PROCESS OF FORMING ARTIFICIAL SWARMS. 225 



accompanying fumi- 

 gating machine under 

 the hive, first support- 

 ing it by four wedges 

 of wood. The smoke, 

 which should not be 

 very intense, will soon 

 drive the bees from the lower hive into the upper one : 

 some judgment is, however, here necessary to determine the 

 exact period when a sufficient number of bees have ascended 

 into the upper hive, which ought to amount at least to about 

 five or six hundred, when the fumigating pan should be re- 

 moved, the lower hive returned to its original position, and 

 the upper one taken away. 



It is now, however, that the most important and difficult 

 part of the experiment is to be decided ; which is, whether 

 the queen be in the upper hive or the lower. This problem 

 may certainly be solved by waiting about eight or twelve 

 hours, when the condition of the bees in the upper hive will 

 at once determine the absence or the presence of the queen. 

 If the former be the case, the bees will not have commenced 

 the construction of their combs ; they will appear in a wild 

 and agitated state, running about all parts of the hive as if 

 in search of something, nor will they ever cluster at the top, 

 as is always the case, when they have a queen with them. 

 In order, however, to ascertain at once the presence of the 

 queen in the upper hive, a slight fumigation may be given 

 the bees, so as to stupify them, and an examination be 

 immediately made ; and if the fact be ascertained that the 

 queen is amongst them, the new hive must be removed to 

 the distance of two or three hundred paces from the old 

 hive, in order that the community belonging to the first 

 swarm may lose all recollection of their former habitation. 

 Indeed, it would not be a bad practice to remove the old hive 

 to another position, in order that the bees of the new swarm, 



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