28 
chapman’s KANDY-BOOK. 
and the house key; but in default of the former, a tin 
bailor a kettle will do; rattle them well together to 
Lake the swarm settle. Whether this rough music has 
any such effect, I cannot pretend to say ; but it is a good 
old custom, and can do no harm: I will presently tell 
you what good it can do. The cloud of bees now darkens 
in one particular direction. They will pitch on that 
apple tree: no, farther off still; they are gathering upon 
a gooseberry bush. The nucleus is formed; and, m a 
few moments, by a sort of animal clir 3 T stallization, all 
the bees are deposited upon this point, and hang c o\s n 
in a cluster like a bunch of grapes in shape. Thus ends 
the first act of swarming, which is in fact the gathering 
together of the body of emigrants at a common depot, 
where they quietly remain, till some scouts whom they 
send out, to look out for a place for them, return back 
to the main body, and tell them that all is ready. Tnen 
they rise, and not before; they no longer uheeliound 
and round, as though searching for a. lighting place; 
and the bee master who has not put his swarm into hive 
before they start on this second course, has little chance 
of ever calling them his own. He may follow them, 
indeed, as I have done twice in my life for more than a 
mile, but ’twill generally be as fruitless as a wild goose 
chase ; for the bees rise higher and higher, and the last 
he sees of them, as they are sailing away over the top of 
the highest trees, is a thing like a thin but well defined 
cloud as it is borne rapidly along by the breeze. But 
the object of the bee master is to give the bees a hive 
before' the scouts return. Your hives should be at hand, 
that there may be no hurry or delay when the time 
comes for using them. If the swarm has settled on a 
spot exposed to the direct rays of the sun, it is as well 
to screen them by throwing a cloth over the bough, or 
by any other shade which the place will allow you to 
use. The mode of hiving bees will depend much upon 
the place on which they have settled. It is well to 
have a number of low shrubs planted near your bee 
house, as, if the swarm light on a high tree, you will 
have much additional trouble in securing it. But there 
is no place so awkward that a bee master need despair 
