174 ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 



Storing honey, is too coarse for the rearing of workers. 

 Until I became acquainted with the discoveries of Dzierzon, 

 I supposed myself to be the only observer who had noticed 

 this remarkable fact, and who had been led by it, to modify 

 the whole system of artificial swarming. The perusal of 

 Mr. Wagner's manuscript translation of that author, showed 

 me that he had arrived at precisely similar results. 



It may seem at first, very unaccountable that bees should 

 go on to fill their hives with comb unfit for breeding, when 

 the young Queen will so soon require worker-cells for her 

 eggs ; but it must be borne in mind, that bees, under such 

 circumstances, are always in an unnatural state. In a state 

 of nature they seldom swarm until the hive is full of comb, 

 and if they do, their numbers are so much reduced, that 

 they are rarely able to resume comb-building, until their 

 young Queen has hatched. 



The determination of bees, when they have no mature 

 Queen, if they build any comb at all, to build such as is 

 suited only for storing honey, and unfit for breeding, will 

 show at once, the folly of attempting to multiply colonies by 

 the dividing-hives. Even if the Apiarian has been perfect- 

 ly successful in dividing a colony, and the part without a 

 Queen takes the necessary steps to supply her loss, if the 

 bees are sufficiently numerous to build a large quantity of 

 new comb, (and they ought to be in order to make the arti- 

 ficial colony of any value,) they will build this comb in such 

 a manner that it will answer only for storing honey, while 

 they will use the half of the hive with the old comb, for the 

 purpose of breeding. The next year, if an attempt is made 

 to divide this hive, one half will contain nearly all the brood 

 and mature bees, while the other, having most of the honey, 

 in combs unfit for breeding, the new colony formed from it 

 will be a complete failure. 



