252 ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 



would have taken place, some of the parent-colonies will 

 contain a number of maturing queens, which may be removed, 

 a few days before hatching, and given to such as have started 

 none. But it is far better to rear the queens first, as they can 

 be bred from choice stock (513). 



However, as queen-rearing, by the Alley or Doolittle meth- 

 ods (528, 530), has now become a special business in the 

 South, Apiarists may find it profitable to buy their queens 

 from some reliable breeder in a southern state, Avhere they can 

 be reared more cheaply, early in the season (601). 



480. A nucleus (530) may be built up after its queen 

 has commenced laying, by helping it with a comb of brood 

 and young bees, from a full colony, adding, at proper inter- 

 vals, a third, and a fourth, until they are strong enough to 

 take care of themselves. This mode of increase is laborious, 

 and requires skill and judgment; for, the bee-keeper should 

 be very careful never to give a weak colony more brood than 

 its bees can cover, remembering that, should the temperature 

 become colder, the brood might be chilled and perish. 



As a number of nuclei are to be simultaneously strength- 

 ened the Apiarist cannot complete his artificial processes by 

 a single operation, and must always be on hand, or incur the 

 risk of ending the season with a number of starving colonies. 

 For these and other reasons, we much pi'efer the other meth- 

 ods, above given, dispensing with so much opening of hives 

 and handling of combs. If, however, any of the new colonies 

 are weak enough to need it, they must be helped to combs 

 from stronger ones. 



481. Whatever method of artificial increase is pursued by 

 the Apiarist; he should never reduce the strength of his mother- 

 colonies, so as seriously to cripple the reproductive power of 

 their queens. This principle should be to him as "the law 

 of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not;" for, while a 

 queen, with an abundance of worker-comb and bees, may, in 

 a single season, become the parent of a number of prosper- 

 ous families, if her colony, at the beginning of the swarm- 



