SWARMING OR NON-SWARMING. Ill 



cutting the supers off we would swarm all the hives arti- 

 ficially — that is, a swarm from each hive would be taken off 

 and put in a 1 6-inch hive, which is the smallest size we use. 

 The stock would be left full of brood, with sufficient bees 

 to hatch it. On each a super should be placed, for every 

 day the popiilations of the hives would be augmented by 

 the brood coming to perfection. Probably no combs will 

 be made in the supers for ten or fourteen days, when 

 second swarms may be expected to issue. When these 

 second swarms are thrown off, the best way is to throw 

 them back on the front of the hives whence they came. 

 They creep into their hives and rarely come a second 

 time. The hives are now full of bees, with no brood to 

 feed or attend to. At this time the bees generally gather 

 a great deal of honey, and will fill supers, weather permit- 

 ting. I know an experienced bee-keeper who succeeds 

 thus in obtaining supers from hives which do not throw 

 off second swarms. In about three weeks from the time 

 the first swarms were put into the 16-inch hives, supers 

 should be placed on them — that is, if the weather has 

 been at all favourable, for they will then be fuU of combs 

 with brood coming to perfection every day. These young 

 swarms will not be long in filling their supers from the 

 fields of white clover now at their best. Here we see the 

 likelihood of having three supers from one hive managed 

 on the swarming system. "With two strong hives in the 

 middle of July, there is left the probability, if not the 

 certainty, of getting a super of honey from each of them 

 before the season closes. If the season be favourable, all 

 this may be done under good management. Then there 

 will remain a hive of honey for further profit, the bees of 

 which win be united to the other, to be kept for stock ; 

 and this stock will be incomparably better for keeping 

 than one that has never swarmed at all. 



