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As it is neceffary to render the places difagrecable to the bees from which they are to be taken into the hive, fo many peo- ple think it very proper to prepare the hive for their reception, by fcenting it with fuch things as they love the fmell of. To this purpofe they rub the infide of it with baum and bean flowery and daub a little honey in fome parts of it. This however does not feem neceflary, thofe hives having been found to fucceed full as well where it was not done, as thofe Where it was. Reaumur's Hift. Inf. vol. 10. p. 305. If it be about noon that the fwarm is taken into the hive* it muft not be removed from the place before evening; and in the mean time it muft be fheltered from the too violent heat of the fun, by the fliade of the trees ; or if that be not fuffi- cient, a fort of fkreen muft be made for it, either of a coarfe cloth properly fupported, or of branches of trees with their leaves on. In this manner it muft remain till funfet, and then the hive muft be gently lifted up, and carried to the place where it is to remain, and the next morning the bees will be feen as bufy in their work in it, as the old fwarm in their hive. See Hive.
It fometimes happens that the fwarm is not placed fo favoura- bly as in the inftance before mentioned ; they often hang themfelves in a long clufter from the young fhoots, or fmall branches of high trees ; and in this cafe many different expe- dients are to be ufed to hive them, according to the circum- stances of their pofition. The common method is for one man to climb the tree with a long ftaff in his hand, and ano- ther to mount a ladder placed againft the tree, and hold the hive under the fwarm, while the other fweeps them into it with the ftaff" ; and when the bough on which they hang is fo far from the body of the tree, that this is impracticable by the ladder, the hive is to be fixed to the end of a long pole, and by that means fufpended under the fwarm while they are fwept into it. When all this is impracticable, by reafon of the great height of the branch on which the fwarm hangs, a large cloth is to be fpread on fome of the lower branches, and the whole fwarm fwept down in a clufter upon it ; this is then to be thrown carefully to the ground, and another perfon is to be ready there to whelm the hive over the greater part of the jclufter, and the reft will ufually foon creep into it, and join them. If they are flow in doing this, they are to be driven in by burning linnen rags about the places where they fly, the difagreeable fmell of which will fend them to- wards the hive, where finding their companions not incom- moded with it, they will naturally remain. Another method of getting a fwarm from a branch of a high tree, is to cut off the branch with a faw, as gently and with as little difturbance to the bees as poflible. In this cafe, when the branch is off, a man may carefully defcend with it, and the bees will not quit their hold, but will be all car- ried where he pleafes with it, and may by that means be very cafily put into the hive.
Sometimes the bees which go out in a fwarm, fix upon a hole in a wall, or a hollow in the trunk of a tree for the af- fembling themfelves in. This is a much better choice for them than the branch of a tree, but it is much worfe for the perfon who is to hive them, for they are very difficult to be got out of thefe places. The common way of the country people is to attack thefe fwarms in the middle of a cold night, and they then enlarge the opening from without, and placing the hive under it, fcoop the bees out of their neft with a la- dle, and put them into the hive.
It ufually happens that there are more than one young fe- male in the hive at the time when the fwarm goes out j and it is not uncommon for two of them go out with the fwarm. In this cafe the fwarm conftantly divides into two bodies, and on whatever branch it fixes, there are feen two clufters of bees, one placed near the other. Each of thefe is a compleat fwarm, and has its female, but one of them is often much more numerous than the other; and as the bees always love to live in large communities, the bees of the fmaller clufter become tired of their condition, and by degrees join the larger ; fo that this is feen to encreafe, and the other to decrease in fize every moment, till at length there remains no more of the fmaller fwarm than a few faith- ful creatures, forming a fort of guard about the female. In this cafe it is in vain for them to think of forming a commu- nity by themfelves ; and they finally, with the female, join the other fwarm ; fo that the new fwarm has two females. Reaumur's Hift, Inf. v. 10. p. 309.
It feems to have been only accident that occafioned one of thefe females, which came out of the hive with the fwarm, to be more followed than the other i and it is very certain that which ever is moft followed, will in the end have the whole fwarm. All this feems mere accident at firft, but thofe authors who treat of bees as the model of government, and in other the like extravagancies, declare that only one of thefe is the true and proper queen, and that the other is an ufurper, and merits death. Ariftotle has talked at this rate, and from him Virgil has been led into the diftinition he makes between the two royal perfonages j the one of which he defcribes as very beautiful, the other as very ugly, the true fovereign be- ing, according to his defcription, covered with red fcales fpotted with gold colour, and the ufurper dufty, ill-favoured, Suppl. Vol. I.
and big-bellied. The general confent of the writers on this fubject devotes this unhappy creature to death ; they call her an ufurper ; and Butler fays, that no (boner is the right queen fettled on her throne, than this ufurper is doomed to death, with her adherents j and the next morning her carcafs, with theirs, is found under the hive. And not unfrequently, when each of the females has many adherents, the fwarm is divided into parties, and there are bloody conflicts in the hive till one is the fuperior.
