244 ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 
If it is desirable to make a large number of swarms, and 
the parent colony is strong in hatching bees, only a few of 
the combs need be shaken in front of the new hive contain- 
ing the queen, and the parent colony, with the adhering 
young bees, may be set in a new place. 
By this method, one swarm is made from each of the 
hives set apart for increase, and although the colonies 
thus divided are not so strong as when one swarm is made 
from two hives; yet, in ordinary localities and seasons, 
they become strong enough for all purposes, long before 
the season is over, especially if young queens are introduced 
(533) in the colonies made queenless, and comb-founda- 
tion is used in full sheets in the frames (674). 
477. If the mother-colony has not been supplied with a 
fertile queen, it cannot for a long time part with another 
swarm, without being seriously weakened. 
Second-swarming, as is well known, often very much in- 
jures the parent-stock, although its queens are rapidly ma- 
turing ; but the forced mother-stock may have to start them 
almost from the egg. By giving it a fertile (533) queen, 
and retaining enough adhering bees to develop the brood, 
another swarm may be taken away in ten or twelve days in 
a good season, and the mother-stock left in a far better con- 
dition than if it had parted with two natural swarms. In 
favorable seasons and localities, this process may be re- 
peated two or three times, at intervals of ten days, and if 
no combs are removed, the mother-stock will still be well 
supplied with brood and mature bees. Indeed, the judi- 
cious removal of bees, at proper* intervals, often leaves it, 
at the close of the Summer, better supplied than non-swarm- 
*If a stock of bees, in a hive of moderate size, is examined, at the height of 
the honey-harvest, nearly all the cells will often be found full of brood, honey, 
or bee-bread. The great laying of the queen is over—not as some imagine, be- 
cause her fertility has decreased, but simply for want of room for more brood. 
A queen in such a colony, orinahive having few bees, often appears almost 
as slender as one still unfertile; but if she has plenty of bees and empty comb 
given ner, her proportions will soon become very much enlarged. 
