bee-keepeh's manual. 283 



ground. Being called away for a short time, I suffered 

 them to remain, and when I returned they were gone, 

 and to my satisfaction ; since my only motive in stopping 

 them was, to experiment on the application of water in 

 such cases. 



In regard to the actual danger of the aforesaid two 

 swarms perishing, had they remained in the original 

 hive, I would observe, that they were the- smallest 

 swarms that I ever had ; consequently, I am not able 

 to say positively, whether they would have survived 

 through the winter or not. I have wintered swarms 

 that did not contain over a quart of bees in December, 

 with perfect security, and I am inclined to believe, that 

 had I lowered down the hives, and allowed but a single 

 place of entrance, and had fed them freely, they would 

 have lived through the winter. The two swarms alluded 

 to, would not probably have made more than about a pint 

 in bulk, if left until December or January. There was 

 about a quart in each when they departed. 



SWARMS CONSIST OP BEES OF ALL AGES. 



The question has often been asked me, if swarms are 

 not composed entirely of young bees? My answer is, 

 that they contain bees of every age, from the old bee of the 

 season previous, coming into existence through the sum- 

 mer and fall months, down to the young bee that nevei 

 before ventured a rod from the hive. There appears to 

 be no discrimination on the point of age. A promiscu- 

 ous sally takes place, and the majority are young bees, 



