228 ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 



because her fertility has decreased, but merely because 

 there is not room in the hive for all her eggs. She may 

 often be seen restlessly traversing the combs, seeking in 

 vain for empty cells, until finding none, she is compelled to 

 extrude her eggs, only to be devoured by the bees. If some 

 of the full combs are removed, and empty ones substituted, 

 she will speedily fill them, laying at the rate of two or three 

 thousand eggs a day ! A queen in a small colony, or in a 

 hive where nearly all the brood comb is occupied, will often 

 appear almost as slender as one which is still unfertile ; but 

 give her plenty of bees and empty comb, and in a short 

 time, her proportions will become so much enlarged, that she 

 will often be wholly incapable of flight. (See p. 51-2.) 



When strong stocks are, from time to time, deprived of 

 one or two combs, if honey can easily be procured, (and if 

 it cannot, the Apiarian must himself supply it,) the bees 

 proceed at once to replace them, and the queen commences 

 laying in the new combs, as soon as the cells are fairly 

 started. 



If the combs are not removed too fast, and care is taken 

 not to deprive the stock of so much brood that the bees can- 

 not maintain a vigorous population, a queen in a hive so 

 managed, will lay her eggs in cells to be nurtured by the 

 bees, instead of being eaten up ; and thus, in the course of 

 the season, she may become the mother of three or four 

 times as many bees, as are reared in a hive under other 

 circumstances. By careful management, brood enough may, 

 in this way, be taken from a single hive, to build up a large 

 number of nuclei. Towards the close of the season, how- 

 ever, as such a hive has been constantly tasked in building 

 comb and feeding young bees, nearly all its honey will have 

 been used for these purposes, and although if may be very 

 populous, it will surely perish, unless liberally fed. Since 



