BEES. 
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nity from the invasions of foreign enemies 
in spring. They should be full of combs 
and well stored with bees and honey, and 
should weigh at least 30 lb. each, if heavier 
so much the better; for light hives run a 
great risk of perishing by famine, unless the 
bees are supplied with food ; whereas a 
well-chosen hive of 30 lb. weight, allowing 
Vilh. for the empty hive, bees, combs, &c- 
will contain 18Z&. of honey, which will sup- 
ply the bees with food till June; a time 
when it may be presumed they will find 
abundance of provisions for themselves 
among the flowers. When a choice can be 
obtained the youngest hive should always 
be preferred, because old hives are liable to 
vermin and other accidents. But although 
a hive should be four or five years old it 
should not be rejected, if it possess these 
two essential qualities, plenty of bees and 
abundance of honey. 
Bees first swarm in May or in the end of 
April ; but earlier or later according to the 
warmth of the season. They seldom swarm 
before ten in the morning, and seldom later 
than three in the afternoon. We may know 
when they are about to swarm by clusters 
of them hanging on the outside of the hive. 
But the most certain sign is when the bees 
refrain from going into the fields though the 
season be inviting. Just before they take 
flight there is an uncommon silence in the 
hive ; after this, as soon as one takes flight 
they all follow. Before the subsequent 
swarmings there is a great noise in the hive, 
which is supposed to be occasioned by a 
contest whether the young or old queen 
should go out. When the bees of a swarm 
fly too high, they will descend lower upon 
throwing handfuls of sand or dust among 
them, which they probably mistake for rain. 
For the same purpose it is usual to beat on a 
kettle or frying-pan ; this practice may have 
taken its rise from observing that thunder 
or any great noise prompts bees in the fields 
to return home. As soon as the swarm is 
settled, the bees which compose it should 
be got into a hive with all convenient speed, 
to prevent their taking wing again. If they 
settle on a small branch of a tree, easy to 
come at, it may be cut off and laid upon a 
cloth, the hive being ready immediately to 
put over them. If the branch cannot be 
conveniently cut the bees may be sweptfrom 
off it into the hive. Lodge but the queen 
into the hive and the rest will soon follow. 
If the bees must be considerably disturbed 
in order to get them into a hive, the most 
advisable way is to let them remain in the 
place where they have pitched till the even< 
ing, when there is less danger of their tak- 
ing wing. If it be observed that they still 
hover about the tree that they first alighted 
upon, tiie branches may be rubbed With 
rue, elder leaves, or any other thing dis- 
tasteful to them, to prevent their returning 
to it. The hive employed on this occasion 
should be cleaned with the utmost care, and 
its inside rubbed with fragrant herbs or 
flowers, the smell of which is agreeable to 
the bees, or with honey. The hive should 
not be immediately set on the stool where 
it is to remain, but kept near the place at 
which the bees settled till the evening, lest 
some stragglers should be lost. It should 
be shaded either with boughs or with cloth, 
that the too great heat of the sun may not 
annoy the bees. We sometimes see a swarm 
of bees after having left their hive, and even 
alighted upon a tree, return to their first 
abode: this never happens but when the 
young queen did not come forth with them, 
for want of strength, or perhaps courage to 
trust to her wings for the first time, or pos- 
sibly from a consciousness of her not being 
impregnated. 
When a swarm is too few in number for 
a hive another may be added. The usual 
method of thus uniting swarms is very 
easy; N spread a cloth at night upon the 
ground close to the hive in which the two 
casts or swarms are to be united, lay a stick 
across this cloth, then fetch the hive with 
the new swarm, set it over the stick, give 
a smart stroke on the top of the hive, and 
all the bees will drop down upon the doth 
in a cluster ; this done, throw aside the 
empty hive, take the other from off the 
stool and set this last over the bees, who 
will soon ascend into it, mix with those 
already there, and become one and the same 
family. Others, instead of striking the bees 
down upon the cloth, place with its bottom 
upmost the hive in which the united swarms 
are to live, and strike the bees of the other 
hive down into it. The former of thesehives 
is then restored to its natural situation, and 
the bees of both hives soon unite. If some 
bees still adhere to the other hive they may 
be brushed off on the cloth, and they will 
soon join their brethren. Or we may take 
the following method, which gives less dis- 
turbance to the bees ; set, with its mouth 
upmost, tlie hive into which the young 
swarm has been put, and set upon it the 
other hive. The bees in the other hive 
finding themselves in an inverted situation, 
will soon ascend into the upper. A large 
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