OF MANAGING BEBS. 19 



feet high ; sharpen the largest end, with the foliage remain- 

 ing on the top, and set them down like bean-poles promiscu- 

 ously round about the hives, two, three, or four rods dis- 

 ■ tant: when the bees swarm, they will usually cluster in %. 

 body on some one of them, which may be pulled up, and 

 the bees shaken off for the hive. Some apiarians confine a 

 bunch of the seed-ends of dry mullen stalks near the top of 

 the bush, so as to represent, at a little distance, a cluster of 

 bees : this is said to be unfailing in catching swarms. Others 

 recommend to drive down two stakes, two or three feet 

 apart, and confine a stick of sufficient strength to each stake 

 two or three feet from tte ground, forming a cross-bar, so 

 that, when a board twelve feet long is laid, one end resting 

 on the cross bar, and the other on the ground, the bees, will 

 cluster under it, admitting it is at a reasonable distance, and 

 yet so far from the old stock as to be out of hearing of their 

 hum. Any one will know how to turn the board over, and 

 set an empty hive over the bees. 



The hiver is made of three rough boards, half an inch 

 thick, seven inches wide, twenty-four inches long, nailed to- 

 gether like a common trough, open at both ends, — a strap 

 of iron riveted on its outside, across the centre of each , 

 board, with a shank or socket to insert a rod to handle it 

 with, so that when inverted by means of the rod, and placed 

 over the bees when alighting, it forms a kind of half-hive, 

 which they readily enter. There should be from a dozen to 

 twenty half-inch holes bored through the top board, so as to 

 let the alighting bees enter through the holes. When a 

 small proportion of the bees are found in the hiver, it may 

 be moved a few feet from the limb, which may be shaken 

 with another rod with a hook on its end, which disengages 

 the bees, and in a few moments the whole swarm will be 

 found in the hiver. By the addition of ferules and joints. 



