PRIMARY SWARM. . 227 



moved a little farther. Great care should be exercised to find 

 the queens, and to direct one towards each hive. But if only 

 one queen is seen, it is better to cage ( 536 ) her till the greater 

 part of the bees have entered. Then, as soon as the bees of one 

 of the hives show signs of uneasiness, and seem ready to join 

 the bees in the others, release the queen, and direct her towards 

 this queenless hive and all will be well." — (Hamet, "Cours 

 d 'Apiculture. ' ') 



436. If two queens have entered the same hive, they can 

 often be found on its bottom-board, each in a ball (538) of 

 angry bees, strangers to them. Open the ball, and give one 

 of the queens to the queenless hive, if the bees have not al- 

 ready deserted it. When queens have been "balled" by mixed 

 swarms, it is well to keep them caged, in the hive, for a few 

 hours, or till the bees have quieted. The quantity of bees in 

 each hive can be equalized, by shaking a few from the strong- 

 est in front of the weakest. 



437. Dr. Scudamore, an English physician, who has writ- 

 ten a tract on the Formation of Artificial Swarms, says that 

 he once knew as "many as ten swarms go forth at once, and 

 settle and mingle together, forming, literally, a mpnster meet- 

 ing." There are instances recorded of a still larger number 

 having clustered together. A venerable clergyman in Western 

 Massachusetts, told us that in the apiary of one of his parish- 

 ioners, five swarms once clustered together. As he had no 

 hive which would hold them, they were put into a large box, 

 roughly nailed together. When taken up in the Fall, it was 

 evident that the five swarms had lived together as independent 

 colonies. Four had begun their work, each near a corner of 

 the box, and the fifth in the middle; and there was a distinct 

 interval separating the works of the different colonies. In 

 Cotton's "My Bee Book," is a cut illustrating a similar sepa- 

 ration of two colonies in one hive. By hiving, in a large tox, 

 swarms which have settled together, and leaving them undis- 

 turbed till the following morning, they would sometimes be 



