COUNTRY LIFE
TWICE within four days my bees have gone through a rather rare manoeuvre. The stock in question is a very strong one, growing rather too numerous for the hive, and not unexpectedly the swarming ecstasy has seized upon the younger part of the population. They have rushed forth. The air was wild with wings until a slender bough quite close to the hive was selected as a swarming point and presently weighed down almost to the ground by many pounds of bees. Within a quarter of an hour the swarm began to break up and the thousands of would-be trekkers returned peaceably enough to the parent hive: the trek was abandoned, and a little cold water from the rose of a garden-can finished the act of repentance. The presumption is that a young queen refused to follow the revolutionaries ; but, as the bee-master, now searching for the young queen, said: " You've never done finding out something ne about bees." From the hive, as from Africa, "Semper aliquid novi." Like all insects, they are creatures of instinct ; but the instincts run very crooked grooves. Inspection of the hive suggests that this year's harvest of honey should be large, but one can hardly expect the reco of two years ago to be surpassed when two hives supplied more th zo lbs. of run honey.
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