oe 
day following, a new queen takes place of the precedi 
and the swarm hastens to depart, and abandons the m 
country. ea ahs ou 
When any one can catch a queen at the entrance of 
hive, he is sure to conduct the swarm to whatever place 
pleases. I had a domestic, who seldom failed to surp 
the queen at the moment of swarming. He watched 
her at the entrance of the hive, on the bench, seized, a 
put her in the bottom of a pannier, which he had at 
disposal, near him, and the whole swarm immediatel 
settled in it. a 
This was the secret of M. Wildemann, who, in the 
‘presence of the London Society, made a swarm of bees 
follow him. He made it pass from one part of his body to 
another: if he changed the place of the mother bee, her 
faithful subjects soon followed her. Choleric-bees (for — 
this is a vice of their character) might make this a very — 
serious sport. M. Wildemann has also taught us a prompt — 
and easy way of changing bees from one hive to another 
He carried a hive to a place which only admitted a dawn 
of light, and reversed it. ‘The mother bee, whose nature 
is to be most vigilant for the safety and good of her state 
presented herself in fronts he seized her, and when he hac 
her in custody, he was master of the whole colony. He 
put her into an empty hive, and all the bees followed. He 
took possession of the honey, drained it from the wax, 
put the couvain into the new hive, and placed it on the 
bench. 
The Abbe Rosier informs us, that all swarms are not 
composed of fifteen or twenty thousand bees. ‘There are — 
some less considerable, some even have not more than three 
or four thousand. ‘These are ordinarily the last, and are 
nothing better on that account. Besides, they come too late 
to have time enough to work and provide against the win- 
ter, or for the queen to lay to increase the number of her 
subjects. ‘The first swarms are always best, because gene- 
rally most numerous; but if not so numerous, the lay of i 
the young queen would furnish a sufficient number to aug. 
ment the population. . 
M. Rosier says, that the goodness of a swarm is esti- _ 
mated by the number of bees which compose it. As it — 
would be difficult to count them, the better way would be — 
to weigh the box before and after the bees are hived, and — 
the difference would be the weight of the swarm. The best, — 
