PRE\TENTION OP NATURAL SWARMING. 235 



which require a definite part of their time. The farmer may 

 be interrupted in the business of hay-making, by the cry that 

 his bees are swarming; and by the time he has hived them, 

 perhaps a shower comes up, and his hay is injured more than 

 the swarm is worth. Thus the keeping of a few bees, instead 

 of being a source of profit, may prove an expensive luxury; 

 while in a large apiary, the embarrassments are often seri- 

 ously increased. If, after a succession of days unfavorable 

 for swarming, the weather becomes pleasant, it often happens 

 that several swarms rise at once, and cluster together; and 

 not unfrequently, in the noise and confusion, other swarms 

 fly off, and are lost. We have seen the bee-master, under such 

 circumstances, so perplexed and exhausted as to be almost 

 ready to wish he had never seen a bee. 



451. Mr. J. F. Racine, of Wallen, Allen Co., Indiana, 

 had 505 natural swarms from 165 colonies in the summer of 

 1883. Sixty-one swarms came out on the 3d of July. We 

 will let him tell the story in his own way : 



"In the morning, as soon as the watchword had been given 

 for the first swarm, there was no rest. Primary, secondary, 

 and after-swarms, all passed under the same limb of the same 

 tree. The bees were no sooner shaken in a basket, and emptied 

 in.^ front of a hive, than there was another cluster gathered, in 

 the same spot. Some swarms had no queen, while others had 3, 

 4, and even 5 of them. Some were young queens, some were 

 old queens. When we could find a queen, we caged her ( 536 ) 

 to preserve her from being balled ( 538 ). The sixty-one swarms 

 were hived in 20 hives, and surplus cases were given them at 

 once. A man, who had come with 5 hives to buy swarms, said 

 that he had never seen the like, neither had I, although I have 

 kept bees for 57 years. And the best of it is, I did not want 

 any swarms at all that season." 



452. 5th. It is admitted, by all progressive people, that 

 man can achieve a great deal by artificial selection and culti- 

 vation of plants and animals. The same selection is advisable 

 in the reproduction of tne honey-bee, and an increase from 



