Having now got a new establishment, with the certainty of soon having a queen, they think no more of returning to the hives whence they were taken, but come and go, cleaning their little dwelling, and working like a weak swarm.
While they are thus occupied, a little cage should be prepared, in which to shut up the queen when her metamorphoses shall be completed.
This cage is of a semicircular form, and in size resembling the half of a large orange; it is made of wood, scooped out, and has a wire-grating on the front of it, so fine that no bee can get out or in: a hole is made in the lower part of it, large enough to permit a bee to pass through, and a wooden pin, from six to eight inches long, of the size of the hole, is prepared to shut it up with.
These preparations being completed, the box is opened fourteen or fifteen days after the bees have been put in, but it must be one of these fine spring days when the bees are busy at work: should the weather be cold or wet, the opening of the box must be delayed. The combs are then all taken out, and the queen will be easily discovered. She is much longer in the body, and altogether larger, than the other bees, as may be observed from the following figures, where [Fig. 1.] represents the Queen; [Fig. 2.] the Drone; and [Fig. 3.] the Working Bee [4].
[4] To those not much acquainted with bees, the following particulars may be useful.
[Fig. 1.] The Queen Bee: the head is of a triangular shape; her wings very short, not extending beyond the one-half of her body, which is longer, and more pointed, than that of the working bees. Her legs and corselet are copper coloured; thorax grey, and abdomen brown. There is only one queen to a hive; while there are from 10,000 to 15,000 workers, and perhaps 1000 or 1200 drones.
[Fig. 2.] The Drone, or Male Bee; the head is round, its large body is almost entirely covered by its wings. It has no sting. The drones appear only at the season of swarming, and are all put to death by the workers in the autumn.
[Fig. 3.] The Working Bee. Head somewhat triangular; the smallest and most numerous of the hive, which every one knows as the honey-bee, and which fabricates the combs, makes the honey, and feeds the young.
The queen must be seized by the wings and introduced, head foremost, through the hole into the cage, along with a dozen bees to bear her company, and then the hole through which they have passed is stopped up with the wooden pin. This being completed, an empty hive must be prepared, similar, in every respect, to the one out of which artificially the swarm is to be taken. A hole, parallel to that in the cage, is pierced in the bench on which it is to stand, and the end of the wooden pin fixed into it, so that the cage may be suspended, perpendicularly, about two-thirds the height of the hive. Between eleven and twelve of the same day, while the bees are mostly on the wing, a strong person takes one of the old hives, that is not likely to swarm, lifts it steadily, and rests it for a few seconds on a table, at hand for the purpose, while its place is instantly filled by the one containing the young queen and her cage. Any bees that may be grouped about the board are lifted up with a wooden spoon, and laid down at the door of the new hive; these ascend immediately; and all the working bees, returning in crowds from the fields, enter without hesitation; when, finding neither combs, nor honey, nor any provision whatever, they go out and return several times, and fly round and round it; while the inhabitants of the old hive, having no suspicion of their place being changed, leave it without precaution, return to the situation of their ancient dwelling, and increase the swarm that is forming.