160 SWAKMING AND HIVING. 



royal cells. It should be supplied with a sealed Queen nearly- 

 mature, taken from another hive, not only to save time, but 

 to prevent them from filling their hive with comb unfit for 

 the rearing of workers. (See Artificial Swarming.) Of 

 course, this cannot be done with the common hives, and if 

 the Apiarian does not succeed in getting a Queen for each 

 hive, the queenless one will refuse to stay, and go back to 

 the old stock. 



The old-fashioned way of hiving bees, by mounting trees, 

 cutting and lowering down large limbs, (often to the injury 

 of valuable trees,) and placing the hive over the bees, fre- 

 quently crushing large numbers, and endangering the life of 

 the Queen, should be entirely abandoned. A swarm may 

 be hived in the proper way with far less risk and trouble, 

 and in much less time. In large Apiaries managed on the 

 swarming plan, where a number of swarms come out on 

 the same day, and there is constant danger of their mixing,* 

 the speedy hiving of swarms is an object of great impor- ; 

 tance. If the new hive does not stand where it is to remain ^ 



*Dr. Scudamore,. an English phj'sician who has written a small 

 tract on the formation of artificial swarms, says ihat he once knew 

 " as many as ten swarms go forth at once, and settle and mingle to- 

 gether, forming literally a monster meeting!" Instances are on 

 record of a much larger number of swarms clu,slering together. A 

 venerable clergyman, in Western Massachusetts, related to me the 

 following remarkable occurrence. In the Apiary of one of his parish- 

 ioners, five swarms lit in one mass. As there was no hive which 

 would hold them, a very large box was roughly nailed together, and 

 the bees were hived in it. They were taken up by sulphur in the Fall, 

 when it was perfectly evident that the five swarms had occupied the 

 same box as independent colonies. Four of them had commenced 

 their works, each one near a corner, and the fifth one in the middle, 

 and there was a distinct interval separating the works of the difTerent 

 colonies. In Cotton's " My Bee Book," there is a cut illustrating a 

 hive in which two colonies had built in the same manner. 



