THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



59 



RKirRNI>;G AXD PRl.VENTING AFTER- 



swarMing. 



It is quite a common practice to 

 prevent the re- issue ot' second swarms 

 by returning tiie swarm early on the 

 morning of the day after that on which 

 it issued. No killing of the queen is 

 needed ; leave that to be settled by the 

 bees themselves. — British Bee Jour- 

 nal. 



This is a good idea and if practised 

 will save a good deal of work and 

 trouble to the beekeeper. Understand 

 that the after swarm is the svvarm that 

 issues after the first swarm comes off. 

 When a second swarm does issue they 

 should be hived in a convenient box, 

 that is, a box from which the bees can 

 be quickly and easily shaken from when 

 they are to be returned to the parent 

 hive. When ready to perform this op- 

 eration, smoke the bees in the parent 

 colony as well as the swarm, and dump 

 the latter in front of the home hive. 

 In my opinion towards night, the day 

 after the swarm issues, is the best time 

 to return the bees. 



PURCn.VSING AND TESTING NEW THINGS 

 IN' TIIE APIARV. 



Whenever a fellow is unfortunate 

 enough to possess sufficient brains io 

 invent or devise some new article for 

 the apiary, he is, as soon as publicity is 

 given to his inventive genius, pounced 

 upon by certnn well-known and many 

 heretofor -. unknown ])arties, berated, 

 abused and his invention called a hum- 

 bug. This is the greeting nearly all 

 have met the last forty years who have 

 made an attempt to benefit his fellow 

 beekee[)er. If any proof of this asser- 

 tion is needed, one has only to go back 

 and look over the various bee-papers, 

 beginning with the time father Langs- 

 troth invented the movable comb hive, 

 to the time the last bee escape was 

 brought to the notice of the beekeeping 

 public. 



Sometime within two years an auto- 

 matic swarm-hiver was offered for sale. 

 No sooner had it been described in the 



different publications devoted to bee 

 culture than up jumps some half dozen 

 fellows — "we have got a l)etter one." 

 Now every one of these "friends" cried 

 '•mine is the best" before any of their 

 so-called inventions had been put in- 

 to practical use, and up to date not one 

 of them has ever self-hived a sivar?n of 

 bees. Now is this an honorable way of 

 doing business? Mind you, everyone of 

 these wonderful big-headed men bor- 

 rowed the principle of their inventions 

 from the first swarmer described. For 

 a long time one man claimed that he had 

 a perfect swarmer, one that would catch 

 every swarm that issued, and he would 

 describe it later on. 'Tf it didn't work 

 best of all he would throw it away." 

 Well, the long promised description 

 came. It proved to be nothing more 

 nor less than Alley's drone-andqueen- 

 trap with a small top story attachment. 

 When one had read the description of 

 this wonderful device it was found that 

 this swarmer had never hived even one 

 swarm of bees. It caught the queen and 

 a few bees. This is just what the queen- 

 trap does that has been in use the last 

 nine years. And so it goes. The fa- 

 miliar saying '-credit to whom credit is 

 due " exists only in saying so on paper. 



With the introduction of new imple- 

 ments there is another class of people 

 to contend with. Hundreds of people 

 stand back and say "we'll let some one 

 else test that thing, I won't." When a 

 well-known beekeeper comes forward 

 and says "I have invented an important 

 device for the apiary" why not take 

 hold and test it, considering the fact 

 that the article is sold at a low figure 

 and is a great helj) to the apiarian. 



Put your brains to work, friends, and 

 invent something that will help the bee- 

 keeper to obtain a profit from his apiary. 

 Let the old fogies blow. Let those 

 fellows who cry when asked about a 

 new thing "no I don't use it and don't 

 care to even see it," go to the dogs. 

 They are the fellows who are all bound 

 up in themselves and are of no benefit 

 to mankind or the public generally. 



One prominent beekeeper was seen 



