20 AN EASY METHOD 



the hiver may be raised to any reasonable height. Thus the 

 labor of climbing, the use of ladders, and cutting the limbs 

 of precious fruit trees, is entirely dispensed with. It like- 

 ■v^ise enables the apiarian, in large establishments, to divide 

 out and keep separate his swarms, which might otherwise 

 alight many in one body. 



Bees swarm from nine o'clock in the morning to three 

 o'clock in the afternoon on a fair day, differing in the season 

 according to the climate. In Vermont, they generally swarm 

 from the middle of May to the 15th July. In backward 

 seasons, this period may be somewhat protracted. We 

 have known them to swarm as early as seven in the morn- 

 ing, and as late as six in the afternoon. We have also 

 known them to come forth when it rained so hard as nearly 

 to defeat them by beating down many to the ground, which 

 were probably lost from their colony ; and we once had a 

 swarm come forth on the 16th day of August. 



Two reasons, and two only, can be assigned for > the 

 swarming of bees. The first is want of room, which causes 

 excess of animal heat ; and the second, to avoid the conflict 

 of the queens. It may be possible that a swarm may come 

 forth before the hive is full of comb ; but from more than 

 fifty years' observation we have never seen an instance of it, 

 when the hive was not full of bees at the first swarming. 

 This is always the cause of their first swarming, unless the 

 stock had lost their queen previous to swarming, in which 

 case the colony assume the condition of a hive that has once 

 swarmed, and may come out before the hive is full of comb 

 or bees. 



The old queen goes out with the new colony, and leaves 

 the remaining stock without a head, (or female.) But 

 nature has supplied them with the instinct, and they com- 

 monly have the means of repairing the loss, which a new 



