CHAPTER I. 
How I Became a Successful Manager of Bees on a Large Scale. 
One day in June, 1876, my younger brother and sister coming 
from school saw a swarm of bees fly overhead. I can remember it 
as well as though it were yesterday, how I found fault with them 
for not telling me until after the swarm was out of sight. Prob- 
ably fifteen or twenty minutes had elapsed after the bees had 
passed over the road; and since colonies in movable-frame hives 
were worth $10.00 in those days, and since I had had the bee fever 
for some two years, I made up my mind to locate that swarm. I 
was shown where it crossed the road and the direction it took. 
Before I had gone into the woods ten rods I heard the bees entering 
a tree, and I soon saw them, for many were still on the outside, 
while others were circling around making a great noise. They 
entered a limb well up toward the top of a large elm. 
That night I asked a beekeeper when it would be best to 
transfer the bees from the tree to a frame hive, and he told me 
that I could do no better than to do it immediately, for the reason 
that, if the tree were felled before the bees had time to build any 
comb they could be hived like a natural swarm, without the incon- 
venience of transferring sticky combs, etc. A third of a century 
has elapsed since this took place; and if I were asked to-day how 
to manage in such a case I would give the same answer that this 
beekeeper gave me. Well, the tree was cut while the bees were 
flying during the next day; and although their entrance had been 
60 feet from the ground not a bee was lost; for as soon as those in 
the tree started into the new hive, all of the bees heard the ‘‘ hom- 
ing hum ”’ and entered the new hive with the rest. 
As soon as the tree was down, and before the bees got over 
being demoralized, the beekeeper who was helping me ran toward 
the top of the tree; and as soon as he could locate the entrance he 
smoked the bees so that they could be handled without fear of 
stings. By sawing in on each side of the entrance, and splitting 
off a portion of the limb, we opened the cavity where the bees. 
were. The hive was then placed with the entrance as near as. 
