176 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



TAKING AWAY ALL BROOD. 



Afterward I carried the same thing to its extreme 

 Hmit in a good many cases, taking away all the brood. 

 One frame of brood, however, was left for two or 

 three days, perhaps a week, for fear the bees would be 

 discouraged and desert an entirely empty hive. This one 

 frame of brood was then taken away because it was the 

 common thing for the bees to start queen-cells on it. Yet 

 it is just possible that no swarmins^ would have taken 

 place, in spite of the queen-cells. 



FORCED SWARMING. 



This plan has come into great prominence lately un- 

 der the name of forced, shaken, or brushed swarms. 

 Gravenhorst, the great German authority, practiced and 

 advocated it in the seventies of the last century. L. 

 Stachelhausen was earnest in his advocacy of the plan in 

 this country, and E. R. Root, editor ©f Gleanings in Bee- 

 Culture, took it up with great enthusiasm. Probably a 

 good many had done more or less at it independently, for 

 it would naturally suggest itself that taking away all the 

 brood would leave a colony in much the same condition 

 as if they had swarmed ; and in actual practice most of 

 those who had tried the plan have found bees no more 

 inclined to swarm after it than after natural swarming. 



FORCED VERSUS NATURAL SWARMING. 



Many have found the plan a material advance over 

 natural swarming. One very great advantage is suf- 

 ficient to commend it ; the bee-keeper is master of the 

 situation, and is not dependent upon the whims of the 

 bees as to when they shall swarm — an inestimable boon to 

 those who have out-apiaries, and indeed to any one who 

 does not wish the trouble of watching for swarms. 



