FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 163 



upon the issuing of a swarm with feelings other than those akin 

 to pain, unless it might be the first swarm I ever had. 



BAD MANNEES OF SWARMS. 



I am not an expert at hiving swarms. They don't act nicely 

 for me. After I have climbed a tree with laborious pains and 

 shaken down a swarm with a hive under it at just the right 

 place, the swarm instead of entering in a well-mannered sort of 

 style will just as like as not keep flying back every time it is 

 shaken down, unless it should take it into its head to give me 

 more exercise by taking another tree. I got a Manum swarm- 

 catcher, but I do not remember that I ever used it with success. 

 One day when I was trying to use it, J. T. Calvert, the energetic 

 business man of The A. I. Root Co., was here. He helped me. 

 He made a catcher of his hands and put the bees in the catcher 

 by main strength. . But they wouldn't stay " eatched," and they 

 didn't. So I don't like swarming, even if I didn't think it inter- 

 fered with the honey crop. 



WHY DO BEES SWAR3I 1 



Upon no other subject connected with beekeeping have I 

 studied so much, tried so many plans, or made so many failures, 

 as with regard to prevention of swarming. If I knew all about 

 just what makes a colony swarm, I would be in better shape to 

 use preventive measures; but I don't know all about it. Of 

 course I know that want of room and want of ventilation may 

 hasten swarming, and possibly some other things of that kind ; 

 but after all there is a good deal of mystery about the whole 

 affair. 



VENTILATION AND ROOM. 



I think it is of some use to take pains to see that the bees 

 are never cramped for room. I believe that raising the hive on 

 blocks % of an inch or more is a good thing. It is also a good 

 thing to rear queens from stock that has shown little inclination 

 to swarming. Indeed, with room enough and ventilation enough 

 it is possible that bees would never swarm. Some one will say 

 to me that bees may swarm with a hogshead of room. Yes, but 



