76 ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 



to a shady place, and cover with a cloth. Then remove the next 

 basket that secures the proper quota, and so on to the end. Or 

 the bees may be allowed to cluster about a single queen in a single 

 basket, then the cluster divided up, and each division furnished a 

 queen. 



When natural swarming is allowed in a large apiary, and there 

 is some one in constant attendance during the swarming season, I 

 know of no more satisfactory method of managing than by the use of 

 a swarm-catcher. With this arrangement there is no catching of 

 queens, no climbing of trees, nor mixing of swarms — the control is 

 perfect. The catcher is a light frame-work, about three and one- 

 half feet long, sixteen inches square at the large, or outer, end, then 

 tapered down to about three by sixteen inches at the small end. 

 The outer end is closed with a removable door covered with wire 

 cloth. The rest of the frame is covered with canvas or ducking. 

 The small end is so made that it fits nicely to the entrance of a 

 hive, and a portion of the cloth covering extends beyond the small 

 end, and forms a sort of flap that can be drawn 

 over the mouth of the catcher, and fastened to 

 keep the bees in after they have entered. In a 

 large apiary there ought to be as many as half a 

 dozen catchers scattered about the yard. When 

 a swarm is seen issuing, a catcher is quickly adjusted to the en- 

 trance of the swarming-hive. In five minutes the whole swarm is in 

 the catcher, when the catcher is closed and set in the shade, or car- 

 ried to some cool place, like a cellar. The queen is usually among 

 the last to leave the hive, so there is seldom a failure in catching her. 

 If swarms come thick and fast, there is no objection to leaving the 

 swarms several hours without hiving, provided they are not left in 

 the sun. Although there is probably no necessity for it, they can 

 be kept two days in a cellar. When the bees have been "cooled 

 down" in this manner, and are then shaken down in front of the hive 

 that is to be their home, they march in with scarcely a bee taking 

 wing. Where some one can be in attendance, the swarm-catcher 

 reduces the hiving business to an exact system. 



While I do not approve of old fashioned swarming, with undip- 

 ped queens, in a large apiary, still, if a man zvill persist in following 

 that plan, I will give him the best advice that I can; and, by the way, 

 I can speak from experience, as I clung to that method until its dis- 

 advantages forced me to abandon it. When queens are allowed to 

 accompany swarms, water vs, the great agent by which the bees can 

 be controlled. Quite a number of pails filled with water should be 

 kept standing in different parts of the apiary. There ought, also, to 



