ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 195 



As practiced with ordinary hives, it is undoubtedly liable 

 to this serious objection, and I would easily with my basket 

 hiver, undertake to hive four natural swarms, in the time 

 that it would require to create one forced swarm ; to say 

 nothing of the care which must be bestowed upon the arti- 

 ficial swarms, with their parent stocks, after the driving 

 process has been completed. For this reason, I do not ad- 

 vise the beekeeper to force his swarms from the common 

 hives, until he has first ascertained that they are not likely 

 to swarm in tolerably good season, of their own accord, 

 unless he is afraid that they will come out during his ab- 

 sence, and decamp to the woods. 



By the aid of my hives, this process may be most expedi- 

 tiously performed. An empty hive, with its frames fur- 

 nished with guide combs, must be in readiness. The cover 

 of the full hive should be removed, and the bees gently 

 sprinkled with sugar-water from a watering pot that dis- 

 charges a fine stream. In about two minutes, the frames 

 may be taken out, and the bees, by a quick motion, shaken 

 on a sheet directly in front of their hive. As fast as a 

 comb is deprived of its bees, it should be set in a proper 

 position in the new hive, and an empty frame put in its 

 place. Two or three of the combs containing brood, eggs, 

 &c., should be left in the old hive, as well to give them 

 greater encouragement, as to prevent them from being dis- 

 satisfied if their queen should, by any possibility, be taken 

 from them. In removing the frames with the bees, I al- 

 ways look for the queen, and if I see her, as I generally do, 

 I return to the hive the frame which contains her, without 

 shaking off the bees. In that case, I put several of the 

 necessary combs into the new hive, with all the bees tipon 

 them. 



In dislodging the bees upon the sheet, I do not shake 



