PRIMARY SWARM. 219 



honey before leaving the parent-stock (380). Yet there are, 

 in nearly every swarm, a few bees that have either joined 

 from a neighboring hive, or have not filled their honey-sack 

 completely before leaving. These bees are liable to get angry, 

 when the swarm is harvested. So, if the Apiarist is timid, or 

 suffers severely from the sting of a bee, he should, by all 

 means, furnish himself with the protection of a bee-veil 

 (386). The use of a smoker (383), is also advisable, both 

 in preventing the bees from stinging and in helping to drive 

 them into 'the hive; but it must not be used plentifully, as it 

 might cause the bees to abscond, or to return to the clustering 

 spot. 



419. A new swarm should he hived as soon as the hees 

 have quietly clustered around their queen; although there is no 

 necessity for the headlong haste practiced by some, which 

 increases their liability to be stung. Those who show so 

 little self-possession, must not be surprised if they are stung 

 by the bees of other hives; which, instead of being gorged 

 with honey, are on the alert, and very naturally mistake the 

 object of such excited demonstrations. The fact that the 

 bees have clustered, makes it almost certain that, unless the 

 weather is very hot, or they are exposed to the burning heat 

 of the sun, they will not leave for at least one or two hours. 

 All convenient dispatch, however, should be used in hiving a 

 swarm, lest the scouts have time to return,— which will entice 

 them to go, — or lest other colonies issue, and attempt to add 

 themselves to it. 



420. Should you give the scouts time to return, you would 

 first see a few bees flying around the cluster. Slowly their 

 number would increase, till the whole swarm took wing, and 

 it would be almost useless to try to stop it or to follow it. 

 When a swarm thus takes flight, it knows no bounds. Hedges, 

 fences, woods, walls, ditches, rivers, are barriers only to the 

 breathless and disappointed owner. The only thing that we 

 ever have known to stop a departing swarm is throwing water 

 among them. Flashing the sun's rays on them by the use of a 



