yo Advanced Bee Culture 



in the baskets. As soon as a queen is found with sufficient bees to 

 form a good swarm, remove the basket to a shady place, and cover with 

 a cloth. Then remove the next basket that secures the proiier 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 



^j^^^^ over the mouth of the catcher, and fastened to 



keep the bees in after the)' 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 c|uickl\- adjusted to the 



entrance of the swarming-hive. In five minutes the whole ^warm is in 



the catcher, when the catcher is closed and set in the shade, m- carried 



to some cool place, like a cellar. The queen is usuallv 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 davs in a 



cellar. When the bees have been "cooled down" in this manner, and 



are then shaken doAvn in front of the hive that is to be their home, the\' 



march in with scarcely a bee taking wing, ^^'here some one can be in 



attendance, the swarm-catcher reduces the hiving business tin an exact 



system. 



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

 (jueens, in a large apiary, still, if a man will 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 disadvantages 

 forced me to abandon it. When queens are allowed to accompan}- 

 swarms, water is the great agent by wdiich 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 be three or four 



