112 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. 



It were easy to suggest other ways of oTDtaining supers 

 of comb on the swarming system. The great difficulty in 

 obtaining supers is the tendency of the bees to swarm ; 

 and this difficulty is greater by half in the non-swarming 

 system of management, for it is the nature of bees to 

 colonise, and therefore great care is necessary to prevent 

 hives from casting off swarms when supers on them are 

 nearly full. In the hands of ignorant people, hives that 

 have received supers often swarm before a bit of comb is 

 built in them. 



On the conviction that it is a waste of material and loss 

 of time to make swarms fill empty hives, the non-swarm- 

 ing system has been introduced in every _^ shape and form, 

 and generally introduced with the assertion that more 

 honeycomb will be obtained. In certain seasons it is 

 well known that a great deal of pure honeycomb has been 

 yielded by hives managed on the non-swarming mode. 

 In 1863 Mr George Fox of Kingsbridge, Devonshire, got 

 from two hives two glass boxes (or supers) of pure honey- 

 comb, weighing respectively lOOJ lb. and 112 lb., their 

 gross weights being 123 lb. and 126 lb., but the empty 

 boxes were 14 lb. eacL These magnificent supers and 

 r.esults seem to throw into the shade all other results of 

 bee-keeping. But in the same year Mr Fox got "an 

 octagon box of fine white comb," which weighed 93 lb. 

 4 oz., from a swarm of June 28, 1863. Here is a late 

 swarm yielding a super 93 lb. If the swarm had come 

 off four or six weeks sooner, which is the usual time, the 

 probability is great that it would have overtaken and out- 

 run those that never swarmed at all. Well might Mr 

 Fox say, as he does in a letter before us, " These glasses 

 were exceedingly beautiful, but the risk and fatigue of 

 removing them were great ; and as I never like to ask as- 

 sistance, in case of an accident, I had to exert myself too 



