THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL AND GAZETTE. 



203 



fFrora the Bieuenzeitttug ] 



Multiplication of Stock. 



The question whether artificial multiplication 

 of colonies or natural swarming is most advan- 

 tageous in the management of an apiary, has 

 been greatly discussed. Some bee-keepers con- 

 tend for natural swarming exclusively, while 

 others advocate with equal zeal an exclusive 

 resort to artificial multiplication. Each occu- 

 pies an extreme position, and the truth prob- 

 ably lies somewhere between. Artificial 

 swarming unquestionably secures many advan- 

 tages, if regulated by a due regard to season 

 and circumstances. 



Artificial multiplication, as a means of en- 

 larging an apiary, can obviously be beneficial 

 only when increase is of itself useful and desir- 

 able. In poor or very ordinary seasons, when 

 even non-swarming colonies find it difiicult to 

 secure an adequate supply of winter stores, a 

 free resort to this convenient mode of adding 

 to the number of our stocks, could only prove 

 detrimental, if not ruinous. Whereas, in sea- 

 sons when honey resources are abundant, and 

 natural swarms issue early and numerously, ar- 

 tificial multiplication would be at least unneces- 

 sary and superfluous. 



But, when the season is good — though, owing 

 to the dryness of the weather or a temporary or 

 local cause, natural swarms do not issue or are 

 greatly delayed — the artificial process may be 

 resorted to with great advantage. 



This was the case last summer in Germany. 

 The preceding winter had been unusually mild, 

 and the spring found our stocks in excellent 

 condition. Early in May already, they were 

 very populous; but natural swarms were ex- 

 ceedingly rare. The cause of this was to be 

 found, in part, in a long continuance of dry 

 \veather, conducing rather to the collecting and 

 garnering of stores than the production of brood, 

 but in part also by the unusually cold weather 

 prevailing after the 20th of May, when not 

 only frost occurred, but ice was formed. This 

 checked and repelled the swarming impulse 

 even in the strongest colonies, and caused them 

 to destroy their drone-brood to such extent, that 

 the ground in front of some Italian stocks de- 

 signed to furnish an early supply of drones, was 

 literally covered with the nymphs and larvre 

 thrown out. Only one colony produced a 

 swarm ou the 2oth of May, the day after the 

 last spring frost, and another yielded one in 

 June. Though the weather now rapidly im- 

 proved, and tiie bees were soon again supplied 

 with ample pasturage, the swarming impulse 

 had vanished for the season, and all their ener- 

 gies Avere directed to the storing-up of honey. 

 In this condition of things I resorted seasonably 

 to artificial multiplication, and the early-formed 

 colonies throve remarkably, quickly filling their 

 hives with combs, and gathering a considerable 

 amount of surplus stores. If the old stocks, 

 Avhich supplied the bees and brood for these ar- 

 tificial colonies, were somewhat retarded there- 

 by, this was more than compensated by the pro- 

 ductiveness and value of the ncAv colonies. Ex- 

 perience has long since shown that, in favor- 

 able seasons, when pasturage is good and of 



long continuance, the parent stock, together 

 with the colonies formed therefrom, will be 

 much more productive than one which remained 

 undivided. For then, by seasonable division, 

 we obtain an increased number of colonies, in 

 which not only more brood will be produced, 

 but more active industry developed. 



We are occasionally advised to use artificial 

 multiplication only so long as we desire to en- 

 large our apiaries, and depend on natural 

 swarming afterward, to keep up stock. The 

 ground for such counsel is not very obvious. 

 That which is advantageous in a small apiary, 

 is not likely to prove otherwise in a large one. 

 It is not the number of colonies we possess, but 

 the nature of the weather and amount of pas- 

 turage available, that must determine our course; 

 and no intelligent bee-keeper will doggedly 

 confine himself to a fixed number of colonies, 

 knowing that by uniting in the fall he can easily 

 reduce his apiary again to a manageable size 

 for the winter. In the case of a large apiary 

 of colonies populous in the spring, I would 

 rather advise early and free multiplication, thus 

 subdividing the incident labor of superintend- 

 ence, and preventing possible perplexity and 

 loss from frequent or excessive natural swarm- 

 ing. He that has had some experience in super- 

 vising a large apiary knows well the toil and 

 vexation which may be anticipated, when, at 

 the swarming season, a clear warm day follows 

 a long continued spell of cloudy and wet 

 weather. 



It is precisely in a large and well-stocked 

 apiary that the advantage of artificial multipli- 

 cation becomes manifest, and the practise of it 

 is at the same time rendered convenient. By 

 taking a queen from one colony, a quantity of 

 bees from another, a comb of brood from a 

 third, and one of honey from a fourth, we 

 quickly form a new colony, without in the 

 slightest degree damaging the old. On the con- 

 trary, the occasional reduction of force keeps 

 the populous old stocks from making prepara- 

 tions for swarming, maintains their customary 

 honey-gathering impulse, and promotes the 

 steady accumulation of stores. The permanent 

 pix)sperity of the colonies can thus be simulta- 

 neously secured by removing superannuated 

 or enfeebled queens, and causing young ones 

 to be reared. 



It is scarcely necessary to remark that it is 

 only by means of the movable comb-hive that 

 all the advantages here indicated can be se- 

 cured. With common liives in which the 

 combs are, as it were, a fixture, division, as we 

 employ it, is unpracticable. Drumming or 

 driving must be resorted to instead, and fre- 

 quently proves to be a failure in precisely those 

 cases in which success would be highly bene- 

 ficial — the removal, namely, of a superannuated 

 queen. 



The possession of two apiaries, situated two 

 or three miles apart, greatly aids and facilitates 

 artificial multiplication. By means of a fertile 

 queen a SAvarm may then be easil^^ and succes- 

 fully formed. We add to her the requisite 

 number of workers taken from several populous 

 hives in the one apiary, and place them in a 

 hive on the stand in the other, and our object 



