226 RECOMMENDATION OF DUCARNE. 



not finding their own domicile in its accustomed place, will 

 willingly return to the hive from which they departed. 



Another important point now presents itself, which is, the 

 examination of the old hive, for the purpose of ascertaining 

 if there be in it an embryo queen ; and in our hive this 

 examination is easily effected. In the common straw hive, 

 however, the difficulties are almost insuperable, arising from 

 the almost impossibility of examining that part of the combs 

 in which the queen cells are situated. If the artificial swarm 

 has been formed without previously ascertaining if the bees 

 remaining in the old hive were furnished with another 

 queen, a considerable risk is incurred of the old hive perish- 

 ing altogether : it is in fact these contingencies of so critical 

 a nature, which render the formation of artificial swarms so 

 very dubious and precarious. In artificial swarms, every thing 

 depends on the presence of a queen, for we treat the rearing 

 of a queen by the bees from a common egg as the mere 

 effect of a romantic fancy. If on examining the old hive, 

 there be no traces found of a queen to supply the loss of 

 that which has migrated with the artificial swarm, the better 

 plan will be to restore the bees with the queen to their for- 

 mer domicile, than run the risk of losing all the bees by 

 keeping them in a state of separation. 



If it be ascertained that the queen is not in the new hive, 

 the only method to be adopted is to endeavour to obtain a 

 queen, either from the parent hive, or from one that has 

 just swarmed ; but where is the benefit of all this exces- 

 sive trouble, to obtain an end to which after all no positive 

 advantage is attached. The capture of a queen bee in a hive 

 is a task not easily accomplished ; and we will defy the most 

 skilful apiarian to fulfil it without driving all the bees out of 

 the hive, an operation which sometimes takes three or four 

 hours in the execution. 



Ducarne recommends, that on the departure of a swarm, 

 for a person to place himself before the hive, and very little 



