CHAPTER X. 



MANAGEMENT OP THE BEE HOUSE OR WINDOW APIAET. 



Although the apiarian, who manages his bees according to the method 

 unfolded in this chapter, will generally be able to do without any cot- 

 tage hives in the open air, it will be found desirable to have one or 

 more such kept for swarming purposes ; among other reasons, to sup- 

 ply any failure which inay chance to occur in his box colonies, whether 

 by the death of a queen or other accident. Under the old, (if it may 

 not be called the present,) system, accidents of this sort were common 

 enough ; for the depriving system, as practised by the generality of 

 amateur bee keepers, is not by any means so universally successful as 

 its advocates would have us believe it to be ; for two or three years, 

 indeed, after the establishment of a bee house, or any individual colo- 

 ny in it, matters may go on well enough ; but if all swarming be pre- 

 vented, it becomes a mere chance whether it shall succeed or fail af- 

 terwards. If the queen dies at the right time ; that is, in May, June, 

 or July, and her decay be somewhat sudden, the colony flourishes, be- 

 cause a new queen, raised artificially, or otherwise, takes her place, 

 and four years more may be added to its successful existence. But if 

 the old queen fails gradually in any of those months, (in which case 

 she would probably leave no eggs behind her, from which to rear a queen 

 artificially,) or anyhow in the other nine months in the year, the bees 

 dwindle away, and the colony fails. This is one among other 

 causes of disappointment which many persons have experienced, who 

 have gone to great expense in establishing apiaries, and managed them 

 on the depriving system. They-failed through want of foresight ; they 

 should have provided a remedy against the natural defect in this sys- 

 tem, by changing the royal dynasty at least triennially, substituting a 

 young and vigorous queen for an old and failing one. If this were 

 judiciously and scientifically managed, together with a periodical ex- 



