experimenting,
in order to establish facts upon the solid basis of complete
demonstration, is an easy work, let them attempt now to prove or
disprove the truth of any or all of my conjectures upon this single
topic. They will probably find the task more difficult than to blot over
whole quires and reams of paper with careless assertions.

All operations of any kind which interfere in the very least, with the
natural mode of forming colonies, are best performed in the swarming
season: or at least, at a time when the bees are breeding freely, and
are able to bring in large stores of honey from the fields. At other
times, they are very precarious, and unless under the management of
persons who have great experience, they will in most cases, end in
nothing but vexatious losses and disappointments.

It is quite amusing to see how bees act, when they find, on their return
from foraging abroad, that their hive has been moved, and another put in
its place. If the new hive is precisely similar to their own, in size
and outward appearance, they enter it as though all was right; but in a
few moments, they rush out in violent agitation, imagining that they
have made a prodigious mistake and have entered the wrong place. They
now take wing again in order to correct their blunder, but find to their
increasing surprise, that they had previously directed their flight to
the familiar spot; again they enter, and again they tumble out, in
bewildered crowds, until, at length, if they can find the means of
raising a new queen, or one is already there, they seem to make up their
minds that if this is not home, it not only looks like it, but stands
just where their home ought to be, and is at all events the only home
they are likely to get. No doubt they often feel that a very hard
bargain has been imposed upon them, but they seem generally determined
to make the best of it.

There is one trait in the character of bees, for which I feel, not
merely admiration, but the most profound respect. Such is their
indomitable energy and perseverance, that under circumstances apparently
the most despairing, they will still labor to the utmost, to retrieve
their losses, and sustain the sinking state. So long as they have a
queen, or any prospect of raising one, they struggle most vigorously
against impending ruin, and never give up, unless their condition is
absolutely desperate. In one of my observing hives, I once had a colony
of bees, the whole of