ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 193 



One queen can be made to supply several hives with 

 brood, while they are constantly engaged in raising spare 

 queens. Deprive two colonies, 1 and 2, at intervals of a 

 week, each of its queen, using these queens for artificial 

 swarms. As soon as the royal cells in 1 are old enough 

 for use, remove them, and give 1 a queen from another 

 hive, 3. When the royal cells in 2 are removed, this 

 queen may be taken from 1 where she will have laid 

 abundantly and given to 2. By this time, the queen- 

 cells in 3 being sealed over, may be removed, and the 

 queen restored to her own stock. She has thus made one 

 circuit, and supplied 1 and 2 with eggs ; and after replen- 

 ishing her own hive, she may be sent again on her per- 

 ambulating mission. By this device, I can obtain, from a 

 few stocks, a large number of queens. 



A few days after a nucleus is formed, it should be ex- 

 amined, and if royal cells are not begun, or there are no 

 larvae in them, the bees must be shaken from the comb, 

 which should then be exchanged for another. 



Bees sometimes commence queen-cells, which, in a few 



distinction. Anatomical observations prove that the stomach is not the same : ex- 

 periments have ascertained that one of the species cannot fulfill all the functions 

 shared among the workers of a hive. We painted those of each class with different 

 colors, in order to study their proceedings ; and these were not interchanged. In 

 another experiment, after supplying a hive, deprived of a queen, with brood and 

 pollen, we saw the small bees quickly occupied in nutrition of the larvse, while 

 those of the wax-working class neglected them. Small bees also produce wax, but 

 in a very inferior quantity to what is elaborated by the real wax workers." 



Now, as Hnber's statements have proved to be uncommonly reliable, perhaps 

 when bees refuse to cluster on the brood-comb, to rear a new queen, it is because 

 some of the conditions necessary for success are wanting. Either there may not 

 be enough wax-workers to enlarge the cells, or nurses to take charge of the larvae. 



If Huber had possessed the same facilities for observation with Dr. Donhoff (see 

 page 194), he would, probably, have come to the same conclusions. 



If any imagine that the careful experiments required to establish facts upon the 

 solid basis of demonstration, are easily made, let them attempt to prove or disprove 

 the truth of either of *.hese conjectures; and they will probably find the tiling 

 more difficult than (o cover whole reams of paper with careless assertions 



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