SWARM CATCHING, HIVING, AND TRANSFERRING. 91 



corner of it, to keep it from blowing away, and then leave tliem 

 alone for some hours. Don't wait till night, or even the twilight, 

 as is usual, to do all this. There is no advantage in it that I 

 have ever discovered ; but, on the contrary, the bees may abscond 

 if not soon hived. If you have not time to attend to all this, 

 that is another thing. In that case remove the box with the bees 

 to the shade of a bush, or in some way protect them from the 

 direct sunlight, and leave them till you have time. Under no 

 circumstances should the bees be allowed to remain in the box 

 too long. As soon as they have taken possession of a place they 

 at once begin to work. I have seen them, when they have been 

 hanging on a bush or elsewhere for a few hours, leave their mark 

 behind tnem in the form of small bits of comb attached to where 

 they hung. Before turning in for the night, remove the stones 

 from the quilt and replace the lid of the hive; it will protect them 

 from rain should a shower come on. 



On the morrow remove the lid of the hive and the quilt, and 



have a look at the bees. They are just as quiet to-day as they 



were yesterday when they were clustered. Note how much room 



they occupy. If you hnve not bees enough to fill the whole hive, 



and it is not likely you will, close them in with a division board, 



and increase their home as required. It is always a disadvantage 



to you and the bees for them to have too much room to work 



in ; the reason will be given further on. 



. If the bees do not appear to take to their home, from some 



I I cause unknown to you, or perhaps even to themselves, put in a 



' frame of comb with young brood in it. There will be no abscond- 



I I ing after that. 



For some reason, bees when swarming take a special fancy 

 to alight on the same spot chosen by a former swarm. My neigh- 

 bour has a stunted lemon-tree trying to grow in his yai-d, and for 

 years past the majority of swarms have selected that leinon-trce 

 as a place of rendezvous. Undoubtedly bees leave behind them 

 an odour easily recognised by their brethren of another hive. This 

 may be taken advantage of, and provision made to meet your bees 

 ai, such spots. Knowing this trait in their swarming habits, some 

 bee-keepers have turned it to advantage by putting up one or 

 more boxes to serve as decoys. For this purpose they use an or- 

 dinary candle-box with one side removed, the remaining sides 

 being pierced with inch auger-holes ; it is then fastened to a long, 

 fairly light rod. When the bees are on the wing, this "decoy- 



