SWARMING OR NON-SWARMING. 109 



should he kept more tlian two j'eiirs, as old combs are 

 objectionable for many reasons, and ugly to look at. 



Besides all these considerations, there is, in the swarm- 

 ing system well carried out, the certainty of success in 

 bee-keeping. On the non-swarming system, hives are 

 comparatively weak in bees in early spring ; whereas, on 

 the swarming system (as we recommend it to be done), 

 the hives are of great strength and power even in early 

 spring. And we maintain that ten strong hives will do 

 more work than twenty-five weak ones. How does the 

 swarming system secure strong hives 1 In this way : the 

 bee-keeper has one and often two swarms to spare for 

 every hive he selects for stock in autumn. This selected 

 hive for stock gets the one or. two extra swarms united to 

 it, and thus becomes doubly or trebly strong. Hives of 

 such strength axe well able to face the difi&culties of a 

 severe winter — difiiculties that often crush and kUl weak 

 ones ; and when spring arrives, these strong hives gain 

 weight fast, and are ready to swarm a month earlier than 

 those that had no additional bees given to them in the 

 autumn. In this neighbourhood bees do not gather much 

 honey after the apple-blossoms fall, there being scarcely 

 any white clover near enough. If the hives are weak in 

 bees they gain but little from fruit-blossoms, which are 

 so rich in honey, simply because they are not strong 

 enough to do much work ; but when made strong in 

 autumn by the addition of extra swarms, they gaiu here, 

 off the fruit-blossoms, in fine weather, from 3 lb. to 5 lb. 

 per hive. 



4th, On the non-swarming mode of management the 

 queens become old and die ; and at the time of the 

 death of. a queen there is a loss sustaiued. The hive in 

 which she dies is without eggs" for three weeks, or there- 

 abouts ; for ordinarily the young queens are not matured 



