JUNE 15, 1914 



469 



bees; but on again visiting tliera a week 

 later 1 could see no decrease in the relative 

 strength of the groups. 



As soon as possible I raised a bunch of 

 queens in the home yard; and when Mr. 

 B.'s two strongest colonies showed signs of 

 swarming I removed them to the other end 

 of the apiary. On the old stand I placed a 

 ten-frame liive with one frame of brood 

 and nine of foundation, and a caged queen. 

 On top 1 put two full-depth extracting- 

 supers. In a very short time that hive was 

 as populous as could be desired. The queen 

 was liberated and had three frames of brood 

 when I next looked, five days later. It was 

 a sight for sore eyes to see the way those 

 bees were storing honey in the supers. 

 There were combs in the supers and foun- 

 dation below. The queen would fill a frame 

 with eggs as soon as the foundation was 

 drawn out, so the bees had to put the honey 

 in the supei-s. I followed this plan with the 

 rest, and by the middle of June I had 23 

 good populous swarms working in the su- 

 pers. By this time the first of the hives 

 thus treated were again so populous that T 

 repeated the operation. As I could make 

 only 60 per cent increase according to the 

 contract, this could be done with only five 

 more. The rest I allowed to swarm, and 

 put them back. Mr. B. did this, and got 

 only eight of my half-dollars. I received a 

 nice crop of honey and had 14 good strong 

 colonies at the end of the season as my 

 share. 



When at work among the bees Mr. B, 

 was constantly following me about. He did 

 not try to conceal his surprise at my " igno- 

 rance " of certain " well-established facts." 

 For instance, when I started to clip the 



queen of one of the newly formed colonies 

 Mr. B. almost had a fit. He said clipping 

 meant the ruin of the colony because the 

 queen would not be permitted to take her 

 " daily cleansing flight." 



At another time, shortly after I had re- 

 turned home from a visit to the yard, he 

 called me up on the telephone and wanted 

 to know if I could come down the next 

 morning, as three swarms were goin^ to 

 issue. I asked which ones, and he replied 

 Nos. 12, 15, and 22. Looking in my record- 

 book I found they were all new colonies. 

 In fact, No. 22 had but five frames of 

 brood. I told him there must be some mis- 

 take; but he said he was positive, because 

 he had seen drones flying in front of those 

 hives for the first time, and surely I "knew 

 (hat within 48 hours from the time the first 

 drone is seen flying from a hive, that hive 

 will swarm." I confessed my " ignorance," 

 and said I would take a chance on their not 

 swarming, and ]\Ir. B., disgusted, hung up 

 the receiver. Is it necessary to state that 

 Mr. B. never saw a copy of Gleanings nor 

 any other bee-paper in his life? I am sure 

 the beekeeping brethren will appreciate this 

 very simple method of determining ( *?) when 

 a colony is going to swarm. 



Worcester, N. Y. 



[Your plan is all right, except that in 

 some cases it may result in the killing of 

 queens by reason of confusion resulting 

 from the transposing of the colonies. But 

 this will rarely occur when the bees are 

 busy in the fields or are preparing to swarm. 

 Ordinarily we should say the plan would be 

 workable. — Ed.1 



MOOTING DOWN 



BY ALFRED CABLING 



Some time ago the editor said that the 

 man who could show how to take a swarm 

 out of a high tree without climbing it de- 

 served a gold medal, or Avords to that effect. 

 Now, as I have not seen any one claiming 

 the medal I will try to get it. 



My yard is located in a narrow canyon 

 with tall live-oaks on the hillsides. Some 

 swarms will fly high, and cluster away out 

 on the swaying branches where climbing 

 would be out of the question. I spread a 

 large canvas on the ground directly under 

 the swarm, and put a bucket of water with 

 a big brush handy. I then take my 44 Win- 

 chester and shoot off the limb that supports 

 the cluster. When it comes tumbling down 



on the canvas I fake the brush and give the 

 bees a good sprinkling with water. Then 

 with a dustpan I shovel part of them into 

 the hive, and the rest will scamper in like 

 a flock of wet sheep. When water is not 

 handy I roll up the canvas and dump them 

 into the hive and put the canvas over like a 

 tent. 



On days when the mercury is trying to 

 crawl out at the top of the fulDe the bees are 

 likely to scatter in the air as the limb breaks 

 off; but they will nearly always settle a 

 little lower down, and then I repeat the 

 operation till they are low enough to be 

 reached by a 30-foot pole. Again, on hot 

 and still days I have had to wait till the 



