; but the bee-keeper must expect four out of every
five seasons to be unpropitious to his little charge, and, therefore,
he must be on the watch to assist them with food in the time of need.

Scarcely has the swarm arrived at its new habitation, when the working
bees labour with the utmost diligence, to procure food and build their
combs. Their principal aim is not only to have cells in which they may
deposit the honey and pollen, but a stronger motive seems to animate
them; they seem to know that their queen is about to deposit her eggs;
and their industry is such, that in four and twenty hours they will
have made combs, twelve inches long, and three or four inches wide.
They build more combs during the first fortnight, than they do during
all the rest of the year.

Other bees are at the same time busy in stopping all the holes and
crevices they happen to find in their new hive, in order to guard
against the entrance of insects which covet their honey, their wax, or
themselves; and also to exclude the cold air; for it is indispensably
necessary that they be lodged warm and secure from damp, &c.

A second swarm scarcely is, and much less are the third ones called
_casts_ worth keeping single, because, being few in number, they cannot
allow so large a proportion of working bees to go abroad in search of
provisions, as more numerous swarms can, after retaining a proper number
for the various works to be done within the hive.

Bees sometimes swarm so often that the mother-hive is too much weakened
or reduced in population. In this case they should be restored; and this
should also be done when a swarm produces a swarm the first summer, as
is sometimes the case in early seasons.

The best way, indeed, is to prevent such swarming, by giving the bees
more room; though this, again, will not answer where there is a prolific
young queen in the hive; as she well knows that her life is the forfeit
of her remaining at home.

Before the union of one or two casts or late swarms is made, it is
better to kill one of the queens, if possible, to prevent the queens
destroying one another.

If an old hive is full of bees, and yet shows no disposition to swarm,
puff in a little smoke at the entrance of the hive, then turn the hive
up, and give it some slight strokes on the sides so as to alarm the
bees. They will immediately run to the extremities of the combs, and
if you then attentively examine them, you will, in all probability,