200 
MANAGEMENT IN SWARMING. 
entering with their sovereign, ns if aware of the danger 
of such intrusion. This is rather a perplexing state 
of things, and the best remedy we can suggest, is in- 
stantly to carry off the hive into which the queen has 
strayed, and to substitute in its place the one from 
which she had issued. The bees will readily enter ; 
after which the two hives may he restored to their 
former places. If the strayed queen does not reappear 
in a very few minutes, we may conclude she has fallen 
a victim to her error ; and the owner may console 
himself with the knowledge that the swarm will come 
off again in a very few days, with another queen. 
Two swarms sometimes leave their hives at the same 
time, and in such cases almost always go together. If 
they are second swarms, it will be better to let them 
remain so ; they will, when thus united, form a strong 
stock, and will collect much more honey than they 
could have done separately. If they are first swarms, 
and the season is not far advanced, it will be expe- 
dient to separate them ; and for this purpose, let the 
whole mass be first received into an empty hive, and 
then, spreading a sheet on the floor of an empty apart- 
ment from which the light is partially excluded, let 
the hive be placed on it ; a smart stroke on the top 
will send them down in a mass upon the sheet, and 
the bees, in a minute or two, wall be observed col- 
lected into two groups, in the centre of each of which 
will be found a queen. Place an empty hive gently 
over each group, raising one side, that the bees may 
have easy access ; and when housed, remove them to 
their proper stations, which should be some consider- 
