SAGACITY OH" BEES. 203 



be wasted if you wovk in a dark room, and use a candle or 

 lamp. If preferred, there would be no harm done, if the bees 

 were first paralyzed with Puflf-ball, yet the combs might have 

 to be broken out to get the few bees sticking between them, 

 at this season — spring— it is well to save every bee. 

 Keep them in the empty hive until the honey taken with 

 them ii-om the diseased hive is consumed — thirty-six or 

 forty-eight hours. The hive to receive the bees perma^ 

 nently, should be brought into a warm room several hours 

 previously. If bees are to be put into an empty hive, it 

 should be done in warm weather. 



CHAPTER XX 



SAGACITY OF BEES. 



On this subject I have but little to say, as I have failed 

 to discover any individual manifestations of shrewdness or 

 sagacity, that all swarms would not exhibit under similar 

 circumstances. 



TOO MABVELOUS. 



"Writers, with a great love of the marvelous, are not 

 content with their astonishing displays of instinct, but 

 must add a share of reason to their other faculties, and 

 profess to discover " an adaptation of means to ends that 

 reason alone can produce." It is very true, that without 

 close inspection, and comparison of the conduct of differ- 

 ent swarms in similar cases, one might arrive at such a 

 conclusion. It is difficult, as all will admit, " to tell where 

 instinct ends, and reason begins." Instances of sagacity 

 like the following, have been recorded. 



