134 
THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 
honey, they desire, like heavily-armed troops, to march 
slowly and sedately to their place of encampment. Bees 
are much obstructed in their travel, by any corner , or 
great inequality of surface ; and if the sheet is not smooth¬ 
ly stretched, they are often so confused, that they take a 
long time to find the entrance to the hive. If they are 
too dilatory in entering the new hive, they may be gently 
separated, with a spoon, or leafy twig, where they gather 
in bunches on the sheet; or, they may be carefully 
“spooned up,” and emptied before the entrance of the 
hive. If they cluster in the portico of my hive, they 
should be treated in the same way; or else the queen, 
mistaking this open place for her intended abode, may 
decamp with the bees. 
On first shaking them down into the hiving-basket, some 
will take wing, and others will remain on the tree ; but if 
the queen has been secured, they will quickly form a 
line of communication with those on the sheet. If the 
queen has not been secured, the bees will either refuse to 
enter the hive, or will speedily come out, and take wing, 
to join her again. This happens oftenest with after- 
swarms, whose young queens, instead of exhibiting the 
gravity of an old matron, are apt to be frisking in the 
air. When the bees cluster again on the tree, the process 
of hiving must be repeated. 
If the Apiarian has a pair of sharp pruning-shears, and 
the limb on which the bees have clustered is so small, that 
it can be cut without jarring them off, they may be 
gently carried on it to the hiving-sheet. 
If the bees settle too high to be easily reached, the 
basket may be fastened to a pole, and raised directly 
under them ; when a quick upward push will secure most 
of t he swarm. When the basket cannot be easily elevated 
to them, it may be carried to the cluster, and the bee- 
