THE farmer’s manual. 
19t 
Apiary to swarm, you may collect them into a bag, 
somewhat like a jelly-bag, the same as you would 
collect them into your hive, by cutting olF the bough, 
thrust it into the bag, and tie it close; when you ar- 
rive at your Apiary, then hive them in the usual way. 
Some rub their hives with aromatic herbs, and in 
Italy and France, they rub the hives with the leaves 
of onions, and garlics ; and the^hoted Apiarian Con- 
tardi says, “ The Bees accustom themselves to this 
odour for the want of a better but L’Abbe della 
Noua says, “We should refrain from approaching 
our Bees when we have touched onions, or eaten 
cheese, for both will excite their acrimony.” The 
best test of the value of a hive of Bees is its weight, 
and this can only be correctly ascertained, but by 
weighing the hive without the Bees, or one of the 
same size and structure, and then, by weighing them 
both together. The best swarms are from 5 to Gibs, 
they sometimes weigh 8lbs., but this is rare, and are 
not desirable, as they impoverish the parent hive too 
much. 5000 Bees, generally weigh a pound, a good 
swarm of 4lbs., consists, therefore, of 20,000; the 
quantity of honey such a swarm carries with it to be- 
gin a new colony, is generally about 4lbs. 
The signs attending the flight ot the second swarms 
at the time of swarming, vary from those of the first. 
Wildman says, the second swarms appear generally 
about ten days after the first, this is not ab*olutely 
correct; I have known them often swarm on the in- 
termediate days, from the 4th to the 10th, and some 
hives do not throw a second swarm, and this may be 
ascertained upon examination of the hives, when it 
appears that the combs are bare and destitute of 
Bees, when the supernumerary queens are dead be- 
fore the hive, and when the Bees tear from the cells 
the nymphs of the drones, no second swarm is then 
expected ; but if the Bees leave 3 or 4 queens alive 
in the hive, there is some chance of a second swarm. 
These particular examinations are not common to all 
