§vi.] ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 237 



eggs in them. The experiment answered exceedingly 

 well. Both hives prospered : the old hive either had , 

 some princesses coming forward to supply the loss of the 

 queen, or the bees used the power that they possess of 

 raising a queen from worker brood in the manner we 

 have previously described (page 16). 



The foregoing account illustrates the successful forma- 

 tion of an artificial swarm ; but, with a cottage hive, 

 gaining possession of the queen is on this method quite 

 a matter of chance. With a movable-frame hive she can 

 at any suitable time be found. 



Precisely the same plan is to be adopted with the 

 old stock in the frame hive as we have described in the 

 case of the cottage, that is, to remove it some few paces 

 off: when the hives are in a bee-house a similar result 

 may be obtained by placing the new swarm for a day or 

 two so as to be reached by the same entrance as the old 

 stock, and the latter may be removed to one close by. 

 Some apiarians recommend that a space be left between 

 the two hives, by arranging them on the right and left 

 of the old entrance, in order that too large a proportion 

 of bges should not enter the new hive at the old position, 

 to the impoverishment of the other. But we have found 

 the mode adopted with the cottage hive answer so well 

 that we see no reason for recommending any different 

 plan. 



It is the office of the bee-master to assist, not in the 

 least degree to oppose,- Nature. We know that when a 