All thefe, however, are imaginary notions, which have fof their foundation real facts. It is very certain that the fwarm which leaves an old hive, has not only two, but often three, and fometimes more females : Thefe have their feveral follow- ers j and were they in fuflicient number, each with her fol- lowers would form a diftinct fwarm. But as it is not fo, they are in fine all received into the fame hive, where it really happens that all the females except one are deftroyed ; and till this butchery is over, and the hive fettled with only one female, the bees never go out to work. The reafon of this feems, that the working bees of a hive have enough to do to prepare cells for the lodgment of the eggs of one female, and that it would be impoflible for them to prepare twice or three times that number ; in confequence of which the fupernume- rary females, who muft at a proper time depofit their eggs fomewhere, would lay them in cells already occupied by thofe of another parent, and an endlefs confufion and diforder would enfue, Reaumur's Hift. Inf. v. 10. p. 315. It is fometimes found that in two parts of a fwarm there are more than two mothers, or female bees, and in this cafe the event is the fame ; for as foon as they are lodged in the hive, all are killed but one. Nature feems plainly to have deftined only one female to each fwarm or hive ; but as many acci- dents may deftroy the egg or worm of this fingle female, it is neceflary that provifion ihould be made for accidents, and more than one egg laid by each female for the production of the female of a future fwarm. Thus there are often twenty females which live to maturity with the bees of one fwarm ; but as the other bees are fenfible that they can only provide for one of thefe in each hive, all the reft are devoted to ine- vitable deftruction. If only one or two of thefe go out with the fwarm, the whole number that remain within fare no better with the old bees, than the fupernumeraries among the young ones;
As foon as the fwarm is gone out, the hive is reftored to tranquillity ; and the firft ftep taken by the bees to maintain this, is the deftruction of the young females which are left of the new brood ; thefe are all immediately killed, and carried out of the hive ; and it is common on the morning after the going out of a fwarm, to fee fix or eight, or more female bees, thrown out of the hive, and lying dead in a heap, at a fmall diftance from the mouth of it.
Alexander Montfort, who is for giving all the moral virtues in a very high degree to thefe little animals, will have it that thofe females which are killed are ufurpers, and only the true queen is left alive ; but this feems altogether the figment of imagination ; and if there is any thing beyond mere chance in the prefervation of any one particular bee, it is that the fwarm arc careful to preferve alive that particular female which is beft furnifhed with eggs.
It is very probable however, that the birth-right takes place in this cafe, though by accident: For as the bees natu- rally follow that female which is moft active, and is the firft to place herfelf at their head and go out, it is probably the firft-born female which arrives firft at this neceflary de- gree of vigour j and very often the departure of the fwarm feems a work of mere accident as to the time of it, and the female that leads it.
A female who finds herfelf ill at eafe from the number of eggs (he contains, and wants to find a place to ky them in, ufually keeps at or about the edge of the hive. In this cafe, if a warm hour calls out a fcore or two of the bees at once, this female joins company with them ; and then it is no fooner perceived that a female is gone forth, but a vaft number of the young brood follow, and a fwarm is by degrees found in the air, which fecks a place to fettle upon, and is from thence received into a hive in the method before defcribed. As foon as this fwarm is gone, the old inhabitants of the hive finding a number of fifter females of that brood remaining among them, and well knowing they will be of no ufe to them, deftroy them.
This is a cafe eafily decided ; but it appears fomewhat more difficult for the bees to determine how to act when feveral females go out with them in the fwarm. In this cafe there muft be a choice made, and what is to influence and direct that choice ? If there were all the gold about the proper queen that the poet defcribes, and if bees were as fond of gold as men are, it would be then very eafy to determine the motive of their chufing her ; but as it is in fact, there is a reafon of this kind that has given foundation to the pleafant fiction of the poet.
The eldeft of the females of the young brood, is always the moft proper to be chofen for the queen of the new fwarm, as fhe is in the propereft ftate to depofit eggs for the hatch- ing of a new progeny j and this female is eafily diftinguifhed 13 L frfjn
