SWARMING ANI) HIVING. 
135 
keeper, after shaking the bees into it, may gently lower it, 
by a string, to an assistant below. 
When a colony alights on the trunk of a tree, or on 
anything from which they cannot easily be gathered in a 
basket, fasten a leafy bough over them, without jarring, 
by a gimlet, and with a little smoke compel them to ascend 
it. If the place is inaccessible, they will enter a well-shaded 
basket, inverted, and elevated just above the mass of the 
bees. I once hived a neighbor’s swarm which settled in 
a thicket, on the inaccessible body of a tree, by throwing 
water upon them, so as to compel them gradually to 
ascend the tree, and enter an elevated box. If proper 
alighting places are not furnished, the trouble of hiving a 
swarm will often be greater than its value. 
If two swarms cluster together, they may be advan¬ 
tageously kept together, if abundant room for storing 
surplus honey can be given them, as in my hives. Large 
quantities of honey are generally obtained from such 
stocks, if they issue early, and the season is favorable. If 
it is desired to separate them, take two hives, and give a 
portion of the bees to each, sprinkling them, both before 
and after they are shaken from the basket, sufficiently 
to keep them from taking wing to unite again. If possible, 
secure a queen for each hive. If both queens enter the 
same hive, one will quickly dispose of the other. The 
bees in the queenless hive will begin to leave as soon as 
they ascertain their condition. Prevent this, by shutting 
them up ; and give them a queen, if you have one at your 
disposal; or supply them with a sealed queen, nearly 
mature, taken from another hive. For reasons assigned 
in the next chapter, it will not do to compel them to raise 
a queen from worker-brood. If the Apiarian who uses 
the common hives does not succeed in getting a mature 
