OF MANAGING BEES. 81 



hatched. The swarmuig season usually closes in about seven- 

 teen days after its commencement, and the bees seem to 

 possess a peculiar instinct in their nature, which teaches 

 them that the season is too far advanced at this time for 

 them to form new colonies with safety ; and they will not 

 permit any of their queens to depart. We have observed, 

 in repeated instances, -vary compact bunches of bees on the 

 bdltom board, some larger than a hen's egg, about the hour 

 of swarming. On examining them, by separating off the 

 bees in our hands, we always found the queen in the centre, 

 unhurt, yet nearly snjothered. The bees will commit no 

 violence upon her person, other than pile on and cluster 

 around her in such a manner as to exclude from her all the 

 vital air, and she dies of suffocation. When several queens 

 are found smothered and dragged out of the hives, the apiar 

 rian may conclude the swarming-time has closed for the 

 year in the Northern, and for the season, in the Southern and 

 Middle States. 



Note. — Bees oflen swarm in the Southern and Middle 

 States early in the spring and late in the summer ; but in 

 the North there is but one swarming season in a year. ^ 



