244 ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 



jeet, but that he was also a successful practical Apiarist. Its 

 precepts, with but few exceptions, are truly admirable, and 

 prove that in his time bee-keeping, with the masses, must have 

 been far in advance of what it was fifty years ago. 



We have spoken of the bar-hive (283) as at least two 

 hundred years old. From "A Journey into Greece, by George 

 Wheeler, Esq.," made in 1675-6, it appears that it was, at 

 that time, in common use there, and, probably, even then an 

 old invention; he described its uses in forming artificial 

 swarms, and removing spare honey. As the new swarms were 

 made by dividing the combs between two hives, and no men- 

 tion is made of giving the queenless one a royal cell, those old 

 observers were probably acquainted with the fact that they 

 could rear one from the worker-brood. Huber says: — "Mon- 

 ticelli, a Neapolitan Professor, claims that the plan of arti- 

 ficial swarming was borrowed from Favignana, and that the 

 practice is so ancient that even the Latin names are pre- 

 served by the inhabitants in their procedure." 



470. Huber, after his splendid discoveries in the physi- 

 ology of the bee, felt the need of some way of multiplying 

 colonies, more reliable than that of natural swarming. He 

 recommends forming artificial swarms, by dividing one of the 

 hives, and adding six empty frames to each half. 



"Dividing-hives" {27S-279) of various kinds have been 

 used in this country. The principle seems to have all the ele- 

 ments of success; but it was ascertained that, however modi- 

 fied, such hives are all practically worthless for purposes of 

 artificial increase. 



It is one of the laws of the hive, that hees which have no 

 mature queen, seldom build any cells except such as are de- 

 signed merely for storing honey, and are too large for the 

 rearing of workers (228). 



471. Messrs. Langstroth and Dzierzon were the first ob- 

 servers who had noticed the bearing of this remarkable fact 

 on artificial increase. It may, at first, seem unaccountable 

 that bees should build only comb unfit for breeding, when 



