76 THE COTTAGE AND FARM BEE KEEI'ER. 



oision of comb, I see no reason why an apiary should not maintain a 

 perpetual youth, and any one colony flourish to an indefinite period. 

 One way of supplying a constant succession of young princesses from 

 external sources, will be fully detailed in this chapter ; but that the 

 apiarian may securely depend on his own resources for this purpose, it will 

 be advisable for him to keep a few cottage hives, in proportion to the 

 size of his bee house, and the number of his colonies, although he will 

 generally be able to procure his young queens elsewhere and other- 

 wise. Such hives, kept for this purpose, may be managed according 

 to the instructions so fully given in the earlier part of this volume. 

 They had better be purchased at the outset ; and the bee house stock- 

 ed with swarms procured from them in due time, rather than with a 

 swarm or swarms obtained at the usual season. No doubt, with due 

 precautions as to the selection of such swarms, the apiary will be as 

 well stocked in this as in any other way ; but there is this objection 

 to it, that any considerable profit will be delayed an additional year. 



First year. — Let us suppose, then, that a couple of strong stocks are 

 transferred to the garden in which the apiary is situated, whether in 

 spring or the previous autumn, from which two prime swarms issue 

 naturally in the course of the ensuing summer. That the apiary may 

 start well, I would advise the return of both swarms, as already ex- 

 plained, after destroying the old queens. In this way, more powerful 

 swarms, and youthful queens to boot, will be located in the bee house. 



"Where the swarm is forced artificially, with a view to the queen's de- 

 struction, it must by all means be deferred until she has laid royal eggs; 

 and, indeed, until it is ascertained that royal brood exists in the hive, 

 in a more or less advanced stage of forwardness; otherwise; the delay 

 would be very great before the second issue of the swarm. 



To ascertain this, it will be proper to drive the bees out of the hive, 

 when, if it clearly appear that royal brood does exist, the swarm may 

 immediately be dashed out of the temporary hive, and the queen sought 

 for and destroyed. The bees will immediately return home, and prepare 

 for their second issue. One great advantage belonging to this artifi- 

 cial method of destroying the queen, is, that the final issue of the 

 swarm will be so much earlier and more certain than if the natural first 

 rising of the swarm was waited for previous to destroying her; not 

 only so, the bees will be less likely to fly away and be lost. 



