BKKS. 45 



hotter to send it back ag-ain to its pnrent liive. This can be 

 done bv searching- for, and removing- the queen, when the 

 bees will g'enerally return upon discovering- their loss, or can 

 at all events be taken to the door of the hive, when they will 

 re-enter of their own accord. The proper weig'ht of a swarm 

 is from five to seven pounds, and all swarms under that 

 weig'ht should be imited to others. If the weather is un- 

 favourable after a new swarm is hived, it will be necessary 

 to feed the bees until a change of weather enables them to 

 seek food for themselves, as they have no food in store. 

 Some bee-masters recommend that a newly hived swarm 

 should always be fed for a few days. 



But bees colonize — not merely emig-rate. It is not merely 

 the young- surplus population that are compelled to g'o forth, 

 but, on the contrary, a mixture of bees of all ag-es, and, no 

 doubt, of all conditions. They do not rush away from home 

 careless of what becomes of them when abroad. They do 

 not trust to bee-gossip of the advantages of this place, or 

 the disadvantages of that; and find out too late how absurd 

 they have been. No, they send out scouts to examine the face 

 of the country, and make them proper reports. Would one 

 could look at a few of the bee " blue-books." As this fact 

 of the scouts has been doubted by some of the bee-men, who 

 seem to think the only way to understand these insects, is to 

 think as meanly as possible of their capacity, we may observe 

 that the following cases are given by Dr. Bevan, on the 

 authority of one of the most accurate and profound of ob- 

 servers, Mr. Knight, from a paper published in the PMloso- 

 pJiical Transactions, in the form of a letter to Sir Joseph 

 Banks. " On one occasion he observed from twenty to 

 thirty bees paying- daily visits to some decayed trees, about 

 a mile distant from his garden; the bees appeared to be 

 busily employed in examining the hollow parts, and particu- 

 larly the dead knots around them, as if apprehensive of the 

 knots admitting moisture. In about fourteen days these 

 seeming- surveyors were followed by a large swarm from his 

 apiary, which was watched the whole way, till it alighted in 

 one of these cavities. It was observed to journey nearly in 

 a direct line from the apiary to the tree. On several similar 

 occasions the bees selected that cavity which Mr. Knight 

 thought best adapted to their use." He noticed at another 



