ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 175 



Even with a Huber hive, the plan of multiplying colonies 

 by dividing a full hive into two parts, and adding an empty 

 half to each, will be attended with serious difficulties ; al- 

 though some of them may be remedied in consequence of 

 the hive being constructed so as to divide into many parts ; 

 the very attempt to remedy them, however, will be found to 

 require a degree of skill and knowledge far in advance of 

 what can be expected of the great mass of bee-keepers. 



The common dividing hives, separating into two parts, can 

 never, under any circumstances, be made of the least prac- 

 tical value ; and the business of multiplying colonies by 

 them, will be found far more laborious, uncertain and vexa- 

 tious, than to rely on natural swarming. I do not know of 

 a solitary practical Apiarian, who, on trial of this system, 

 has not been compelled to abandon it, and allow the bees to 

 swarm from his dividing hives in the old-fashioned way. 



Some Apiarians have attempted to multiply their colonies 

 by putting a piece of brood comb containing the materials 

 for raising a new Queen, into an empty hive, set in the place 

 of a strong stock which has been removed to a new stand 

 when thousands of its inmates were abroad in the fields. 

 This method is still worse than the one which has just been 

 described. In the dividing hive, the bees already had a 

 large quantity of comb adapted for breeding, while in this 

 having next to none, they build all their combs until the 

 Queen is hatched, of a size unsuitable for rearing workers. 

 In the first case, the queenless part of the dividing hive 

 may have had a young Queen almost mature, so that the 

 process of building large combs would be of short contin- 

 uance ; for as soon as the young Queen begins to lay, the 

 bees at once commence building combs adapted to the re- 

 ception of worker eggs. In some of my attempts to rear 

 artificial swarms by moving a full stock, as described above, 



