1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



677 



gether at 11 a. m. On June 8 a prime swarm 

 came out at 3 P. m. There were no more seen 

 till June 14, when a prime came out at 4 : 20 

 p. M. The next one seen was a very small 

 after-swarm, July 1, also 4 : 20 p. M. The next 

 one seen was another little one-mouse affair 

 July 28, at 2 : 15 p. m. Being too small to 

 be worth bothering with, these were left to 

 their own devices. They stayed in cluster the 

 rest of that day and all the next day, and dis- 

 appeared about noon of the third day. The 

 last swarm, so far, came out August 8, at the 

 orthodox hour of 9 : 30 a. m. — a pretty good 

 swarm which I was glad to see, because I 

 needed them for a special service. 



This record comprises so few swarms and so 

 short a time that the accidental element 

 weighs too heavily. If we draw conclusions 

 from these instances alone we should conclude 

 that bees swarm mostly in the afternoon. 

 And some of these primes may have been 

 primes with virgin queens, and therefore more 

 or less subject to after-swarm rules. 



But what shall we do about it ? watch as a 

 cat watches a mouse all day long? Not nec- 

 essarily. Life is too valuable to make it a 

 slavery for so small an object. There are 

 some things, however, in which we can mend 

 matters a little without very much surrender 

 of our free hours. But don't trust much to 

 the eyes of folks who are not bee-folks. A 

 hundred colonies of bees make quite a roar, 

 and send out quite an array of workers right 

 straight along. A layman is quite capable of 

 keeping the apiary under his eye most of the 

 time, and yet allow a swarm to fly and cluster, 

 and he be blissfully unconscious of it all the 

 while — ready to make oath in court that there 

 was no swarm. Worse than that by far, 1 find 

 that /can do the same bat's eyed exploit my- 

 self, if I am thinking of something else, and 

 not loaded for swarms. Am not anxious to 

 figure as a slanderer of the brethren, but I 

 strongly suspect that I am not the only bee- 

 keeper who lets a swarm cluster under his 

 nose (on his beard, as it were) and does not 

 see them. We can see them better by expect- 

 ing them, and keeping ourselves mentally on 

 duty when at work about the apiary in the 

 afternoon. 



But our best resource is to make a careful 

 search of the surrounding trees and other 

 handy clustering-places once or twice in mid- 

 afternoon, and again just before dark. And 

 don't be too sure a late swarm will not go the 

 same afternoon. As a slight further help a 

 little chopping-down of useless and sly hiding- 

 places, a little clearing-out of jungles where 

 one might almost expect a tiger, and a good 

 deal of thinning-out of the twigs of too dense 

 tree-tops, would fix our surroundings so that 

 much less time would suffice to go the rounds. 



Richards, O., Aug. 16. 



[It has been generally stated as a rule, I be- 

 lieve, that it is not necessary to watch for 

 swarms before 9 a. m. and after 3 p. M.; but I 

 have myself many times seen exceptions to 

 this rule ; but those exceptions seem to have 

 been cases where a swarm tried to go forth 

 and was foiled in its attempt by some device 



of the bee-keeper in the shape of perforated 

 zinc or a clipped queen. After the bees have 

 tried once, and have been compelled to go 

 back, next time they may become desperate, 

 and violate all rules. In the height of the 

 swarming season we have sometimes found it 

 necessary to go the rounds of our apiary and 

 look over the evergreens surrounding the 

 yard to see if there were any swarms that had 

 come out and clustered without our knowl- 

 edge. I remember one year, when we were 

 having from six to eight swarms a day, I 

 found it a good idea after dinner to go around 

 the trees to see if I could find a cluster that 

 had come out when we were at dinner; and I 

 have on several occasions found a swarm 

 hanging as quietly as if it had been hanging 

 there all day. If the search had not been 

 made, possibly our only knowledge of these 

 bees being out would have been their final de- 

 parture for the woods. How we may stop 

 leaks of this kind we may very properly con- 

 sider. — Ed.] 



BEE-KEEPING ON THE HOUSETOPS IN 

 CINCINNATI. 



Honey on Commission and Outright Sale. 



BY FRED W. MUTH. 



Friend Ernest: — Thinking it might be of 

 some interest to you as well as the many read- 

 ers of your esteemed journal, I send you a 

 photo of our apiary, situated on the top of the 

 house. We are not blessed, as many are, 

 with a yard, but have it just as convenient on 

 the roof. The neighborhood is thickly popu- 

 lated, while the bees, being so high (four 

 stories), do not bother any one. From July 

 1st to 10th they just rolled in sweet-scented 

 clover, which grows so plentifully on the hill- 

 tops that surround this beautiful city. 



You will notice we are using eight-frame 

 Dovetailed hives. I find they are easier han- 

 dled than the Langstroth, but it remains to be 

 seen if they are as cool as the L. is in the hot 

 sun, as our roof is partly in the sun all day. 



You will notice Mr. Weber, with a comb of 

 brood in hand. He does enjoy his spare time 

 among his bees. About 25 feet from where 

 the bees now stand Mr. W., some 32 or 33 

 years ago, while in the employ of my father, 

 assisted in transferring his bees from the old 

 box hives to the then new Langstroth hives ; 

 so you see he is no stranger at the business. 

 He bought this business, as well as the house, 

 the 1st of April. He has quite a large retail 

 seed trade, besides doing a nice grocery busi- 

 ness. He engaged me to manage the bee- 

 supply and honey department. I have been 

 connected with a wholesale grocery of this 

 city for about ten years as salesman ; have 

 always been a lover of bees and the honey 

 business, and after reading the journals for 

 years I think I can make a success. 



Cincinnati is quite a market for extracted 

 honey. The old firm sold tons and tons of it. 

 It is not the small consumer who uses the 

 greater part of the honev produced, as so 

 many seem to think. While our city, with its 



