1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



91 



casional hive throughout the apiary, or lean 

 up a stick of wood right over the entrance to 

 a part of the hives, you will have very little 

 cause to complain from loss of queens when 

 they go out to meet the drones. Occasional- 

 ly a queen will get lost under the best of con- 

 ditions; but since I kept the king-birds kill- 

 ed off that persisted in hanging about the 

 apiary, and marked my hives as I have told 

 you, I do not lose more than five queens out 

 of a hundred, and not more than three out 

 of a hundred, except in unusual yeai's." 



"Well, I feel very grateful for what you 

 have told me, and I will be going now. 

 Good by. ' ' 



AVOID A PKOUD AND BOASTFUL SPIRIT; EX- 

 CEPTIONS TO ALL RULES. 



When we know a thing, it seems to be hu- 

 man natui'e to tell it to our friends. When 

 we think we know a thing and don't, we tell 

 everybody. This describes my nature ex- 

 actly. 



After studying the bee question a little I 

 always liked to tell people just how my bees 

 were going to act; just when they were go- 

 ing to swarm (usually they didn't swarm at 

 all, but were just trying to supersede a queen). 

 I liked to tell just now they would act when 

 they swarmed; how they would circle in the 

 air, and, on account of the queen being clip- 

 ped, they would go back into the hive with- 

 out clustering. Theoretically this was what 

 they should do; but, friends, in this vicinity 

 (I did not say "locality ") I have had during 

 the past five years al:)out 25 swarms, and ev- 

 ery mother's daughter of them, with one ex- 

 ception, clustered and stayed clustered till I 

 got tired of waiting for them to come back, 

 and till 1 shook them out of the tree. This 

 one exception caused me some embarrass- 

 ment. 



One day a friend ca'me over to talk bees 

 with me. He was the kind of company I en- 

 joy visiting with. He kept his mouth shut 

 like a gentleman, and let me do all the talk- 

 ing, i told him how to stop a runaway 

 swarm. All he had to do was to get ahead 

 of them and throw water on them. I told 

 him that one writer claimed he could drive a 

 swarm anywhere he wished with a spray- 

 pump. I did not try to get him to swallow 

 such a big one till he got used to my little 

 ones. But I hope that is so. What a fine ad. 

 it would be for the bee business on the 4th 

 of July to head the procession driving a 

 swarm of bees before you! 



I told my friend if he ever saw a runaway 

 swarm to let me know and I would show 



him how easy it was to stop them. It so hap- 

 pened that, about a week later, he came run- 

 ning over to my apiary, nearly out of breath, 

 and said : ' ' Thex'e is a whopping big swarm 

 of bees about two blocks away, and they are 

 coming right this way." 



"How lucky!" I thought. Never was a 

 more opportune time for a scientific demon- 

 stration. We quickly got pails of water and 

 cups. Sure enough, here came the beps — a 

 buzzing, humming mass that filled the air 

 for nearly a square. It was a beautiful sight 

 — one of which I never grow tired. 



Before they got near the apiary we sprin- 

 kled them, and, presto! they immediately 

 began to slow up and come nearer the ground. 

 There, I told you so. See how easy we can 

 make them come down ! This is the modern 

 way of doing things. Some old fogies still 

 use tin pans, looking-glasses, etc. Nothing 

 in such nonsense as that. This is real science. 

 All this time the bees kept coming lower and 

 lower. Now you just watch me and I will 

 show you how I can make them cluster on 

 that little peach-tree there. How fine to stop 

 them right in an apiary where we have hives 

 and every thing all ready for them! Then I 

 got on the other side of the swarm and be- 

 gan to sprinkle them. All this time my 

 friend kept exclaiming: "This is great! It' 

 worth coming a long way to see! What wil 

 you take to teach me how? " 



But why did not the bees cluster on that 

 tree? Now a sickening suspicion began to 

 come over my mind. The bees were gathei*- 

 ing in a cloud around a hive. Yes, they were 



foing in. Then the truth Pawned upon me. 

 t was one of my own swarms that I had 

 hived the day before, and they were trying 

 to abscond, and, not having their queen, 

 they were returning as all good bees should. 

 Oh my! Did mortal pride e'er before suffer 

 such a slump? all that fine demonstration 

 come to naught! all that classical bragging 

 worse than wasted! I would gladly have 

 sold myself for a penny, but I was too hum- 

 ble to cheat my worst enemy as badly as that. 

 My friend looked at me with pity. The 

 thought came to me that I might explain 

 that, after all, it was due to the modern 

 method of clipping the queen's wings that 

 saved the swarm, but I did not have the 

 heart to venture even this cheap apology. 



Those bees were determined not to stay in 

 that hive. 1 gave them ventilation all around. 

 I shaded them. I gave them a double brood- 

 chamber, but they simply would have none 

 of it. Then 1 gave them a frame of brood to 

 fool with, and they stayed under protest. 

 Here is another exception to the orthodox 

 teachings. That queen refused to lay a sin- 

 gle egg for four days, and in the meantime 

 the bees built the hive over half full of drone 

 comb. I have had one or two other swarms 

 do the same thing; and in using starters when 

 they start with worker comb they usually 

 leave a space in the corners that, later, they 

 are sure to fill with drone comb. So my 

 rule from this on will be, "Full sheets in the 

 super; full sheets in the brood-chamber, at 

 any and at all times." 



