AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



757 



to see them scramble off the clothing 

 full fourteen ways from Sunday, and 

 disappear in the cracks of the floor. 



On undoing my grip, some had gotten 

 inside, but I shook some garments, put 

 on an extra amount of clothing, and 

 went out and slept well in a wheat- 

 shock. 



The next day, when I took up a paper 

 or book, I looked well on all its sides, 

 even the supers and honey cans were 

 suspected, and not unnecessarily, either, 

 for I found the varmints entrapped in 

 the oowls in the pantry, and swimming 

 in dishes of cooked food. Some had 

 fallen in the muzzle of the shot-gun that 

 stood in the corner, and in the shaving 

 mug on the corner bracket, and if I 

 pulled a sliver from the gate-post I 

 looked to see what was under it. 



Now, this one particular fault is all I 

 could make out against this job, but this 

 one was so weighty that a day after, 

 and some time before the return of the 

 family, I put another thousand-mile 

 ticket well down into my vest-pocket, 

 leaving no explanation whatever. So I 

 say to those who want a job, do not go 

 to a job unless you can afford to pay 

 your fare both ways, and lose it. 



Pasadena, Calif. 



Self-Hivers vs. Queen-Traps in 

 Controlling; Swarin§. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY ADKIAN GETAZ. 



On page 401, our old friend Henry 

 Alley argues that a queen-trap will 

 catch a swarm as well as a self-hiver, 

 all we have to do is to return the queen 

 to the hive two or three days after the 

 swarm has issued — so he claims. 



In a foot-note of a similar article writ- 

 ten by Mr. Alley for Gleanings (April 

 1st, pages 257 and 274), Mr. E. R. 

 Root says: "The bees have been 

 thwarted in their efforts to carry out 

 the instinct of nature, remaining in the 

 hive, frittered away their time doing 

 nothing, and finally ended up by killing 

 the queen." This was in reference to 

 using queen-traps as advised by Mr. 

 Alley. 



Well, it is simply this: With a queen- 

 trap the swarm returns to the old hive, 

 the swarming fever not satisfied, and 

 the whole thing will work in nearly 

 every case as described above by Mr. 

 Root. But with a self-hiver that would 

 hive the whole swarm, the case would 

 be entirely different, because then 



swarming would actually take place, the 

 swarming fever be satisfied, and the 

 swarm go to work with all the vim and 

 energy always displayed by new swarms 

 (at least I think so). 



The supers should be put on the hive 

 of the new swarm, and at least part of 

 the brood-combs and young bees also 

 transferred to the new hive, and the 

 whole made a rousing colony. 



I am afraid Messrs. Pratt and Root 

 have made a mistake in placing the 

 new hive under the old one. Lifting 

 the old hive, and perhaps two or three 

 supers, or even turning them, as they 

 say, " cat-a-cornered," to ascertain 

 which hives have been swarming, is too 

 much work. Better have the hiver in 

 front, and only a cover to lift. I some- 

 what suspect that they have done it, 

 and also adopted a peculiar queen-es- 

 cape instead of a cone, in order to avoid 

 infringing on Mr. Alley's queen-trap 

 patent, but I don't know positively. 



In case the self-hiver and new hive 

 should be left under the old hive for 

 several weeks or months, the probability 

 is that the work in the sections would 

 cease, and the bees fill both new and old 

 hives, with or without swarming. If 

 working for comb honey, our aim would 

 be defeated ; if extracted honey is the 

 object, better put the two hives one 

 upon the other, without any self-hiver 

 or honey-board ; or, better still, adopt a 

 large hive such as used by the Dadants, 

 and most of the European apiarists. 



Knoxville, Tenn. 



The Proper Time to Put on tiie 

 ISurplu§ €ase§. 



Written for Farm^ Field and Stockman 

 BY S. E. MILLER. 



The question is often asked, " When 

 is the proper time to put on surplus 

 cases?" or, as they are more commonly 

 called, supers. The question is gener- 

 ally answered by saying, When the bees 

 begin to whiten the combs along next to 

 the top-bar of the frame. This, how- 

 ever, is not alv/ays the best rule to fol- 

 low, if, in fact, there is any particular 

 rule at all. 



I have seen the combs whitened as 

 spoken of above early in the season 

 when fruit-trees were in bloom, and this 

 flow of nectar would last for only a few 

 days. Then cool to cold and rainy 

 weather set in and the bees actually had 

 to be fed to keep them from starving. 

 To have the supers on at such a time 



