A COLONY OF INDUSTRIOUS BEES, BASELY MURDERED BY ITS UNGRATEFUL AND IGNORANT OWNER. And Thomson, the poet of "The Seasons," has recorded an eloquent poetic protest against the barbarous practice, for which, however, in his day there was no alternative:-- All, see, where robbed and murdered in that pit, Lies the still heaving hive! at evening snatched, Beneath the cloud of guilt-concealing night, And fix'd o'er sulphur! while, not dreaming ill, The happy people, in their waxen cells, Sat tending public cares. Sudden, the dark, oppressive steam ascends. And, used to milder scents, the tender race. By thousands, tumble from their honied dome Into a gulf of blue sulphureous flame! It will be our pleasing task in subsequent chapters to show "a more excellent way." SWARMING. The spring is the best period at which to open an apiary, and swarming-time is a good starting point for the new bee-keeper. The period known as the swarming season is during the months of May and June. With a very forward stock, and in exceedingly fine weather, bees do occasionally swarm in April. The earlier the swarm the greater is its value. If bees swarm in July, they seldom gather sufficient to sustain themselves through the winter; though, by careful feeding, they may easily be kept alive, if hived early in the month. The cause of a swarm leaving the stock-hive is, that the population has grown too large for it. Swarming is a provision of nature for remedying the inconvenience of overcrowding, and is the method whereby the bees seek for space in which to increase their stores. By putting on "super hives," the required relief may, in many cases, be given to them; but should the multiplication of stocks be desired, the bee-keeper will defer increasing the space until the swarm has issued forth. In May, when the spring has been fine, the queen-bee is very active in laying eggs, and the increase in a strong healthy hive is so prodigious that emigration is necessary, or the bees would cease to work. It is now a well established fact that the old queen goes forth with the first swarm, preparation having been made to supply her place as soon as the bees determine upon the necessity of a division of their commonwealth. Thus the sovereignty of the old hive, after the first swarm has issued, devolves upon a young queen.