156 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



or sideboard, with drawers above and a closet below, with 

 glass doors. This case or bureau is designed to be placed in 

 the chamber of a house, or any other suitable building, and 

 connected with the open air or outside of the house by a tube 

 passing through the wall. The bees work and deposit their 

 honey in drawers. When these or any of them are full, or it 

 is desired to obtain honey, one or more of them may be taken 

 out, the bees allowed to escape into the other parts of the hive, 

 and the honey taken away. The glass doors allow the work- 

 ing of the bees to be observed ; and it is said that the spacious- 

 ness, cleanliness, and even the more regular temperature of 

 such habitations, render them the more industrious and suc- 

 cessful. 



III. GENERAL DIRECTIONS. 



1. Swarming. Huish, in his "Treatise on Bees," says: 

 " The swarming of 'bees generally commences in June ; in some 

 seasons earlier, and in cold climates or seasons later. The first 

 swarming is so long preceded by the appearance of drones and 

 hanging out of working bees, that if the time of their leaving 

 the hive is not observed it must be owing to want of care. 

 The signs of the second are, however, more equivocal, the 

 most certain being that of the queen, a day or two before 

 swarming, at intervals of a few minutes, giving out a sound a 

 good deal resembling that of a cricket. It frequently happens 

 that the swarm will leave the old hive and return again several 

 times, which is always owing to the queen not having accom- 

 panied them, or from having dropped on the ground, being too 

 young to fly to a distance. Gooseberry, currant, or other low 

 bushes, should be planted at a short distance from the hives, 

 for the bees to swarm upon, otherwise they are apt to fly 

 away." 



When they collect where they can not be shaken off and the 

 hive can not be placed near them, they may be brushed off 

 into a gauze sack, or any vessel in which they can be kept and 

 carried to the hive, which should be set upon a table a little 



