ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 173 



ihe bee, perceived at once, the importance of multiplying 

 colonies by some method more reliable than that of natural 

 swarming. His leaf or book hive consisted of twelve frames, 

 each an inch and a quarter in width ; any one of which 

 could be opened at pleasure. He recommends forming arti- 

 ficial swarms, by dividing one of these hives into two parts ; 

 adding to each part six empty frames. After using a Huber 

 hive for a number of years, I became perfectly convinced 

 that it could only be made serviceable, by an adroit, experi- 

 enced and fearless Apiarian. The bees fasten the frames in 

 such a manner, with their propolis, that they cannot, except 

 with extreme care, be opened without jarring the bees, and 

 exciting their anger ; nor can they be shut without constant 

 danger of crushing them. Huber nowhere speaks of having 

 multiplied colonies extensively by such hives, and although 

 they have been in use more than sixty years, they have 

 never been successfully employed for such a purpose. If 

 Huber had only contrived a plan for suspending his frames, 

 instead of folding them together like the leaves of a book, I 

 believe that the cause of Apiarian science would have been 

 fifty years in advance of what it now is. 



Dividing hives of various kinds have been used in this 

 country. After giving some ef the best of them a thorough 

 trial, and inventing others which somewhat resembled the 

 Huber hive, I found that they could not possibly be made to 

 answer any valuable end in securing artificial swarms. For 

 a long time I felt that the plan ought to succeed, and it was 

 not until I had made numerous experiments with my hive 

 substantially as now constructed, that I ascertained the pre- 

 cise causes of failure. 



It may be regarded as one of the laws of the bee-hive, 

 that bees, when not in possession of a mature Queen, seldom 

 build any comb except such as being designed merely for 

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