230 ARTIFICIAL SWAKMING. 



rear another. But what kind of comb will they fill their 

 hives with, before the young queen begins to breed ? Of 

 that, perhaps, you had never thought. Let me now give the 

 only safe rule for all. who engage in the multiplication of 

 artificial swarms. Never, under any circumstances, take so 

 much comb and brood from your stock hives, as seriously to 

 reduce their numbers. This should be to the Apiarian, 

 as " the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not." 



Suppcse that I should divide a populous stock, at the 

 swarming season, into four or five colonies ; the probability 

 is, that not one, if left to themselves, will be strong enough 

 to survive the Winter. If fed in the ordinary way, and yet 

 not supplied with combs and bees, their ruin will often be 

 only accelerated. If, on the contrary, I take, from time to 

 time, combs sufficient to form three or four nuclei, and 

 strengthen the new colonies, in such a way as not to draw 

 too severely upon the resources of the parent stock, I 

 may expect to see them all, in due time, strong and flour- 

 ishing. 



In the Spring, if I desire to determine the strength of a 

 colony principally to raising young bees, I can easily effect 

 it by the following plan. A box is made, of the same inside 

 dimensions with the lower hive, into which the bees of a full 

 hive, with their combs, can all be transferred, as soon as 

 they are gathering honey enough to build new combs. This 

 box is now set over the old hive, which contains its comple- 

 ment of empty frames, or better still, of frames supplied 

 with worker comb. As soon as the bees are strong enough 

 to build new comb, they take possession of the lower hive, 

 and the queen descends with them, in order to lay her eggs 

 in the lower combs. When the lower apartment becomes 

 pretty well filled, a large number of combs with maturing 

 bees, may be taken from the upper one, and when the hive 



