194 ARTIFICIAL SWAEMS. 



I will give another method of dividing with movable 

 combs, which some may prefer to adopt. 



Remove one frame containing brood comb, with the 

 bees that happen to be on it, together with the queen, to 

 an empty hive and place it on the old stand, setting the 

 old stock four feet to one side. Fill out the new hive with 

 empty frames. Most of the bees will come to this stand, 

 but enough will usually remain in the old hive, in addition 

 to the brood that hatches out, to keep it in a prosperous 

 condition. The frames should be moved together, and the 

 vacancy made by the removal, filled by an empty frame at 

 the outside. The hive being full of combs, they will not 

 construct new. They may be furnished with a queen-cell 

 as before directed. The objection to this method is their 

 occasional disi^osition to swarm out. 



"When the trouble is no great obstacle, and it is desired 

 to iircrease the stocks to the utmost, without regard to 

 surplus honey, perhaps more good swarms may be made, 

 by having the breeding hive rather large, and keeping the 

 old queen at home, continually supplying the combs with 

 eggs. If she is usually prolific, a swarm of more than 

 20,000 bees may be taken out every three or four weeks. 

 Take out the combs, shake off and get into an empty 

 hive all the bees proper to spare, and return the old queen. 

 Give them a mature queen in a wire-cloth cage, as describ- 

 ed in Chap. xxrv. Confine the bees a few hours, and 

 remove at least a mile. The queen may be liberated 

 after thre€ or four days. Her presence will generally pre- 

 vent much drone-comb from being buUt. If any comb of 

 the old hive becomes filled with honey, it should at once 

 be removed and replaced with an empty one, as it wiU oc- 

 cupy room that should'be used for brood. The advantage 

 of this plan is, that all the combs of the parent hive, are 

 maturing bees throughout the season, and there is no loss 

 of time, as for some weeks in swarming hives. 



