240 THE FARM. 



priced, iintested, patented hives, purchase a large number of colonies, or 

 buy " three-banded" Italian qtieens at a time Avhen, as yet, they can hardly 

 tell a drone from a -worker. Begin moderately and hasten slowly. The 

 needful experience in practical bee culture is much more easily and far more 

 efficiently acquired by careful attention to a few choice stocks, than by a hur- 

 ried supervision of a large number, even with the aid of manuals and text- 

 books. Plain, simple, movable frame-hives, too, will be found better suited 

 for the requisite manipulations than fanciful and compUcated contrivances 

 devised by persons really ignorant themselves of the habits and wants of 

 bees. And colonies placed in an open situation, mth their hives readily 

 accessible from all sides, and somewhat sheltered or shaded by trees or 

 vines, will be much more conveniently managed than when placed in 

 ordinary sheds or out-door bee houses. Study first to know what is required 

 for success, and then extend your operations when you are sure that you caii, 

 have the business " well in hand." 



How to Catch Swarms—For the past ten or twelve years, says a cor- 

 respondent of the American Bee Journal, I have not cut my fruit trees to 

 catch swarms. I get an ordinary sized basket, and nail a three-eighth-inch 

 board on the bottom, with some suitable springs under it; then bore a hole 

 in the center, and put an iron down through, with a loop on the top and a nut 

 on the inside, and screw it fast; buckle a strap, six or eight inches long with 

 a snap on it, in the loop. Have a pole cut from the edge of a two-inch plank, 

 dressed any length, from eight to ten feet, with a ferule on each end and 

 one- quarter inch iron rod sixteen inches in length; take a small ring, and 

 bend an eye on the end of the rod, with the ring in it; taper the other end, 

 and make it secure in the end of the pole; then curve it so as to project it six 

 or eight inches, in which snap the basket catcher. 



To use it, push it among the branches of the tree which the bees are 

 making for, and if they do not light upon it, when they begin to cluster, put 

 the catcher up against them, and when you get part of them on your basket, 

 move it a little away and toward the branch that they are on, and they will 

 all settle on the basket in five minutes. 



To complete the pole, get a one-half inch rod of iron, twelve inches long, 

 tapered at each end, and secure it in the lower end of the pole; and when 

 the bees begin to settle on the basket, stick the spear in the ground and let 

 it stand, while you are preparing the hive, etc. Then take down the pole 

 and unhook the basket with bees, which may be carried any distance you 

 wish. Shake off the bees on an open sheet in front of the hive, showing 

 them the way, and they will go in faster than a flock of sheep into a yard 

 after the gate is open. 



Mice ill the Apiary. — During the winter mice are sometimes trouble- 

 some guests in the apiary, especially if the hives are surrounded by straw in 

 which they can harbor. The best preventive is to have hives so tight that 

 they can gain no admittance. For the sake of ventilation it is not well, how- 

 ever, to have the entrance closed air-tight; therefore, fasten a piece of wire 

 gauze over the enti'ance of the hives that may be in the cellar, or that may 

 be buried in the ground; this mil exclude mice and admit air; and over the 

 entrance of hives that are covered -with boxes, fasten a piece of tin about a 

 quarter of an inch above the bottom board, so that the bees can just pass 

 under the edge of it, while the mice are excluded. ^ 



