130 IIUNTING WILD BEES. 



not paj to winter small swarms, we usually put two or mere to- 

 gether, and if no queens were removed all but one will be killed. 

 The empty combs are valuable to use in honey boxes and frames 

 in the body of the hive, and may be purchased at the market 

 price of beeswax. Fasten them into frames with melted rosin, 

 and use them to fill out the hives after giving each swarm four 

 or five combs of honey. If this be not done the space should 

 be contracted by inserting a partition board or a frame with 

 a cloth tacked upon it. Each swarm should also have some bee- 

 bread, which may be got by exchanging with old stocks. 



HUNTING WILD BEES. 



"We have known many persons to get a start by lining wild 

 bees to their trees, which, if cut in spring or summer, the bees 

 will do well. Transfer them with their combs into movable 

 frames, the same as from a common hive. We have cut trees 

 where the bees entered seventy or eighty feet from the ground, 

 with no small timber to break their momentum in falling, and 

 yet saved the swarms. After a tree has been cut and the swarm 

 hived, bees from neighboring swarms will soon appear, to take 

 charge of the waste honey, and if more wild swarms are in the 

 vicinity, which is usually the case, they are easily followed 

 home. By taking lines from the different trees as they are cut, 

 several may often be found within the circuit of a half mile. 

 Bees are found with the least trouble in February or March, 

 when they fly out on the first warm days, and some becoming 

 chilled fall upon the snow. Lines taken from buckwheat and 

 other flowers should be carefully marked, and if not traced up 



