THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



195 



best), have one a little longer than the rest, 

 with a good strong hook to hang it up by, 

 and around this central branch lay enough 

 of the shorter branches to make a compact 

 bunch as large as a small sheaf of grain. 

 With strong cord tie them tightly together 

 at the butts, leaving the hook out six inches 

 to handle it by. When the bees swarm, light 

 your smoker, and with the bunch of bushes 

 and smoker in hand wait until the swarm 

 has partly clustered — if all has clustered it 

 will do no harm. Now hold the swarming 

 bush close up against the bottom of the clus- 

 ter and give it a gentle jar ; if properly done 

 a large lot of bees will be left on the bush. 

 Hang this by the hook to a limb, or other 

 convenient place, in plain sight near by. 

 Now jar all the bees from where they had 

 clustered and with the smoker keep them 

 from settling there again ; in a few moments 

 they will all join the cluster on the bush, and 

 you can then unhook and carry them to any 

 place to be hived. Once on the bush the bees 

 will remain several hours if hung up in a 

 shady place. 



I have found it the next best thing to the 

 swarm catcher for preventing two or more 

 swarms from clustering together. Take 

 each swarm, as soon as it is on the bush, 

 and hang it in the shade, far enough 

 away so the next swarm will not find it, 

 and all will be safe if hived in two or three 

 hours. I have had six swarms hidden in this 

 way at the same time. When many swarms 

 were coming, by having several little wells 

 dug in the ground, the size and depth of a 

 kerosene barrel, with a stick laid across the 

 top to hang the cluster by, they can be 

 kept for any time desired, even over night, 

 and be hived at convenience, by covering up 

 darkly. This can be done with several cloths 

 or by light boards, drawing a little fine earth 

 over to keep out light. If I had no swarm 

 catchers I should regard a half dozen of 

 these little wells to hide and keep swarms in 

 as indispensable. Of course to use them 

 you must have a like amount of swarming 

 bushes, so there may be one for each swarm. 

 These bushes when not in use must be kept 

 in a damp, shady place, and they will last 

 for weeks." 



A Condensed View of Current 



Bee Writings. 



I 



E. E. HASTY. 



USE for propolis, don't you know? A 

 sufficient quantity of it melted into the 

 bottom of an old leaky wash-dish, or other 

 played out utensil, makes things lovely again 

 — provided you occasionally set it out in the 

 sun to heal up cracks that may ensue. And 

 in the dire domestic extremity of a leak in 

 thewash-boiler that will not be stopped, pro- 

 polis is just a " ministering angel." You see 

 it never really melts, and is heavier than 



water any way, and so will remain at the bot- 

 tom. Put a generous piece of clean tin over 

 the place so the clothes can not get soiled. 

 In applying the stuff, heat the bottom 

 first, then rub all round and over the leaky 

 territory with a lump of the propolis. Our 

 case was a group of small holes scattered 

 over a space several inches in extent. And 

 we are so shiftless at our house that we are 

 going on from week to week leaning on this 

 temporary expedient. Take heed lest you do 

 so too. 



Under the lead of Prof. Cook the bee- fruit 

 matter seems to be coming out greatly in 

 the bee's favor. What is to most of us a 

 quite unexpected find cuts a considerable 

 figure in the result. Very many varieties of 

 fruit will not accept their own pollen at all, 

 but must have pollen from some other tree 

 of some other variety, else no fruit what- 

 ever. And those varieties that will accept 

 their own pollen accept it with more or less 

 reluctance. Foreign pollen brought by bees 

 is always preferred — or, to put the thing in 

 technical shape, iwevotent. The California 

 experiments confirm those of Michigan. 

 Bees imprisoned under netting with the flow- 

 ers were seen to work on them — a thing I 

 should not have expected — and branches so 

 treated set fruit well, while branches covered 

 in the . same way, but with no bees inside 

 made a failure of it. Apples, however, were 

 not tested. An anomaly turned up as to the 

 apricots experimented on ; they seem not to 

 need bees or cross fertilization at all. The 

 general look of things at the present mo- 

 ment is that the stronger and more accepta- 

 ble the fertilization the better the fruit. 

 May no ill-omened bird flutter down to upset 

 that conclusion. See Gleanings 448. 



Canadian Bee Journal. 



A neat exterior with a dainty poem tacked 

 on to it ; an interior growing gradually bet- 

 ter from month to month ; an enterprise 

 that has just nicely caught the half-tone and 

 portrait breaking-out — what need hath the 

 Canadian of any long characterization at 

 this time and place i^ In the Canadian the 

 captions of the articles, with authors names 

 are inclosed in a square of border — and it 

 hath a Parliament instead of a question box. 

 But a Parliament with only two members, 

 as in the June number, (one of them a 

 " dead man " and the other a Yankee) rather 

 discounts the famous Rump Parliament of 

 the Puritans. 



