198 
SUMMER. 
much safer than to raise the hive an inch or more for 
ventilation. They are also essential for many other 
occasions. I would not do without them, even if the 
expense was ten times what it is. 
DESCRIPTION OP SWARM ISSUING. 
When the day is fair and not too much wind, first 
swarms generally issue from ten o’clock till three ; if 
you are on the lookout, the first outside indication of 
a swarm, will he an unusual number of bees around 
the entrance, from one to sixty minutes before they 
start. The utmost confusion seems to prevail, bees 
running about in every direction ; the entrance appa- 
rently closed with the mass of bees, (perhaps one ex- 
ception in twenty,) presently a column from the inte- 
rior forces a passage to the open air; they come rush- 
ing out by hundreds, all vibrating their wings as they 
march out ; and when a few inches from the entrance, 
rise in the air ; some run up the side of the hive, others 
to the edge of the bottom-board. If you have seen the 
old queen come rushing out the first one, and the rest 
following her, as we are often told she does, you have 
seen what I never did in a first swarm ! Second and 
third swarms conduct themselves quite differently. I 
have seen the old queen issue a few times, but not till 
half the swarm was out. 
The bees when first rising from the hive, describe 
circles of but few feet, but as they recede, they spread 
over an area of several rods. Their movements are 
much slower than usual, in a few minutes thousands 
may be seen revolving in every possible direction 1 A 
