290 THE FARMER'S MANUAL. 



blown upon with a bellows, it exasperates them. A 

 great light dazzles them ; hence the reason why they 

 can be better managed in clear bright weather, than in 

 cloudy weather. In swarming your Bees, let your 

 dress be of some light colour, and guard the hair and 

 the eyes particularly, for these are the objects they 

 aim at in their wrath. If the swarm are restless after 

 they are hived, you may suspect th^ queen is lost, 

 and the Bees will soon return to the mother hive. If 

 you examine the parent hive, and obtain a supernu- 

 merary queen, and introduce her into your new hive, 

 she will be well received, and all will be tranquil, 

 and the swarm will hum with joy. Whenever a 

 swarm divides itself into several clusters, it is the ef- 

 fect of several queens in the hive, they should be im- 

 mediately joined, and the Bees will destroy all the 

 supernumerary queens, and the one joint stock will 

 greatly exceed in value any number of small ones. 

 If such a divided swarm should be one of your first 

 swarms, and you should wish to multiply your Bees 

 by keeping them separate, spread a sheet upon the 



f round, invert your hive in which your Bees have 

 een hived, and by a smart knock upon it, the Bees 

 will all fall upon the sheet, they will not fly away, but 

 will separate themselves into as many groups as 

 there are queens, and each group will cluster round 

 their queen ; you may then hive them separately, and 

 place them at a distance from each other ; the con- 

 fusion which this process may occasion, will subside 

 in one night, and all become tranquil again. If your 

 swarm is hived in the morning, which is the usual 

 time, the hive must not be moved until evening, to 

 give opportunity to the stragglers to come in. The 

 place of swarming, will be the resort of the Bees for 

 several days. If you neglect to remove your swarm 

 at evening, let it remain five or six weeks, that the 

 combs, which are very tender at first, may acquire 

 strength, so as to bear moving without injury. 

 Whenever your swarms fly at a distance from your 



