SPRING MANAGEMENT. 307 
but more frequently it clusters on a bush. When it 
is discovered that the queen is not with them, the bees 
return within half an hour or so. Certain stocks will 
repeat the delusion day after day, but as there will 
generally be sealed brood and lots of newly hatched 
bees left at home, and as the queen issues without 
any notice of swarming, but with every precaution for 
her safe return, there will seldom be any bad result. 
The case is quite different with colonies that are them- 
selves swarms of the season. Having little or no comb 
built, and no brood to require attention, if they come 
out at all with the queen on her making flight they 
generally come en masse. The queen may return, but, 
finding an empty hive, she flies off to join the vagrants. 
Very often in such cases they all go to parts unknown. 
It is a safe rule for bee-keepers to provide every swarm 
with a comb of brood in all stages the very hour it is 
hived. 
“Tt is well also that bee-keepers should bear in mind 
that the clustering of swarms on trees and bushes is 
not exactly a natural instinct, but a habit largely due 
to domestication. I suspect the natural instinct is to 
go directly to a hollow tree or other cavity previously 
selected and prepared. In most cases the clustering 
is merely temporary, or until scouts select the new 
abode. No time should therefore be lost in securing 
the swarm and supplying it with a comb of brood as 
above directed. The scouts may return and endeavour 
to create anew the emigration fury, but in such a case 
they will seldom succeed. I have, however, seen a 
swarm that must have hung on a gooseberry bush for 
three weeks. It had three combs from six to twelve 
x2 
