502 HOW TO MAKE THE FARM PAT. 



Drones begin to come out, and if any swarms were witliont a 

 queen, and you gave them brood comb from other hives, you 

 will have young queens. If they are not impregnated within 

 fourteen days, take them out and destroy them, and give another 

 brood eomb from some other full hive. You can tell readily 

 whether the queen is fertile, for she will then begin laying eggs 

 in one of tbe central combs. If the bees now begin to gather 

 much honey, put on a honey box and give them access to it, and 

 tbus let them use the lower hive mostly for brood. If, after 

 commencing to gather honey, they are shut off by a long cold 

 spell their numbers are so immense and so active that they will 

 soon consume all their store, and feeding will again be necessary. 

 But if the weather is good, and the fruit blossoms abundant, 

 colonies treated as we have advocated will often swarm, or be 

 ready to swarm. (We shall treat of both natural and artificial 

 swurms under the head of June Management.) Bees will only 

 swarm when honey is abundant in the fields, no matter how , 

 large and crowded the colony, or how large the stores. As fast 

 as they fill the surplus honey boxes and seal over the cells, re- 

 move the boxes, and put empty ones in their place. Foi- making 

 artificial swarms, queen bees should be raised. It is well to 

 commence this about the first of May in this latitude, (Pennsyl- 

 vania.) Late in the afternoon of some warm day, take a comb 

 with worker eggs, and young bees just gnawing out of their 

 cells, and put it with all the bees that are on it into an empty 

 hive. A pint of bees are enough to take with it. If you do 

 not secure this number on the comb, shake them off from 

 another comb into the empty hive. These bees will at once 

 begin to raise a queen. They should be fed with honey and 

 water. In about three weeks this little colony will have a fer- 

 tile queen for use in artificial swarming. 

 Summer Maxagemext. Jme is the great swarming month, 



