214 THE BEE keeper's manual. 



by supposing him to return the queen to the colony to whieh 

 she does not belong. Now I can easily imagine that some 

 bee-keeper may do so, conceiving that I am foolishly pre- 

 cise in my directions, and that the queen might be just as 

 well given to one hive as to the other. But if this is done 

 before at least 24 hours have elapsed since they were de- 

 prived of their own, she will almost certainly be destroyed. 

 The bees do noi sling a queen to death, but have a curious 

 mode of crowding or knotting around her, so that she is soon 

 smothered ; and while thus imprisoned, she will often make 

 the same piping note which has already been described. In 

 all this treatise, I have constantly aimed to give no directions 

 which are not important ; and while I utterly repudiate the 

 notion that these directions may not be modified and im- 

 proved, I am quite certain that this cannot be done by any 

 but those who have considerable experience in the man- 

 agement of bees. 



The formation of one now swarm from two old colonies, 

 may, of course, be very much simplified by the use of my 

 hives. The two old hives are first opened and sprinkled, 

 and the bees taken from them and put into the new hivo in 

 the same way in which the process was conducted when 

 only one colony wap expelled, some brood comb being given 

 to the united family. There will be no difficulty in rightly 

 proportioning the bees ; one queen may always be caught 

 and preserved, and the operation may be performed at tiny 

 time when the sun is above the horizon, I have no doubt 

 that those who have a strong stock of bees, and who are 

 anxious to realize the largest profits in honey, will find this 

 mode of increase, by far the simplest and best. If judici- 

 ously practiced, they will find that their colonies may always 

 be kept powerful, and that they may be managed with very 

 great economy in time and labor. As Apiarians may bo 



