ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 237 



have been if left under the care of the bees. In tlie multi- 

 plicily of my experiments, 1 did not repeat this one under 

 a sufficient variety of circumstances, to ascertain the pre- 

 cise cause of failure ; nor have I as yet, tried whether it 

 will answer perfectly, by admitting the bees to the queen 

 cells. 



Last Spring, I made one queen supply several hives with 

 eggs, so as to keep them strong in numbers while they were 

 constantly engaged in rearing a large number of spare 

 queens. Two hives which I shall call A and B, were de- 

 prived at intervals of a week, each of its queen,* in order to 

 induce them to raise a number of young sealed queens for 

 the use of the Apiary. As soon as the queens in A, were 

 of an age suitable to be removed, I took them away and 

 gave the colony a fertile queen from another hive, C ; as 

 soon as she had laid a large number of eggs in the empty 

 cells, I removed the queen cells now sealed over, from B, 

 and gave them the loan of this fertile mother, until she had 

 performed the same necessary office for them. By this 

 time, the queen cells in C, were sealed over ; these were 

 now removed, and the queen restored ; she had thus made 

 one circuit, and laid a very large number of eggs in the 

 two hives which were first deprived of their queens. After 

 allowing her to replenish her own hive with eggs, I sent her 

 out again on her perambulating mission, and by this new 

 device was able to get an extraordinary number of young 

 queens from the three hives, and at the same time to preserve 

 their numbers from seriously diminishing. Two queens 

 may in this way, be made in six hives to furnish all th^ 

 supernumerary queens which will be wanted in quite a 

 large Apiary. 



* The queens taken from such hives may be advantageously used 

 in forming artificial colonies. 



