174 A COUNTRY READER. 



The parent hive by this migration has been 

 thinned of a number of its inhabitants, but still 

 there are sufficient left to rear the young brood, 

 which, arriving at maturity, quickly makes good 

 every defect. 



The young queens being allowed their liberty 

 one after another conduct fresh swarms. 



As long as the increase of population renders 

 the hive uncomfortable, successive swarms are 

 sent off. Their number depends on many things, 

 such as an abundance of flowers, warmth of 

 climate, and size of hive. 



A French Consul in South Carolina found in 

 a wood, a stock of bees which had been robbed 

 of their honey and wax by the natives. He 

 carried the stock of bees home in his hat and 

 placed them in a hive in his garden. He ob- 

 tained from this hive eleven swarms before the 

 end of the autumn, and these eleven swarms 

 gave off other secondary swarms, so that by the 

 end of the year he had twenty-two hives stocked 

 from the one he had carried home in his hat. 



In this country a hive sends off only two or 

 three swarms in the summer. 



A prudent bee-keeper is satisfied with one 

 swarm to stock a fresh hive or to sell, returning 

 the rest to the original hive, which would other- 

 wise become very weak. 



