46 SYMPTOMS PRIOR TO SWARMING. 
apiary of twelve hives, I was to have the privilege of selecting one, 
and he one. He selected, as a matter of course, the weakest and 
lightest hive in the apiary, which was a swarm of the previous year, 
and had not filled the hive, (which was not a large one,) but a little 
more than half full of combs. I selected the heaviest and most popu- 
lous stock he had, which was only two years old, very heavy, and 
then overflowing with bees. I brought them home without injury, 
and placed the hives side by side in my apiary, and by the twenticth 
of May the strongest colony were clustering out in quantities sufficient 
to swarm. At this time the little swarm had not near filled their 
hive with comb or bees, but were doing as well as could be expected. 
Both continued to increase in numbers; the large colony clustering 
nearly sufficient to completely cover the hive, and all idle—as the 
hive on the first of May was filled with combs, and these pretty well 
stored with honey. On the twenty-second of June, the small 
swarm had filled their hive, and thrown off a fine swarm, which I 
saved. Five days after, I drove or transferred the parent stock into 
one of my hives, at which time they had no matured queen, but three 
in their cells in an embryo state, which I placed in the new hive, with 
pieces of the brood-combs adjoining the royal brood; these were hatch- 
ed in a few days, and the colony immediately commenced their labors, 
to all appearances as well as a swarm that had been thrown off in the 
usual way. The old colony, in the other hive, still continued to clus- 
ter out in a mass sufficient to fill a half-bushel, or nearly so. I bore 
with them until the first week in July, when I transferred them into 
another of my hives, and on examining the old combs, not the least 
preparation had been made for raising a young queen, as no royal cells 
had even been commenced. Instances similar to the foregoing have 
probably fallen under the observation of most every bee-keeper, and it 
is not a little perplexing to the apiarian to be trifled with in this way, 
day after day, and week after week, and his bees not swarm after all. 
In my hives, if the bees do not feel inclined to swarm immediately 
after they have filled two of the large boxes, I open the communica- 
tion to the third, so as to let them have sufficient room to labor to ad- 
ventage. In this way I manage to get much more honey than from 
the common hive, and without injury to the colony. 
