January 30. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
277 
HISTORY OF AN AriARY. 
I comf. now to the history of my fifth stock,—that one of 
the two intended for experiment, which survived the winter. 
It was the perusal of Dr. Scudamore's hook on artificial 
swarming (of which I have already spoken more than once) 
which induced me to purchase these stocks, with a view to 
give tlie system advocated by him a fair trial. I doubt not 
the majority of your apiarian readers will be glad to know 
the result of my experience on the subject; the more so, as 
I am happy to say it is at present decidedly in favour of this 
method of managing bees :—I use the word “ happy ” ad¬ 
visedly, because it is evident that if artificial swarming can 
be practised systematically with success in the matter of 
profit, and without the existence of any very serious objec¬ 
tion to it on the score of difficulty of management, it is a 
discovery the most valuable and important imaginable to the 
amateur bee-keeper. I must, indeed, prepare the reader 
for disappointment in respect to my own stock, for my first 
trial of the process, as recommended by Dr. Scudamore, cer¬ 
tainly ended in a failure; but in a second series of experiments, 
conducted in the apiary of a clerical friend, who is as fond of 
experimenting with bees as myself, so much success followed 
our labours as to convince me that the practice of artificial 
swarming is deserving of extensive adoption, certainly in 
all apiaries which pretend to be conducted on scientific 
principles. In my forthcoming bee-book I have given ample 
instructions to all who may be desirous of learning how the 
process may be most safely and easily conducted,—instruc¬ 
tions based on the conclusions which my last year’s expe¬ 
rience has established satisfactorily to my own mind ;—in 
this place I propose to detail the experience itself on which 
those conclusions were founded. 
To begin, then, with the history of my own stock, I find 
the following entry in my note-book, under the date of 
February 25th. “ Saw bees laden with pollen, in numbers, 
entering E. hive.” This of all signs gave the best augury 
of success: and pollen-gathering continued with similar 
activity through the early part of March and the whole of 
April. Diligently, however, and impatiently as I watched 
the stock, not a drone appeared (the signal of preparedness 
for experiment on the part of the stock) till the 0th of May, 
when one fine fat gentleman was caught in the act of enter¬ 
ing the hive after an excursion in the air “ to get him a 
stomach” (as old Butler quaintly expresses it) by air and 
exercise. A note was in consequence quickly indited to my 
friend Mr. C., acquainting him with the joyous event, and 
requesting his presence on the 11th, weather permitting, to 
assist in forcing a swarm from the stock. With what impa¬ 
tience was the day expected! With what anxiety was the 
weather watched ! It will be still fresh in memory how un¬ 
seasonably and drearily May 1850 ushered itself in, and how 
far into the month the last struggles of winter extended. 
Fortunately, however, the 11th turned out everything we 
could wish for; the morning was mild, calm, and cloudy — 
the perfection of weather, in short, for the purpose we had 
in view. True to his summons my friend appeared, when, 
after a hasty breakfast, we sallied forth to the scene of opera¬ 
tion, distant a mile off; for my own garden is unfavourable 
to the establishment of an apiary, owing to its proximity to 
a town. Arrived there, the preparations for our day’s work 
took us some time, chiefly because we still groped in uncer¬ 
tainty as it were, so that eleven o'clock came before we 
actually commenced the operation. Soon, however, we found 
ourselves in media re, with a bevy of curious spectators 
gathered round us, standing, however, at a respectable dis¬ 
tance. Well for us indeed was it that we were well protected, 
albeit, not in Bond-street costume, else we should have suf¬ 
fered considerably from the weapons of our insect foes ; and 
yet they were by no means so vicious as I had anticipated. 
It was just at first that they seemed most angry; perhaps 
the discovery of the loss of then - queen disarmed their fury 
after awhile. 
The proceedings opened with the familiar process of 
driving the bees out of the stock into a temporary bell-hive. 
