MANAGEMENT OF OUT-APIARIES 7 



the air with fvag-ranoe that, from sight and smell, one conld hardly think 

 but that he was in the sinless "Eden land" when the "stars sang' for joy" 

 on creation's early morn. But a neigiiing' from the barn calls out "horse to 

 ■ be led," and the "rounds of another day" are begun. After breakfast the 

 horse was hitched up, as the roads, to the out-apiary are too muddy, from 

 the rain of the afternoon before, for comfort with the auto. 



Arriving', I And the bees starting' out in good eai'nest for the apple 

 trees, which is just what I want, as they will now be out of the way when 

 T am hunting for the queens, for today's work is to consist in part in find- 

 ing and clipping the wings of all undipped queens. This clipping part 

 would ho wholly unnecessary with the. plan to be given were it not that, 

 owing' to peculiar seasons, tiie bees in a few colonies will take it "into their 

 heads" to swarm a few days before I am ready to do the "swarmin;" and 

 in such cases as these, where all queens have their wings clipped, these 

 colonies are held together until the time has fully arrived for making 

 swarms. As such peculiar seasons do not come oftener than about one year 

 in four, I hax-e sometimes thought I would give up the clipping; but so far 

 I have adhered to it, very much as a man will stick to the insuring of his 

 building's when there has not been a "fire" in his school district for forty 

 years. 



There are many ways of finding queens for clipping or otherwise; but 

 after trying all I nuich prefer the following: Take a light box with you, 

 the same size as the hi\'e, only thi'ee inches wider, so as to allow plenty of 

 room for the combs. After looking over the first comb, set it in the box, 

 next to the furthest side of the box, always sitting or standing with the 

 back to the sun, and having the box and hive so the sun will shine on the 

 "face" side of the combs next to you. On taking out the second comb, 

 quickly glance over the "face" side of the next comb in the hive, and if the 

 queen is there she will be seen running to gel around on the dark or opposite 

 side of the comb, she being, easily seen in the strong sunlight when thus 

 moving. Whether the bright sunlight affects the eyes of the queen, or from 

 what reasons 1 have never been able to determine; but my experience proves 

 that ninety-nine queens out of every hundred will begin to try to get away 

 from the sunlight when it is allowed to shine on t^iem suddenly. And , 

 even the novice will have his attention drawn to the queen when she is thus 

 moving in the strong sunlight. Several visitors at my apiary have asked 

 me about "that long peculiarly shaped bee" running among the rest, when 

 seeing a queen for the first time, I purposely not telling them where the 

 queen was, to see if they would notice this nervously moving object. If not 

 seen, iiimiediately look on the opposite side of the comb you hold in your 

 hands, when this comb is to be set next to the other in the box. Now lift 

 tiie next frame, looking first on the "face'' side of the next frame in the 

 hive, and then on the opposite side of the frame in your hands, as the queen 

 will be, in nineteen cases out of twenty, on these "dark" sides. In this way 

 keep on until the queen is found, or till all the combs are in the^ box. If all 

 the combs are in the box before you find her, look the bees over' that are in 

 the hi^e; and if not found then, commence to set the combs back in the 

 hive, looking as before at the two "dark" sides. I find forty-nine out of 

 eveiy fifty queens looked for, before tlie combs are all in the box, and the 

 fiftieth one before they are all back in the hive again. 



On opening the hives T find the honey quite largely turned into bees 

 and brood, as only the two outside combs have much in thein — six to eight 



