92 THE COTTAGE AND FARM BEE KEEPER. 



this colony will be very numerous in population, every bee having 

 been hatched out of the cells which were left full of eggs or brood on 

 the issue of the swarm from each. In this case, it is not so necessary 

 that royal brood should have been left by the old queen ; in fact, it 

 were perhaps better that the bees should rear a queen artificially, be- 

 cause, at the expiration of the three weeks, she will probably not have 

 laid a single egg yet in the hive. When this time is fully come, take 

 off the wpper hive, which will be principally occupied by the bees, and 

 set it on a stool provided for it, close to where it stood before ; that is, as 

 close as possible to the pail. Nowremove the reversedhive, whose combs 

 and cells will generally be found quite empty of brood, and deserted 

 by the bees, and cut out of it half the combs, on the side where they 

 appear oldest and blackest. "When I say half the combs, I do not 

 mean entire combs, but so much of them as appears to have been prin- 

 cipally used for breeding purposes, for the upper part, although dark 

 in color, perhaps, is sure to be good yet ; in fact, it very rarely becomes 

 black and old as the lower cells do. Having duly prepared it in this 

 manner, take the former hive and drive all the bees out of it into the 

 one just prepared for their reception. They may be placed finally on 

 the stool, and suffered to right themselves as best they may. As this 

 will be done very early in June, there is every chance of these bees col- 

 lecting a good deal of honey before winter, and replacing the re- 

 moved comb with beautiful fresh cells, so that they will form a good 

 stock for another year. Either this hive may be suffered to remain 

 where it is, as a third garden stock, or it may be transferred to the 

 bee house about Christmas, there to remain till the following spring, 

 when the whole population may be forced from it at the usual time, 

 as a swarm, and located in a box m its place ; it may then be set over 

 some other stock for the full period of three weeks, until every grub 

 in it has been hatched out, after which let it be destroyed. 



On the arrival of the month of August, the bee master will turn 

 his attention to the stocks to be formed artificially. Hitherto, his ap- 

 iary has only increased by the addition of one garden stock since the 

 preceding autumn, unless he have adopted the plan detailed a few 

 pages back ; but it may now be enlarged from seven to eleven colo- 

 nies, by giving to each of the ante-chamber boxes in the bee house a 

 new population, each under a distinct government. The method of 

 conducting this interesting series of operations has been already so 



