ARTIFICIAL SWARMS. 161 



they smother; take them to a dry cellar, or some 

 cool out-house, let them stand quietly for from 

 twenty-four to thirty-six hours, when they can be 

 taken and set on the stand you wish them to occupy. 

 Open them invariably in the evening, a few minutes 

 before sunset, when but few bees are flying in the 

 apiary, when they will rush out of the hive ; finding 

 themselves in a new place, they will take their 

 reckoning, noting carefully the objects surrounding 

 their new habitation, and settle down quietly and go 

 to work, very few returning to the old stand. This 

 plan is convenient, easily understood, and I have 

 found it to succeed very well; yet in making artificial 

 colonies, in all cases and under all circumstances, 

 the older workers, that have their course to the 

 parent stand well established, are likely to return ; 

 and should there not be enough younger bees to con- 

 tinue the operations of the new colony it would be a 

 failure ; hence the necessity of looking in upon them 

 every day, disturbing them as little as possible. If 

 there are not bees enough to cover the brood, open a 

 stroDg hive, take out one or more combs, after ex- 

 amining carefully that the queen is not on them, 

 brush the bees into the deserted colony until you 

 have enough to cover the combs, returning the 

 combs from which you have brushed them to their 

 own hive; close up the new colony, and remove it 

 away a mile or so. This will make a sure thing of it. 



14* 



