THOl SAXD ANSWERS 249 



Q. "If a swarm in July 

 Is not worth a fly, 

 Can anybody remember 

 What they are worth in September?" 



A. "A 5\varm in Ma5- is worth a load of hay: 

 A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon : 

 A swarm in July is not worth a fly." 



That jingle must have been made for some locality with which 

 I have no acquaintance. Taking it, however, at its face value, if 

 it teaches anything it teaches that the worth of a swarm as the 

 season advances is a constanth- diminishing quantity. In July it 

 gets down to the zero point, after that it becomes a negative 

 Qv.antity. by September becoming a great deal less than nothing. 

 And that might be literally true at the time the doggerel was 

 composed, when all that was done with a swarra was to dump it 

 into an empty box or skep and leave it to its own devices. For 

 the swarm would be worthless, and the mother colony would be 

 damaged by the exodus. It is possible that in the present instance 

 there was an exception, and that the flow was so hea\y and con- 

 tinued so late that, left to themselves, the swarm might have 

 built combs and stored enough for winter. In localities where 

 there is a dearth in July and a second crop in August and Septem- 

 ber, a September swarm will be better than a July swarm, as it 

 may fill its hive from the fall blossoms, while the July ^warm 

 would starve before the second crop opened. 



Swarms, Where From. — Q. If a swarm comes forth, and you 

 don't see what hive it comes from, is there any way to tell what 

 hive it comes from? 



-A. Take a bunch of bees awa\- from the swarm, dredge thera 

 vrith flour, and watch to which hive they fly back. Of course, you 

 may also be able to make a good guess by looking into the hives 

 and finding one which has a scarcity of bees. If you investigate 

 the matter promptly j'ou may find in front of the mother hive a 

 number of very young bees, unable to fl\ , who have been dragged 

 out by the rest of their comrades and are trying to get back. 



Sweating of Bees. — Q. Do bees sweat if covered too v. arm? 



A. They are more likely to sweat when too cold, if you maj' 

 call it sweat. Moisture is coming from the bees all the time, and 

 ii the walls of the hive are cold, the condensed moisture settles 

 upon them, and may run down and out of the entrance, and this 

 is sometimes called sweating. The worst of it is when the mois- 



