140 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



comb, in which to store up any quantity of honey they 

 can possibly gather. 



2. Another objection to natural swarming arises from 

 the disheartening fact, that bees are liable to swarm so 

 often, as to destroy the value of both the parent-stock, 

 and its after-swarms. Experienced bee-keepers obviate 

 this difficulty, by making one good colony out of two 

 second swarms, and returning to the parent-stock all 

 swarms after the second, and even this if the season is far 

 advanced. Such operations often consume more time 

 than they are worth. By removing all the queen-cells but 

 one, after the first swarm has left, second swarming may 

 be prevented in my hives ; and by removing all but two, 

 provision may be made for the issue of second swarms, 

 and yet all further swarming be prevented. After-swarms, 

 in many instances, have to be returned again and again, 

 before one queen is allowed by the bees to destroy the 

 others. In this way, a large part of the gathering season 

 is wasted; as bees often seem unwilling to work with 

 their wonted energy, so long as the pretensions of several 

 rival queens are unsettled.* 



3. Another very serious objection to natural swarming, 

 as practiced with the common hives, is, that it furnishes no 

 facilities for making vigorous stocks of late and small 

 swarms. The time and money devoted to feeding small 



* Before inventing the movable-comb Live, I obviated, as far as possible, the 

 evils of after-swarming, by the following plan : the second swarm, as soon as 

 hived, was placed on the top of the parent-stock, or so, that the entrances to the old 

 and new colonies would be near together, and face the same way. If a third 

 swarm issued, it was added, at sunset, to the second swarm, by placing the hive or 

 box containing that swarm, on a sheet, and shaking out the third swarm before its 

 entrance. In three or four days sufficient time being given for the young queens 

 to become impregnated the bees in the after-swarm were added, in the same way, 

 to the parent-stock. One queen would quickly kill the other, and the next morn- 

 ing, the conjoined swarms being on a familiar spot, would work as well as though 

 they had never been separated. The comb which they had built in the new hive 

 was used in the spare honey-boxes. 



