37 
continues Rosier, are from five to six pounds. Those of 
eight pounds are very rare; and it is not desirable that 
they should weigh more, because so great a swarm is pre- 
judicial to the mother hive, which, being deprived of so 
large a portion of its population, is in danger of perishing 
‘in winter. 
This consideration of the Abbe Rosier, is not correct. 
The strength of swarms is proportioned to that of the mo- 
ther hive. I have obtained swarms from pyramidal hives, 
weighing twelve, or even eighteen and twenty pounds; and 
so large, that it required two panniers to receive them—at 
ence forming the Scottish hive, or the hive of two stories, 
of M. Bourdonnaye; and in the spring following, another 
pape or box placed under it, will form the pyramidal 
Tg * Rb a ie * Br x 
When the bees of a swarm are divided into clusters, the 
whole should be put into one hive, and there left to choose 
the queen which they desire to place at the head of the 
colony, and get rid of those who would be a charge to the 
state, which they would embroil by their continued divi- 
sions. The young queens which remain in the mother- 
hive, have no better fortune than those who had the ambi- 
tion to pretend to the command of an emigrant colony: 
they will be put to death in like manner, as the supernu- 
meraries which escaped. 
CHAPTER XI. 
OF LATE SWARMS. 
Late swarms are those which come off in the latter part 
ef summer, and have not time to collect a sufficient quan- 
tity of provisions for their subsistence during winter, and 
consume their whole stock as it is gathered. That food 
which bees of this kind collect, passes from the first into 
the second stomach, and is converted into wax. They 
could not subsist through the winter, unless supported by 
the proprietor. ; 
Should these late swarms perish by cold or famine, their 
cells may be still used profitably, by keeping the pannier 
or box in a dry place, where it may remain uninjured till 
D 
