446 GARDEN MANAGEMENT. 



The motions of their hasty flight attend : 



To woods or floods their aiiy march they bend. 



Then milfoil beat, and honeysuckle pound, 



With these alluring savours strew the ground. 



And mix with tinkling brass the cymbal's droning sound. 



Such are the remedies recommended by Virgil for the recovery of a lost, 

 swarm. 



1338. The hiving of a swarm is, of course, a very important operation to. 

 the bee-keeper. The descendants of some of the original bees of the hive are 

 said to select an hereditary branch on which to swarm, where they patiently 

 wait for the new home which is being provided for them : this is, probably, a 

 doubtful statement. The hives provided should be new, perfectly clean, 

 and if of straw, carefully singed and made smooth : if an old hive is used, 

 whatever its material, it should previously be dipped in boiling water and 

 thoroughly cleaned. The old Virgilian notion prevails to a large extent, that 

 the tinkhng noise of cymbals, or clattering on the more homely fi-ying-pan, 

 would bring them to their hive. All scientific bee-keepers discountenance this 

 notion, and the celebrated White of Selborne has asserted, with strong 

 appearances of probability, that bees have no sense of hearing. When dis- 

 posed to stray, handfuls of fine sand, thrown among them, are said to bring 

 them to descend and cluster. Bees are generally peaceable when swarming, 

 especially where no alarm is exhibited. Wg have seen a lady, not particularly 

 experienced in the matter, take a swarm without any preparation as to dress, 

 simply by remaining perfectly quiet, and exhibiting no alarm, and apparently 

 feeling none. 



1339. Mr. Lombard relates the following circumstance : — " A young girl of 

 my acquaintance was greatly afraid of bees, but was completely cured of her 

 fear by the following incident : — A swarm having come off, I observed the 

 queen alight by herself at a little distance from the apiary. I immediately 

 called my little friend, that I might show her the queen ; she wished to see her 

 more nearly, so, after having caused her to put on her gloves, I gave the 

 queen into her hand. We were, in an instant, surrounded by the whole bees 

 of the swarm. In this emergency I encouraged the girl to be steady, bidding 

 her to be silent and fear nothing, and remaining myself close by her. I then 

 made her stretch out her right hand which held the queen, and covered her 

 head and shoulders with a very thin handkerchief. The swarm soon fixed on 

 her hand, and hung from it as from the branch of a tree. The little girl was • 

 delighted above measure at the novel sight, and so entirely freed from all fear 

 that she bade me uncover her face. The spectators were charmed with the 

 interesting spectacle. At length I brought a hive, and, shaking the swarm 

 from the child's hand, it was lodged in safety, and without inflicting a single- 

 wound." 



1340. It is not always possible to prevent swarming, neither is it possible 

 to ascertain with certainty when the first swarm will rise ; the hives must, 

 therefore, be watched from ten o'clock till four, from the middle of ]\Iarch to 

 tlie end of June. Swarms must be hived as soon as they settle. The hive- 



