SWARMING AND HIVING. 171 



upon small colonies, are almost always thown away ; by far 

 the larger portion of them never survive the Winter, and 

 the majority of those that do, are so enfeebled, as to be of 

 little or no value. If they escape being robbed by stronger 

 stocks, or destroyed by the moth, they seldom recruit in sea- 

 son to swarm, and very often the feeding must be repeated, 

 the second Fall, or they will at last perish. I doubt not that 

 many of my readers will, from their own experience, en- 

 dorse every word of these remarks, as true to the very letter. 

 All who have ever attempted to multiply colonies by nursing 

 and feeding small swarms, on the ordinary plans, have 

 found it attended with nothing but loss and vexation. The 

 more a man has of such stocks, the poorer he is : for by 

 their weakness, they are constantly tempting his strong 

 swarms to evil courses ; so that at last, they prefer to live 

 as far as they can, by stealing, rather than by habits of hon- 

 est industry ; and if the feeble colonies escape being plun- 

 dered, they often become mere nurseries for raising a plen- 

 tiful supply of moths, to ravage his whole Apiary. 



I have already shown, in what way by the use of my 

 hives, the smallest swarms that ever issue, may be so man- 

 aged as to become powerful stocks. In the same way the 

 Apiarian can easily strengthen all his colonies which are 

 feeble in Spring. 



4. As the loss of the young queens in the parent stock 

 after ft has swarmed, and in the after-swarms, is a very 

 common occurrence, a hive which like mine, furnishes the 

 means of easily remedying this misfortune, will greatly 

 promote the success of those who practice natural swarm- 

 ing. A very intelligent bee-keeper once assured me, that 

 he must use at least one such hive in his Apiary, for this 

 purpose, even if in other respects it possessed no superior 

 merits. 



