and its Economic Management. 43 
seldom first or last, but generally when half of the bees 
are on the wing. Bees of all ages come out, including 
those but just emerged from the cell. If the weather is 
warm, even these soon gain sufficient strength to fly and 
settle ‘with the swarm; otherwise, if they cannot crawl 
back to the hive, many will perish; thus showing the 
necessity of a wide board reaching from the ground to 
the entrance, not only in this instance, but at all times, 
as many adult bees are lost in failing to reach the entrance 
during chilly weather. The workers out in the fields at 
the time of swarming and the large numbers of young 
hatching, soon make up the strength of the hive and 
prevent the remaining brood getting chilled. 
Securing the Swarm. 
If the apiary be located near high trees the swarms (it 
permitted to issue) will sometimes give trouble by clustering 
in them; though they may as often settle upon any low 
shrub, or even a post or wall. In the former case a straw 
skep must be carried up and the bees shaken into it when 
inverted under the clustering mass; descend the ladder as 
rapidly as possible, keeping the skep the same way, and 
then turn it the right way up on to a sheet previously 
spread upon the ground, with a brick or piece of wood 
under it, so that one edge of the hive may be raised to 
enable the flying bees to draw in.* Where the cluster is 
formed on a wall or any other like place, brush the bees off 
into the skep with a wing ; but if among branches of wall 
trees, little can be done in that way, and they must be 
driven up into the skep as it is fastened above them, by 
the use of smoke; or, better still, make everything more 
* Sometimes the bough may be sawn partly through near the 
junction with the trunk of the tree, so that it may slowly descend, 
and the swarm be more easily secured. 
