920 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Ncv. 1 



invested in hives, frames, foundation, a few 

 swarms of black bees, and a five-frame nu- 

 cleus with tested Italian queen. Thus I 

 made a start with about six colonies all 

 told. Every day found me more fascinated 





COMPLACENTLY WAT CHING THEM ISSUE 



with my new occupation than I was the day 

 before. You could get me to do hardly 

 any thing else those days than work in the 

 apiary, and I probably worked as hard 

 over those few colonies as I did later when 

 I had four apiaries with 750 colonies to 

 manage. At dawn I was up in time to 

 watch the first lot of bees take their flight 

 and return laden with stores, and covered 

 with dust from Christmas-pop. Later you 

 could see me looking into the hives to see 

 how matters were progressing, or busy at 

 my work-bench near by, making or paint- 

 ing hives; at noon reclining under some 

 shady tree poring over the A 

 B C of Bee Culture, seeking to 

 learn something of the myster- 

 ies of bee-keeping, and also not 

 infrequently gazing ardently at 

 the pictures of the large api- 

 aries contained therein, and 

 dreaming of the time when I 

 too would have a large apiary; 

 and at nights until ten o'clock, 

 with lantern, harpoon, and tar- 

 brush, engaged in mortal strife 

 with those relentless enemies 

 of bees in Jamaica, red ants 

 and frogs. In this way days 

 and weeks passed smoothly. 



It was with a degree of ex- 

 pectation bordering on impa- 

 tience that I waited for the 

 swarming season to arrive. 

 Large apiaries and natural 

 swarming were concomitant to 

 my mind. I had read every 

 thing on the subject of swarm- 

 ing I could get hold of; the 

 chapter upon "absconding 



swarms " in the A B C I almost knew by 

 heart, so often had I perused it. Would my 

 swarms abscond? I wondered. Had they 

 any reason to entertain the thought? Did 

 they not have the best attention at home? 



Half a mile from the apiary 

 was a cliff rising perpendicu- 

 larly from the foot of the moun- 

 tain, to a height of eighty feet, 

 or perhaps more, and almost 

 every niche and interstice in 

 that rocky promontory was oc- 

 cupied by bees. My brother 

 had on one occasion ferreted 

 out a swarm from the base by 

 means of a smoker, and rags 

 saturated with carbolic acid. 

 How did those bees happen to 

 get into that rock? Were they 

 wild bees? These and like 

 questions I kept asking myself 

 from day to day; and the more 

 I thought about it, the more 

 that apiary of nature became 

 associated in my mind with 

 " absconding swarms." 



At last the swarming sea- 

 son arrived. Stimulated by 

 the light flow from the mango, 

 pear, cherry, and other fruit- 

 trees, the bees soon had queen- 

 cells under way, and my dreams of a 

 large apiary seemed at last to be taking 

 tangible form. How eagerly I did watch 

 for those swarms to issue! and how tardy 

 they seemed to be! However, it is said 

 that all things come to those who wait, and 

 it was so in my case; for one morning my 

 heart gave a big bound as some one called 

 " Swarming! swarming! " Looking I saw 

 an unusual amount of bees flying from the 

 entrance of one of my strongest colonies. In 

 a moment I was on the spot, complacently 

 watching them issue. 



Six years have passed since that time: 



HARD LT7CK. 



