PRIMARY SWARM. 215 
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 toreturn, 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 looking-glass is advised by some. We 
tried it, but did not succeed in a single instance. 
421. Asamatter of course, we suppose that the Apia- 
rist hag an empty hive in readiness, clean and cool. Bees, 
when they swarm, being unnaturally heated, often refuse to 
enter hives that have been standing in the sun, or at best 
are slow in taking possession of them. ‘The temperature of 
the parent-stock, at the moment of swarming, rises very 
suddenly, and many bees are often so drenched with per- 
spiration, that they cannot take wing to join the emigrating 
colony. ‘To attempt to make swarming bees enter a heated 
hive in a blazing sun, is, therefore, as irrational as it would 
be to force a panting crowd of human beings into the suffo- 
