_Cincinnati, Ohio_, August 16, 1870.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
The Looking Glass Again.
On page 67 of the last number of the BEE JOURNAL, Ignoramus criticises
my article on page 34 in regard to the looking glass, and says the glass
has been tried three times this year to his knowledge, and three swarms
of bees secured. But he gives us the particulars in only one case, and
then guesses at my reply, which is perhaps correct; or the swarm may
have had two or more young queens, and a small portion with one queen
settled on one tree, while two or more queens with the larger portion of
the swarm settled on another. After a few minutes, all these latter
queens may have been simultaneously killed, and then the bees went to
the other tree and joined the small portion with the one queen. As to
the bees coming down to the ground, that is often the case. When a swarm
issues, the bees are so full of honey that it is difficult for them to
fly, and they often light to rest. I have often had swarms to settle in
three or four places, though they had but one queen, remain for ten or
fifteen minutes, and then all join the cluster with the queen. Just so
with the old woman’s bees. They may have just been in the act of going
to join the cluster with the queen, when she saw them.
Ignoramus also tells us how to secure swarms with a _knot_. Well, sir, I
have never tried the _knot_, but I have tried the _mullein_ tops tied in
a bunch and attached to a pole, &c., and also a piece of old black comb
attached to the under side of an inverted bottom board swung to a pole,
with cord and pulley, to raise and lower, as the bees would rise or
fall. But after trying both for a whole season, when I had more than a
hundred swarms to issue without a bee lighting on either, I gave it up
as a failure. I think it likely his knot theory will answer very well in
a prairie country, or any place where there is nothing for the bees to
light on. But where they are surrounded with as many shady fruit trees
as mine are, they will mostly select a leafy branch to settle on. When I
allowed my bees to swarm naturally, I had two-thirds of the swarms, or
more, to settle on the under side of my grape arbor; which proves that
they prefer a cool shady place to a bare pole with a knot on it.
Ignoramus says I remind him of an old Dutch lady, &c. Well, sir, I am
like the Dutch in _one_ respect; that is, I am in favor of progress; but
I am not like the old Dutch lady you refer to, for I was persuaded by
your suggestion to look again into the glass and well. Yesterday was a
clear, bright sunshiny day. I took a glass some fifteen inches square,
and just as Ignoramus said, I saw different from what I did on the other
occasion. I saw the water in the well and my own _pretty_ face in the
glass--nothing more. I am now ready to try any other experiment that
Ignoramus may suggest; but my opinion is, the better plan will be to
throw aside the glass and make artificial swarms. Then there is no
danger of any going off, besides being the fastest way of increasing
bees, when the operator understands the principle well. But had I been
wholly like the Dutch lady, I should never have succeeded in making
artificial swarms. In my first efforts, I ruined dozens of swarms before
I succeeded.
I am aware there is much yet to learn about bees, and my motto is to try
and try again. So come along, Mr. Ignoramus, with your suggestions. If
you do not teach me anything, you perhaps instruct somebody else, as
there are many new beginners that read the Journal; and the Journal is
the place to receive and impart bee knowledge.