HATUBAL S-WARMING. 



33 



and in a moment, as if by magic, every head stands towards the hive, and 

 the march progresses until all are safely within. Sometimes there seems 

 some hesitation, and the bees will advance, but not quite in the direction 

 desired ; if this be observed, they may be spooned up with the same facility 

 as if all were dead, and dropped near the hive mouth ; and, unless the 

 handling be rough and careless, not a single bee will sustain injury. If 

 they gather much on the hive front they may be scraped off with a card, or 

 brushed down with a feather, but a little patience will generally be found 

 more serviceable than too much anxious meddling. If the queen is seen to 

 enter, all further troubling is needless, as the bees will most certainly 

 follow. With hives with fixed legs a large board propped up under the 

 alighting board will replace the sheet, and all will proceed as before. In- 

 stead of these plans, the cover may be removed and the cluster thrown down 

 upon the top bars of the frames, butthe bees are so likely to " boil over " 

 the hive sides, as it were, that beginners are not recommended to try it. 



Sometimes swarms issue, and, without apparent cause, return. Per- 

 haps their queen has defective wings, and is unable to fly. If the 

 bees after issxiing continue in great commotion without decidedly 

 clustering, search may be made for the mother on the ground in the 

 neighbourhood of the hive, where she will often be found accompanied by 

 half a dozen or a dozen of her children. Placing her upon a convenient 

 twig the bees will soon gather around her, and this they will do equally if 

 she be retained in the hand, though perhaps few of our readers will 

 sufficiently feel the harmlessness of the experiment to try it. By putting 

 the queen in a skep and placing it upon the stand from which the swarm 

 issued, the latter will soon return and join her, when they may be placed in 

 any position we please, since bees under the swarming impulse seem to 

 utterly disregard the stock to which they 

 previously belonged, and return only to the 

 new abode, wherever that may be. 



The hive whence a natural swarm has 

 just issued will be found to contain large 

 quantities of brood and eggs, while a 

 sufficient number of bees, ordered by that 

 hidden wisdom which we call instinct, has 

 remained to carry on the work of tending 

 the advancing grubs, maintaining the tem- 

 perature, and completing the work of rais- 

 ing new queens, already in progress when 

 the swarm left. The cells containiag the 

 princesses will be known by their acorn- 

 like shape (see Fig. 29), where u. shows 

 the complete cell which will be gnawed round by the nymph at i, until a 

 lid, as at d, is opened, when she makes her escape. The cell will after- 



O 



Fie. 21. Qdeeh Celib. 



