188 AETIFICIAL SWAEMS. 



on boxes, I should probably have obtained twenty-five or 

 thirty pounds of pure honey from each ; besides, the old 

 stocks, even with old comb, would have been better sup- 

 plied with both honey and bees, and altogether much bet- 

 ter stocks for wintering. Here was an important loss, 

 arising simply from ignorance. 



I looked the bees over carefully, and ascertained to a 

 certainty that none of them had a queen. The few bees 

 left, I smothered in the fall. I then knew of no better 

 way. I had been told that the barbarous use of " fire and 

 brimstone" was part of the " luck" — that a more benevo- 

 lent system would cause them " to run out," etc. I can- 

 not, to this day, account for my want of success. Since 

 then, I have succeeded nineteen times in twenty, under 

 circumstances, apparently precisely similar. 



The swarming season is certainly the best time, as then 

 most of the stocks are constructing these cells, preparatory 

 to swarming, and there can hardly be a failure with the 

 method recommended. But I shall advise furnishing the 

 old stock with a queen before they can raise one, either 

 by giving them a cell ready to hatch, or a laying queen. 

 It is very plain that a queen from a finished cell must be 

 ready to deposit eggs several days sooner, than one which 

 is raised in the hive, after the necessity for one exists. 



It is also clear, if we have a dozen queens depositing 

 eggs by June 10th, that our bees are increasing faster on 

 the whole, than if but half that number are engaged in it 

 for a month later. There is yet another advantage. The 

 sooner a young queen can take the place of the old one in 

 maternal duties the less time will be lost in breeding, the 

 more bees there will be to defend the combs from the 

 moth, and the sooner the guarantee for surplus honey. 



HOW TO MAKE AETIFICIAL SWAEMS. 



When you are all ready, take a stock that can spare a 

 swarm; if bees are on the outside, raise the hive on 



