§ xih] INCREASE OF BEES. S3 



maturity. If all those princesses were to become 

 monarchs, or mother bees, and to emigrate with a 

 proportionate number of workers, increase would be 

 going on more rapidly ; but the old stock would be so 

 impoverished thereby as possibly to yield no surplus 

 honey, whilst the swarms might come off too late for 

 them to collect sufficient store whereon to grow populpus 

 enough to withstand the winter. 



With bees, as with men, " union is strength ; " and it 

 is often better to induce them to remain as one family, 

 rather than to part numbers at a late period of the 

 honey-gathering season, without a prospect of support- 

 ing themselves, and so perish from cold and hunger 

 during the ordeal of the winter season. This is one of 

 the great secrets of successfiil bee-keeping. Mr. Lang- 

 stroth's recommendation is that none "but the most 

 experienced apiarians " should attempt " at the furthest 

 to do more than treble their stocks in one year." Even 

 doubling them, he says, is often too rapid an increase 

 for obtaining spare honey. 



Our plan of giving additional storage-room will, gene- 

 rally speaking, prevent swarming. This stay-at-home 

 policy, we contend, is an advantage ; for instead of the 

 loss of time consequent upon a swarm hanging out pre- 

 paratory to flight, all the bees are engaged in collecting ■ 

 honey, and that at a time when the -v^eather is most 

 favourable and the food most abundant. Upon the old 

 system the swarm leaves the hive simply because the 



