154 NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL INCREASE. 
not be the case, when swarms are allowed to issue natur- 
ally, the deduction is, that this course is not productive 
of best results. Yet, as there are very many who will 
continue to follow this system of management, until 
they more fully appreciate the advantages to be gained by 
changing it, I shall give some space to Mr. Quinby’s di- 
rections concerning natural swarming. 
In the previous editions of this work, as well as in all 
books upon the subject up to the present day, this has 
been considered as one of the most interesting topics to 
be discussed. With his usual attention to minute details, 
Mr. Quinby gave very profuse instructions for all possi- 
ble emergencies, but I shall only make such quotations 
as are most essential for beginners, and those who have 
not come to practice the most advanced modes of increase 
of colonies. 
WHEN SWARMING COMMENCES, 
The swarming season in this latitude sometimes com- 
mences May 15th, and at other times July Ist. It usu- 
ally ends about the 15th of the latter month. I have 
‘known two seasons in Montgomery Co., N. Y., when 
swarms continued to issue throughout the entire summer, 
beginning in May and ending August 25th, with no in- 
terval of more than a week without swarms. One of 
these, 1863, was wet, and the flowers yielded but little 
honey. The native bees sent out about one-third the 
usual number of swarms, while the Italians continued. to 
swarm for three months. They did not store much more 
honey than others, but they must have collected more to 
feed the greater quantities of brood which they reared. 
Rather than be idle when the yield was scanty, they col- 
lected material, made combs, reared brood, and sent out 
swarms ; and at the end of the season the colonies were 
as strong, and had as much honey as the natives, which 
had not swarmed. 
