148 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



mullen-stalks about a dozen in number, and tie tbese to the_ tops of 

 poles ; the poles should be set in the ground so as to be easily taken 

 up after the bees have settled on them ; by managing in this manner, 

 the hive may be set in the apiary, before hiWng, and the bees may be 

 carried on the pole and laid by the side of the hive, when they will en- 

 ter it ; this saves the trouble of moving the hive after hiving, and con- 

 sequently no bees will be lost. The mullen tops should be attached to 

 the poles so as to lie nearly horizontally. What there is in the mullen- 

 stalks so attracting to the bees I know not, unless it is their rough, 

 uneven siirface, which affords the bees security against falling ; old dry 

 weather-beaten stalks are as good as any." 



Mr. Weeks directs that " when there are no fruit-trees nor shrubbery 

 in the immediate vicinity of the bees, it is found that they will cluster 

 on bushes artificially set down about the hives; say, take hemlock, 

 cedar, or sugar-maple bushes, six, eight, or ten feet high ; sharpen the 

 largest end, with the foliage remaining on the top, and set them down 

 like bean-poles promiscuously round about the hives, two, three, or four 

 rods distant; when the bees swarm, they will usually cluster in a body 

 on some one of them, which may be pulled up, and the bees shaken off 

 for the hive. Some apiarians confine a bunch of the seed-ends of dry 

 mullen-stalks near the top of the bush, so as to represent, at a little dis- 

 tance, a cluster of bees : this is said to be unfailing in catching swarms. 

 Others recommend to drive down two stakes, two or three feet apart, 

 and confine a stick of suflScient strength to each stake two or three feet 

 from the ground, forming a cross-bar, so that, when a board twelve feet 

 long is laid, one end resting on the cross-bar and the other on the groufld, 

 the bees will cluster under it, admitting it is at a reasonable distance, 

 and yet so far from the old stock as to be out of hearing of their hum. 

 Any one will know how to turn the board over, and set an empty hive 

 over the bees. 



"The hiver is made of three rough boards, half an inch thick, seven 

 inches wide, twenty-four inches long, nailed together like a common 

 trough, open at both ends, — a strap of iron riveted on its outside, across 

 the center of each board, with a shank or socket to insert a rod to 

 handle it with, so that when inverted by means of the rod, and placed 

 over the bees when alighting, it forms a kind of half hive, which they 

 readily enter. There should be from a dozen to twenty half-inch holes 

 bored through the top board, so as to let the alighting bees enter through 

 the holes. When a small proportion of the bees are found in the hiver, 

 it may be moved a few feet from the limb, which may be shaken with 

 another rod with a hook on its end, which disengages the bees, and in 

 a few moments the whole swarm will be found in the hiver. By the 

 addition of ferules and joints, the hiver may be raised to any reasonable 

 height. Thus the labor of climbing, the use of ladders, and cutting the 

 limbs of precious fruit-trees, is entirely dispensed with. It likewise en- 

 ables the apiarian, in large establishments, to divide out and keep sep- 

 arate his swarms, which might otherwise alight many in one body." 



Management of Black Combs. — The combs in hives that have stood for 

 several years become black and useless, because the bees never clear out 

 the cells in which the brood has been reared, and the skins which the 



