so 
an easy method op 
■es in about seventeen days after its com- 
mencement, and the bees seem to possess a 
peculiar instinct in their nature, which teach- 
es them that the season is too far advanced 
at this time for them to form new colonics with 
safety ; and they will not permit any of their 
Queens to depart. I have observed, in repeat- 
ed instances, very compact bunches of bees 
on the bottom board, some larger than a hen’s 
egg, about the hour of swarming. On exam- 
ining them, by separating off the bees in my 
hand, I always found the Queen in the cen- 
ter, unhurt, yet nearly smothered. The bees 
will commit no violence upon her person, oth- 
er than pile on, and cluster around her in such 
a manner as to exclude from her all the vital 
air, and she dies of suffocation. 
RULE III. 
ON VENTILATING TIIE HIVE. 
Graduate tire bottom board and ventilator at 
pleasure by means of the button or otherwise, 
so as to give them more or less air, as circum- 
stances may require. 
