154 FRAUD IN THE PURCHASE OF SWARMS. 



to bespeak a first swarm of some person in the immediate 

 neighbourhood, and to send his own hive in which the 

 swarm is to be put : at a proper time, the swarm is sent 

 home, and the purchaser flatters himself that it is a first 

 swarm, for he has no notion that in an affair of this kind 

 it were possible to practise any deception upon him. Not 

 knowing the discriminatory signs of a first or second swarm, 

 and being informed that a first swarm generally collects a 

 sufficiency of food for its support during the winter, the 

 duped purchaser pays little attention to the internal condi- 

 tion of the hive ; until before the winter is over, he finds all 

 the bees literally dead for want of food. The real truth of 

 this transaction is as follows ; the vendor of the swarm, 

 instead of sending the first swarm according to his agree- 

 ment, has sent a second one, reserving the first for himself ; 

 well knowing that there are not five persons in a hundred, 

 who can tell a second swarm from a first, or perhaps sup- 

 posing that there is no criterion existing by which the 

 difference can be definitively determined. We will however 

 explain in what that criterion lies. Let the purchased hive 

 remain for two or three days without the slightest molesta- 

 tion, but let the fact be ascertained by the bees carrying in 

 the pellets of farina on their legs, that the bees have com- 

 menced the making of their combs. Let then the hive 

 be gently lifted up, and the exact position of the combs 

 ascertained : if they be begun in the middle of the hive, it is a 

 first swarm; if the combs be begun at the side, it is a 

 second swarm. There is a display of instinct in this cir- 

 cumstance, which is truly wonderful ; for the insects belong- 

 ing to the second swarm appear to be conscious, from their 

 limited numbers, that they cannot fill the whole capacity of 

 the hive and therefore for the better concentration of their 

 heat, they only attempt to fill so much of the hive as their 

 numbers will allow. 

 If a person enter an apiary, with an intent to purchase, 



