82 THE BEE AS AN INSECT. [Ch. i. 



that I liberated her, put her in a queen cage, suppHed 

 her with workers and comb on a following day, and, as 

 she became successfully fertilised, brought her through 

 the winter.'' 



§ XII. INCREASE OF BEES. 



In the section upon "The Queen" we have given 

 (page lo) some particulars as to the rate of breeding with 

 bees. The needful expansion for this rapid development 

 is found in the above process of " swarming,'' by which 

 they provide themselves with fresh space, and plant new 

 colonies. But the object of the bee-master is to train 

 and educate his bees, and in so doing he avoids much of 

 the risk and trouble which is incurred by allowing the 

 busy folk to follow their own devices. The various 

 methods for this end adopted by apiarians all come 

 under the term of the "depriving" system, and they 

 form part of the great object of humane and economical 

 bee-keeping, which is to save the bees alive instead of 

 slaughtering them as under the old clumsy regime. A 

 very natural question is often asked : How is it that, 

 upon the depriving system, where our object is to pre- 

 vent swarming, the increase of numbers is not so great 

 as upon the old plan ? It will be seen that the laying of 

 eggs is performed by the queen only, and that there is 

 but one queen to each hive; so that where swarming 

 is prevented there remains only one hive or stock, as 

 the superfluous princesses are not allowed to come to 



