ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 35 



at a serious disadvantage. Driven bees will be materially 

 helped by giving them a comb of brood taken frorri one o( 

 the other hives, but the bee-keeper must be certain that the 

 latter is able to spare the comb without injury to its own 

 prospects. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Where the bees are kept within view of the house, so as to 



be under something like constant supervision, it is better to 



allow them to swarm naturally, and limit the increase to one, 



or, at most, two swarms, if the season is a very good one, 



from each stock. It often happens, however, that a stock 



shows signs of an intention to swarm just at a time when all 



available help is wanted in the fields, and when this is the 



case the bee-keeper will do well to take the matter into his 



own hands and swarm his bees artificially, subject to certain 



rules to be given further on. To make an artificial swarm 



is a very simple operation, as the following illustrations will 



show. Suppose the bee-keeper has only one stock in a straw 



hive which he wishes to swarm, he takes it off its stand and 



puts a decoy hive in its place ; the bees are driven from it as 



before described, and the driven swarm and the stock hive, 



with combs, are placed, one at each side of the old stand, so 



that they are about two feet apart. Many of the returning 



bees will enter the stock hive and raise a queen, and as the 



bees grow stronger daily by the hatching of tfee brood left by 



the old queen (now with the swarm) the hive will very soon 



be as strong as before. The bees forming the artificial swarm 



will set to work and fill the hive with comb, as would a 



natural one. Immediately after making the swarm, should 



it be found that either hive gets more than a fair share of the 



flying bees, that hive must be moved a few inches farther 



away from, and the other a few inches nearer to, the old 



stand, but this should be done by the second or third day 



after making the swarm, as after that time the bees from one 



hive will not be allowed to enter the other. Again, suppose 



the bee-keeper has two stocks in straw hives, and wishes to 



make one strong swarm from them, he takes up No. i and 



drives every bee from it and places the swarm on the old 



