470 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



all my queeus, and can see no good reason whj- 1 

 should not continue the practice. 



I will first g-ive a description of my swarra-catch- 

 er; and as there is no patent on it, all are at liberty 

 to make and use the same. It is simply a wire- 

 cloth cage fastened to a pole with two legs, so at- 

 tached to the pole that they can be set out or In, 

 something- like a tripod. The lower end of the pole 

 may be sharpened, to stick in the ground, in order 

 to steady the catcher, and to prevent it from being 

 tipped forward by the weight of the bees. 



The head, or cage, is 10 x 10 inches square by 1% 

 thick, and is covered on each side with wii-e cloth. 

 It is made in two parts, and hinged together, so as 

 to open and close. When closed it is held together 

 by a small hook. One of the parts of the head is 

 fastened to the pole, forming a catcher, as may be 

 imagined by referring to the cut. 



The head is made of Ji x ■}» stuff, hence is very 

 light. I usually furnish 8 or 10 of these catchers to 

 each of my apiaries. 



Now, as we have our catchers all made and ready 

 lor use, by having them distributed through the 

 apiary in order to have them handy, we will pro- 

 ceed to catch that swarm that is just coming out. 

 We will take this catcher here, and open it; hold it 

 to the entrance, and catch what bees we can; close 

 it, and lay it on the ground near by, and watch for 

 the queen. As she comes out, catch and put her in 

 the catcher with the bees. Now set up the ma- 

 chine in some shady place, if convenient. The 

 buzzing of the bees and the scent of the queen will 

 soon attract the swarm, when all will alight on the 

 catcher, where they may remain until we are ready 

 to hive them; and if we fear another swarm may 

 issue before these are hived, they may be covered 

 with a sheet. 



See! there comes another swarm! run with 

 another catcher, and proceed as before, and set 

 this catcher some distance from the first, if we wish 

 to hive the swarms separately. Although the first 

 is covered with a sheet, it is safei' to set them 

 apart. In this way we can catch all the swarms 

 that issue, and not be bothered by their clustering 

 together, providing they do not all come out to- 

 gether. 



When all have clustered, we may proceed to hive 

 each separately, or two or three together, by tak- 

 ing up a catcher and bees, and carrying them to the 

 hive previously prepared. We shake off the out- 

 side bees in front of the hive, and then open the 

 catcher, and shake out the queen and bees, and the 

 work is done. 



If two or more swarms issue at one time, we pro- 

 ceed to catch the few bees and queens as before, 

 using a catcher for each swarm (hence the neces- 

 sity of several catchers); and, as is usually the 

 case when more than one swarm issues at one 

 time, they will mingle and cluster together. In 

 such case we set the catchers near together and 

 await the results. If more bees settle on one 

 catcher than on the others, we shake them off 

 from this one; and on rising they will almost al- 

 ways divide up equally, each swarm clustering 

 around its respective queen. 



If we are too long a time in catching the queens 

 and setting up the catchers, the bees may com- 

 mence to cluster on a tree. In such a case it is 

 better to set all the catchers under the cluster; 

 that is, in the tree; and with a pole with a hook on 

 the end, shake the bees off. Upon rising they will 



very likely locate their queens; if not, shake them 

 off again, and they will soon all separate, each 

 swarm clustering with its queen, to the great de- 

 light of the apiarist. 



There are many other ways to use these catchers 

 that will suggest themselves during the swarming 

 season. A. E. Manum. 



Bristol, Vt., May lit, 1888. 



Our friend Mr. Manum is quite an exten- 

 sive apiarist. In a private note we received 

 from him, he said he was then locating his 

 seventli out-apiary, so our readers may judge 

 somewhat of the amount of experience he 

 necessarily has had among bees, and of his 

 ability to judge of a simple and practical 

 s warming-apparatus . 



Just here it occurs to us that there are two 

 ideas worth bringing up. The first is, that, 

 if the queens are not clipped, the queen her- 

 self will usually be found on the outside of 

 the cluster, or near the bottom end, for, it is 

 said, bees will never hang to the queen. If, 

 therefore, the corn-popper cage or other re- 

 ceptacle be pushed gently against the lower 

 end of the swarm, you are likely to secure 

 not only the larger portion of the bees, but 

 the queen also ; and in this event your 

 swarming is practically done. The other 

 idea is this : After these wire-cloth cages, 

 such as the corn-popper and Manum 's ar- 

 rangement, have been used a few times for 

 catching swarms, they will acquire the scent 

 of the laying queen, and of former swarms. 

 The catcher will, in consequence, be more 

 readily accepted for clustering by succeed- 

 ing swarms. In time these cages will have 

 little bits of wax adhering to them, and 

 these, also, form no small part of the at- 

 traction. 



Instead of making the wire-cloth cage as 

 friend M. described in his article, we find it 

 would be cheaper and better to use the corn- 

 popper, which we have tried so successfully. 

 A small hole is to be bored into the long 

 projecting end, and the popper screwed 

 firmly into place. For putting us on the 

 track of this idea, friend Manimi will be 

 properly rewarded. The device can be made 

 very cheaply. See Special Notices. 



SWARMINCt AT THE HOME OF THE HONEY- 

 BEES. 



This morning (June 9th), we were exceed- 

 ingly annoyed by the frequency of swarms, 

 coming out simultaneously. Although we 

 hived them successfully, we longed for one 

 of Manum's swarniing-devices. We accord- 

 ingly vowed this forenoon that we would 

 get the foreman to construct one. This 

 afternoon, as we stepped into the apiary, 

 sure enough there was one already. Then, 

 indeed, we wanted to see a swarm come 

 out, in order that we might try it. Hut 

 no SAvarms were so accommodating. If 

 we had not wanted them to come out, or it 

 had been Sunday and time to go to church, 

 we have no doubt but that they would have 

 come out in large force. To-morrow is Sun- 

 day, and it is quite likely that the imi'le- 

 ment will be brought into requisition, if the 

 weather is suitable. 



LATER. 



In accordance with the wise counsels given 

 by our bee-keepers on the Sunday question 



