g6 THE beekeepers' DIRECTORY. 



made, and rush pell-mell into the nejv hive ; as they do so, the 

 trap is placed near the entrance and the queen is released 

 and at once joins the. swarm and the bees have hived them- 

 selves. As soon as all the bees have entered, the hive should 

 then be placed on a. new stand, and the old stock occupy its 

 former position. 



I have known as many as three colonies to cast swarms at 

 the same time and form one cluster and remain so for some 

 time ; when discovering that they had no- queen, each swarm 

 i-eturned to its respective hive. Swarms will occasionally 

 come out and cluster wlien the trap is used^ but they usually 

 return to the hive in a few minutes, although I remember of 

 one swarm that came out about 11 a. m., and settled upon a 

 limb, and did not return till two o'clock in the afternoon. 

 This was a case where one of the wings of the queen was 

 Clipped and no trap was used. 



The trap will surely destroy all drones and prevent the 

 loss of any swarms, and greatly aid the beekeeper at swarm- 

 ing time. 



Where th.e trap is used the necessity for climbing from ten 

 to thirty, and sometimes forty feet into a tree for a swarm 

 of bees is obviated, nor is there any necessity for running to 

 the hive the moment a swarm issues. One can rest assured 

 that the bees will not decamp but return to the locatitin they 

 started from. 



■What to do in case a swarm is returned to the hive. 



i 



When a swarm is to be returned to the hive they issue from, 

 some little work is required to prevent another one from com- 

 ing out the next day. I usually remove all the queen-cells 

 and return the bees without the queen. In the course of three 

 days a young queen is introduced and no further swarming is 

 attempted for the season. This plan will givie satisfaction in a 

 majority of cases. I am aware what a j'ob it is to open a full 

 colony and remove all the queen-cells, yet it is necessary to 

 do so if the cells are to be preserved, if swarming is to be 

 delayed or prevented. 



Here is another way to manage swarms. 

 On several occasions when swarms have issued near the 

 close of the honey harvest the queen was taken from the trap 



