ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 149 



rabbets, instead of folding them together like the leaves 

 of a book, he would have left much less room for subse- 

 quent improvements. 



" Dividing-hives," of various kinds, have been used in 

 this country. The principle seems to have all the ele- 

 ments of success ; and it was only after protracted experi- 

 ments, that I was able to ascertain that, however modi- 

 fied, such hives are all practically worthless for purposes 

 of artificial swarming. 



It is one of the laws of the hive, that bees which have 

 no mature queen, seldom build any cells except such as are 

 designed merely for storing honey, and are too large for 

 the rearing of workers. Until my perusal of Mr. Wag- 

 ner's manuscript translation of Dzierzon, I thought that 

 I was the only observer who had noticed the bearing of 

 this remarkable fact on artificial swarming. It may, at 

 first, seem unaccountable that bees should build only comb 

 unfit for breeding, when their young queen will so soon 

 require worker-cells for her eggs ; but it must be borne in 

 mind, that at such times they are in an " abnormal," or 

 unnatural condition. In a state of nature, they seldom 

 swarm until their hive is full of comb ; or if they do, their 

 numbers are so reduced, that they are rarely able to re- 

 sume comb-building, until the young queen has hatched. 



The determination of bees having no mature queen, to 

 build comb designed only for storing honey, and unfit for 

 rearing workers, shows yery clearly the folly of attempt- 

 ing to multiply colonies by dividing-hives. Even if the 

 Apiarian succeeds in dividing a colony, so that the queen- 

 less part proceeds to supply her loss, if it has bees enough 

 to build sufficient new comb to make it of any value, it 

 will build such as is designed only for storing honey ; using, 

 chiefly for breeding purposes, the half of the hive contain- 

 ing the old comb. The next year, if this hive is divided, 



