ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 205 



number of his stocks ; nor can he do this, unless they are alt 

 strong, and the season favorable. The moment that he aims, 

 in any season not unusually favorable, at a more rapid in- 

 crease, he must not only renounce the idea of having any 

 surplus honey, but must expect to purchase food for the 

 support of his colonies, unless he is willing to see them all 

 perish by starvation. The time, food, care and skill required 

 to multiply stock with very great rapidity, in our short and 

 uncertain climate, are so great, that not one Apiarian in a 

 hundred can expect to make it profitable ; while the great 

 mass of those who attempt it, will be almost sure, at the close 

 of the season, to find themselves in possession of stocks 

 which have been so managed as to be of very little value. 



Before explaining some other methods of artificial swarm- 

 ing, which I have employed to great advantage, I shall 

 endeavor to impress upon the mind of the bee-keeper, the 

 great importance of thoroughly understanding, each season, 

 the precise object at which he is aiming, before he enters 

 on the work of increasing his colonies. If his object is, in 

 any one season, to get the largest yield of surplus honey, he 

 must at once make up his mind to be content with a moderate 

 increase of stocks. If, on the contrary, he desires to mul- 

 tiply his colonies, say, three or four fold, he must be pre- 

 pared, not only to relinquish the expectation of obtaining 

 any surplus honey, but, if the season should prove unfavor- 

 able, to purchase food for the support of his bees. Rapid 

 multiplication of colonies, and large harvests of surplus 

 honey, cannot in the very nature of things, be secured in 

 our climate, in any one season. 



If the number of colonies is to be increased to a large 



extent, then the bees in the Apiary will be tasked to the 



utmost in building new comb, as well as in rearing brood. 



For these purposes, they must consume the supply of honey 



18 



