L894. 



77/ /•: .1 \f ERIC AN B E E- KE E I ' E R . 





Will fruit trees do as well? Certain- 

 ly, if you like to climb them. One of 

 the advantages of something like 

 grape-vines, is thai they may be kept 

 of such a height that the swarms may 

 be hived on any part of them from 

 the ground. As an example of a suc- 

 cessfully arranged apiary, a friend of 

 mine who has been in the business 

 for some years ami now keeps some 

 twenty colonies, one, too, who believes 

 wholly in the natural swarming process, 

 has a large grape-vine about fifteen feel 

 from the front row of hives, at right 

 angles to, and directly across the path 

 of the bees as they come out. This 

 vine and one just beyond it has been 

 selected by every swarm he has ever 

 had issue except one, which took in- 

 stead, a tree just back of and over- 

 hanging the hives. In this way alone 

 the vines have probably saved him 

 enough time and bees to be a profitable 

 investment if they had been id' no 

 other use. As a matter of fact they 

 bore freely. The fruit consideration 

 is what prompts me to particular}- 

 recommend grape- vines to serve this 

 purpose of swarm catching. 



1 am not at all sure that one eould 

 realize in full the benefits of this sys- 

 tem if he could suddenly introduce 

 the vines before colonies that had al- 

 ways been accustomed to more distant 

 flights. More than likely the tradi- 

 tions of the elders would be passed 

 down the succeeding generations only 

 to be eliminated by degrees. Probab- 

 ly, by planting one or two year old 

 vines their gradual introduction would 

 be about in keepiug with the crowd- 

 ing out of the old tradition by the 

 adoption of the new convenience, and 

 the bees be readv to make use of the 



innovation quite as soon as it was 

 ready for them to use. 



lam quite confident that bee- trans- 

 mit hereditary traits in this line a> on 

 many others. Swarms issuing from a 

 colony that has always been used to 

 seeking a resting place in the woods 

 are much less apt to settle in a 

 venient place than those who have 

 been accustomed to a convenient and 

 low spot. Any departure from their 

 natural inclination to alight near the 

 hive on issuing indicates that some- 

 thing is wrong either with the bees or 

 their surroundings. Some do go off 

 without any apparent reason than 

 pure cussedness, but I am confident 

 there is some cause back of this; per- 

 haps nothing more than the established 

 custom of the hive in which the old 

 instincts of wildness are particulary 

 strong. 



It has been suggested that the 

 proneness of swarms to follow the 

 usual course of their predecessors in 

 settling always upon certain conven- 

 ient vines while those unused to that 

 alighting ground seek more distant 

 quarters is due to some peculiar oder 

 left upon the vine by the ancestral 

 stock. I do not believe this theory, 

 partly because while they choose the 

 same vine, they do not choose the 

 same spot on the vine, and partly be- 

 cause it is not to my mind more unrea- 

 sonable to suppose their superior do- 

 mesticity due to hereditary transmis- 

 sion in this particular than in others. 

 I believe the choice of inaccessable 

 places by some swarms is a remnant 

 of their former wild state that care 

 and culture can eliminate; and that it 

 will always pay to provide suitable 

 alighting places both to reclaim the 



