220 NATUEAl SWARMING. 



looking-glass is advised by some. We tried it, but did not 

 succeed in a single instance. 



421. As a matter of course, we suppose that the Apia- 

 rist has an empty hive in readiness, clean and cool. Bees, 

 when they swarm, being unnaturally heated, often refuse to 

 enter hives that have been standing in the sun, or at best are 

 slow in taking possession of them. The temperature of the 

 parent-stock, at the moment of swarming, rises very suddenly, 

 and many bees are often so drenched with perspiration that 

 they cannot take wing to join the emigrating colony. To at- 

 tempt to make swarming bees enter a heated hive in a blazing 

 sun is, therefore, as irrational as it would be to force a pant- 

 ing crowd of human beings into the suffocating atmosphere of 

 a close garret. If the process of hiving cannot be conducted 

 in the shade, the hive should be covered with a sheet or with 

 leafy boughs. 



422. In the movable-frame hive, every good piece of 

 worker-comb, if large enough to be attached to a frame, should 

 be used, both for its intrinsic value and because bees are so 

 pleased when they find such unexpected treasure in a hive, 

 that they will seldom forsake it. A new swarm often takes 

 possession of a deserted hive, well' stored with comb; whilst, 

 if dozens of empty ones stand in the Apiary, the bees very 

 seldom enter them of their own accord. 



"The bee-keepers of Greece used to attract the swarms into 

 their hives by rubbing the entrance and the inside of their 

 empty hives with bees-wax and propolis. But such practice was 

 often the cause of contests between neighbors, for their bees 



did not inquire -about the ownership of the hive selected." 



(Delia Eocca, 1790.) 



But when a few combs only are given to a swarm, as the 

 queen will not follow the builders (229), too much drone 

 comb (224) will be built. Then, in hiving a swarm, the 

 Apiarist had better dispense with giving any, unless he fills the 

 hive (234). 



Drone-combs (224) should never be put up in frames, or 



