170 ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 



tion they could obtain, never destroying any of their colonies, 

 and endeavoring to multiply them to the best of their ability, 

 who yet have not as many stocks as they had ten years ago. 

 Most of them would abandon the pursuit, if they looked 

 upon bee-keeping simply in the light of dollars and cents, 

 rather than as a source of pleasant recreation ; and some do 

 not hesitate to say that much more money has been spent, 

 by the mass of those who have used patent hives, than they 

 have ever realized from their bees. 



It is a very simple matter to make calculations on paper, 

 which shall seem to point out a road to wealth, almost as 

 flattering, as a tour to the gold mines of Australia or Califor- 

 nia. Only purchase a patent bee-hive, and if it fulfills all or 

 even a part of the promises of its sanguine inventor, a for- 

 tune must, in the course of a few years, be certainly real- 

 ized ; but such are the disappointments resulting from the 

 bees refusing often to swarm at all, that if the hive could 

 remedy all the other difficulties in the way of bee-keeping, 

 it would still fail to answer the reasonable wishes of the 

 experienced Apiarian. If every swarm of bees could be 

 made to yield a profit of twenty dollars a year, and if the 

 Apiarian could be sure of selling his new swarms at the 

 most extravagant prices, he could not, like the growers of 

 mulberry trees, or the breeders of fancy fowls, multiply his 

 stocks so as to meet the demand, however extensive ; but 

 would be entirely dependent upon the whims and caprices 

 of his bees; or rather, upon the natural laws which control 

 their swarming. 



Every practical bee-keeper is well aware of the utter 

 uncertainty of natural swarming. Under no circumstances, 

 can its occurrence be confidently relied on. While some 

 stocks swarm regularly and repeatedly, others, strong in 

 numbers and rich in stores although the season may, in all 



