160 THE BEE keeper's MANUAL. 



hiving of swarms, as will, I trust, greatly facilitate the 

 whole operatifln, not merely to the novice, but even tamany 

 experienced bee-keepers ; and I shall try to make these di- 

 rections sufficiently minute, to guide those who having never 

 seen a swarm hived, are very apt to imagine that the pro- 

 cess must be a formidable one, instead of being, as it usually 

 is to those who are fond of bees, a most delightful entertain- 

 ment. Experience in this, as in olher things, will speedily 

 give the requisite skill and confidence ; and the cry of 

 " the bees are swarming," will soon be hailed with greater 

 pleasure than an invitation to the most sumptuous banquet. 



The hives for the new swarms should all be in readiness 

 before the swarming season begins, and should be painted 

 long enough beforehand, to have the paint most thoroughly 

 dried. The smell of fresh paint is well known to be ex- 

 ceedingly injurious to human beings, and is such an abomi- 

 nation to the bees, that they will often desert a new hive 

 sooner than put up with it. If the hives cannot be painted 

 in ample season, then such paints should be used, as con- 

 tain no white lead, and they should be mixed in such a man- 

 ner as to dry as quickly as possible. Thin hives ought nev- 

 er to stand in the sun, and then, when heated to an insuffer- 

 able degree, be used for a new swarm. Bees often refuse 

 to enter such hives at all, and at best, are very slow in tak- 

 ing possession of them. It should be borne in mind, that 

 bees, when they swarm, are greatly excited, and unnatural- 

 ly heated. The temperature of the hive, at the moment of 

 swarming, rises very suddenly, and many of the bees are 

 often drenched with such a profuse perspiration that they 

 are unable to take wing arid join the departing colony. 

 The attempt to make bees enter a heated hive in a blazing 

 sun, is as irrational as it would be to try to force a panting 

 crowd of human beings into the sufibcating atmosphere of a 



