1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1S5 



and back they went into the old hive. You 

 can imagine my feelings. I put away my 

 new hive, disgusted. In just a week, and 

 at the same hour, they came out again and 

 clustered where the bushes were so thick 

 that I had to cut a path out so that I could 

 carry them to the hive. This time I put 

 the hive hack of the old one, and with anoth- 

 er audience I shook them on to the sheet. 

 Again they went in, and out they came and 

 back into the old hive. Say, you don't know 

 just how I felt. They say it relieves a 

 man's feelings sometimes to swear. I didn't 

 do it; but I put my brand-new hive away 

 and went in to dinner. At one o'clock, out 

 they came again and settled on a bush near 

 where they did before. This time I put the 

 hive at the front of the house, where they 

 could not see the old one, and said, "The 

 third time never fails." Then I ran them 

 in again. As they ran across the sheet I 

 said to the man who was taking the picture, 

 "Good! there is the queen." 



"Yes," he said, "there is another;" and 

 my wife said, "Why, there is another." 

 There were three queens. If this had been 

 an after-swarm it would not have surprised 

 me; but this was a very large swarm, and 

 filled a ten-frame hive. I think I got my 

 money's worth of fun this time. 



I sometimes wonder if bees are attracted 

 by scent so that they will cluster near or on 

 the same spot where a swarm has been be- 

 fore. I have a Page wire fence covered 

 with woodbine around my place, and one 



year every swarm I had clustered on the 

 same post; and what a job I had getting 

 them out of that tangle of wire and wood- 

 bine! Still, with my few colonies I do not 

 think I would give up the fun of catching 

 them. 

 Ayer, Mass., Dec. 23. 



[You did not send us the picture of the 

 bees running into the hive ; but the one show- 

 ing the swarm of bees itself on the limb is 

 excellent. But let me tell you, friend Briggs, 

 after you have had a few more swarms, and 

 after jou have had a substantial increase in 

 numbers, you will be very glad to clip your 

 queens' wings. 



Will swarms cluster repeatedly on the 

 same spot? Indeed they will. Probably the 

 scent of the previous swarm remains. Tak- 

 ing advantage of this fact, many year? ago 

 a bee-keeper got up an automatic hiver that 

 worked on the principle of the old-fashioned 

 well- sweep. He hung a cage containing a 

 queen on the end of the sweep to attract the 

 first swarm. After that, he reasoned, other 

 swarms would cluster in the same spot, at- 

 tracted thereto by the scent of the previous 

 lot of bees. This well- sweep was pivoted in 

 such a way that, when there was a cluster 

 of three or four pounds on the end, it would 

 gradually topple over, drop to the ground, 

 bump on an open hive, dumping all the bees 

 therein. It was very pretty in theory, but 

 practically, I believe, it did not do very much 

 in the way of hiving bees.— Ed.] 



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APIARIAN LABORATORY OF DR. EDWARD F. BIGELOW, STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT. 



