SWARMING AND DEPRIVING SYSTEMS. AT 
filled with brood-combs. At that time also honey 
becomes abundant; and when fine days suceced each 
other, the working bees amass an astonishing quantity. 
But where is it to be stored? Must they wait till 
the young bees have left the brood-cells, by which 
time the early flowers will be withered? What is 
to be done in this dilemna? Mark the resources 
of the industrious bees. They search in the neigh- 
bourhood* for a place where they may deposit their 
honey, until the young shall have left the combs 
in which they were hatched. If they fail in this 
object, they crowd together in the front of their habit- 
ation, forming prodigious clusters. It is not uncom- 
mon to see them building combs on the outside.” 
In general, honey-gathering is altogether suspended, 
necessarily, under the circumstances we have stated; 
and, after a long course of inaction, in the very best 
part of the season, swarming follows. Indeed there 
always appears to be a connection between swarming 
and idleness, induced by a succession of interregnums 
in the government, causing a suspension of breeding, 
when little or no store of any kind is collected. The 
proprietor must therefore make his election as to his 
course. If the multiplication of stocks is his object, 
his bees may thus be impelled to throw off swarms, 
but he must abandon the prospect of a large harvest 
of honey under such circumstances. This method 
of bee management is usually called single hiving, 
and is that commonly followed by cottagers. On the 
* From the context itis clear Gelieu on'y meant to imply some place 
of deposit in proximity to the parent hive, and not anything actuaily 
apart from it. 
