PRACTICAL BEEKEEPING 60 



clipping method it will be observed that the swarm being on the 

 old stand secures all of the flight bees in the fields at the time 

 swarming takes place and, having a laying queen, immediately starts 

 brood rearing. To still more increase its strength the parent col- 

 ony may be placed near it first with the entrance at an angle away 

 from it and then gradually brought close beside it, with the en- 

 trance in the same direction by moving it a little each day. Then 

 by picking up the colony and setting it on the other side with the 

 entrance turned away, all of the flight bees will again be added to 

 the swarm. This shifting may be repeated several times until the 

 swarm is sufficiently strong. If increase is not desired this may be 

 carried on until the entire parent colony is merged in with the 

 swarm and the .comb used for other colonies or as surplus combs, 

 provided the queen cells are first removed. Should this not be de- 

 sirable a young queen may be permitted to hatch out and the colony 

 set up on a new stand as soon as the swarm has been sufficiently 

 strengthened. Or better still, the cells may be removed and a, 

 young laying queen introduced as this will save nearly two week's 

 time in the production of brood, quite an item at this time of the 

 year. 



There are several methods of artificial increase followed to 

 evade the process of natural swarming. One way is to divide the 

 colony equally, supplying a laying queen from a nucleus to the 

 queenless portion, and in each case filling out the quota of combs. 

 This divides the strength of the colony so that a better way is to 

 simply draw off a nucleus -by setting over into the empty hive a 

 couple of combs with the queen and then supplying the old colony 

 with a young laying queen. The parent colony is then left in a 

 condition to store honey. The nucleus drawn off may then be 

 given combs or full sheets of foundation and so gradually built up 

 to the strength of a full colony. We say give them full sheets be- 

 cause the nucleus has presumably an old queen, that is not one of 

 the current year's raising, and the tendency of the bees is to build 

 drone comb unless they are very much crowded for space, which 

 of course would not be the case with the nucleus. 



Another plan is to form what is known as shaken swarms. 

 These are formed by shaking the adult bees from the combs of a 

 colony into a hive of foundation starters or full sheets of wired 

 foundation. Prior to shaking, the bees should be well smoked and 



