172 THE APIARY. 



natural swarm. In the first place, we slid a tin under 

 the bell-glass, and removing the stock-hive from under- 

 neath, we took it a few feet away ; then we placed an 

 empty improved cottage-hive where the old stock had 

 stood, and put the glass of comb containing the queen 

 and a fewbees over one of the holes in the crown of this 

 new empty hive. The bees that were left abroad 

 belonging to the old stock returned as usual to their old 

 entrance as they supposed; soon a sufficient number 

 formed a large cluster in the hive and began comb- 

 building, the queen remaining in the glass until the 

 cells below were sufficiently numerous for her to deposit 

 her eggs in them. The division answered exceedingly 

 well ; both hives prospered : the old hive either had some 

 princesses coming forward to supply the loss of the 

 queen,, or the bees used a power that they possess of 

 raising a queen from worker-brood in the manner we 

 have previously described.* 



The foregoing account illustrates the successful forma- 

 tion of an artificial swarm ; but, with a cottage-hive, 

 gaining possession of the queen is quite a matter of 

 chance. With a movable frame-hive she can at any 

 suitable time be found. 



Precisely the same plan is to be adopted with the old 



stock in the frame-hive as we have described in the case 



of the cottage-hive, that is, to remove it some few paces 



off: when the hives are in a bee-house, a similar result 



* See Section i, page 9. 



