132 
THE HJtTE AND HONEY-BEE. 
clustering swarm. A black woolen stocking or piece of 
cloth, fastened to a shady limb, in plain sight of the hives, 
and where the bees can be most conveniently hived, would 
probably answer as good a purpose. Swarms are not only 
attracted by the bee-like color of such objects, but are 
more readily induced to alight upon them, if they furnish 
something to which they can easily cling, the better to 
support their grape-like clusters. By proper precautions, 
before the first swarms issue, the bee-keeper may so edu- 
cate his favorites that they will seldom alight anywhere 
but on the spot which he has previously selected. 
The Rev. Thomas P. Hunt, of Wyoming, Penn., has 
devised an amusing plan, by which he says that he can, 
at all times, prevent a swarm of bees from leaving his 
premises. Before his stocks swarm, he collects a number of 
dead bees, and, stringing them with a needle and thread, 
as worms are strung for catching eels, he makes of them 
a ball about the size of an egg, leaving a few strands loose. 
By carrying— fastened to a pole— this “ bee-bob ,” about his 
Apiary, when the bees are swarming, or by placing it in 
some central position, he invariably secures every swarm ! 
It will inspire the inexperienced Apiarian with more 
confidence, to remember that almost all the bees in a 
swarm, are in a very peaceable mood, having filled them- 
selves with honey before leaving the parent-stock. If he 
is timid, or suffers severely from the sting of a bee, ho 
should, by all means, furnish himself with the protection 
of a bee-dress. 
A new swarm should be hived as soon as they have 
quietly clustered around their queen ; although there is no 
necessity for the headlong haste practiced by some, which, 
by exciting profuse perspiration, increases their liability to 
be stung. Those who show so little self-possession, must 
not be surprised, if they are stung by the bees of other 
