188 THE FARMER'S MANUAL* 



lent uproar. 6th, The continual motion of the wings 

 of the Bees which stand at the entrance. 7th, Vio- 

 lent commotions at the entrance of the hives, and the 

 Bees crowding out in great numbers. Although these 

 are certain indications of swarming, yet they some- 

 times take place at other times, when they do not 

 swarm. The time of swarming is critical, and must 

 be carefully attended to ; the least neglect may occa- 

 sion the loss of a swarm. The profits of a swarm 

 are worthy of the highest attention ; but the pleasure 

 to an Apiarian is highly gratifying. The buz of con- 

 fusion that accompanies a swarm when they quit the 

 mother hive, and rise into the air in quest of their 

 new abode, fills the Apiarian with anxiety; but the 

 calm of order, which follows when they light, fills 

 him with joy, and their safe deposit into their new 

 habitation, affords him the highest gratification. The 

 question, whether the Bees send out a scout to disco- 

 ver a proper place for their new habitation before they 

 swarm, may be answered by the following extract of 

 a letter from Mr. Knight, addressed to Sir Joseph 

 Banks, which is inserted in the philosophical trans- 

 actions of 1807. Thus says Jan de Crevec.oeur in 

 his letters Du Cutivateur Americaine ; " One of the 

 problems most difficult to solve, is to know when 

 the Bees \vill swarm, and whether the swarm will re- 

 main in the hive provided for them, or escape, to es- 

 tablish themselves in the cavity of some hollow tree ; 

 for when, by means of their emissaries, they have cho- 

 sen themselves a retreat, it is not possible to retain them 

 in any hive you may select for them. I have many 

 times forced swarms into hives, which I had prepared 

 for them, but I always lost them towards night; at the 

 very moment when I least expected it, they flew 

 away to the woods." 



It is only by a particular management that a swarm 

 of Bees can be reconciled to a hive, when a distant 

 domicil has been chosen. If they desert their hive 

 soon after swarming, they must be pursued, and their 



