CHAPTER VI. 
SWARMING AND HIVING. 
NDER the old systems of bee-keeping swarming 
4 was very imperfectly understood. And even at 
the present time itis amusing to see how many old bee- 
keepers manage their bees. There is a class of old 
fogies, who denounce all improvements and progress in 
bee-keeping, and who, year after year, move in the same 
tracks in the management of their bees, asserting that 
they know all about bees that is worth knowing. It is, 
to say the least, amusing, to see how this class of bee- 
keepers manage when their bees swarm. 
In the middle of some very warm day in June or July, 
the alarm, “bees swarming,” is sounded. Immediately 
the whole household is turned out, some beating tin pans, 
some sounding horns, some shaking cow bells—anything 
and everything with which to make a terrible din is 
caught up in the excitement, and every member of the 
household works with the sole aim of making as much 
noise as possible. This is done to make the bees clus- 
ter! If this is not done, they will leave for the woods! 
I should think the poor bees would leave anyway, to 
get rid of the noise and foolish whims of their owner. 
But no, they dislike to leave the place of their nativity, so 
