68 HOW TO KEEP BEES 



very soon; it may injure the feelings of the bees, but 

 it certainly does not injure them physically, as it 

 simply impairs their power of flight by wetting the 

 wings. Even after a swarm has settled, a little 

 sprinkle of water will keep it clustered safely until 

 the hive is made ready to receive it. 



It is highly desirable that the swarm should clus- 

 ter on the tip of a branch not far from the ground; 

 for then the process of hiving is comparatively sim- 

 ple. My personal plan has been to place a sheet, 

 kept for the purpose, on the ground near the cluster- 

 ing swarm; place on this a covered hive filled with 

 frames containing brood foundations. Lift the 

 front edge of the hive about an inch by putting 

 blocks under the two corners; then cut the branch 

 above the cluster, and taking it in hand shake the 

 bees off in front of the hive and placidly watch them 

 hive themselves with true bee celerity. This use of 

 the sheet is a habit formed in childhood, and I persist 

 in it, though my partner derides the practice. He 

 shakes the bees down on the board on which the hive 

 is standing; or he takes the top off the hive, and 

 shakes the bees down among the frames in the most 

 summary fashion. But I think the sheet makes a 

 softer mattress for the little citizens to fall upon, and 

 certainly they find their way from it more easily into 

 the hive. I am a conservative person, and like to do 

 things as I always have done them before a conser- 

 vatism that is by no means dangerous in our apiary 

 where the senior partner is given to new ways and 

 many inventions. 



