182 THE BEE keeper's MANUAL. 



they will use the half of the hive with the old comb, for the 

 purposes of breeding. The next year, if an attempt is 

 made to divide this hive, one half will contain nearly all the 

 brood and mature bees, while the other, having most of the 

 honey, in combs unfit for breeding, the new colony formed 

 from it will be a complete failure. 



Even with a Huber hive, the plan of multiplying colonies 

 by dividing a full hive into two parts, and adding an empty 

 half to each, will be attended with serious diflSculties ; al- 

 though some of them may be remedied in consequence of 

 the hive being constructed so as to divide into many parts ; 

 the very attempt to remedy them, however, will be found 

 to require a degree of skill and knowledge far in advance 

 of what can be expected of the great mass of bee-keepers. 



The common dividing hives, separating into two parts, can 

 never, under any circumstances, be made of the least prac- 

 tical value ; and the business of multiplying colonies by 

 them, will be found far more laborious, uncertain and vexa- 

 tious, than to rely on natural swarming. I do not know of 

 a solitary practical Apiarian, who, on trial of this system, has 

 not been compelled to abandon it, and allow the bees to 

 swarm from his dividing hives in the old-fashioned way. 



Some Apiarians have attempted to multiply their colonies 

 by putting a piece of brood comb containing the materials 

 for raising a new queen, into an empty hive, set in the place 

 of a strong stock which has been removed to a new stand 

 when thousands of its inmates were abroad in the fields. 

 This method is still wojse than the one which has just been 

 described. In the dividing hive, the bees already had a 

 large amount of suitable comb for breeding, while in this 

 having next to none, they build all their combs until the 

 queen is hatched, of a size unsuitable for rearing workers. 

 In the first case, the queenless part of the dividing hive 



