274 miner's AMERICAN 



out about 10 o'clock, and the other about 11 o'clock. 

 They remained quietly clustered until half-past 3, when 

 a most violent thunder-storm arose. The wind blew a 

 gale, and the rain came down in torrents, for the space 

 of an hour. At 5 o'clock, I returned, and found both 

 swarms clustered as at first, and not a bee had been lost 

 by the force of the wind and rain. This case is a fail 

 criterion of what may generally be expected, when 

 swarms are left unhived. They will often remain 24 

 hours, and sometimes they will adhere to the branch 

 where they cluster, until every bee perishes, or returns 

 to the parent hive. From my own experience, I am led 

 to believe, that the length of time that swarms will re- 

 main where they cluster, depends, in a measure, upon 

 the fact, whether a general supervision be extended over 

 them by the owner ; that is, whether he is constant in 

 attending to the little duties pertaining to the apiary ; 

 such as brushing away the webs of insects, keeping 

 everything in order, feeding a weak swarm here, and 

 attending to the wants of a family there, and by his daily 

 presence, manifesting to the bees, that they are not left 

 to provide wholly for themselves. As " the ox knoweth 

 his owner and the ass his master's crib," so is the little 

 bee sensible of the fact, that a hand is ever ready to pro- 

 vide for her necessities. Though you cannot change 

 one iota of her natural economy, that she has brought 

 down through thousands of generations since the crea- 

 tion of the world ; yet if you but extend kindness to her 

 — if you feed her when famishing — if you remove im- 

 pediments to her prosperity, that she cannot perform, 



