160 DOMESTIC AHIMALS. 



ming noise at night, presumed to come from the young queen-bees an- 

 nouncing their advent. But these warnings apply less to the first than 

 to the subsequent swarms. However, there is a pretty good rule for 

 effective action. As soon as you find the side-box is nearly full, watch 

 for an opportunity when the queen, with abont two-thirds of the bees 

 of the colony, is in the side-box, then cut off the communication with, 

 and remove, the parent hive three or four feet distant, and put an 

 empty hive in its exact position. The returning bees will flock into the 

 _ side-box as before, and that hive is done with. As to the parent-hive, 

 the nurse-bees will take every care of the brood in it ; in fact, they will 

 be just as though a swarm with the queen had left them; and will pro- 

 ceed with due equanimity to supply her place in the approved way. 

 This is the mode practiced with success by Mr. Grant, and may be varied 

 according to circumstances. For instance, if the queen should not 

 have been left in the side-box with the greater portion of the bees, and 

 has, therefore, been removed with the parent hive, the rest must be in 

 effect the same, as regards the two hives ; most of the bees then might 

 leave the side-box and flock to the queen in the parent-hive ; but if there 

 be a brood in the side-box, it appears that the nurse-bees will not de- 

 sert it, and, therefore, there are still two communities, and both well 

 provided with all they require for a new start in life. 



6. There is also practiced, it is said with great profit, a more summary 

 way of proceeding to make an artificial swarm, which consists in fumi- 

 gating the bees, in order to divide them into two bodies as before. The 

 period chosen is from the beginning of May to the middle of July, and 

 when there are as many bees on the board at the bottom as will fill a 

 thirty-two (eight and a half inches by six) sized flower-pot. To ascertain 

 this, blow a little smoke into them and turn up the hive. Before com- 

 mencing operations, place the hive intended for the new colony on the 

 stand, with a bit of comb in its roof, and a stick across the middle to aid in 

 the support of the combs. If you are short of hives, this one may be used 

 instead of an additional empty hive in performing the operations about 

 to be described. But the bit of comb may be somewhat in the way. 

 The bees having been stupefied by the fumigation, the hive is turned up, 

 its top rested on the ground, and an empty hive placed over it of exactly 

 the same shape (at the edges at least), and a cloth tied round the circle 

 of junction. Then tap or drum gently at the sides of the two hives for 

 about ten minutes, in which time probably about two-thirds of the bees 

 will have ascended into the upper hive. The queen, fortunately for the 

 operation, is generally one of the first either to run away from or to 

 confront the danger (we know not which it is) by ascending. If your 

 hive have a glass window, as all should have, you can see when about 

 the right proportion have ascended ; if not, you must guess with the aid 

 above given of the knowledge of the ordinary duration of time occupied. 

 Now take off the top hive and reverse it also on the ground, while you 

 make sure the queen is there, throwing, meanwhile, the cloth (that you 

 have removed) over the exposed bottom of the parent hive. If the queen 

 be there (and she is easily distinguishable) you have only to shake queen 

 and bees into the prepared hive on the board, and restore the parent 

 colony also to the ordinary resting-place, where the bees will soon rear 



