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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



ITatural Swarming 



Translated from the French Ami 

 du Clerge for the Saldimand Advocate. 



In the majority of cases, the swarm 

 will alight on the branch of a tree, on 

 a hedge, or fence, where it will cluster, 

 assuming tlie sliape of a cluster of 

 grapes. If no trees are in the vicinity 

 of the liive, plant therein two or three 

 branches. The hive that is to receive 

 the swarm should be very clean. If 

 it is an old one, it is wise to burn un- 

 der it some straw to destroy the little 

 insects that have nestled in it. The 

 interior of the hive miglit also be rub- 

 bed with some odoriferous plant or 

 flowers, such as the thyme, the rose, 

 or with a cloth moistened witli salt 

 water. But, should the hive be clean, 

 these precautions are not necessary. 

 As soon as the bees have clustered, 

 busy yourself to secure them, for fear 

 they may escape. 



Securing the Swarm. — There 

 are situations in which that operation 

 is very easily performed, others when 

 it meets certain difficulties ; let us 

 speak of the principal ones. As soon 

 as the swarm lias alighted, put on 

 your veil and make yourself ready to 

 secure it. If it is fixed to a low and 

 flexible branch, with one hand hold 

 the opening of the hive under the 

 swarQi, with the other shake smartly 

 the branch to cause the bees to fall 

 into the liive. Immediately after, 

 ui)set gently the hive and place it on 

 the platform to facilitate the means 

 of ingress. Disturbed by this opera- 

 tion, some of the bees will fly out 

 again and return to the branch. 

 Thev seem as if they would all escape. 

 In that case smoke the bees remain- 

 ing on the branch, and also tliose on 

 the aligliting-board whicli tarry to re- 

 turn. You may also replace the 

 smoking by putting, where the bees 

 are, some herbs of a strong odor disa- 

 greeable to the bees. In a quarter of 

 an liour, all the bees have returned to 

 the hive, and then you put it in its 

 place without any anxiety concerning 

 the few bees that may fly around tl>e 

 hive.. They will work that very day. 

 If you were to wait until the evening, 

 they would for a fev/ days flutter 

 around the p'ace where the hive was 

 flrst placed. 



If the swarm fixes itself to the trunk 

 of a tree, with one hand hold the hive 

 near them, and vvitli the other, with 

 the help of a brush or a feather-broom , 

 siiftly and swiftly sweep all the bees 

 into the hive. The capital point in 

 all these operations is to secure the 

 queen. 



If the hive is difficult to handle, 

 l>hice it on the platform, but raised 

 at the front a few inches with sticks 

 or l)locks : then with a shallow box or 

 net secure the bees with the brush or 

 soft broom and upset them gently at 

 the opening of the hive into wl'iich 

 they will immediately enter. If your 

 hive is the Langstroth, take off" the 

 cover and put the bees into it, place in 

 some section frames and some brood 

 from other hives, and if possible, put 

 the cover on and the operation is com- 

 pleted. Of course there are circum- 

 stances wliich may cause you to alter 



the way of securing the bees. A skill- 

 ful bee-k«eper will easily overcome 

 such difficulties. 



To estimate properly the value of a 

 swarm, first weigh the empty hive and 

 note it on a conspicuous part of the 

 hive or on a register in which are in- 

 scribed numbers corresponding to 

 to those of your hives. In the evening 

 or the next morning, weigh the hive 

 with the bees ; if its weight is four 

 pounds over the weight of the empty 

 hive, your swarm is sufficiently strong, 

 especially if it is one of the early ones. 

 Toward the end of swarming time and 

 and in countries where flowers are 

 scarce, the weight of the swarm 

 should be from five to six pounds. 

 Under that weight, the swarm should 

 be increased by division. As the bees 

 leave the hive, to swarm, they fill 

 themselves with honey sufficient for 

 at least three days sustenance ; they 

 are therefore heavier then than at or- 

 dinary times. Two pounds of bees 

 filled with honey contain about 9.^m 

 at other times in the same weight of 

 bees, there should be nearly 11.000. 



Is it possible to know wherefrom 

 came tlie swarm, in case of dispute 

 between two bee-keepers, each claim- 

 ing it as his own V 



Yes, this is tlie means to find it out. 

