220 THE BEK keeper's MANUAL. 



or only young nurses, which may be in the same predic- 

 ament. 



If any of my readers imagine that the work of carefully 

 experimenting, in order to establish facts upon the solid basis 

 of complete demonstration, is an easy work, let them at- 

 tempt now to prove or disprove the truth of any or all of 

 my conjectures upon this single topic. They will probably 

 find the task more difficult than to blot over whole quires 

 and reams of paper with careless assertions. 



All operations of any kind which interfere in the very 

 least, with the natural mode of forming colonies, are best 

 performed in the swarming season : or at least, at a time 

 when the bees are breeding freely, and are able to bring in 

 large stores of honey from the fields. At other times, they 

 are very precarious, and unless under the management of 

 persons who have great experience, they will in most cases, 

 end in nothing but vexatious losses and disappointments. 



It is quite amusing to see how bees act, when they find, 

 on their return from foraging abroad, that their hive has been 

 moved, and another put in its place. If the new hive is pre- 

 cisely similar to their own, in size and outward appearance, 

 they enter it as though all was right ; but in a few moments, 

 they rush out in violent agitation, imagining that they have 

 made a prodigious mistake and have entered the wrong place. 

 They now take wing again in order to correct their blunder, 

 but find to their increasing surprise, that they had previously 

 directed their flight to the familiar spot ; again they enter, 

 and again they tumble out, in bewildered crowds, until, at 

 length, if they can find the means of raising a new queen, or 

 one is already there, they seem to make up their minds that 

 if this is not home, it not only looks like it, but stands just 

 where their home ought to be, and is at all events the only 

 home they are likely to get. No doubt they often feel that 



