30 AN EASY METHOD 



sarj. Our practice in. hiving is, to get the bee|^into the 

 shade, hive them as soon as possible, hang on the bottom 

 board, fasten the same forward by means of the button, so 

 as to prevent the escape of any of the bees except through 

 the mouth of the hive, and place the same immediately where 

 we intend it to stand through the season. For ventilation, 

 see Fig. 4. Let the bottom board down three-eighths of 

 an inch on the third day after swarming, and turn the 

 drawers four days after hiving, unless they were turned at 

 hiving. 



Occurrences have been heard of where there would seem 

 to have been variations from the foregoing rules concerning 

 swarming : to wit, bees have been known to swarm before 

 the hive is full of bees or comb, and then swarm again two 

 or three days after. Now there is reason to believe that 

 the old stock lost their queen before swarming, and the bees 

 assumed the condition of a hive that had once swarmed, and 

 sent forth another to avoid the conflict of the queens. Very 

 large colonies have been know'n to swarm out several 

 bushels of bees under such circumstances. Variations from 

 the common rules of making queens more frequently occur 

 as follows, to wit: when the old queen goes out with a 

 swarm, she leaves without providing more than one class of 

 grubs (larvcB) which are capable of being converted into 

 queens ; and, as the bees always make a plurality of them, 

 they will all be of an age ; and in the confusion of swarm- 

 ing, all that are hatched will sally out, and the hive be left 

 destitute of the means of repairing their loss. This also 

 accounts for seeing more than one queen in some small 

 swarms ; or there may be more than one class of grubs in 

 the hive after first swarming, and the bees make some 

 queens from each class. Then more than one queen may be 

 seen with a swarm; for all the queens leave that are 



