69 
and the young queen becomes sole monarch of the 
hive.” 
The only sign of the approach of first swarming, is 
the presence of queen-cells. Any person can easily 
find them, as they are readily distinguished by their 
close resemblance to a pea-nut. In the movable-comb 
hives they can easily be found by removing one of the 
central combs, and carefully looking along their 
edges or among the clusters of bees. To find them 
in the common hive requires more care, or else the 
combs may break from their attachmeut. Blow some 
smoke from a roll of burning rags into the hive, care- 
fully raise it up, and without jar lay it on the ground, 
taking care to keep the combs perpendicular, blow in 
more smoke to drive the bees back, raise the lower 
part of the hive and let the sun shine directly between 
the combs, keeping the bees back with the smoke. If 
the hive is not too deep, and queen-cells exist, they 
may be seen by carefully looking between the combs on 
the edges or near the margins of holes in the comb. If 
some of these cells are capped over, the swarms may be 
expected before long. Hives should be in readiness to 
receive swarms as soon as they cluster. If the rays of 
the sun fall directly on a cluster, they will soon dis- 
perse, and are generally lost. 
