92 AN EASY METHOD 



managing them is required. A stock of bees should be 

 placed where they are to stand through the season before 

 they form habits of location, which will take place soon after 

 they eommfhce their labors in the spring. They learn their 

 ho^e by the objects surrounding them in the immediate 

 vicinity of the hive. Moving them (unless they are carried 

 beyond their knowledge) is often fatal to them. The old 

 bees forget their new location, and on their return, when col- 

 lecting stores, they haze about where they formerly stood, and 

 perish. We have known some fine stocks ruined by moving 

 them six feet, and from that to a mile and a half. It is better 

 to move them before swarming than afterwards. The old 

 bees only will be lost. As the young ones ara constantly 

 hatching, their habits will be formed at the new stand, and 

 the comb will not be as likely to become vacated, so as to 

 afford opportunity to the moths to occupy any part of their 

 ground. 



Swarms, when first hived, may be moved at pleasure 

 without loss of bees, admitting they are all in the hive : 

 their habits will be formed in exact proportion to their labors. 

 The first bee that empties his sac and goes forth in search 

 of food, is the one whose habits are first established. We 

 have observed many bees to cluster near the place where 

 the hive stood, but a few hours after hiving, and perish. Now 

 if the swarm had been placed in the apiary immediately 

 after they were hived, the number of bees found there would 

 have been. less. 



Bees may be moved at pleasure at any season of the 

 year, if they are carried several miles, so as to be beyond 

 their knowledge of the country. They may be carried long 

 journeys by travelling nights only, and affording them op- 

 portunity to labor and collect food in the daytime. 



The importance of this part of bee-management is the 