 Take from a swarm where it has a- 

 lighted, some fifty bees into a glass in 

 which you shall have put two or three 

 pinches of flour. Go thence a distance 

 of three hundred yards and let the 

 bees go. As a certain number will 

 then return to their old hive, walcli 

 and it will be easy to recognize them 

 by their bodies sprinkled with flour. 

 This will clearly prove who is the 

 owner of the swarm. 



To what cause must be attributed 

 the returning of the swarms or their 

 dispersing in all directions V 



Sometimes rain or a great wind will 

 force the swarm to return, or oftener, 

 the fall of the queen to the ground, 

 where she loses her way, or wanders 

 away from the swarm. Then the 

 swaim returns, but not before it has 

 searclied everywhere with great anxie- 

 ty for the queen. 



One looking at such a swarm can 

 easily guess that something is missing. 

 In such a case, search carefully in 

 front of the hive, and you will find the 

 queencrawling among the grass where 

 she fell, or struggling to free herself 

 from some snare in which she may be 

 held a prisoner. 



"What is to be done in case two or 

 more colonies swarm at the same time 

 and cluster together ? 



Be very careful not to separate them, 

 since allprolit of the bee-keepers con- 

 sist in strong colonies. However, as 

 in everything, excess is bad ; should 

 four or five swarms unite, you may 

 divide them into two or three colonies 

 and pick out the queens separately to 

 give one of them to each colony. 



^" A Canadian wishes us to state 

 in the Bee Journai,, whether we take 

 Canadian money for subscription or 

 books. We do ; and for fractions of a 

 dollar, Canadian postage stamps may 

 be sent. 



Adulteration a Corse, 



The following taken from the Norlh- 

 wentern Grocer, shows more forcibly 

 the general feeling among traders 

 concerning adulterations than any- 

 thing -vshich has been written for 

 some time upou the subject : 



Few men are so destitute of con- 

 scientiousness as not to feel, in their 

 inmost soul, a sense of shame and 

 wrong-doing when they adulterate 

 goods of any kind ; but especially 

 when they offer to their fellows as 

 food and drink what they have cor- 

 rupted, defiled, debased, contamina- 

 ted, vitiated. They may say, when 

 pushed to the wall, "the food and 

 drink we offer is pleasant to the eye, 

 grateful to the taste, wholesome and 

 nourishing to the stomach, and we do 

 the recipient no injury." But at the 

 same time he is conscious that when 

 he adulterated his goods he did it, not 

 for his neighbor's good, but for gain — 

 to add to his own profits. He diluted 

 and debased what he sold to gratify 

 himself and not his neighbor, and in 

 so doing he violated the golden rule : 

 „ Whatsoever ye would that men 

 should do to you, do ye even so to 

 them." Every common-sense man 

 and woman in the land despises the 

 person who deceives and defrauds 

 them. This is so obviously the case 

 that we pause neither to prove, argue 

 or illustrate the assertion. If we 

 have a reader who questions the prop- 

 osition, he has lost one of the choicest 

 jewels of human nature, and that is 

 self-respect. When men or women 

 lose their self-respect, reformation 

 and improvement are works not easily 

 accomplished. So long as we respect 

 our humanity there is hope for us ; 

 but wlien we tamely submit to allow • 

 men to palm off on us, roasted barley, 

 peas, corn, sweet potatoes, acorns or 

 even chicory for Old Government Ja- 

 va oreven Rio coffee, without a spirit- 

 ed protest, then are we beginning to 

 trifle with our self-respect ; and the 

 villains who. in their dungeons and 

 dens of infamy, thus practice on the 

 credulity and ignorance of weak hu- 

 manity deserve a higher and deeper 

 reprobation than the counterfeiter of 

 greenbacks, or the adulterator of our 

 national gold and silver cojns. 



Ig^ The summer meeting of the 

 Lorain County Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion will be held in the Court House 

 at Elyria, Ohio, on Wednesday, Aug. 

 6, 1884. O. J. Terrell, ISec. 



North -RidgevillcO. 



18^ The Kentucky Bee-Keepers'Con- 

 vention meets in Louisville, Ky.. dur- 

 ing the opening of the Exposition (day 

 not fixed). N. P. Allen, ISec. 



^" The Northwestern Illinois and 

 Southwestern Wisconsin Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association will hold its next 

 meeting on the third Tuesday in Au- 

 gust, at Leroy llighb;irger's, near 

 Adaline, Ogle County, 111. 



.J. Stewart, <Sec. 



Bock Citv. Illinois. 



