e sun, where their new hive is
to stand; when this is ready, they may, by a quick jerking motion, be
easily shaken out on a sheet, and hived in it, just as though they were
shaken from the hiving basket. If they are to remain in the temporary
hive over the second day, they ought to be shaken out on a sheet, and
after their comb is taken from them, allowed to enter it again, or else
there will be danger of crushing the queen by the weight of the comb.

I have endeavored, even at the risk of being tedious, to give such
specific directions as will qualify the novice to hive a swarm of bees,
under almost any circumstances; for I know the necessity of such
directions and how seldom they are to be met with, even in large
treatises on Bee-Keeping. Vague or imperfect directions always fail,
just at the moment that the inexperienced attempt to put them into
practice.

Before leaving this subject, I will add to the directions for hiving
already given, a method which I have practiced with good success.

When the situation of the bees does not admit of the basket being easily
elevated to them, the bee-keeper may carry it with him to the cluster,
and then after shaking the bees into it, may lower it down by a string,
to an assistant standing below.

That Natural Swarming may, with suitable hives, be made highly
profitable, I cannot for a moment question. As it is the most simple and
obvious way of multiplying colonies, and the one which requires the
least amount of knowledge or skill, it will undoubtedly, for many years
at least, be the favorite method with a large number of bee-keepers. I
have therefore, been careful to furnish suitable directions for its
successful practice; and before I discuss the question of Artificial
Increase, I shall show how it may be more profitably conducted than ever
before; many of the most embarrassing difficulties in the way of its
successful management being readily obviated by the use of my hives.

1. The common hives fail to furnish adequate protection in Winter,
against cold, and those sudden changes to unseasonable warmth, by which
bees are tempted to come out and perish in large numbers on the snow;
and the colonies are thus prevented from breeding on a large scale, as
early as they otherwise would. Under such circumstances, they can make
no profitable use of the early honey-harvest; and they will swarm so
late, if they swarm at all, as to have but little opportunity for
laying up surplus h