SWARMING AND HIVING. 165 



to do, they may be gently separated, with a feather, or leafy 

 twig, when they cluster in bunches on the sheet. On 

 first shaking them down into the basket, multitudes will 

 again take wing, and multitudes more will be left on the tree, 

 but they will speedily form a line of communication with 

 those on the sheet, and enter the hive with them ; for many 

 of them will follow the Apiarian, as he slowly carries the 

 basket to the hive. 



It sometimes happens that the queen is left on the tree : 

 in this case, the bees will either refuse to enter the hive, or 

 if they go in, will speedily come out, and all take wing 

 again, to join their queen. This happens much more fre- 

 quently in the case of after-swarms, whose young queens, 

 instead of exhibiting the gravity of the old matron, are apt 

 to be constantly flying about, and frisking in the air. When 

 the bees cluster again on the tree, the process of hiving 

 must be repeated. 



If the Apiarian has a pair of sharp pruning-shears, and 

 the limb on which the bees have clustered, is of no value, 

 and so small, that it can be cut without jarring them off, 

 this may he done, and the bees carried on it and then 

 shaken off on the sheet. 



If the bees settle too high to be easily reached, the basket 

 should be fastened to a pole, and raised directly under the 

 swarm ; a quick motion of the basket will cause the mass 

 of the bees to fall into it, when it may be carried to the hive, 

 and the bees poured out from it on the sheet. 



If the bees light on the trunk of a tree, or any thing from 

 which they cannot easily be gathered in a basket, place a 

 leafy bough over them, (it may be fastened with a gimlet,) 

 and if they do not mount it of their own accord, a little 

 smoke will compel them to do so. If the place is inacces- 

 sible, and this is about the worst case that occurs, they will 



