132 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



clustering swarm. A black woolen stocking or piece of 

 cloth, fastened to a shady limb, in plain sight of the hives, 

 and where the bees can be most conveniently hived, would 

 probably answer as good a purpose. Swarms are not only 

 attracted by the bee-like color of such objects, but are 

 more readily induced to alight upon them, if they furnish 

 something to which they can easily cling, the better to 

 support their grape-like clusters. By proper precautions, 

 before the first swarms issue, the bee-keeper may so edu- 

 cate his favorites that they will seldom alight anywhere 

 but on the spot which he has previously selected. 



The Rev. Thomas P. Hunt, of Wyoming, Penn., has 

 devised an amusing plan, by which he says that he can, 

 at all times, prevent a swarm of bees from leaving his 

 premises. Before his stocks swarm, he collects a number of 

 dead bees, and, stringing them with a needle and thread, 

 as worms are strung for catching eels, he makes of them 

 a ball about the size of an egg, leaving a few strands loose. 

 By carrying fastened to a pole this " bee-bob," about his 

 Apiary, when the bees are swarming, or by placing it in 

 some central position, he invariably secures every swarm ! 



It will inspire, the inexperienced Apiarian with more 

 confidence, to remember that almost all the bees in a 

 swarm, are in a very peaceable mood, having filled them- 

 selves with honey before leaving the parent-stock. If he 

 is timid, or suffers severely from the sting of a bee, he 

 should, by all means, furnish himself with the protection 

 of a bee-dress. 



A new swarm should be hived as soon as they have 

 quietly clustered around their queen ; although there is no 

 necessity for the headlong haste practiced by some, which, 

 by exciting profuse perspiration, increases their liability to 

 be stung. Thos^e who show so little self-possession, must 

 not be surprised, if they are stung by the bees of other 



