36 
NATURAL SWARMING. 
QUIETING AND HANDLING BEES. 
Before a swarm issues from a hive, the bees fill their sacs with 
honey to last while on their journey and aid them in starting in 
their new home. While thus filled, they are (like a man soon 
after dinner) uncommonly good matured and obliging, seldom 
showing any rough points of character. Yet, lest some “luck- 
less wight ” might have been sleeping on the outside of the hive 
while its comrades were filling their “jackets ” within, we will 
give the clustered swarm a slight sprinkling with diluted honey 
or sweetened water. If they were docile and tractable before, 
they are doubly so now. We may shake them down, hunt out 
their queen, or perform with them any operation we wish and 
they will not sting us, unless we compel’ them by pressure to do 
so. Here we have the true explanation of all the “charms,” 
“secrets” and “recipes for taming bees,” with which unprinci- 
pled venders have long humbugged a too credulous public. The 
whole art of “taming bees" is embodied in the following: 
1st. A honey bee filled with “liquid sweets” will not sting 
of its own accord. 
2d. Bees, when frightened, will generally fill themselves with 
honey, and if given liquid sweets will invariably accept them. 
Bees may be frightened thus: 
1st. By blowing upon them the smoke of spunk, tobacco or 
cotton rags. 
2d. By confining them to the hive, and rapping the sides of 
it lightly with a small stick. At first, the bees will try to get 
