134 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



honey, they desire, like heavily-armed troops, to march 

 slowly and sedately to their place of encampment. Bees 

 are much obstructed in their travel, by any corner, or 

 great inequality of surface ; and if the sheet is not smooth- 

 ly stretched, they are often so confused, that they take a 

 long time to find the entrance to the hive. If they are 

 too dilatory in entering the new hive, they may be gently 

 separated, with a spoon, or leafy twig, where they gather 

 in bunches on the sheet ; or, they may be carefully 

 "spooned up," and emptied before the entrance of the 

 hive. If they cluster in the portico of my hive, they 

 should be treated in the same way; or else the queen, 

 mistaking this open place for her intended abode, may 

 decamp with the bees. 



On first shaking them down into the hiving-basket, some 

 will take wing,- and others will remain on the tree ; but if 

 the queen has been secured, they will quickly forjn a 

 line of communication with those on the sheet. If the 

 queen has not been secured, the bees will either refuse to 

 enter the hive, or will speedily come out, and take wing, 

 to join her again. This happens oftenest with after- 

 swarms, whose young queens, instead of exhibiting the 

 gravity of an old matron, are apt to be frisking in the 

 air. When the bees cluster again on the tree, the process 

 of hiving must be repeated. 



If the Apiarian has a pair of sharp pruning-shears, and 

 the limb on which the bees have clustered is so small, that 

 it can be cut without jarring them off, they may be 

 gently carried on it to the hiving-sheet. 



If the bees settle too high to be easily reached, the 

 basket may be fastened to a pole, and raised directly 

 under them ; when a quick upward push will secure most 

 of the swarm. When the basket cannot be easily elevated 

 to them, it may be carried to the cluster, and the bee- 



