52 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 



easily discovered ; but even when it is dispensed with, and the 

 practice adopted which I have yet to describe, she is not so very 

 difficult to come at ; for, on a hive being turned up and tapped, 

 the queen is among the first, if not indeed the very first, who 

 makes her appeaiance, as if to discover the occasion of the un- 

 wonted disturbance ; the dusk of an autumnal evening answers 

 best for this purpose. The queen usually lodges near the crown 

 of the hive, and is, when fumigation is resorted to, one of the 

 last to fall ; she will, consequently, in this case, be found amongst 

 the uppermost bees. In practising fumigation, two persons should 

 act in concert, each taking a hive, and operating upon it, in order 

 that botli stocks should be simultaneously in a similar condition 

 as to intoxication. I may add, that in fumigation, the hive must 

 be well covered with a cloth, to prevent the escape of the smoke. 

 When you have united the two stocks in the manner I have de- 

 scribed, it is advisable to confine the insects to their hive for that 

 night and the following day. Do not, however, wholly deprive 

 them of air in doing so, or you may smother them. On the 

 evening of the following day, about dusk, uncover the hive, and 

 open the entrance. The bees will probably at first tumultuously 

 issue forth, but finding the lateness of the hour, will as hastily 

 return. Let me here forewarn my readers to be more cautious 

 on this than perhaps any other occasion, as the bees will doubt- 

 less be very indignant at the manner in which they have been 

 treated. They are naturally a very irritable insect, and if they 

 find you near them and unprotected when they sally forth, they 

 will be apt to attack you in a body. The sting of a bee is not 

 only very painful, but even sometimes seriously dangerous. 



The most suitable period of the year for uniting weak with 

 strong stocks is from the middle of August to the latter part of 

 September. This, however, is not a proper time to remove stocks 

 from straw hives to boxes, for the season is too far advanced. 

 When taken from their warm hive, and removed into a cold box, 

 bees rarely recover from the effects of the fumigation sufficiently 

 to resume business. May or June is the best time for this removal, 

 or perhaps still earlier, say the beginning of April, before the 

 eggs of the queen bee have attained the stage of larvae. If the 

 operation be performed in cold or even cool weather, it is recom- 

 mended by Nutt to do so " in a room where the temperature is 

 about 60 degrees." Twelve hours or thereabouts suffice for the 



