SWAUMING. 109 



then put the bees in two hives, phice them as cliroeted, 

 and you will soon learn where your queen is needed. Af- 

 ter the work is completed, the hives should be at least 

 twenty feet apart ; perhaps forty -would be still better. 



When two swarms are mixed, and then separated, it is 

 evident that a portion of each swarm must be in both 

 hives. The queen in each must be a stranger to a part of 

 her subjects ; these might, if their own mother was too 

 near, discover her, and leave the stranger for an old ac- 

 quaintance, and in the act, attract the rest with them, 

 including the queen. I have known a few instances of 

 the kind. If you are disposed to separate them, but are 

 afraid to work among them to this extent in the middle of 

 the day, or if there is danger of more issues to mix with 

 them, and add to the perplexity of which you already have 

 enough, then you can hive them as a single swarm, but in- 

 stead of using a bottom board, invert an empty hive, and 

 set the one containing the swarm, on it, and insert a wedge 

 between them on one side, for ventilation. Many bees are 

 liable to drop down, but the lower hive will catch them, 

 and there is less danger of their leaving. 



Let them remain till near sunset, when another course 

 must be taken to find a queen, though by that time one is 

 sometimes killed — yet it is well to know the fact. Take 

 them to some place out of the sun, as a less number will 

 fly during the operation. 



Look in the lower hive for a dead queen, and if y^u find 

 none, look thoroughly as far as possible, for a compact 

 cluster of bees, the size of a hen's egg, that may be rolled 

 about without separating. Secure this cluster in a tum- 

 bler ; it is quite likely that one of the queens is a prisoner 

 in the middle.* Should two be seen, secure both. Then 



* AU stranger queens, introduced into a stock or swarm, are secured and de- 

 tained in this manner by the workers, but whether they dispatch them, or this is 

 n means adopted to incite them to a deadiv conflict, writers do rot agree, and I 



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