THOUSAND ANSWERS 247 



but a clean hive. Your hives were, no doubt, all right, but it's a 

 pretty safe guess that the bees were uncomfortable for all that. 

 Either they were too warm or had too little air. Likely both. 

 When you hive a swarm see that it has abundant ventilation. 

 Give it as large an entrance as you can. If practicable, it is a 

 good plan to raise the hive an inch or so from the bottom-board 

 by putting blocks under the corners. Shove the cover forward so 

 as to make an opening of half an inch, or an inch, at the back 

 end. After two or three days you can lessen the ventilation if 

 you think best. The hive should be in a shady, airy place. If you 

 cannot give shade in any other way, cut an armful of long grass, 

 put it on the hive, lay two or three sticks of firewood on it to 

 keep it from blowing away. Some make a practice of giving a 

 frame of brood to the swarm. The bees think that it is such a 

 good start toward housekeeping that they are unwilling to leave it 

 without great provocation. 



Some secondary swarms leave because their queen has not 

 yet mated, and they follow her when she goes out for her wed- 

 ding flight. Nothing will hold such swarms except killing the 

 queen. Then they would return to the parent hive. 



Swarms, Moving. — Q. When is the best time to move a swarm 

 after it is hived? 



A. Right away after you get the bees of the swarm in the 

 hive. Don't wait to get a few scattering bees in ; they can find the 

 swarm where you put it, or else they can go back to the old hive. 



Swarm, Prime. — Q. How long after the prime swarm issues 

 forth does the young queen hatch? 



A. Ordinarily the first virgin leaves her cell about a week 

 after the issue of the prime swarm. If, however, the swarm be de- 

 layed a day or more by bad weather, then the time of her emerg- 

 ence after the swarming will be lessened a day or more. It may 

 also be increased in case the prime swarm issues before the first 

 queen-cell is sealed. 



Swarms, Returning. — Q. What is the best manner of return- 

 ing a swarm to the hive from whence it issued, so as to make it 

 stay, no further increase being desired? 



A. It doesn't matter how you return the swarm; it will stay as 

 well for one kind of returning as another. It is the condition of 

 things in the hive that decides whether the swarm will issue 

 again, and it isn't the easiest thing in the world to prevent it. The 

 old-fashioned way was to return the swarm every time it issued. 



