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16. CHAPMAN'S HANDY-BOOK

Such few bees as die on the passage will also be carried to
the entrance, which they will help to block up, so that at
last the whole swarm may be stifled. But by wedging up
the box all round, the bees will have breathing places
everywhere, and you will see them, if you peep in, not
struggling to get air at one place only, but running about
in every direction on the floor board, like children playing
at puss in the corner
The reason why I advise you to take with you a hive of
about ten days old, and from that to three weeks, is this,
that a swarm of that age will have built a certain quantity
of comb, and laid up honey enough to serve them for the
voyage, and yet the combs will not be so heavy with honey
or brood, as to put them in danger of breaking down; or
even should you be so unfortunate as to get one, or even
all the combs, broken down by a sudden blow, the bees
will not be smothered in their own honey, as I have
known to be the case with a heavy hive. They will get
themsevles clear in a very short time from the fallen
combs, from which they will draw enough food to last
their voyage, whilst they themselves will hang in clusters
from the top. When you reach your new home with this
large batch of fellow immigrants, do not set them at
liberty till the evening. If you are in a hurry, and open
the hive directly, the bees will rush out in greaat confusion;
many of them, if they have been long shut up, will fall on
to the ground, and if it be wet will not rise again. Or a
still worse result may follow. If the combs have all been
broken down during the voyage, and the bees much
annoyed at it, the whole swarm, Queen and all, will rise
at once, and take to the woods as irregular squatters,
instead of remaining to colonize your garden in a
systematic way. Wait, I say, till the evening and just
after sundown, if you hear that the bees are all quiet, undo
the lashing, and get someboy to lift the hive up a little
from its board; then, if any combs are broken down,
remove them quietly, and the following morning you will
have the pleasure of seeing your fellow-colonists going as
regularly to work as though they had been in their new
station for years. I only hope you may be as industrious.
and then like them you will most probably succeed.