MANAGING BEES. 13 



place convenient for them to cluster in a bunch 

 not far from the old stock, and make their ar- 

 rangements for a journey to a new habitation. 

 Perhaps not one swarm in a thousand knows 

 where they are gointj until after they have left 

 the old stock, aligllted, and formed into a com- 

 pact body or cluster ; and not then until they 

 have sent off an embassy to search out a place 

 for their future residence. Now if the bees 

 are hived immediately after they have alight- 

 ed, before they send off their embassy to seek 

 a new tenement, they will never fly away, ad- 

 mitting they have sufficient room, (for it is 

 want of room that makes them swarm in the 

 first place,) and their hive is clear of every 

 thino; that is offensive to them. 



The old custom of washing hives with salt 

 and water and other substances, to give them 

 a pleasant effluvia, should be speedily abolish- 

 ed. Nothing but bees should ever be put in- 

 to a hive. 



When bees die, the hive should be cleared 

 of its contents, aud scraped out clean, and the 

 <'iianiber rubbed with cloth wet in clean wa- 



