THE AMEBIC AN BEE JOUENAL. 



85 



from clay to day, but always forsaking them at 

 Gvcuing. These are scouts or fourier bees, 

 busied in seeking and preparing quarters for 

 some inchoate swarm, which is sure to establish 

 itself there, if not seasonably arrested by the 

 bee-keeper when it makes its appearance. By 

 sprinkling some of these scouts with meal, we 

 may trace them to their home, and thus not only 

 learn from which hive a swarm is to be ex- 

 pected, but also be fully prepared for its recep- 

 tioh when it issues. 



Artificial Swarming. 



Swammerdam already, in his ''Bible of ]^a- 

 ture,^'' mentioned that an intelligent bee-keeper 

 in his day possessed the art of supplying him- 

 self with cjueen bees at pleasure, and of produc- 

 ing four times as many swarms annually as 

 were usually obtained in his cold district. Grce- 

 iDcll, in his '' Braiuleburgiaii Apjyroved Bee-cul- 

 ture,'''' (Berlin, 1762,) taught how to make 

 swarms ^nd divide colonies, and in 1770, ScM- 

 rach published a special treatise on the art of 

 making artificial swarms. Then followed a 

 large number of publications discussing the 

 subject more fullj% and suggesting improved 

 processes. But all these are now obsolete, hav- 

 ing, with the sole exception of division by driv- 

 ing, proved worthless or injurious. 



The hive best adapted for the multiplication 

 of colonies by artificial processes is undoubt- 

 edly the movable comb hive, because it enables 

 us to take out combs containing brood, honey, 

 and pollen at pleasure, and to furnish each ar- 

 tificial colony with such portions and propor- 

 tions of each of these as seem to be required ; 

 and even to select brood combs containing 

 sealed queen tells and worker brood nearly ma- 

 ture. It also enables us to select the requisite 

 materials from difi'erent hives, and taking from 

 each just that which it is best able to spare. 



The mode of dividing stocks by severing one 

 or more ekes or sections from a hive by means 

 of a thin wire, deserves to be condemned and 

 rejected as causing a lamentable destruction of 

 bees and brood. No sensible bee-keeper any 

 longer resorts to it. Even that of using hives 

 virtually divisible into two equal parts, though 

 at first highly commended, has long since been 

 abandoned, as it was found impracticable to 

 divide the bees,honey and brood combs equally; 

 and in one or the other of the divisions the ex- 

 periment was sure to prove a dead failure. 



Where common cottage hives, or hives Avith 

 immovable combs are used, there is only one 

 sure mode of artificial multiplication — that is, 

 by driving out the first swarms when these do 

 not naturally issue early in the season. But 

 the standing rule, to cease multiplying as soon 

 as the apiary contains the normal number of 

 stocks we purpose keeping, must be rigidly ad- 

 hered to. The means by which such normal 

 number may be reached safely and early, have 

 already been explained. But when once he 

 has supplies of honey at command, and can fur- 

 nish hives with empty combs and the nccided 

 stores, the beginner had better buy from less 

 provident neighbors, such afterswarmsas have 

 fertile queens, and transfer them to his own 

 ready furnished hive. If such a colony, with 



its added supplies, should cost him three dol- 

 lars, it will still be cheaper than to permit second 

 swarms to issue from his own stocks. To 

 make artificial colonies himself requires care 

 and labor, much watchful attention, and con- 

 siderable skill in manipulating, and yet not un- 

 frcciuently results in failure. 



Knautf proposed to improve Schirach's method 

 of multiplying by superiug the hive in which 

 the brood combs were taken, on the inverted 

 hive from which the bees were to be transferred. 

 If the hives are precisely alike in size, so that 

 no vacancies occur between them, a mass of 

 bees will rise and cluster on the brood combs 

 during the night, while thus united ; and early 

 next morning they may be parted, the new col- 

 ony set in place of the parent stock, and the 

 latter removed elsewhere. But this, too, was 

 found to be objectionable, as the new colony 

 which contained only some brood and bees sel- 

 dom prospered, ancl ofttimes failed to rear a 

 queen. Even if one or more sealed queen cells 

 were given to it, the impatience of the workers 

 usually caused their destruction before reaching 

 maturity. 



In the case of a large stock. Bitter recom- 

 mends a somev/hat similar process. The front 

 of the hive is to be removed, and reijlaced by 

 an eke or box of suitable size, and mh-nished 

 with worker comb. A week after, this may be 

 taken away and will contain bees and brood 

 sufl3cient to form a nucleus, which, by transpo- 

 sition with the parent hive, will be at once 

 placed in a thriving condition. But this method 

 also is liable to various objections. If it 

 should happen that the old queen is in the ad- 

 ded box or eke at the time of the removal, the 

 parent stock may become queeuless, and unable 

 to supply their loss from the want of suitable 

 worker brood; and if she is still in the hive 

 proper, then the inter, ded nucleus may not have 

 a sufficient supply of honey to maintain itself, 

 should unfavorable weather intervene while 

 rearing a young queen. 



But if for sake of the experiment it be 

 preferred to increase the number of stocks by di- 

 vision, then select a po[)ulous colony well sup- 

 plied with honey about the first of May, and 

 set it on an eke or sectional hive eight or ten 

 inches high, furnished with clear worker comb, 

 taking care that the direction of these combs 

 shall cross those in the main hive. About the 

 first of June the eke will contain a large amount 

 of brood in various stages; then, by blowing a 

 little smoke in the entrance, the queen will be 

 driven up into the combs above, the eke can 

 be separated and treated as a nuclues after the 

 main hive is removed to a new stand. The 

 main object here is to retain the queen in her 

 old home, and that there should still remain in 

 it a sufticieucy of sealed worker brood to recruit 

 the population after the removal. The nucleus 

 should receive a super containing honey in 

 worker combs, to secure it against starvation 

 in bad weather. This, too, is a troublesome 

 mode of operating, and is apt to fail in the 

 hands of the inexpert. 



AVe greatly prefer division by driving to any 

 other mode; and if this be resorted to when by 

 the increase of population in spring, the bees are 



