REQUISITES OF AN IMPROVED HIVE. 105 



In my hives'bees may be allowed, if their owner chooses, 

 to swarm just as they do in common hives, and be 

 managed in the usual way. Even on this plan, the great 

 protection against the weather which it affords, and the com- 

 mand over all the combs, will be found to afford great 

 advantages. (See Natural Swarming.) 



Non-swarming hives managed in the ordinary way are 

 liable, in spite of all precautions, to swarm very unexpect- 

 edly, and if not closely watched, the swarm is lost, and with 

 it the profit of that season. By having the command of 

 the combs, the queen in my hive.s can always be caught and 

 deprived of her wings ; thus she cannot go off with a 

 swarm, and they will not leave without her. 



38. It should enable the Apiarian, if he allows his bees 

 to swarm, and wishes to secure surplus honey, to prevent 

 them from throwing more than one swarm in a season. . 



Second and Ihird swarms must be returned to the old 

 stock, if the largest quantities of surplus honey are to be 

 realized. It is troublesome to watch them, deprive them of 

 their queens, and restore them to the parent hive. They 

 often issue with new queens again and again ; and waste, 

 in this way, both their own time, and that of their keeper. 

 " An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." In 

 my hives, as soon as the 'first swarm has issued, and been 

 hived, all the queen cells except one, in the hive from which 

 it came, may be cut out, and thus all after-swarming will 

 very easily and effectually be prevented. (See Chapter on 

 Artificial Swarming, for the use to which these supernumerary 

 queens may be put.) When the old stock is left Vvith but 

 one queen, she runs no risk of being killed or crippled in a 

 contest with rivals. By such contests, a colony is often 

 left without a queen, or in possession of one which is too 

 much maimed to be of any service. (See Chapter on the 

 Loss of the Queen.) 



