150 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



one half will contain nearly all the brood, while the 

 other, having most of its combs fit only for storing honey, 

 or raising drones, will be a complete failure. 



Even with a Huber-hive, the plan of multiplying colo- 

 nies by dividing a full hive into two parts, and adding an 

 empty half to each, will be found to require a degree of 

 skill and knowledge, far in advance of what can be 

 expected of ordinary bee-keepers. The same remarks are 

 substantially true of all frame or bar-hives which do not 

 allow sufficient play between the parts to which the combs 

 are attached ; for, as the bees usually build their combs 

 slightly waving, and some thicker than others, nearly 

 insuperable practical difficulties will be found in making 

 the necessary interchanges of comb, in such hives. 



The attempt to multiply colonies by the common divid- 

 ing-hives, will be found far more laborious and uncertain 

 than by natural swarming. Every practical bee-keeper 

 who has given it a fair trial, has been glad to abandon it, 

 and return to the old-fashioned Avay. 



Some Apiarians have attempted to multiply their colo- 

 nies, by removing, when thousands of its inmates are rang- 

 ing the fields, a strong stock to a new stand, and setting 

 in its place an empty hive, with a piece of brood-comb, 

 suitable for raising a queen. This method is still worse 

 than the one just described. One half of the dividing- 

 hive was filled with breeding comb, while this empty hive 

 having next to none, all that is built before the queen 

 hatches, will be of a size unsuitable for rearing workers. 

 The queenless part of the dividing-hive might also have 

 contained a young queen almost mature, so that the build- 

 ing of large combs would have quickly ceased ; for as 

 soon as the young queen hatches, the bees commence 

 building worker-combs.* When a new colony is formed 



* In attempting to rear artificial swarms by moving a full stock, my bees have 

 built combs nearly four inches thick; and have afterwards pieced their lower 