We succeeded in dislodging them most effectually, the ope¬ 
ration being conducted within two yards of the old stand, 
whence the full hive was taken, and where, during the opera¬ 
tion, a second temporary hive stood to amuse the bees 
which returned from the fields, unconscious of the removal 
of their old dwelling. These were very numerous, so as 
quite to present the appearance of a swarm issuing from its 
hive, and coursing about in the air; but few of them were 
such as escaped from the stock itself during the conductof the 
operation. On removing the upper hive, after drumming 
twenty minutes or so, a very powerful swarm disclosed itself 
to view depending from its roof, in a state of stupified and 
motionless tranquillity, while the old stock itself appeared 
almost depopulated. The swarm was now placed as care¬ 
fully as possible on the old stand, after removing the tempo¬ 
rary hive from oft’ it, and the old stock carried off’ to another 
part of the garden. Unluckily, as will be shown in the 
sequel, it was left uncovered. Returning quickly to the 
scene of action, a table-cloth was spread on the ground in the 
same place where the driving process had been conducted, 
and the new hive, a large flat-topped one (improved after a 
fashion of my own), rested on sticks upon the edge of it. 
Without delay the swarm was taken off the stand, and dashed 
out en masse upon the cloth in front of the new hive, which 
they were destined permanently to occupy. Nothing can 
equal in interest the scene which usually occurs on this so 
rough treatment: the bees seemed stupified at first, and at 
their wits-end; there they lie where they fell, moving indeed, 
but purposeless and irresolute. The queen, however, is the 
first to recover; her motions reanimate the bees : she runs 
hurriedly towards the nearest object (which in this case is 
the hive purposely set near at hand in order to attract her, 
redolent with honey and the fragrance of sweet herbs, with 
which it has been smeared); her subjects, some of them at 
least, also move in the same direction : presently the whole 
swarm catches the new impulse, and marches after her 
almost in military order, with their wings fluttering, their 
hearts beating (as we may believe), and their pulses quick¬ 
ened with emotion; for this forward movement occurs simul¬ 
taneously with the general discovery by the whole swarm 
that their queen-mother is in their neighbourhood, and in a 
place of safety. Thus was it in the present instance ; the 
bees were too occupied with their unusual circumstances to 
sting, and the spectators were too much interested to care 
about their possible attack; so that the novel sight was 
thoroughly enjoyed by all present.* 
In five minutes the major part of the swarm had ascended 
into the hive, which was lifted off the ground, and placed on 
the stand whence the old hive had been taken. At first 
there were a great many bees spread over it, but in the course 
of the day they all found their way into the hive; so that 
when night approached not a bee was to be seen outside of 
it. A common bell-hive was then set over the new swarm, 
surmounted by a hackle ; and thus it remains to this day. 
After arranging the swarm comfortably in this way, atten¬ 
tion was directed to the old stock, which had hitherto been 
forgotten. On examining it previous to removal, scarcely 
half a dozen bees appeared among the combs ; all v'ho were 
able to fly had doubtless escaped and entered the new swarm, 
which stood in the identical place where they had been 
accustomed to seek their old home. Without loss of time it 
was tied up, and carried off to another garden half a mile 
distant, where the bees were kept prisoners till early in the 
momiug of the 13th. A Country Curate. 
BEE-FEEDING AND DEPRIVING. 
I ah indebted to The Cottage Gardener for a vast deal 
of information on various subjects, but most particularly for 
having rekindled in my breast the noble ardour that I felt 
when, as a small boy in pinafores, I revelled in the romances 
of the fourth Georgic, and for having prompted me to keep 
bees. Of course I began by improving upon the instructions 
that I had derived from your interesting pages, and from 
Taylor's Manual; concluding that the bees would act accord¬ 
ing to my wishes, and not according to their own instincts ; 
but, by degrees, I have curbed the impetuosity of my desires, 
and am now following pretty well in the paths of my prede¬ 
cessors. Altogether, I have been very successful in my 
management; in fact, more so than I anticipated, seeing 
that I am domiciled in a locality that my country friends 
are pleased to call London, but which is in reality one of 
those delightful places where evergreens are evergreens 
* It is not always safe, however, to approach too near at such a time, 
especially in warm weather. 
