THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



71 



sable if this precarious "royal road" be chosen. 

 The process is as follows: 



The two purchased stocks are to be permitted 

 to swarm naturally, or a swarm is driven out 

 of each in the usual manner, both havins: pre- 

 viously been put under "high pressure" by 

 stimulative feeding. The parent hive is, in 

 each case, not only to be left standing in its 

 original place, but only about two thirds of the 

 swarm, or if it be a weak one, only about one 

 half of it, must be hived, and the residue of the 

 bees returned to the parent stock. The conse- 

 quences of this is that the latter will speedily 

 send out one or more afterswarms. The more 

 certainly to secure this result, the parent stock 

 must, moreover, be fed moderately, every even- 

 ing, even in fine weather, and more plentifully 

 if the Aveather be foul. A hive thus treated will 

 commonly yield two or three afterswarms — the 

 feeding being continued regularly after the is- 

 suing of each. If the first or second of the after- 

 swarms is very populous, a portion of the bees 

 must be returned to the parent stock, as in the 

 first instance; and the afterswarms must in no 

 case be set adjoining the parent stock, but placed 

 in as isolated positions as practicable, that the 

 young queen returning from these excursions 

 may not be lost. These second swarms must 

 likewise be plentifull}- fed, or, better still, fur- 

 nished with worker combs containing honey. 

 If such combs cannot Ite procured, the feeding 

 must be continued regularly during the summer, 

 in order to stimulate liie bees to fill their hives 

 with combs, provide stores for the coming win- 

 ter, and seal up the honey in the cells. It is 

 essential, too, that smaller hives be used, alike 

 for the prime swarms and the afterswarin. 

 Those for the former >iiould be ten or twelve 

 inches in diameter; those for the latter should 

 not exceed eight or nine inches. The bees will 

 more spe;dily fill such hives with combs, and 

 thus be housed more compactly and more com- 

 fortably iluring the winter, which is highly im- 

 portant lor their preservation. 



Afterswiirms are apt to prove troublesome 

 and vexatious. Sometimes they will desert 

 their hives repeatedly after having entered. 

 Sometimes they will "fly around in all direc- 

 tions, refusing to settle, and finally return hur- 

 riedly to the parent hive; or if they do settle 

 in a cluster, many bees will speedily leave and 

 return to their old home. Even after the lapse 

 of twenty-four hours similar scenes will again 

 be enacted, thus involving great loss of time 

 and honey. This results from the fact that 

 afterswarms are frequently accompanied by 

 several young queens, each of which has her 

 adherents, and each dreading her rival. Thepru- 

 (lc;iu course, therefore, is to'place such swarms, 

 immediately after being hived, into a cool and 

 dark cellar or chamlK-r, and letting it remain 

 there till the following morning. By that time 

 tiie supernumerary queen or queens will have 

 been killed, and the bees have accepted the 

 survivor. This mode of settling the question 

 of sovereignty, is less troublesome than that 

 which is sometimes adopted in such eases, of 

 Bteepiug the swarm in cold water, aud then 

 picking out the surplus queens — thoutrh this 



plan may be advantageously resorted to when, 

 for some special reason, the preservation of the 

 young ciueeu is desirable. 



By the process just described, an experienced 

 and expert bee keeper can multiply stock more 

 rapidly than that recommended by us. But it 

 requires unremitted attention aud care, with 

 very liberal and protracted feeding. Its adoji- 

 tion can only be excusable when the object is 

 to fill up an apiary rapidly, and the apiarian 

 has abundance of honey which he is willing to 

 devote to that end. Nor must it, even in such 

 case, be persevered in after the prime object 

 aimed at has been accomplished, for it is pre- 

 cisely the reverse of a rational system of bee- 

 culture — which contemplates the production of 

 honey. This method, too, is especially preca- 

 rious, when it is necessary to force the after- 

 swarms by driving, which sometimes happens 

 when, from change of weather or temporary 

 dimunition of pasturage, they fail to issue; or 

 when after issuing they refuse to settle, or re- 

 turn again to the parent hive. Forced swarms 

 must, in such a case, always be put in hives 

 furnished with combs and honey; sent to a dis- 

 tance of at least a mile and a half from the api- 

 ary; and well fed subsequentl}\ All these dif- 

 ficulties and vexations, to which this process is 

 peculiarly exposed, are avoided if we adopt aud 

 adhere to the one we have first described and 

 recommended. 



After the apiarian has attained the normal 

 number of stocks he proposes keeping in his 

 apiary— be it ten, or twelve, or more — nudtipli- 

 cation of colonies is no longer to be the primary 

 object with him. These are now to become 

 subsidiary to the production of honey and wax. 

 Nevertheless, should a swarm occasionally is- 

 sue from one of his stocks, he will hive it as 

 usual, aud set it in the place of the parent stock, 

 removing the latter to some distant place in the 

 apiary. Next year one or both of these may be 

 treated either as swarming or as store stocks — 

 for the former of which purposes about one 

 third of the whole number of stocks in the api- 

 ary are thenceforward to be annually reserved. 

 These are to be managed in the manner already 

 described, as from them the store stocks in the 

 apiary are constantly recruited, so as to keep up 

 a nearly uniform number of productive colo- 

 nies from year to year. The remaining two 

 thirds now assume a different character, are 

 kept in larger hives, and are subjected to a dif- 

 ferent mode of management. 



Store or honey hives must be of greater ca- 

 pacity than swarming hives. The latter are, 

 with us, usually from ten to twelve inches in 

 diameter, and from fifteen to twenty inches 

 high. The former we have from fifteen to six- 

 teen inches in diameter, and from twenty-tour 

 to thirty-six inches high, being composed of 

 sections or ekes each six or eight inches high. So 

 long as our chief endeavor is to increase the 

 number of our colonies, we use the smaller di- 

 visil/le hives; but when our efforts are directed 

 to the producliou of honey aud wax, we resort 

 to liivL'S of ampler dimensions. The bees must 

 consequently be transferred from the former 

 kind to the latter. We effect this, at the opeu- 



