182 ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 



proposes to take up his abode in a country village, while the 

 other is as much an object of dislike as a pauper who is sus- 

 pected of designing to become a parish charge ! 



To return to our imprisoned bees. Beginning at the top, 

 or what is now, (as the hive is upside down,) the bottom, 

 their hive should be beaten smartly with the palms of the 

 hands, or two small rods, on the sides to which the combs are 

 attached, so as to run no risk of loosening them. These 

 " rappings," which certainly are not of a very " spiritual " 

 character, produce, nevertheless, a most decided effect upon 

 the bees ; their first impulse is to sally out, and wreak their 

 vengeance upon those who have thus rudely assailed their 

 honied dome ; but as soon as they find that they are shut in, 

 a sudden fear that they are to be driven from their treasures, 

 seems to take possession of them. Determined to prepare 

 for this writ of ejection so suddenly served upon them, and 

 to carry off with them all that they can, each bee proceeds 

 at once to lay in a supply, and in about five minutes they 

 are all filled to their utmost capacity. A prodigious hum- 

 ming is now heard, and the bees begin to mount into the 

 upper box. In about fifteen minutes from the time the rap- 

 ping began, which ought to be continued with slight inter- 

 missions, the mass of the bees, with their queen, will have 

 ascended, and will hang clustered, just like a natural swarm. 

 The box with the expelled bees must now be gently lifted 

 off, and should be placed upon a bottom-board with a gauze- 

 wire ventilator, if the bees are to be confined for any con- 

 siderable lime, so that they may have plenty of air. 

 If no gauze wire bottom-board is at hand, the box must 

 be wedged up, so as to admit an abundance of air, and be 

 set in a shady place ; or it may be put upon a sheet or cloth 

 and carefully reversed, when this is is securely fastened. 

 \ The hive from which the bees were driven, must now be 



