24 
FOLLOWING THE BEE LINE 
Theirs were the old proverbs: 
A swarm of bees in May 
Is worth a load of hay! 
A swarm of bees in June 
Is worth a silver spoon! 
A swarm in July 
Isn't worth a fly! 
They reasoned that the first swarms of the year, 
in May, were the heaviest; there were more bees 
then and they worked with greatest zest. A swarm 
in June was good, but less so than during the month 
preceding. In July the summer was advanced and 
time lacking for a colony to make its combs and se¬ 
cure enough honey to carry through the winter. 
The ancient custom of beating on tin pans to 
induce swarming bees—in the air—to alight and 
form a cluster, has been subject to many scientific 
jeers during the last twenty-five years. Experts 
proclaimed it an ignorant, useless custom, and 
stated that if bees followed the sound and clustered 
below, it was not because they were attracted by the 
sound, but because they would naturally have clus¬ 
tered at that precise time and place anyway—an old 
form of argument! 
