ABTIFICIAL SWARMING. 175 



instincts of bees, will ever complain that he can find noth- 

 ing to fill up his time out of the range of his business, or the 

 gratification of his appetites. Bees may be kept with great 

 advantage, even in large cities, and those who are debarred 

 from every other rural pursuit, may still listen to the sooth- 

 ing hum of the industrious bee, and harvest annually its 

 delicious nectar. 



If the Apiarian could always be on hand during the 

 swarming season, it would still, in many instances, be ex- 

 ceedingly inconvenient for him to attend to his bees. How 

 often is the farmer interrupted in the business of hay-mak- 

 ing, 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 his swarm is worth. In this 

 way, the keeping of a few bees, instead of a source of prof- 

 it, often becomes rather an expensive luxury ; and if a very 

 large stock is kept, the difficulties and embarrassments are 

 often most seriously increased. If the weather becomes 

 pleasant after a succession of days unfavorable for swarm- 

 ing, it often happens that several swarms rise at once, and 

 cluster together, to the great annoyance of the Apiarian ; 

 and not unfrequenlly, in the noise and confusion, other 

 swarms fly off, and are entirely lost. I have seen the 

 Apiarian so perplexed and exhausted under such circum- 

 stances, as to be almost ready to wish that he had never 

 seen a bee. 



3. The managing of bees by natural swarming, must, in 

 our country, almost entirely prevent the establishment of 

 large Apiaries. 



Even if it were possible, in this way, to multiply bees 

 with certainty and rapidity, and without any of the perplex- 

 ities which I have just described, how few persons are so sit- 

 uated as to be able to give almost the whole of their time in 



