658 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



alight on the tall evergreens outskirting the 

 apiary. 



Two Sundays ago our Sunday watchman 

 (for we have such a man to look after our 

 plant to give notice in case of fire and some- 

 times of swarms) reported that a swarm 

 was out. As the boys were away, it be- 

 came my duty to hive the bees. But this 

 Sunday swarm, departing from the usual 

 customs of swarms at the Home of the 

 Honey-bees, saw fit to fly high and to hover 

 around near the top of one of our tall ever- 

 greens, something over 30 feet high. As if 

 to be less accommodating still, it separated 

 into three clusters, each cluster being over 

 20 feet above the ground. I soon brought 

 into play a step-ladder and a Manum swarm- 

 catcher with a sixteen-foot pole. I jarred 

 a part of the bees of each cluster into the 

 basket of the catcher, closed the lid, then 

 stood the machine up on its three legs with 

 a bunch of bees inside of the wire-cloth bas- 

 ket in the air. With a long pole I then be- 

 gan a systematic and persistent pounding 

 on the three limbs on which the bees had 

 been hanging previously. The large bunch 

 of bees in the basket in the meantime began 

 calling, and in a few minutes the rest of 

 the bees deserted their lofty elevations and 

 clustered on the outside of the wire-cloth 

 basket with their fellows. In a few min- 

 utes more I had them dumped into a Dan- 

 zenbaker hive. 



Our special prize committee, or committee 

 whose duty it is to award prizes on these 

 photos, did not assign any reason why this 

 particular one should be given first honors; 

 but if any one of them had had the experi- 

 ence of climbing an elm-tree to bring down 

 a swarm, he would probably give a picture 

 showing a swarm close to the ground the 

 first consideration, irrespective of the merits 

 of any other pose or detail in the picture. 



The particular swarm here shown is evi- 

 dently a large one, weighing not less than 

 10 lbs., I should judge from the appearance, 

 and the further fact that a fruit-tree having 

 a trunk over an inch in diameter was bent 

 clear over. 



Speaking of large swarms, the heaviest 

 one we ever had weighed 15 lbs. Estimating 

 4500 bees to the pound, which is very nearly 

 right for bees of a swarm, \;e have an ag- 

 gregate of 67,500. This particular swarm 

 before us could scarcely have weighed less 

 than 10 lbs., so the number of bees would 

 not be less than 45,000. 



There is nothing like the weight of num- 

 bers, either in the bee world nor in that 

 larger world in which we live and have our 

 being. I concluded, therefore, that the ac- 

 cessibility for general hiving purposes, and 

 the size of this particular bunch of bees, 

 were some of the deciding factors to cause 

 the committee to award the prize as they 

 did. And that leads me to say that the com- 



THE CABIN IN THE WOODS AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 



