WHEN TO EXPECT SWAltMS. 
57 
many come out in such a case, they will all light together. If 
whilst you are hiving a swarm there is a likelihood that 
another will issue before you are done, go to all your hives 
and examine them hastily. If there is the agitation in the 
hive that is preparatory to swarming, sprinkle those outside 
with water, and they will go in and retard swarming for a 
half hour or more. If two or more large swarms go together, 
they should always be divided. To do this you must have 
some knowledge and a good deal of patience. Put an equal 
number of the bees into two hives, watching as they enter for 
a queen. If you find her, place her under a tumbler or in a 
wire cage.* If you do not see her you may have a queen in 
each hive; if not, the one that is queenless will soon mani- 
fest it by running rapidly about the entrance, showing much 
uneasiness. Set this hive now on a sheet and tie it so that 
the bees will not get out, and lay it on its side to keep them 
from smothering, while you shake the bees out of the other 
hive and run them in again until you find a queen. Put her 
in your quecnless hive, and you are done. If you find a queen 
when first hiving them, set the hives on their stands and 
when one of them begins to show signs of queenlessness, give 
it the caged queen. When hiving, it is generally convenient 
to use a table-cloth or newspaper laid on the table or the 
ground. Set the hive on this, raising one side of it a little to 
let the bees enter. If it is desired to look for the queen, 
shake the bees down, one, two or three feet from the hive, so 
as to afford a better opportunity to look for her as they pass 
in. Her slightly yellowish color, her long legs and body, her 
more majestic movements among her people, are likely to at- 
tract the eye. Do not be expecting to find her among the 
thick clusters of bees ; she is no more likely to be there thau 
any other bee,j' nor do the bees pay any regard to her in 
these states of excitement, except that it is necessary for her 
to be somewhere among them. If she does not come out of 
the hive, or if she drops on the ground, when they swarm, 
♦To make a cage, take a piece of wire cloth- three inches square, twelve to 
sixteen meshes to the inch. Bend this around a flat stick so as to make a 
flat tube, and put a plug of paper in each end. 
t If a queen gets into a swarm to which she docs not belong fas is the case 
occasionally with queens of two swarms that have gone together), the bees 
will eonfino her, by clustering in a ball the size of a hen’s egg, or move so 
tightly around her that you may toss them in your hand like a ball. To 
get her from among them without injury, throw them all into water aud they 
will let her go. 
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