36 THE COTTAGE AND FARM BEE KEEPER. 



a little clay, when the smell of the two swarms will so amalgamate, 

 that, on withdrawing the plate six or more hours later, they will be 

 found to have peaceably united, after a contest for sovereignty be- 

 tween the two queens. At the end of a week — or earlier if it can be 

 ascertained that the bees have all descended, (up to which time the 

 clay stopping must on no account be removed from the upper hive,) 

 the top hive may be taken away altogether. Should any bees be still 

 found in it, let them be knocked out in front of the hive to which they 

 have been joined, and they will speedily fly into it. If, on falling down, 

 they seem to congregate in amass, and do not return to their new home, 

 their queen, it will be conjectured, probably with truth, is still among 

 them ; let her be sought for and killed, upon which the bees will soon 

 disperse and fly away. 



Where the nearest hive has no flat top, (or rather, a hole at its top,) 

 let one three inches square be neatly cut out of it with. a sharp knife, 

 and a cap of perforated zinc be fitted over it. After suffering the 

 temporary hive, (carefully clayed up,) to remain in this way for a suf- 

 ficient time — say till the following evening — it may be gently lifted 

 up, while the zinc cap is removed from the top hole of the lower hive; 

 let the hive then be replaced as before till the end of the week, and 

 treated according to the directions above given. 



This plan of effecting unions of bees is, perhaps, the simplest and 

 most effectual of any. We are indebted to Mr. Walond, late rector 

 of Weston-under-Penyard, Eoss, a diligent apiarian, for the important 

 discovery, (which I have frequently verified,) that if a piece of perfo- 

 rated wood or metal be introduced between two hives set one above 

 another, the smell of the two families will commingle in such a man- 

 ner, that the bees will shortly unite in harmony and become one fam- 

 ily, thus showing that these insects recognize friend from foe by smell 

 alone. 



It will sometimes happen, (though very rarely,) that no drumming 

 will induce the bees to ascend into the empty hive set over them. 

 When this is the case, either there is but little comb in the reversed 

 hive, or the bees are few in number, or their queen is weak or dead. 

 In the latter instance, (and, indeed, in every instance where the bees 

 to be preserved will not ascend,) recourse must be had to fumigation. 

 Where stocks are thin in population, or only half full of comb, driving 

 will rarely succeed, and then only after much trouble. Under such 



