14 
ABSCONDING SWARMS 
As a rule, a swarm' will cluster on a limb of a 
tree or a bush. In a few cases, they will cluster 
on the ground and in the grass. In rare cases, 
they will alight on a fence, as here shown. 
a model apiary, he should not think of 
waiting until the bees swarm before he lays 
it out, but take time by the forelock, and 
with careful deliberation decide where every 
hive shall be before it is stocked with bees, 
if he would keep ahead and prevent his 
bees from taking “French leave.” 
But they sometimes leave, even after they 
have been carefully hived in modern hives 
on frames of foundation. If the swar min g 
mania gets under way in a beeyard, a 
swam is more apt to come out the second 
time, even when hived in a new location in 
a different hive, than where there is only a 
very little swarming. It was once thought 
that giving a frame of unsealed brood to 
these second-time absconders would hold 
them. While this, no doubt, acts as a re¬ 
strainer, yet when a swarm leaves its new 
quarters it should be recaptured, hived 
back into the hive, and then carried down 
cellar, where it should be kept several days 
until it gets over its mania. The bees may 
then be set out on their permanent sum¬ 
mer stands. 
How is one to avoid losing the occasion¬ 
al swarm that goes off without clustering at 
all? or the quite frequent cases of coming 
out unobserved, or when no one is at home? 
There is a very certain and safe remedy for 
all cases of first swarming, in having the 
wings of the queen clipped, or using an 
Alley trap so she cannot fly. (See Queens, 
subhead “How to Clip the Queen’s 
Wings.”) Wing-clipping is in very general 
use, and answers excellently for all first 
swarms; but, alas! the after-swarms are 
the very ones that are most apt to abscond, 
and the wings of their queens cannot be 
clipped, nor should such queens be restrain¬ 
ed by an Alley trap, because they-have not 
yet taken their wedding flight. What shall 
be done? In the first place, second or af¬ 
ter-swarms should not he allowed. If the 
parent hive, after it has cast its first swarm, 
is treated as recommended under the head 
of After-swarming, there will be no fur¬ 
ther swarming from that colony for that 
season. The Heddon method, given at the 
close of After-swarming, is recommended 
for the prevention of after-swarms. 
Clipping the wings of the queen (or put¬ 
ting on drone-traps — see Drones) will 
prevent losing first swarms by absconding; 
A swarm that came back because the queen was 
,held in an Alley .trap. 
