Methods of Hiving, 245 



Now, if several swarms cluster together, we have not to 

 separate them ; they will usiially separate of themselves and 

 return to their old homes. To migrate without the queen 

 means death, and life is sweet even to bees, and is not to 

 be willingly given up except for home and kindred. Even 

 if they all enter into one hive, the queens are not with 

 them and it is very easy to divide them as desired. Neither 

 has the apiarist to climb trees, to secure his bees from bushy 

 trunks, from off the lattice-work or pickets of his fence, from 

 the very top of a tall, slender, fragile fruit tree, or other 

 most inconvenient places. Nor will he even be tempted 

 to pay his money for patent non-swarming hivers or patent 

 swarm catchers. He knows his bees will return to their 

 old quarters, so he is not perturbed by the fear of loss or 

 plans to capture the unapproachable. It requires no effort 

 "to possess his soul in patience." If he wishes no increase, 

 he steps out, takes the queen by the remaining wings, as 

 she emerges from the hive, soon after the bees commence 

 their hilarious leave-taking, puts her in a cage, opens the 

 hive, destroys, or, if he wishes to use them, cuts out the 

 queen-cells as already described, gives more room — either 

 by adding a crate of sections or taking out some of the 

 frames of brood, as they may well be spared — places the 

 cage enclosing the queen under the quilt, and leaves the 

 bees to return at their pleasure. At night-fall the queen is 

 liberated, the hive may be removed to another place, and 

 very likely the swarming fever is subdued for the season. 



If it is desired to unite the swarm with a nucleus, exchange 

 the places of the old hive with the caged queen, as soon as 

 the swarm is out, and the nucleus hive, to which, of courie, 

 the swarm will now come. The queen-cells should be 

 removed at once from the old hive, and the queen liberated. 

 The nucleus colony, now strongly enforced, should have 

 empty frames, but always with starters, added, making five 

 in all; and a crate of sections with thin foundation added 

 at once. The five frames — Langstroth size, more if smaller 

 — are put on one side and the rest of the space filled by 

 division boards. Here the nucleus is at once transformed 

 into a large, strong colony. 



If it is desired to hive the swarm separately — and usually 



