and its Economic Management. 43 



warm, even these soon gain sufficient strength to fly and 

 settle with the swarm ; otherwise, if they cannot crawl 

 back to the hive, many will perish ; thus showing the 

 necessity of a wide board reaching from the ground to 

 the entrance, not only in this instance, but at all times, 

 as many adult bees are lost in failing to reach the entrance 

 during chilly weather. The workers out in the fields at 

 the time of swarming and the large numbers of young 

 hatching, soon make up the strength of the hive and pre- 

 vent the remaining brood getting chilled. 



Securing the Swarm, 



If the apiary be located near high trees the swarms (if 

 permitted to issue) will sometimes give trouble by cluster- 

 ing in them ; though they may as often settle upon any 

 low shrub, or even a post or wall. In the former case a 

 straw skep must be carried up and the bees shaken into 

 it when inverted under the clustering mass ; descend the 

 ladder as rapidly as possible, keeping the skep the same 

 way, and then turn it the right way up on to a sheet 

 previously spread upon the ground, with a brick or piece 

 of wood under it, so that one edge of the hive may be 

 raised to enable the flying bees to draw in. Where the 

 cluster is formed on a wall or any other like place, brush 

 the bees off into the skep with a wing ; but if among 

 branches of wall trees, little can be done in that way, and 

 they must be driven up into the skep as it is fastened 

 above them, by the use of smoke ; or, better still, make 

 everything more certain by first capturing the queen and 

 secure her in a cage fastened under the edge of the skep, 

 when placed on the ground : in this case if only a handful 

 of bees can first be brushed into the skep, all the rest will 

 follow. On no account, in any instance, expect the bees 

 will go up of their own accord into a hive placed above 



