ABSCONDING SWARMS 
13 
A part of the pleastire 
derived from beekeeping 
comes from a thoro un 
derstanding of what is 
going on within the hive. 
and frame after frame be lifted out with¬ 
out receiving a single sting. 
Care should be taken not to pinch any 
bees. The fingers should always be placed 
at some point where there are no bees. If 
they are very numerous, they should be 
gently brushed over to one side by pushing 
the fingers down between them, being care¬ 
ful not to pinch them in doing it. 
After one has opened a hive a few times 
he will be able to discard the gloves, and 
later he can dispense with the veil at 
times, because he will find that an intelli¬ 
gent use of the smoker will do more to 
eliminate stings than any other one thing. 
After one has acquired a sense of freedom 
and knows the bees will not sting, he can 
work over them for hours at a time, getting 
more real joy out of his pets than from 
anything else on the place. See Manipu¬ 
lation of Colonies. 
Before the reader proceeds further he 
should read very carefully the following 
subjects,' found in their alphabetical order, 
viz., Beginning with Bees, Manipula¬ 
tion of Colonies, Brood and Brood-rear¬ 
ing, Anger of Bees, Stings, Smoke and 
Smokers, Apiary, Backlot Beekeeping, 
Farmer Beekeeping, Hives, Transfer¬ 
ring, Robbing, Uniting, and Wintering. 
This order is suggested because the arrange¬ 
ment is progressive, and enables the begin¬ 
ner to pi'oceed from one subject to another. 
After he has read the subjects already in¬ 
dicated he may take up Queen-rearing, 
Comb and Extracted Honey, or any other 
subject in which he may be interested. 
ABNORMALI¬ 
TIES OF BEES.— See 
Hermaphrodite Bees; 
also “D rones with 
Heads of Different 
Colors,” under Drones. 
ABSCONDING 
SWARMS.— No part 
of animated creation 
exhibits a greater love 
of home than do the 
honeybees. No matter 
how humble or unin¬ 
viting the surround¬ 
ings they seem very 
much attached to their 
home; and, as they parade in front of their 
doorway after a hard day’s work, they 
plainly indicate that they have a keen idea 
of the rights of ownership and exhibit a 
willingness to give their lives freely, if need 
be, in defense of their hard-earned stores. 
It is difficult to understand how they can 
ever be willing to abandon it altogether, 
and with such a sudden impulse and 
common consent. No matter if they 
have never seen or heard of such a 
tiling as a hollow tree, and have for in¬ 
numerable bee generations been domesti¬ 
cated in hives made by human hands, none 
the less they have that instinctive longing 
that prompts them to seek the forest or 
rocks in mountainous country as soon as 
they get loose from the chains of civilized 
man. 
It is very unusual for a swarm to go to 
the woods without clustering; the bees usu¬ 
ally hang from la minutes to an hour, 
and many times several hours; in fact, we 
have known them to hang over night, and 
sometimes stay and build comb; but usu¬ 
ally it is better to take care of them 
inside of 15 or 20 minutes to make sure 
of them. Long before swarming tirrm, 
hives should all be in readiness, and they 
should also be located near where the new 
colony is to stand. If one is going to have 
