If a swarm has alighted on a small bough, nothing is easier than to hive them. Spread a cloth on the ground, and on it place the bottom board of the hive. An assistant must then hold the stem, on which the bees are settled, on each side of the cluster, so that it may not fall on the ground, when you with a sharp knife cut it off. Place the twig, with the bees hanging on it, gently on the bottom board, and then set the hive over it, propping it up on one side, that the bees that are still on the wing may find their way inside. Lap the cloth round over the hive on all sides but this one, and otherwise shade it well from the sun, and your work is done 'till the even, when you must set the hive where it is to stand. You should, however, keep an eye on them, or else when you go to move your hive you may find it empty, the bees having flown. But in such a case it often happens that they have returned back to the parent stock.

A stock which has thrown off a strong swarm has for some days after an exhausted look, until a number of young bees are hatched to fill up the vacant space in the hive; so you may generally make a pretty good guess whether the swarm which you safely hived, but was gone by the evening, has returned to the parent stock, or fled to the woods. If the parent hive is as crowded as before, if there is still a great fanning at the door, you may console yourself under your disappointment (and it is no slight one to find an empty hive when you expect to find a full one) by thinking that the swarm has returned home again, finding that the queen has not made an appearance at the appointed place. And in this case you must look out for a swarm the next fine day. I once had a swarm go back, which I knew was led by a queen; for I saw her passing procession along the lighting board. I was surprised at this, when my puzzle was cleared up by my little bee warden (a boy who watches for my swarms, and is so fond of his work that he more than half a bee himself) finding the queen hung up in a cobweb between some palings over which the bees had passed in their way to the place where they alighted. This also proves that the bees do not follow the queen actually (for were it so, the whole swarm should have be in and about the cobweb), but flies along with them to some spot fixed on by the advanced guard of the swarm. I have since confirmed this idea by some experiments, which shall not describe, but will probably give the result of them at some future opportunity. My little bee warden has learned from me to catch the queen, as she is leading out the new swarm: he can very often lay hold of her after she has settled in the midst of the cluster (you may put your hand into the midst of it, if you do it softly and fearlessly), and has a sharp eye for finding her on the ground; for she often falls at the mouth of the hive at swarming time, surrounded by a cluster of bees as a body guard.

The method of hiving bees which I have given above, can only be followed when the swarm settles on a bough, which you can easily cut through with a sharp knife. If they settle on a branch which is too long to cut off, or one which you do not like to destroy, - an apple tree, for example - you must vary your mode of action. Have the hive held close under the swarm, so that the long beard of bees may hang down into the hive itself, till it touches the bottom (or rather the top), then give the bough a sudden shake, and the bees will fall down into the hive; brush off into it with a feather any clusters which may still be clinging to the bough; then still holding the hive in the same position, put the bottom board on it, as a sort of cover to the bees. By the help of another person turn the hive into its proper position, and set it on the ground, near the foot of the tree on which they settled. After four or five minutes confinement, rise up one side of the hive by means of a stick, so as to give the bees who are still flying about access to their fellows, and if the queen is safely hived, they will all speedily join her. But if you see that the stream of bees is setting out of the hive rather than into it, you may suspect that all is not right; search any cluster which you may see lying on the ground near the hive, any bunch which may still be on the tree, and if you see the queen, seize her gently, and put her in the hive.

A novice should not attempt to hive his bees for himself, if they settle in more difficult places, but send for some more experienced master of the craft, if one is within reasonable distance; having first carefully shaded the bees, or else they may perhaps be off before his arrival. If there is no help at hand, he must e'en do the best he can. If they cluster on a post, or the stem of a large tree, you must use a branch of feathers, or still better, your hand, and so coax as many of the clusters as possible into the hive. Lookout sharp for the queen; for if you secure her, and get her into the hive, all is right, and the rest will follow.

I believe that the old queen always leads the first swarm for this reason: That as soon as any combs are built in the new box, the queen lays a vast number of eggs in them, as though she were only continuing a process begin in the old hive. I have taken a comb with eggs in it out of a hive the second day after swarming. I hardly think a young queen, leading a colony a day or two after she issues from the cell, could produce eggs so soon. This matter however, I hope to clear up some day, by marking the queen of a hive in the early spring, and tracing her through all her swarming during the course of the summer. I said that second swarms gives more certain signals of swarming. If you put your ear close to the top of the hive in the still of the even, some days after the first swarm has risen, you will hear one of these signals, a cry very unlike any other ever heard in a beehive: -