ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 207 



gale which " fans its odoriferous wings " about their dwell- 

 ings, dispenses 



" Native perfumes, and whispers whence they stole* 

 Those balmy spoils." 



By the time that the feeble stock is prepared to swarm, if 

 it swarm at all that season, the honey-harvest is almost over, 

 and the new colony will seldom be able to gather even 

 enough for iis own use, so that unless fed, it must perish the 

 succeeding Winter. Bee-keeping, with colonies feeble in the 

 Spring, except in extraordinary seasons and locations, is 

 most emphatically nothing but " folly and vexation of 

 spirit." 



I have shown how the bee-keeper, with a strong stock- 

 hive which has swarmed early, and but once, may in a favor- 

 able season realize a handsome profit from his bees. If the 

 parent stock throws a second swarm, then, as a general rule, 

 unless this swarm weis very early, and the honey season 

 good, if managed on the ordinary plan, it will seldom prove 

 of any value. It will almost always perish in the Winter, if 

 it does not desert its hive in the Fall, and the family from 

 which it issued, will not only gather no surplus honey, (un- 

 less it was secured before the first swarm issued,) but will 

 very often perish likewise. Thus the inexperienced owner 

 who was so delighted with the rapid increase of his colonies, 

 begins the next season with no more colonies than he had 

 the year before, and has very often entirely lost all the time 

 he has bestowed upon his bees. I can, to be sure, on my 

 plan, prevent the death of the bees, and can build up all the 

 feeble colonies, so as to make them strong and powerful ; 

 but only by giving up all idea of obtaining a single pound of 



♦The sceut of the hives, during the height of the gathering season, 

 will usually inform ns from what sources the bees have gathered their 

 supplies. 



