48 chapman’s handy-book. 
-where you strike the hees down, that they may not be 
crushed by the edges of the box which yon put over 
them; then lap up the corners of the cloth, and youi 
part of the work is done. You will hear a loud hum¬ 
ming noise, and the bees whom you have dislodged will 
ascend into the new hive, and peaceably amalgamate 
with the other swarm. Just at dusk, carefully unlap 
the cloth, and if any considerable cluster of bees is 
gathered outside of the box, as is sometimes the case, 
brush them gently down with a feather, or with your 
finger, if you prefer it, and guide them under the lin e ; 
for bees are tractable creatures, and gentle w filial, if 
they are gently handled ; but they are not deficient in 
courage; if you provoke them through ignorance or 
carelessness, you must take the consequences. . When 
they have all gone up into the hive, put them quietly on 
their bottom board, and move them into your apiary 
where they are to stand, or else make this your first, 
work the following morning. Give the double stock 
sufficient room, and they will set to work vigorously. 
Two contiguous hives in my apiary united themselves 
one year ; one swarm deserting four or five combs which 
they had begun to build. It may be that they had no 
queen, for I found no grubs in the cells which they left. 
This double hive has since received a fresh accession of 
strength, a large portion of another swarm having joined 
them, going “promiscuous like” into the hive, where 
they were, to my surprise, well received. Had a single 
bee pokonoad into the hive, she would have been imme¬ 
diately seized and put to death. And now this stock is 
the very best I have in my apiary, filling four boxes, 
and working away vigorously too in a glass, which I 
• put on the top of the original hive the day it swarmed. 
Fifty strong hives are worth more, and will give more 
honey to their owner, than two hundred and fifty weak 
ones. 
Stocks may be united in this same way, though they 
do not swarm exactly on the same day. In this case you 
will of course knock the fresh swarm on to the cloth, and 
place over it the hive in which the combs are already 
begun. It is as well previously to turn up the latter 
N 
