172 BEE-FARMING. 



I seldom hear this notion expressed now ; it is several years 

 since I heard it from an aged peasant. 



In some parts of the north of England the 1 0th of 

 August is considered as a day of jubilee amongst bees. 

 Why, I cannot tell. A swarm coming out on this day 

 would not be hived under any circumstances, because they 

 are said to be unlucky. Bees working on this day are 

 named Quakers, perhaps because the members of the 

 Society of Friends observe no holiday. This is near akin 

 to the idea that the bees should not be allowed to quit the 

 hive on Friday ; many apiarians belonging to the Roman 

 Catholic persuasion, I am informed, carry this out literally 

 by closing the entrance or the mouth of the hive on that 

 day. 



A swarm of bees settling upon a dead tree, or a hedge- 

 stake, or rail, which is considered " dead wood," is a sign 

 or token of death, i.e., it predicts the death of some 

 member of the family to whom they belong. A poor 

 fellow with whom I was sympathising upon the death of his 

 wife said to me, " I expected some one of us would be laid 

 in the grave-yard before long." " Why ? " said I, in 

 reply. " Because," he answered, " the swarm of bees 

 which came out first this season settled on the hedge-rail. 

 When they settle on dead or dying wood it is always a 

 token of death, and I have never known it to fail." It is 

 accounted unlucky for a swarm of bees to settle on your 

 premises unless they are claimed by their owner and given 

 up to him peaceably. Several years since a strong stock 

 settled in an apple-tree in the garden of one of my neigh- 

 bours. It would not have been very difficult, perhaps, to 

 name the actual owner of this stray swarm, but the old 

 gentleman in whose apple-tree they were clustered was by 

 no means willing to part with them. Some of the neigh- 

 bo^'rs whispered, "Ah! you'll see the old man, or his 

 oldjr wife, will die before long." Accordingly it came to 



