Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-03-26
BEES AND HONEY.
The Life of the Honey Bee Explained by
DR., Lyon.
To the Tobacco Leaf-Chronicle.l

!
hive under the leadership of the Old
queen, hanging in a cluster to the
limb of a tree. Their habit of al
most always doing this before leav-
ing for parts unknown, is very con-
venient for the owner, who thus has
a chance to se"ure them. But unless
they wish TO be caught it seems
! little green in them. Now that re
minds me, your compOsitor made
me say, in my last paper, that when
the bees are get ing eady to swarm
they start a number of green cells.
This is unjust to the bees. They are
not so pertant but when engaged on
that kind of work they always edo
it up Jr0on.' The "green cell"
should have been "queen cell"
Now let us proceed to "hive' our
swarm. Before going to that, how
ever, | beg leave to remark, that
when the bees are sWarming it is the
custom for nearly every one about
the place to seize a bell, tin pan or
brass kettle and make all the racket
possible, so that it sometimes sounds
as if Pandemonium had broken
loose. This is believed to cause the
bees to "settle." This always seem
ed to me very absurd and ! scarcely
think it produces any effect. The
bees will usually "settle" anyhow.
Modern bee-kecpers have more
faith in shoWering them with a jet OF
water from force pump, or even
throwing handfuls of dirt, or reflect
ing beams of sunlight among them
if they seem inclined to "abscond."
1t is thought that these things con-
fuse them, and 50 they settle to make
their plans anew.
Seeing our bees have begun to set
tie, we prepare hive for them. 1t
should be nice and clean, and it is
the custom 10 rub the inside with
some green peach leaves, which gives
it a fresh, pleasant smell. 1t should
be put in shaded place. or if that is
not practicable, we must try to screen
the hive from the direct rays of the
sun. We take off the top or cover
OF the hive, put into it eight or nine
empty frames upon which the bees
are to build their combs), open one OF
our hives which we, think can spare
a comb, select one that has young,
unseaIed "brOod" or young larvae in
it. Shake off the bees from the
comb, put an empty comb or frame
in the place Of the one we take out,
shut up the hive and take the comb
with the young brood and put it into
the empty hive we have prepared for
the new swarm. All this will take
but a few minutes. Now if the
new swarm is clustered on a small |
limb that we can afford to cut, " e
may cut it off carefully and carry it |
with the bees on it to our prepared |
hive and either take off the cover |
and shake off the cluster of bees eli |
rectly into the top of the hive and |
then replace the cover, or we may |
have a sheet or newspaper spread |
down at the front Of the hive and |
shake the bees on it, when they will !
nearly always begin to crawl into
the entrance. Those who first find
the entrance make a joyful hum
ming, indicating that they have
found the very sort of place they
and this acts as a signal for
the rest.
If the bees cluster upon a more
place various methods are
used to secure them. ] have lately
learned new plan, which seems to
work beautifully. l have a light
wooden box, eight inches square and
sixteen inches deep, securely fasten-
ed to the end of long pole. The
box is bored full of auger holes.
Another pole of equal length is pre-
vided with strong hook on the end
Of it. If we can get within twelve
)r fifteen feet of the cluster we can
AXE them very easily. One person
holds the box close under the cluster,
md another gives the limb a sudden
ERIK with the hooked pole. More or
ess of the bees fall into the honey
)oX, and they seem to like it SO
we'll, with its numerous auger holes
hat the rest of the swarm soon
gathers into it also: We then carry
hem to the prepared hive and shake
hem into or in front Of it as before
Now why do we put into the hive
he frame containing young brood or !
arv@? Because bees will rarely |
cave a hive where there is any !
Dung "brood." This instinct teach [
s them to stay aud attend to them. S
o the frame of brood is almost sure :
D prevent their coming out and cab. a
Again, in case the queen {
hould be accidentally lost or killed,
; sometimes happens, the bees are y
bic to raise themselves a new queen :,
'om one Of the young Larvae. 9th f.
rwise the colony will perish unless 81