250 ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 



the combs need be shaken ui front of the new hive contain- 

 ing the qneen, and the parent colony, with the adhering young 

 bees, may be set in a new place. 



By this method, one swarm is made from each of the hives 

 set apart for increase, and although the colonies thus divided 

 are not so strong as when one swarm is made from two hives ; 

 yet, in ordinary localities and seasons, they become strong 

 enough for all purposes, long before the season is over, espe- 

 cially if young queens are introduced (533) in the colonies 

 made queenless, and comb-foundation is used in full sheets in 

 the frames (67-1). 



This method of making artificial swarms may be varied ad- 

 infinitum. It is currently known among practical Apiarists 

 under the name of "shook-swarming." 



■lYT. If the mother-colony has not been supplied with a 

 fertile queen, it cannot for a long time part with another 

 swarm, ■without bemg seriously weakened. 



Second-swarming, as is well known, often very much in- 

 jures the parent-colony, although its queens are rapidly ma- 

 turing; but the forced mother-colony may have to start them 

 almost from the egg. By giving it a fertile queen, and re- 

 taining enough adhering bees to develop the brood, another 

 swarm may be taken away in ten or twelve days in a good 

 season, and the mother-colony left in a far better condition 

 than if it had parted with two natural swarms. In favorable 

 seasons and localities, this process may be repeated two or 

 three times, at intervals of ten days, and if no combs are re- 

 moved, the mother-colony will still be well supplied with 

 brood and mature bees. Indeed, the judicious removal of 

 bees, at proper intervals, often leaves it, at the close of the 

 Summer, better supplied than non-swarming colonies with ma- 

 turing brood ; the latter havmg — in the expressive language 

 of an old writer — "waxed over fat." 



We have had colonies which, after parting with four swarms 

 in the way abo\'e described, have stored their hives with Fall 

 honey, besides yielding a surplus in the supers. 



