270 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



brass kettles, etc., to make the bees swarm, because it was 

 observed that sounds imitating thunder make them hasten 

 home. 



After a swarm has alighted and hangs from a limb, it 

 must gently be placed in an empty hive made ready for that 

 purpose, the inside of which is to be perfumed with some 

 aromatic plant, as lavender, or mint, etc., and then left in 

 a shady place upon the ground until after sunset, when it 

 may be removed to its destined place in the apiary. But 

 if a swarrn should happen to settle within a hollow tree, it 

 must be drawn out during the night with a long and flat 

 stick, and then placed in the hive. 



It sometimes happens that there are two queens in one 

 swarm, which then separates into two very unequal lumps, 

 one perhaps as large as a man s head, and the other about 

 the size of an orange ; but the two often unite again, even 

 at the expense of one of the queens. Reaumure had a 

 swarm with three queens, which he placed in a hive. The 

 first and second day the bees seemed to be contented, but 

 very inactive ; the second day one of the queens was found 

 dead, and on the following day another, and then for the 

 first time the bees began to work. This is the case with 

 all such swarms ; the supernumerary queens are always 

 killed, for these unhappy creatures can not, like human sov 

 ereigns, find a safe asylum in foreign countries, but are al 

 ways murdered by their rivals. 



Swarms differ in size, according to several circumstances 

 that have been already mentioned ; some will weigh only 

 four pounds, while others will weigh from eight to ten 

 pounds, or even more. A good swarm weighs generally 

 from six to eight pounds, and the weight, of course, is as 

 certained by weighing first the empty hive, and afterward 

 the full one. If the bees are satisfied with the hive, and 

 have been properly swarmed, they soon ascend to the upper 

 part of it, and in course of two days will make a comb 



