CHAPTER VI.

Method to be pursued in case a Swarm should leave the Hive, after having commenced working in the Box.

Thisis a circumstance of very rare occurrence, and more especially when the directions given in the former chapter are strictly complied with; however, should it happen, let the swarm be hived in the usual manner into the improved Cottage Hive, (seefig. 3.) as directed in Chapter XII, when the Bees are settled, take off the moveable piece of straw from the top of the hive, and place upon it the box partially filled with honey and Bees; cover the old hive with the piece of straw belonging to it, and the milkpan, as no furtherprofit (except the cast or second swarm) will be obtained till the next season; should the proprietor be unwilling to increase his number of stocks, the swarm may be returned immediately to its parent hive; the process is very simple, and I have always found it succeed—as soon as the swarm is settled, turn the hive bottom upwards, and if the Queen Bee does not make her appearance in a few seconds, dash the Bees out upon a cloth, or upon a gravel walk,[8]and with a wine glass she may be easily captured, upon this being accomplished, the Bees will immediately return to their parent hive and resume their labours; she may also very easily be taken during the departure of a swarm, for she appears to leave the hive reluctantly, and may be seen running backwards and forwards upon the alighting-board before she takes wing.

[8]The method of performing this operation, consists in lifting the hive gently about a foot, and with a smart and sudden jar returning it to the ground, so that the Bees be completely dislodged from the hive and left upon the cloth, the hive may now be removed to a short distance, and as the Bees are attempting to return to their former habitation the Queen may be easily captured.

A second swarm generally leaves the hive about nine days after the first, but the time may be exactly ascertained by standing quietly beside the hive after sunset, when the Queen may be distinctly heard "to tun' in hir treble voic',"[9]which is a certain indication that a second swarm will leave the hive. Should two or three Queens be heard one after the other, it will be on the following day, if the weather be notveryunfavourable, (for the second and third swarms appear to have less regard as to the weather than the first.) Should the Queens continue to pipe after the departure of the second swarm, a third will certainly follow in a few days, but if one or two Queens be found dead beneath the hive on the next morning, no more swarms can be expected.

[9]Butler's Feminin Monarchi—Edit. 1634.

That the old Queen accompanies the first swarmis established beyond a doubt; that many Queens are bred in a hive, a number sometimes exceeding thirty in one year, is also ascertained; and that the Bees have the power of producing a Queen from an egg deposited in the combs of the working Bees, by treating it in a different manner to those that are to become workers, has also been satisfactorily proved, all that has been said beyond this, regarding their natural history, must, I believe, be considered principally conjecture.

It is, however, says a modern Author, "not the least interesting part of the study of the Bee, that this apparently insignificant insect has hitherto baffled all the research and ingenuity of man to discover the manner of its propagation; analogy presents no guide to the solution of this secret, and the result of every anatomical experiment has tended rather to mystify the subject, than to conduct us to the road to truth," and Purchas, who I have before quoted says, "God humbles us with ignorance in many things, not only divine but natural and in commonuse, in the nature of Bees how blind are we, notwithstanding all our observations and labour in the production and continuance of the Queen Bee, in the generation of other Bees, and generally in the forms of all things."

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