and while we are hunting we are wasting precious time, as the swarm may make up its collective mind to remove from our vicinity its component atoms. In shaking, or dipping, or brushing the bees into the hive, we should remember to deal with them as gently as the situation and mental perturbation will permit.
Sometimes the bees seem to feel defrauded at having a house chosen for them, and insist upon swarming out of their new quarters within a day or two after they are placed in possession. Thus it is a wise precaution to give the hives of the newly swarmed attention for two or three days, lest they indulge in this sort of perversity. If the bees seem unsettled and unhappy, and hang around home instead of going into the fields to work, it is advisable to place in the middle of the hive a frame of unsealed brood taken from some other colony. A bee's motherly instinct may always be depended upon, since caring for the young is a shining civic virtue as well as a domestic duty among the bee people. When there are helpless larvæ to care for, the bees willingly forego every personal inclination to pack up and move, and cheerfully proceed to give the youngsters every attention.
DECOY HIVES
When the self-appointed scouts of a bee colony start out house-hunting for the swarm which is about to issue, they evidently examine the premises carefully; if they find a house for rent in the immediate
