SWAEMING AND NON-SWARMING SYSTEMS. 73 



spring. And we maintain that ten strong hives will do 

 more work than twenty-five weak ones. How does the 

 swarming system secure strong hives t In this way : the 

 bee-keeper has one, and often two, ' swarms to spare for, 

 and unite to, every hive he selects for stock in autumn. 

 The hive selected for stock gets the one or two swarms 

 from the honey -hive united to it, and thus becomes 

 doubly or trebly strong. Hives of such strength are well 

 able to face the difficulties of a severe winter — difficulties 

 which often crush and kiU weak ones ; and when? spring 

 arrives, these strong hives gain weight fast, and are ready 

 to swarm a month earlier than those that had no addi- 

 tional bees given to them in autumn. K hives are weak 

 ia bees in spring, they gain but little from fruit-blossoms, 

 which are so rich in honey, simply because they are not 

 strong enough to do much work ; but when made strong 

 in autumn by the addition of extra swarms, they gain 

 daily off the fruit-blossoms, in fine weather, from 3 to 

 5 lb. per hive. 



5th, On the non-swarming mode of management the 

 queens become old and die ; and at the time of the death 

 of a queen there is a great loss sustained. The hive in 

 which a queen dies will be without eggs for three weeks 

 afterwards, or thereabouts ; for ordinarily the young 

 queens are not matured till about ten days after the old 

 one dies, and it is ten days more before the young queen 

 that takes her place begins to lay. There is, too, the risk 

 of losing the whole ; for if the old queen dies when she 

 is not laying, the bees cannot raise a successor. 



In the swarming system, the bee-master may have 

 nothing but young queens in his hive, by destroying the 

 queens of the first swarm when the bees are united in 

 the autumn. We hope this matter is made so plain and 

 simple that none will misunderstand our meaning. 



But some bee-keepers may say, "We don't want 



