ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 185 



certain to descend and lay her eggs in the new combs, as 

 soon as they are commenced by the bees ; in this case, the 

 upper hive is almost entirely abandoned by her, and the 

 bees store the cells with honey, as fast as the brood is hatch- 

 ed, as their instinct impels them always, if they can, to keep 

 their stores of. honey aioue the breeding cells. So long as 

 bees have an abundance of room below their main hive, 

 they will never swarm, but will use it in the way that I have 

 described ; if the room is on the sides of their hive, and 

 very accessible, they seldom swarm, but if it is above them, 

 they frequently prefer to swarm rather than to take posses- 

 sion of it. But in none of these cases, do they ever, if left to 

 themselves, form separate and independent colonies. 



I am aware that the Apiarian, by separating from the 

 main hive with a slide, an apartment that contains brood, 

 and directing to it by some artificial contrivance a consider- 

 able number of bees, may succeed in rearing an artificial 

 colony ; but unless all his hives admit of the most thorough 

 inspection, as he can never know iheir exact condition, he 

 m.ust always work in the dark, and will be much more likely 

 to fail than succeed. Success indeed can only be possible 

 when a skillful Apiarian devotes a large portion of his time 

 to watching and managing his bees, so as to compel them 

 to colonize, and even then it will be very uncertain ; so that 

 this plausible theory to be reduced to even a most preca- 

 rious practice, requires more skill, care, labor and time, than 

 are necessary to manage the ordinary swarming hives. 



The failure of so many attempts to increase colonies by 

 artificial means, as well in the hands of scientific and ex- 

 perienced Apiarians, as under the direction of those who 

 are almost totally ignorant of the physiology of the bee, has 

 led many to prefer to use non-swarming hives. In this 

 way, very large harvests of honey are often obtained from 

 16* 



