188 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIE 



The Advantages of Swarm Catchers and 

 How They Are to be Used. 



B. TAYLOK. 



[Knowing that Mr. Taylor had had much ex- 

 perience with Swarm Catchers, I thought it 

 would be well to place his experience along by 

 the lide of Mr. Dibbern's, hence I sent Mr. Tay- 

 lor a copy of Mr. Dibbern's article and asked 

 him to senil^his views for publication. Here is 



T7RIEND Hutch- 

 r^ iuson, here is 

 my reply to your re- 

 quest for my exi^eri- 

 ence with swarm 

 catchers. Your es- 

 timate in the June 

 Reviisw of their val- 

 ue as compared with 

 drone traps and self 

 hivers is very fair. 

 I will ayree that to 

 use them success- 

 fully requires vyide-awake diligence, and I 

 know of no way of making sloth pay in any- 

 thing. 



On July 5th, 1892, I caught and success- 

 fully hived i*5 swarms from 11 to 2 o'clock ; 

 and in the tirst five days o'f the same month 

 we caught and hived !>5 swarms without get- 

 ting two swarms mixed in a single instance. 

 So much in reply to Mr. Dibbern's doleful 

 story. 



I have now reduced ray bees to less than a 

 hundred colonies. Physical disability makes 

 this necessary. Each morning the first thing 

 that is done is to scatter four or five catch- 

 ers over the yard. With each is placed a 

 notched lath that holds them up, so there 

 need be no delay in bringing them into in- 

 stant use. 



All tall trees near the apiary are removed 

 and we take but little trouble to watch for 

 and catch the first swarm each day. With 

 the use of a bunch of bushes, on wliich I 

 now get all swarms to alight, I love to hive 

 in the old-fashioned way, indeed, if only one 

 swarm would come off at a time I would 

 ask nothing better than the bushes. When 

 a swarm has settled on a hush and another 

 starts, I can take the first away some distance 

 to a shady place and keep it for two or three 

 hours. With the catchers I can keep them 

 as long as I wish — two days if necessary. 



The catchers are of great value in controll- 

 ing swarms tiiat often desert their hives. 

 After having work nicely started such 



swarms always go at once to the woods with- 

 out alighting. Catch such and keep them in 

 the cellar for thirty-six hours, then rehive 

 them in the hive from whence they came 

 and they always remain. 



I get many valuable uses from the catch- 

 ers besides those mentioned and I recom- 

 mend them as a great convenience in a bee 

 yard of many or few colonies. I have not a 

 farthing's interest in their manufacture or 

 sale. 



Now as to Mr. Dibbern's attempted bur- 

 lesque upon catchers. I have no doubt that 

 every thing he says of his performance is 

 strictly true. With his catchers and hi:ii to 

 manage them it is all quite possible, but the 

 style of catcher and yard arrangement that 

 could make such a farce possible is to me a 

 mystery. I think Mr D. must furnish a 

 large factor in the show himself. I know a 

 man may represent such a degree of awk- 

 wardness as to make almost anything possi- 

 ble. His exhibition must have been very 

 amusing to the citizens of Milan ; in my 

 mind's eye I can see them collected in the 

 inviting shade of neighboring trees taking 

 in the circus : and 1 fancy I can hear them 

 cheer loudly when Mr. Dibbern makes a 

 specially brilliant run. Mr. D. says that 

 when he began to hive his bees, after one of 

 his rib-splitting entertainments, that " most 

 of his bees with tiieir queens would have re- 

 turned to hives from which they came," and 

 the next day he would have to repeat the per- 

 formance. 



(J Dibbern, Dibbern ! thou that has stoned 

 the prophets, and tried to slay those that 

 tried to comfort thee ; how often would I 

 have sheltered thee as a hen gathers her 

 chickens under her wings, but ye would not. 



Brother and sister bee-keepers, did you 

 ever know a swarm with its queen to volun- 

 tarily return to the hive from which it came? 

 What odd bees the Milan strain must be. 

 Mr. D. says he now has the self-hiver per- 

 fected but is not willing to yet give the 

 secret. I hope he has, and, if so, I will pay 

 a round sum for its use, but I have ever 

 doubted and still doubt that the self-hiver 

 will ever be made a practical success. But 

 few bee-keepers have tried so extensively as 

 I have, every contrivence of my own and 

 others, to regulate and control this swarm- 

 ing business in an easy way, and I am con- 

 strained to admit that the goal has not been 

 reached nor any advance made that is of any 

 practical value, and I advise struggling bee- 



