46 PEAOTICAL BEE-KEEPING. 



cannot build comb, and is liable to starve ; Exception : wben 



we feed constantly, or supply stored combs to the swarm. 

 8. Comb building must not be left to a swarm with an immature 



queen, or drone comb only will be constructed. 

 4. The driven swarm must occupy the old stand, or be sent to a new 



locality not less than one or two miles off. We have known of 



drones returning four mUes. A natural swarm may be placed 



in any position, and the bees will keep to it. 

 b. Driven swarms, if left on stand without a queen, will disperse 



amongst the neighbouring hives. If a piece of comb containing 



brood be given, the bees wiR remain. 



6. Swarm from your hest stocks. This is a golden rule, and too often 



quite forgotten. Eemember, you thus get a good queen for the 

 swarm, and her qualities will be continued in her successor 

 in the stock. Artificially swarminj a hive that never would 

 swarm naturally, is often reversing Nature's law of " choosing 

 the best," perpetuating only the progeny of a weak and effete 

 queen, and the apiary is kept under a star of ill omen in 

 consequence. 



7. Close partially the mouths of stocks that have been forced (i.e. 



swarmed) — they are weak, and are likely to suffer from chill; they 

 are[also queenless, and are liable to attacks from robbers. 



8. If from an oversight, a stock is left too bare of bees, it should be 



fed with sweetened water, and may with certain precautions be 

 completely confined to its hive (see "Uniting"). 



Make an artificial swarm from a. really good stock, ten or eleven days 

 before swarming several other hives, and insert the queen cells in the 

 latter, leaving one only in the selected stock. As queens begin ovipositing 

 usually at nine days old, breeding will not be suspended more than about 

 eleven days, which is four or five days less than in natural swarming, 

 an immense advantage, in addition to which casting is prevented. 



Natural swarming may be prevented, by clipping the queen's wings on 

 one or both sides. An attempt at colonizing may be made, but the queen 

 win fall on the ground, and the bees will return. If this course is 

 adopted, a board must be placed aslant from the alighting board to the 

 ground, by which the queen also may regain her home, or a succession of 

 cast,a beginning nine days after, make the remedy worse than the disease 



