202 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



be more or less honey in the boxes. Take a box 

 from the hive from which the swarm issued, and 

 immediately put it into the hive occupied by the new 

 swarm. 



It is now more than fifteen years since I adopted 

 this plan ; my neighbor bee-keepers were taught it, 

 and have been practicing it for years, and out of 

 hundreds of swarms I have never known one to aban- 

 don its hive, when a frame of honey was put in or a 

 box of honey put on top, so that they could have 

 access to it. A knowledge of this alone is worth 

 many times the price of this book to any bee-keeper 

 who depends on natural swarming to increase his 

 stock ; without it, swarms very frequently leave the 

 hive, even after remaining a day or two. I have 

 heard of them leaving when they had combs built 

 several inches long. In California they seem to have 

 a much greater propensity to leave in this manner 

 than here ; hence the great importance of this dis- 

 covery, if such it is — at least I never heard of it 

 or seen it mentioned by any author, previous to 

 discovering it ourselves (J. S. Harbison was, I be- 

 lieve, the first to suggest it), nor has it been noticed 

 since by any writer, to my knowledge. 



WHAT BEES COMPOSE THE SWARM. 



The opinion has prevailed to a very great extent, 

 among those who have not investigated this matter 

 very carefully, that in the spring or early part of the 

 season a litter or brood is raised by the bees, expressly 

 for the purpose of being sent off as a swarm, some- 



