ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 215 



erful colonies, let him select four of the strongest, and make 

 from each a forced swarm. He will then have four queen- 

 less colonies, which will at once, proceed to supply 

 themselves with a young queen. In about ten days, he may 

 make from his other six stocks, six more forced swarms. 

 He will probably find in making these, many sealed queens, 

 if he has delayed the operation until about swarming time ; 

 so that he may give to each of the six stocks from which he 

 has expelled a swarm, the means of soon obtaining another 

 queen. If he has not queens enough for this purpose, he 

 must take the required number from the four stocks which 

 are raising young queens, the exact condition of which ought 

 to have been previously ascertained. Some of these stocks 

 will be found to contain a large number of queen cells. 

 Huber, in one of his experiments, found twenty -four inbne 

 hive, and even a larger number has sometimes been reared 

 by a single colony. 



As the Apiarian will always have many more queens than 

 are wanted, he should select those combs which contain a 

 sealed queen, so as to obtain about fifteen combs, each of 

 which has one or more queens. If necessary, he can cutout 

 some of the cells, and adjust them in the manner previously 

 described. Each comb containing a sealed queen, must be 

 put with all the bees adhering to it, into an empty hive ; 

 water should be given to them, and honey, if there is none 

 in the comb. I always prefer to select a comb which con- 

 tains a large number of workers just beginning to hatch, 

 so that even if a considerable number of the bees should 

 return to the parent stock, after their liberty is given them, 

 there will still be a sufficient number hatched, to attend to 

 the young, and especially to watch over the maturing queens. 



If the comb has a large number of bees just emerging 

 from their cells, I prefer to confine them only one day. 



