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must be conMned aloriir with it; nnleps the hive, be 

 veiy iar<re, ih^y phould not be numerous ; vind sf- 

 ven or eight iumdred will always prove more than 

 suificieni. Nearly filieen days beu);i: requisiie lor 

 the |)rodiiclioii ol'a queen, as murh honey should 

 be sup])lied every two days as will serve lor sub- 

 sistin;^ the bees. The hive is then to lie closed up 

 and transported to a place where the temperature 

 is moderate. Violent agitation ensues among the 

 bees whenever they discover that they are im[)ri- 

 soned, and the tunmlt becomes stiH greater on 

 their ascertaini.ig that their soverei<rn is no lonirer 

 with them. Silence succeeds, which is next lol- 

 jovved by greater noise and contusion than what 

 attends swarming. Immediately afterwards a new- 

 operation begins, and fiom the second day the 

 construction of a royal cell is seen. The confine- 

 ment of the bees must be protracted some days ; 

 but the (burlh or filth, the hive may be carried mto 

 a garden, and the piisoners allowed to escape. 

 Their eagerness to do so is such, that hardly one 

 remains in the hive; however, in two hours lliey 

 return to it again. The entrance must si ill be 

 closed at niuht, and the hive carried into a house, 

 unless the fineness of the vveatlier admits of it be- 

 ing left without, [f '.he operator, on openintr the 

 hive, finds the brood hatched, and the royal cells 

 well advanced, he should transler the whole along 

 with the bees into a dwelling of greater cajmcity, 

 provided a small box has been used with three or 

 ibur combs of white wax fixed near the top, that 

 the interior may resemble a hive containing work 

 already commenced. Should the queen be hatch- 

 ed, it will lacllitate the operation if she can be 

 transferred to the new dwelling: and thus the ar- 

 tificial swarm is Ibrmed. It is ilitTicuIt lo perform 

 this operation with the common straw hives ; but 

 an expert person may accomplish it by means 

 similar to those adopted in robbing the bees of 

 their provisions. Here the use of (he book or leaf 

 hive is especially demonstrated ; lor it attbrds fa- 

 cilities in Ibrmmg artificial swarms infinitely sur- 

 passing any others that have yet been devised. 

 Under the conditions above specified, of brood and 

 population, the leaf hive is to be gently separated 

 in the middle, and two empty frames insinuated 

 between the halves. The queen must then be 

 Bought for in one oi'lhe halves, and a mark put on 

 her, in order to avoid mistake. Should she by 

 chance remain in the divisibn with most brood, she 

 is to be translerred to the other containing less, 

 that the bees may have every chance of obtain- 

 ing another lemale. Next, it is necessary to con- 

 nect the halves together by a cord lied tight around 

 them ; and care should be taken to place them on 

 the same board which the hive previously occu- 

 pied. The old entrance, now become useless, will 

 be shut up ; but as each half requires a new one, 

 these ought to be made at the extremities of the 

 two divisions, on purpose to be as far asunder as 

 possible. Both, however, should not be made on 

 the same day. The bees in the half deprived of 

 the queen, ought to be confined twenty-lour hours, 

 and no opening made before the lapse of that 

 time, except lor the admission of air; otherwise 

 they would soon search lor the queen, and inliilli- 

 bly find her in the other division. Rut provided 

 twenty-four hours be sufficient to make them for- 

 get their queen, this will not happen. When all 

 cirsumstances are favorable, the bees in the divi- 

 sion wanting the queen will begin to labor in pro- 



curing another; and about fifteen days afier the 

 operation, as belbre observed, their lo!:S will be re- 

 |)aired. "The young lemale they have reared," 

 according to Hul)er, "soon issues liirih to seek im- 

 [jiegnalion, and in two days commences the lay- 

 injr of workers' eggs. Nothing more is wanting 

 to the bees of her division, and the success of the 

 ariificial swarm is ensured." The time of resort- 

 ing 10 ihis expedient is, when the males are about 

 to originate or actually exist : if attempted earlier, 

 the bees will be discouraged by the sterility of their 

 young female. The structure of the leaf hive 

 enables us easily to ascertain the concurrence of 

 the necessary conditions ; for by simply opening 

 the li-ames successively, their whole contents are 

 expo-ed to view. 



Should the original queen be accidentally lost or 

 destroyed, the cultivator has still another means of 

 preserving the vvh.ole colony, which, desiitute of 

 workers' brood, would infiillibly perish, by substi- 

 tuiiuij a new one in her place. Bees are not im- 

 mediately sensible of the loss or removal of their 

 queen : their labors are uninterrupted ; they watch 

 over the young, and perform their ordinary occu- 

 pations. But m a lew hours agitation arises ; all 

 appears a scene of tumult in the hive ; a singular 

 humming is heard; the workers desert their young, 

 and rush with delirious imf)etuosity over tlie sur- 

 liAce of the combs. Then they discover that their 

 queen is no longer among them. There ran be 

 no (luesiion that this airitation is the consequence 

 of bees having lost their queen ; for should she 

 have been intentionally removeil, tranquillity re- 

 turns on restoring her. and, what is very singular, 

 she is recoiinized. If a stranger queen be intro- 

 duced after ihe reigning one is lost or taken awav, 

 the agitation continues; the stranger is surrounded, 

 seized, and kept captive by the bees in an impene- 

 trable cluster, where she usually dies either of 

 hunger or from the privation of air. If eighteen 

 hours elapse, the stranger is at first treated in the 

 same manner, but wiih less rigor; the bees gra- 

 dually disperse, and she is at last libeiated. But 

 should there be an interval of Ivventy-fbur hours 

 after the loss of the original queen before the stran- 

 ger one is substituted, '*she will be well received," 

 to use the words of an eminent author, "and reign 

 from the moment of her introduction into the hive." 

 On this head, which it is extremely important for 

 the cultivator to be intimately acquainted with, we 

 are indebted to Huber lor some interesting experi- 

 ments. On the 15th of April, he introduced a fer- 

 tile queen, eleven uionihs old, into a glass hive, 

 where the bees, having been 24 hours deprived of 

 their queen, had already begun to construct twelve 

 royal cells. Immediately on placing the stranger 

 female on a comb, the bees in the vicinity touched 

 her with their anteiuicP, and passing their trunks 

 over every part of her body, supplied her with 

 honey. These then gave place to others, by which 

 she was treated exactly in the same manner. All 

 vibrated iheir wings at once, and ranged them- 

 selves in a circle "around their sovereiirn." Hence 

 resulteil a kind of agitation, which gradually com- 

 municated to the workers situated on the same side 

 of Ihe comb, and induced them to come and see 

 what was going on. Soon arriving, they broke 

 through the circle formed by the fiist of their com- 

 panions, approached the (|ueep, touched her with 

 the antenna?, and gave her honey. After this 

 little ceremony, they retired, and, standing behind 



