234, BEE MANIPULATION. [Ch. v. 



may come off at a time when he is absent, and thus be 

 perhaps lost, are additional objections to depending upon 

 the natural process. An apiarian may if he pleases give 

 the bees their chance, and then if they do not swarm 

 readily he may resort to artificial means. But if he 

 wishes to dispense with the former altogether he \vill 

 have to adopt measures of prevention against it, as his 

 forced colony must not be procured till the proper time 

 of natural swarming. Some clip the wings of the queen, 

 which seems a clumsy proceeding at the best — though re- 

 commended by high authorities from Virgil to Langstroth 

 — as the royal mother may still wander forth and thus 

 fall to the ground and be lost. Others block the en- 

 trance of the hive with some obstruction which only 

 workers can pass, by which means the drones will also 

 be kept at home. If this be the method pursued care 

 must be taken that the obstructions are removed both 

 after sunset and before sunrise to permit of the dragging 

 out of the bodies of such as haye fallen among the 

 hourly victims of the gathering season. 



The best time for performing the operation is about 

 ten o'clock in the morning of a fine summer's day. The 

 following directions should be carried out : Place ready 

 a counter or bench that is firm and strong, and which 

 has space on it for the inhabited — or, rather, the over- 

 inhabited — frame hive, and the empty one, which is about 

 to be made the receptacle of a separate stock. The 

 operator, attired in his bee dress, and having the other 



