ABSCONDING SWARMS 
15 
b\it it does not always prevent losing 1 the 
queen. She goes out with the bees as usual, 
and, after hopping about in front of 
the hive, sometimes gets ready to go back 
at about the same time that the bees do, 
after having discovered she is not in the 
crowd. Even if she goes some little dis¬ 
tance from the hive, the loud hum they 
make as they return will guide her home 
many times; but unless the apiarist is at 
hand' to look after affairs, many queens will 
be lost, and the bees will rear a lot of young- 
queens and go into after-swarming in good 
earnest. 
A friend, who knows but little of 
bee culture, once told us our bees were 
A swarm that clusters on a small limb can be 
easily captured by cutting the limb just above the 
bees with a sharp pocketknife. Care should be 
taken not to jar the cluster in cutting. A sharp 
knife is much better than a saw for this purpose. 
swarming, and if we did not ring the bells, 
they would certainly go to the woods. As 
we quietly picked up the queen in passing 
the hive, we told him if they started to 
go away we would call them back. Sure 
enough they did start for the woods, and 
had gone so far that we really began to be 
frightened ourselves, when, away in the 
distance, we saw them suddenly wheel 
about, and then return to the hive at our 
very feet. While he gave us the credit of 
having some supernatural power over bees, 
we felt extremely glad Ave had taken pre¬ 
cautions to clip all our queens’ wings but 
a few days before. After this we felt a lit¬ 
tle proud of our control over these way¬ 
ward insects, until a fine swarm of Italians 
started off under similar circumstances, and, 
despite our very complacent, positive re¬ 
marks, to the effect that they would soon 
come home, they went off and stayed “off.” 
In a humble and wiser frame of mind, we 
investigated, and found they had joined 
with a very small third swarm of black bees 
that had just come from one of the neigh¬ 
bor’s hives. We tried to “explain,” but 
it required a five-dollar bill to make matters 
so clear that we could carry back our rous¬ 
ing swarm of yellow bees, and sort out the 
black unfertile queen, that they might be 
made to accept their own. 
ABSCONDING FOR WANT OF FOOD. 
Aside from normal swarming perhaps 
bees oftener desert their hives because 
they are short of stores than from any 
other cause; and many times, in the spring, 
they seemed to desert because they were 
nearly out. This generally happens about 
the first spring day that is sufficiently 
warm and sunny. They issue from the hive, 
and alight in a tree very much like a nor¬ 
mal swarm during the swarming season. 
The remedy, or, rather, preventive, is so 
plain that it need not be discussed. After 
they have swarmed out, and are put back 
into the hive, give a heavy comb of sealed 
stores; if that cannot be obtained, feed 
them a little at a time, until they have 
plenty, and be sure that they have brood in 
the* combs. If necessary, give them a comb 
of unsealed larvte from some other hive, 
and then feed them imtil they have a great 
abundance of food. One should be ashamed 
of having bees abscond for want of food. 
ABSCONDING NUCLEUS. 
A very small nucleus—if it contains no 
more than 200 bees—is liable to swarm out. 
Queen-breeders, in attempting to mate 
queens in baby nuclei containing only ono 
