VARIOUS METHODS. 249 



ble disposition, -when full of honey, hence all manipulations 

 become much easier. But at other times, great caution is 

 requisite not only in giving a hive a strange queen, but in 

 all attempts to mix bees belonging to different colonies. Bees 

 having a fertile queen will often quarrel with those having 

 an unimpregnated one. 



Members of different colonies (30) recognize their hive- 

 companions by the sense of smell, and if there should be a 

 thousand hives in the Apiary, any one will readily detect 

 a strange bee ; just as each mother in a large flock of sheep 

 is able, by the same sense, in the darkest night, to distin- 

 guish her own lamb from all the others. Colonies might 

 always be safely mingled, by sprinkling them with sugar- 

 water, scented with peppermint or any other strong odor, 

 which would make them all smell alike. 



Bees also recognize strangers by their actions, even when 

 they have the same scent ; for a frightened bee curls herself 

 up with a cowed look, which unmistakably proclaims that 

 she is conscious of being an intruder. If, therefore, the 

 bees of one colony are left on their own stand, and the oth- 

 ers are suddenly introduced, in a time of scarcity, the 

 latter, even when both colonies have the same smell, are 

 often so frightened that they are discovered to be strangers, 

 and are instantly killed. If, however, both colonies are re- 

 moved to a new stand, and shaken out together on a sheet, 

 they will peaceably mingle, when scented alike. We find 

 substantially the same thing recommended, in 1778, by 

 Thomas Wildman (page 230 of the 3d edition of his valua- 

 ble work on Bees), who says, that bees will " unite while in 

 fear and distress, without fighting, as they would be apt to 

 do, if strange bees were added to a hive in possession of its 

 honey." 



486. The forcing of a swarm ought not to be attempted 

 when the weather is cool, nor after dark. Bees are always 

 much more irascible when their hives are disturbed after it 



