself that this might be done. 



Not willingly did I postpone this division until 

 the oldest princess had made her appearance upon 

 the stage. It was a case of necessity. I had no 

 hives — was daily expecting some. That I chanced 

 to be in such a predicament was not my fault — 

 but to explain how it chanced would, I fear, be 

 tedious both to you and to me, dear reader. 

 ^ On the morning of June 12th, the pipings of 

 the young queen were clearly to be heard, 

 together with replies from a still prisoned sister 

 princess. It was interesting, and I was highly 

 pleased to know that the bees were of the same 

 mind as myself in regard to their separation. 

 But there was need of prompt action, for the 

 morning was fair, and the sun hurried up above 

 the tree-tops without consulting our convenience 

 in the least. 



" It will never do," I said to Nellie, " to wait 

 longer for a hiye, yet the hives may be here in 

 two hours. Can't we improvise a hive that will 

 told at least the nucleus of our new colony for 

 that length of time ?" 



Searching for a box in garret, cellar and barn, 

 we finally found one, which we surrounded and 

 darkened with blankets, we (for safety) sat in 

 one corner of the sitting room. To this recepta- 

 cle I consigned, and snugly covered in two frames 

 — each comb covered thickly with bees, and each 

 having two or three queen cells. 



Returning to the old hive we soon discovered 

 the young princess, too intent upon destroying 

 her rivals to cease piping or to be disturbed in 

 the least by our investigations. Very carefully 

 then did we look over the remaining combs, 

 finding and cutting out tive or six queen- cells. 

 Sometimes we accidentally liberated an inmate 

 but in each case she was promptly secured, and 

 tenderly put under a tumbler along with a drop 

 of honey. 



"Now," I said complacently, when we had 

 finished this work, "I believe there is no danger 

 whatever, yet to make assurance doubly sure, we 

 will give them a frame of uncapped brood. Then 

 if the queen should fly out, the bees will not 

 follow her," 



About this time Richard returned from the 

 depot and — yes, he had the hives I 



But— well, "mistakes will happen sometimes in 

 the best of 'manufactories,' " I suppose. As to 

 the outside the hives were well enough, perhaps, 

 but on opening them I found that of all their 



frames there was not one that I could use. For- 

 tunately I had on hand some frames of my own, 

 which, with some alteration, couM be made to do; 

 and at once we went to work at them. 



Just then I discovered that the bees in the box 

 were growing restless, had found a hole, and 

 were escaping in a straight line to the window. 

 Hastily transferring their two frames to an empty 

 hive— noticing as I did so that one queen cell had 

 yielded up its occupant— I set the hive on its 

 stand and left them to do as they liked, while I 

 hurried back to my work on the frames. This 

 was not finished when Nellie quietly remarked : 



" Cyula, your bees are swarming ! " 



I supposed it was those I had just been hand- 

 ling, but what was my surprise to find that the 

 swarm was issuing from the old hive, where, as I 

 thought, everything had been left just right with 

 a young queen holding undisputed sway. 



Concluding not to repeat the experiment whicli 

 had resulted successfully with our first swarm, 

 but rather to be sensible and do as other people 

 do, we silently watched them until they were all 

 out and, to our great satisfaction, had clustered 

 upon a small bush not ten feet from the hive. 

 The cluster — though quite a respectable one — 

 was not very large, and as there seemed to be a 

 goodly number of bees left in the old hive, I 

 determined to hive the swarm and afterward 

 unite them with the bees I had previously takea 

 away. 



We hived them ourselves — Nellie and I — gave 

 them what frames we had prepared, and then 

 returned to our work. This was about finished, 

 when, to our dismay, we beheld our new swarm 

 once more rushing forth. We were somewhat 

 reassured to see them again clustering in the same 

 place as before. Again we hived them, and this 

 time in a hive properly prepared and fitted with, 

 frames. During the operation, the queen fell to 

 the ground. I picked her up and put her in the 

 hive. Fatal mistake ! it had been better to have 

 put her under the tumbler. We gave these bees 

 a comb of uncapped brood — we shaded them very 

 carefully from the sun — once more we hopefully 

 and trustingly left them to their own device. 



" Why did they leave the old hive in the first 

 place ?" asked Nellie. 



" Probably we overlooked a queen- cell. We 

 must find out as soon as dinner is over," I replied, 

 as we returned to our appropriate " sphere " 

 within doors, 



While still at the dinner table, an only too 

 familiar sound was heard. It was — of course it 

 was — our bees leaving for the third time! I 

 knew intuitively that this must be the final leave- 

 taking, and although when they started for the 

 woods I grimly followed in the wake of Richard 

 and Nellie as far as the fence, it was without a 

 hope or expectation of any kind. 



Richard went on through brush and brier, over 

 logs and around the roots of upturned trees — 

 for their course must needs be over the worst 

 spot in all the woods, a place where two years 

 before a small tornado had whirled through. 

 He followed them till he reached the " dark 

 woods" — (I don't know whether this phrase is 

 peculiar to this locality or not ; it means pine and 

 hemlock as distinguished from maple, beech, etc) 



