36 ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 



Stand, he then takes up No. 2, moves it to a new stand 

 several feet away irom the old one, and places No. i on the 

 stand on which No. 2 stood. The flying bees from No. 2 

 will enter No. i, raise a queen, and carry on the work of the 

 hive, which will be as strong as ever in the course of a 

 few days. In this case it will be seen that one hive supplies 

 the bees and the other the combs to make up a stock. If 

 the bee-keeper desires to make a swarm from a frame hive, he 

 opens it and looks at frame after frame until he finds the 

 queen, when he places the comb on which she is outside the 

 division-board, to make sure that she will not wander about 

 the hive. All the other combs are then placed in a second 

 frame hive a few feet distant, which is then covered up and 

 closed. The stock hive is then filled up with frames of comb 

 foundation ; the comb on which the queen is is placed in the 

 middle, the hive is closed, and the swarm is made. To make 

 a swarm from a frame hive and put it in a straw one, the 

 frame hive is moved away and a board about two feet square 

 is placed on its stand. The straw hive is placed on the board 

 with its front edge propped up by a stone. The frame hive 

 is opened and the combs looked over for the queen. When 

 found, she is caught by the wings and taken to the straw hive 

 and allowed to run in. If the swarm is required at once, 

 several frames of comb are taken out and the bees shaken off 

 on to the board in front of the straw hive, into which they 

 will run and join the queen. If the swarm is for sale it should 

 be packed in the evening and the frame hive returned to its 

 stand. The foregoing cases will show the general principles 

 of artificial swarming, but the proceeding can be varied in an 

 almost endless variety of ways to suit the circumstances of 

 particular cases. 



Artificial swarms should never be made during bad 

 weather, or at a time when natural swarming would be un- 

 seasonable, or when drones are not flying to fertilize the 

 queen, which will be raised in the swarmed stock unless a 

 fertile queen can be given to it. 



