SWARMING 
799 
signed to be put up under the swarm, and 
the hoop is then made to cut off the clus¬ 
ter so that the bees will fall into the bag. 
It is then turned edgewise, so as to confine 
them while being taken down and carried 
to the hive. It may be necessary to hold 
the bag in the air to catch the flying bees. 
These will shortly cluster on the outside. 
As the bag is made of cheese-cloth, the 
bees inside have plenty of air. To empty 
the bees turn it inside out. 
a. e. manum’s swarming-device. 
This consists of a wire-cloth basket made 
in the shape of an inverted pyramid, and 
pivoted at the opposite corners so as to 
Manum’s swarm-catcher device. 
hang always in an upright position. When 
a swarm is captured the basket may be 
grasped by the ring at the small end, and 
inverted, dumping the bees into the hive 
prepared for them. 
As soon as the cluster beginning to form 
on a tree or bush is half or nearly com¬ 
pleted, the basket is shoved up to and 
around the cone of bees. An assistant, if 
present, gives the limb a jar so as to dis¬ 
engage the bees into the basket. In case no 
one is ready to assist, a sliding movement 
of the basket will precipitate the cluster 
into the wire-cloth'cage, when it is quickly 
lowered. This operation, in passing down 
thru the limbs, will usually catch the wire- 
cloth lid, and close it with a slam. In case 
it is not closed, the apiarist does it himself. 
Half or two-thirds of the bees are generally 
confined. In all probability the queen is 
there also. As the bees can not get out, 
those still flying in the air will very readily 
cluster on the wire cloth, surrounding the 
majority of their companions inside. To 
make this more expeditious the tripod is 
adjusted and the cage suspended in the air 
right where the bees are flying thickest. 
In five or ten minutes the remainder of the 
bees will be clustered on the outside. At 
this stage of the proceeding the apiarist 
comes forward, folds the two short legs 
against the pole, grasps it at its center of 
gravity and walks off to the hive, which he 
has previously prepared. 
One of the special features of the Manum 
arrangement is that the basket can be ad¬ 
justed to almost any position, all the way 
from two to ten feet from the ground. All 
that is necessary is to adjust the tripod so 
that the basket will be held where the bees 
are flying. In the meantime, unless the 
hive is already prepared, the apiarist has 
ample time to get it ready. After this he 
can return to the swarm just now clustered. 
Most of the devices require to be held until 
the cluster has settled. It is a tedious job 
to hold a pole at arm’s length, with face 
upturned. 
In the absence of any special tools or 
appliances one can extemporize in a very 
few minutes a swarm-catching device out 
of the ordinary material on a farm. A 
small sapling, long and slender, is cut. All 
the branches are trimmed off, care being 
taken to leave a fork or crotch in the end. 
This extemporized swarming-pole should 
be generally from 12 to 15 feet long. A 
common bushel basket is hooked into the 
fork at the end of the pole. The combina¬ 
tion is almost as good as the one just de¬ 
scribed, with the further advantage that 
the basket can be detached from the fur¬ 
ther end of the pole as soon as the swarm 
is caught. 
After being booked on to the end 
of the pole, the basket is elevated to a point 
just below where the swarm is hanging on 
the tree. It is gradually pushed up until 
the swarm is nicely placed therein. The 
pole is given a sharp push upward, care 
being taken not to unhook the basket. This 
sudden jar will dislodge the swarm; and 
before the bees have an opportunity to 
take wing, the basket is lowered and un- 
