162 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. 



favour of tlie swarming system of management. By keep- 

 ing young hives — that is to say, swarms of the present 

 year — for stock, no bee-keeper will suffer mvioh from 

 foul-brood, if he ever suffer at all. If hives containing 

 older combs are kept as stock, they should be carefully 

 examined twice a-year to see that they are free from 

 diseased brood. Three weeks after first swarms leave 

 their hives, the combs contain no brood of the worker 

 kind — a few drone-cells wUl still have healthy brood in 

 them, as drones are twenty-four days in their cells. But 

 by examining the hives from the 21st to the 25th day 

 after swarming, a bee-keeper may see whether they have 

 foul brood in them or not. By blowing the smoke of our 

 constant friend and able coadjutor, Mr Fustian, down 

 amongst the combs, the bees will leave them, so that we 

 can see whether any cells have lids. If the cells are all 

 apparently empty, the hives are clean, and eligible to be 

 kept another year. If some cells have still lids covering 

 them, suspect, suspect, SUSPECT. At once proceed to 

 drive the bees out of such hives and put them in empty 

 ones. If the weather be unfavourable for putting such 

 swarms into empty hives, they may remain till the 

 weather changes. The second examination of stock to 

 ascertain if they are free from diseased brood should be 

 made in September,^ or just as soon as the breeding season 

 is over, and the combs empty. If any are then found 

 diseased, the bees should be driven out of them and united 

 to healthy ones. There can be no prosperity in a hive 

 containing diseased and stinking brood; and to the bee- 

 master there will come from it Joss knd disappointment 

 instead of profit. 



