218 NATURAL SWARMING. 



brushing it down to hive it, broke off three pieces of comb, 

 each about eight inches square. Mr. Henry M. Zolliekoflfer, 

 of Pliiladelphia, informed us that he knew a swarm to settle 

 on a willow-tree in that city, in a lot owned by the Pennsyl- 

 vania Hospital; it remained there for some time, and the 

 boys pelted it with stones, to get possession of its comb and 

 honey. 



If the apiary is located in the woods, and the bees are 

 allowed to swarm, they may settle on high trees, and the bee- 

 master, unless some special precautions are used, will lose 

 much time in hiving his swarms. 



417. Having noticed that swarming bees will almost al- 

 ways alight wherever they see others clustered, we found 

 that tliey can be determined to some selected spot by an old 

 black hat, or even a mullen-stalk, which, when colored black, 

 can hardly be distmguished, at a distance, from a clustering 

 swarm. A black woolen stocking or piece of cloth, fastened 

 to a shady limb, or to a pole, in plain sight of the hives, and 

 where the bees can be most conveniently hived, would answer 

 as good a purpose. Swarms are not only attracted by the 

 bee-like color of such objects, but are more readily induced 

 to alight upon them, if they furnish something to which they 

 can easily cling, the better to support their grape-like clus- 

 ters. 



Still better than the above, a frame of dry comb, as dark 

 as possible, will often attract the bees and cause them to clus- 

 ter. None of these devices however are infallible; hence the 

 advisability of locating an apiary among low trees or bushes, 

 or in an orchard, if possible. 



When no trees or bushes are to be found, and no settling 

 place has been provided, they will settle wherever the queen 

 may happen to alight, on a grape-vine, on weeds, on the 

 ground, on the corner of a building, etc. 



418. It will inspire the uiexperienced Apiarist with more 

 confidence, to remember that almost all the bees in a swarm 

 are in a very peaceable mood, having filled themselves with 



