VARIOUS METHODS. 245 
ing stocks with maturing brood; the latter having—in the 
expressive language of an old writer—‘‘ waxed over fat.’’ 
We have had stocks which, after parting with four swarms 
in the way above described, have stored their hives with Fall 
honey, besides yielding a surplus in boxes. 
This method of artificial increase, which resembles natural 
swarming, in not taking away the combs of the mother-stock, 
is not only superior to it, in leaving a fertile queen, but ob- 
viates almost entirely all risk of after-swarming; for the 
forced swarm, containing the old queen, seldom attempts to 
send forth a new colony, and the parent hive, in which the 
young queen is placed, is too destitute of field-workers to 
swarm soon. The young queen herself is equally content— 
except in very warm climates, or in extraordinary seasons 
—to stay where she is put. Even if the old queen is al- 
lowed to remain in the mother-stock, she will seldom leave, 
if sufficient room is given for storing surplus honey; and it 
makes no difference—as far as liability of swarming is con- 
cerned—where the young one is put. 
478. Artificial increase may be also made, by simply 
giving several frames of hatching bees to a nucleus (520) 
containing a fertile queen, and placing the colony thus built 
up on the stand of a strong hive, removing the latter to a 
new location. 
If, from some cause, the parent-colony could not be 
moved, the forced swarm might be made to adhere to a new 
location as follows: Secure their queen, when the bees are 
shaken out of the hive; and when they show that they miss 
her, confine them to their hive, until their agitation has 
reached its height. Then open the hive, and as the bees 
begin to take wing, present their queen to them. When 
they have clustered around her, they may be treated like a 
natural swarm. To do this with every forced swarm would 
take too much time; but it would answer well when the 
forced swarm is to be moved, a short distance. 
