16 
chapman’s handy-book. 
Such few bees as die on the passage will also be carried to 
the entrance, which they will help to block up, so that at 
last the whole swarm may be stifled. But by wedging up 
the box all round, the bees will have breathing places 
everywhere, and you will see them, if you peep in, not 
struggling to get air at one place oidy, but running about 
in every direction on the floor board, like children playing 
at puss in the corner. 
The reason why I advise you to take with yon a hive of 
about ten days old, and from that to three weeks, is this, 
that a swarm of that age will have built a certain quantity 
of comb, and laid up honey enough to serve them for the 
voyage, and yet the combs will not be so heavy with honey 
or brood, as to put them in danger of breaking down ; or 
even should you be so unfortunate as to get one, or even 
all the combs, broken down by a sudden blow, the bees 
will not be smothered in their own honey, as I have 
known to be the case with a heavy hive. They will get 
themselves clear in a very short time from the fallen 
combs, from which they will draw enough food to last 
their voyage, whilst they themselves will hang in clusters 
from the top. When you reach your new home with this 
large batch of fellow immigrants, do not set them at 
liberty till the evening. If you are in a hurry, and open 
the hive directly, the bees will rush out in great confusion; 
many of them, if they have been long shut up, will fall on 
to the ground, and if it be wet will not rise again. Or a 
still worse result may follow. If the combs have all been 
broken down during the voyage, and the bees much 
annoyed at it, the whole swarm, Queen and all, will rise 
at once, and take to the woods as irregular squatters, 
instead of remaining to colonize your garden m a 
systematic way. Wait, I say, till the evening and just 
after sundown, if you hear that the bees are all quiet, undo 
the lashing, and get somebody to lift the hive up a little 
from its board; then, if any combs are broken down, 
remove them quietly, and the following morning you will 
have the pleasure of seeing your fellow-colonists going as 
regularly to work as though they had been in their new 
station for years. I only hope you may he as industrious 7 
and then like them you will most probably succeed . ? 
