SWARMING AND HIVING. 115 



ping them, is to flash the sun's rays among them, by a 

 looking-glass ! I never had occasion to try it, but an 

 anonymous writer- says he never knew it fail. If forcibly 

 prevented from eloping, they will be almost sure to leave, 

 soon after hiving, for their selected home, unless the queen 

 is confined. If there is reason to expect desertion, and 

 the queen cannot be confined, the bees may be carried 

 into the cellar, and kept in total darkness, until towards 

 sunset of the third day, being supplied, in the mean time, 

 with water and honey to build their combs. The same 

 precautions must be used when fugitive swarms are re- 

 hived. 



It is always very easy to prevent a new colony from 

 abandoning the movable-comb hive, by regulating the 

 entrance so that, while a loaded worker-bee can just 

 pass, the queen will be unable to leave ; or a piece of 

 comb, Avith unsealed worker-brood, may be transferred to 

 the new hive, when a swarm will seldom forsake it. 



It may generally be ascertained, soon after hiving a 

 swarm, whether or not it intends to remain. If, on ap- 

 plying the ear to the side of the hive, a sound be heard, 

 as of gnawing or rubbing, the bees are getting ready for 

 comb-building, and will rarely decamp. 



If a colony decide to go, they look upon the hive in 

 which they are put as only a temporary stopping-place, 

 and seldom trouble themselves to build any comb. If the 

 hive permits inspection, we may tell at a glance when 

 bees are disgusted with their new residence, and mean to 

 forsake it. They not only refuse to work with the char- 

 acteristic energy of a new swarm, but their very attitude, 

 hanging, as they do, with a sort of dogged or supercili- 

 ous air, as though they hated even so much as to touch 

 their detested abode, proclaims to the experienced eye, 

 that they are unwilling tenants, and mean to be off as soon 



