58 Bee-keeping for Beginners. 



would soon make a fresh queen, but much valuable 

 time would be saved if a ripe queen cell or a new 

 queen was given twenty-four hours after the other 

 queen had been removed. Thus two colonies would 

 be made from one. There is another, and, we think, 

 much better, method of artificial swarming, and that is 

 by making three colonies from two. Go to a very 

 strong stock, and take out five or six frames of brood, 

 but not the queen, shaking the bees back into the hive. 

 Put these frames of brood into an empty hive, filling 

 it up with full frames of foundation. Then move 

 another strong stock to a fresh stand, and place the 

 hive of brood on the spot where the hive which has 

 been removed stood. The bees will flock to the old 

 spot, hatch out the brood and make a queen, but time 

 will again be saved if a queen cell or a queen is given 

 to them about a day after they discover they are 

 without one. This is by far the best method, as one 

 hive supplies the bees and the other the brood. 

 Natural swarming will thus be checked, and the bees 

 will all be at work. But the reader might say. Do 

 not the bees always work ? The answer is that bees 

 never do anything invariably. Dr Watts and his 

 " How doth the little busy bee," etc., are out of date, 

 if they were ever in date. As a rule they will work, 

 but we have known a hive of bees neither swarm nor 

 do anything else all the summer, unless made to by 

 artificial swarming. There are other methods of 

 artificial swarming, but it is only necessary to say 



