July. 1909. 



mineral as well as other baths, but no 

 permanent relief was obtained. Almost 

 despairing he requested enough of my 

 time to apply the "bee-sting cure." It 

 was agreed that if he would stand the 



American ^ac -Joarnal j 



The writer has seen a number of in- 

 stances to this effect during the sixteen 

 or more years of his bee-keeping ob- 

 servations. The first, years ago, was 

 when I thought I had discovered a 



237 



)>=^^g ^^ ] 



Sw.\RM Entering Empty Hives. 



pain I would apply the stings, and after 

 several weeks' treatment he was well. 

 It- will be well to say that this was a very 

 severe and obstinate case, and required 

 several hundred of the stings, which 

 were taken in the morning and evening. 



My present assistant at an early age 

 was afflicted with rheumatism to such 

 an extent that he was practically an in- 

 valid. His sufferings were unbearable, 

 and all the treatments gave no relief. 

 He and his relatives had heard of, and 

 were advised to try bee-stings, but the 

 relatives scorned such a foolish idea. 

 Having the grit which we know only 

 too well a young fellow in his condi- 

 tion can have, he one day, when all were 

 away, slipped out to his uncle's bees. 

 Although the pain was severe from the 

 stings applied by himself, he was de- 

 termined to get well. Relief was soon 

 felt afterward, and the application of 

 stings continued. He was cured, and is 

 well to this day ; and he does not expect 

 ever to suffer so again as long as he is 

 with the bees, which business he at that 

 time took up and expects to follow for 

 the very purpose in which he earnestly 

 believes^that as long as he receives 

 stings while working with the bees he 

 will be free from the dreadful torture 

 from rheumatism. 



Many other cases could be cited which 

 I know personally, while many others 

 have been related to me in detail. Upon 

 several occasions cases have been cured 

 upon my suggestion after everything else 

 had been tried. 



There are several persons who have 

 had like experience as above related, 

 and who can bear me out in this kind of 

 testimony. 



swarm of bees in the wall of a build- 

 ing. Bees were issuing back and forth 

 from a knot-hole right under the eyes. 

 But after a few raps were made on the 

 wall they soon dispersed. As a fore- 

 thought, or fearing that some day a 

 swarm might enter there, the opening 

 was closed up with soft soap. Seven 

 days passed by when about noon a roar- 

 ing noise near the building proved to be 

 a very large swarm which was trying to 

 enter that same knot-hole in the wall. 

 They settled finally on a small tree and 

 were hived. 



Another case of this kind where 

 scouts were mistaken for a colony of 

 bees was in an oak tree in a woods. 

 Upon examining closely the bees became 

 frightened and flew away. Later, when 

 passing the tree again, a swarm was in 



sides some I Know of in other apiaries. 

 Many times large numbers of bees would 

 be around such stack "investigating" 

 every crack and crevice, perhaps scouts 

 that were later to be followed by 

 swarms. 



One day, a year ago, my attention was 

 called to bees "robbing" in a pile of en- 

 tirely empty hives right in our city back 

 yard. They acted in all respects the same 

 as a bold band of some 100 or 150 rob- 

 bers (the largest scouting band I had 

 ever seen), only I remembered after- 

 wards that they seemed very gleeful 

 about finding the hives so empty and 

 nice. It did not occur to me then what 

 they meant, and in a few minutes they 

 were off and all was quiet. This was 

 right at our kitchen door. Just a week 

 later I snapped the picture shown here, 

 of the last part of the swarm entering 

 the empty hives. 



Whether all colonies send out such 

 scouting parties, or whether certain col- 

 onies always do, would be hard to deter- 

 mine. We know that they do this very 

 often, however. These parties vary in 

 numbers. While I have seen most of 

 them with only about two dozen bees 

 (more or less) the one above mentioned 

 was quite a large bunch of them, resem- 

 bling very much a miniature swarm 

 themselves, but their actions were very 

 much unlike a swarm. 



Mulberry Shade for Hives. 



The readers will have noticed on 

 page 124 of the April issue a photo- 

 graph of some mulberry shade trees, 

 both in their winter and summer con- 

 dition, with and without foliage. An- 

 other picture is given herewith, which 

 shows what a shady, cool, and invit- 

 ing place it is in an apiary of this 

 kind, especially when one knows what 

 it is to have to work in the swelter- 

 ing heat of a hot summer's sun. 



Regarding this kind of shade, Mr. 

 Smith comments as follows : 



Sconts Before a Swarm. 



There are many evidences that a col- 

 ony of bees that is preparing to swarm 

 will select previously a location for a 

 new home by sending out "scouts," or a 

 number of bees whose duty it is to go 

 out and find a suitable place to which 

 the swarm then proceeds later. 



A Texas Apiary Among Mulberry Trees. 



possession of the very same hollow of 

 that tree. 



Half a dozen or more swarms have 

 been hived, or rather they hived them- 

 selves right into stacks of empty hives 

 and supers right in my own apiaries, be- 



speaking of shade for bee-hives, Mr. Scholl, 

 r don't like the miilt)erry. Tlic shade is too 

 dense and thick when in full leaf, though 

 putting out leaf late is a point very much in 

 their favor. Our favorite shade tree for 

 hee-hives is our old standby, the mesquitc. 

 It comes into leaf late in the spring, the shade 

 is not very dense at any time, and it is one 



