SWARMING AND HIVING. 139 



Swarms sometimes come off when no suitable hives are 

 in readiness to receive them. In such an emergency, 

 hive them in any old box, cask, or measure, and place 

 them, with suitable protection against the sun, where their 

 new hive is to stand ; when this is ready, they may, by a 

 quick, jerking motion, be easily shaken out before it, on a 

 hiving-sheet. 



I have endeavored, even at the risk of being thought 

 too minute, to give such directions as will qualify the 

 novice to hive a swarm of bees, under almost any circum- 

 stances ; knowing that however necessary, suitable infor- 

 mation is seldom found even in the best treatises on bee- 

 keeping. Vague or incomplete directions fail, at the very 

 moment that the inexperienced attempt to put them into 

 practice. 



Natural swarming may, unquestionably, be made highly 

 profitable ; and as it is the most obvious way of multiply- 

 ing colonies, and requires the least knowledge or skill, it 

 will undoubtedly be the favorite method with most bee- 

 keepers, for many years, at least. I shall, therefore, show 

 how it may be conducted more profitably than ever, by 

 the use of my hives ; many of its most embarrassing diffi- 

 culties being effectually obviated. 



1. A serious objection to reliance on natural swarming, 

 is the vexatious fact, that most swarming-hives are so con- 

 structed, that, although bees often refuse to swarm at all, 

 they cannot furnish to their crowded occupants the proper 

 accommodations for storing honeyi Under such cir- 

 cumstances, hordes of useless consumers often blacken, 

 for months, the outside of the hives, to the great loss of 

 their disappointed owners. In the movable-comb hives, 

 an abundance of storage-room can always be given to the 

 bees ; so that, if indisposed to swarm, they have recepta- 

 cles easily accessible, and made doubly atti-active by empty 



