44 REPORTS. • 



. other upon a post erected for tliat purpose is & good place' for the 

 bees to swarm. That they do sometimes do this, is hown. 

 But, that they always will do this, we cannot affirm. Surely this 

 is a simple means for the apiarist to try to induce the bees to 

 swarm within his power. The experimenting with such a swarm- 

 ing board, can do no harm if it does no good. But should it do 

 good, it is well worth the knowin:f. For one great source of 

 pleasure in the colonizing of bees, is to have them swarm in 

 places of easy access, and dislodgement. But, being alighted in 

 almost any place, they may be hived and returned to the apiary. 

 Before hiving the bees, the hive should be made sweet and clean. 

 It should have been kept from the weather, and used for no other 

 purpose, save the happy culture of bees. A sweet hive may be 

 cleansed by rubbing it in the inside with a few leafy hazlenut 

 boughs dipped in a solution of salt and water, or with a few wal- 

 nut leaves, (either branch being fragrant to the bee,) and then 

 sprinkled with a solution of honey and water. This attaches the 

 bees to their new home when once therein, and forthwith they 

 begin to deposit their own comb and honey. But how shall this 

 army, it may be, of 50,000 strong, all supplied with fine, gleam- 

 ing steel, and commanded by a powerful queen, be thus trans- 

 ferred from the place of alightment to the hive? This is some- 

 times a difficult work ; and, yet usually it can be done with little 

 or no detriment to the bees, or to the owner of the same. We 

 would not delay the advancement of science or knowledge, but 

 were we to hive' bees, seldom or never would we cut off the 

 branch of the tree, upon which they have swarmed. Certainly 

 we would not do this, when this would injure the tree and could 

 be avoided. Place a table near the swarm, upon which a strip of 

 board may rest, or spread a clean linen cloth upon the ground 

 upon which a like strip of board may lie, and then if the bees are 

 suitably alighted, turn your hive bottom upwards, and with a 

 sudden jar of the limb they will fall upon the hive which is now 



