302 
DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
ming noise at night, presumed to come from the young queen-bees an- 
nouncing their advent. But these warnings apply less to the first than 
to the subsequent swarms. However, there is a pretty good rule for 
effective action. As soon as you find the side-box is nearly full, watch 
for an opportunity when the queen, with about two-thirds of the bees 
of the colony, is in the side-box, then cut off the communication with, 
and remove, the parent hive three or four feet distant, and put an 
empty hive in its exact position. The returning bees will flock into the 
side-box as before, and that hive is done with. As to the parent-hive, 
the nurse-bees will take every care of the brood in it; in fact, they will 
be just as though a swarm with the queen had left them ; and will pro- 
ceed with due equanimity to supply her place in the approved way. 
This is the mode practiced with success by Mr. Grant, and may be varied 
according to circumstances. For instance, if the queen should not 
have been left in the side-box with the greater portion of the bees, and 
has, therefore, been removed with the parent hive, the rest must be in 
effect the same, as regards the two hives ; most of the bees then might 
leave the side-box and flock to the queen in the parent-hive ; but if there 
be a brood in the side-box, it appears that the nurse-bees will not de- 
sert it, and, therefore, there are still two communities, and both well 
provided with all they require for a new start in life. 
5. There is also practiced, it is said with great profit, a more summary 
way of proceeding to make an artificial swarm, which consists in fumi- 
gating the bees, in order to divide them into two bodies as before. The 
period chosen is from the beginning of May to the middle of July, and 
when there are as many bees on the board at the bottom as will fill a 
thirty-two (eight and a half inches by six) sized flower-pot. To ascertain 
this, blow a little smoke into them and turn up the hive. Before com- 
mencing operations, place the hive intended for the new colony on the 
stand, with a bit of comb in its roof, and a stick across the middle to aid in 
the support of the combs. If you are short of hives, this one may be used 
instead of an additional empty hive in performing the operations about 
to be described. But the bit of comb may be somewhat in the way. 
The bees having been stupefied by the fumigation, the hive is turned up, 
its top rested on the ground, and an empty hive placed over it of exactly 
the same shape (at the edges at least), and a cloth tied round the circle 
of junction. Then tap or drum gently at the sides of the two hives for 
about ten minutes, in which time probably about two-thirds of the bees 
will have ascended into the upper hive. The queen, fortunately for the 
operation, is generally one of the first either to run away from or to 
confront the danger (we know not which it is) by ascending. If your 
hive have a glass window, as all should have, you can see when about 
the right proportion have ascended ; if not, you must guess with the aid 
above given of the knowledge of the ordinary duration of time occupied. 
Now take off the top hive and reverse it also on the ground, while you 
make sure the queen is there, throwing, meanwhile, the cloth (that you 
have removed) over the exposed bottom of the parent hive. If the queen 
be there (and she is easily distinguishable) you have only to shake queen 
and bees into the prepared hive on the board, and restore the parent 
colony also to the ordinary resting-place, where the bees will soon rear 
