THE FARMER'S MANUAL, 101 



Apiary to swarm, you may collect them into a bag, 

 somewhat like a jHly-bag, the same as you would 

 collect them into your hive, by cutting off the bough, 

 thrust it into the bag, anil tie it close ; when you ar- 

 rive at your Apiary, then hive them in the usual way. 

 Some rub their hives with aromatic herbs, and in 

 Italy and France, they rub the hives with the leaves 

 of onions, and garlics ; and the noted Apiarian Con- 

 tardi says, '* The Bees accustom themselves to this 

 odour for the want of a better;" but Le Abbe della 

 Noua sa)S, " We should refrain from approaching 

 our Bees when we have touched onions, or eaten 

 cheese, for both will excite their acrimony." The 

 best test of the value of a hive of Bees is its weight, 

 and this can only be correctly ascertained, but by 

 weighing the hive without the Bees, or one of the 

 same size and structure, and then, by weighing them 

 both together. The best swarms are from 5 to Gibs, 

 they sometimes weigh 8lbs., but this is rare, and are 

 not desirable, as they impoverish the parent hive too 

 much. 5000 Bees, generally weigh a pound, a good 

 swarm of 4lbs. consists, therefore, of 20,000; the 

 quantity of honey such a swarm carries with it to be- 

 gin a new colony, is generally about 4lbs. 



The signs attending the flight of the second swarms 

 at the time of swarming, vary from those of the first. 

 Wildman says, the second swarms appear generally 

 about ten days after the first, this is not absolutely 

 correct ; I have known them often swarm on the in- 

 termediate days, from the 4th to the 10th, and some 

 hives do not throw a second swarm, and this may be 

 ascertained upon examination of the hives, when it 

 appears that the combs are bare and destitute of 

 Bees, when the supernumerary queens are dead be- 

 fore the hive, and when the Bees tear from the cells 

 the nymphs of the drones, no second swarm is then 

 expected ; but if the Bees leave 3 or 4 queens alive 

 in the hive, there is some chance of a second swarm. 

 These particular examinations are not common to all 



