240 ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 



perfect control of the comb, is the soul of an entirely new 

 system of practical management, which may be modified to 

 suit the wants of all who cultivate bees. Even the advocate 

 ef the old fashioned plan of killing the bees, can with one 

 of my hives, destroy his faithful laborers, by shaking them 

 into a tub of water, almost, if not quite, as speedily as by 

 setting them over a sulpher pit ; while when he has accom- 

 plished the work of death, his honey will be free from dis- 

 gusting fumes, and all the labor of cutting it out of the hive, 

 may be dispensed with. At the same time, he will have in 

 reserve for future use, much empty worker-comb, which will 

 be worth far more for new swarms, the coming season, 

 than to be melted into wax. 



I am now prepared to answer an objection which doubtless 

 has been present in the minds of many, all the time that 

 they have been reading the various processes on which I 

 rely, for the artificial multiplication of colonies, A very 

 large number of persons who keep bees, or who wish to 

 keep them, are so much afraid of them, that they object 

 entirely even to natural swarming, because they are in dan- 

 ger of being stung, in the process of hiving the bees. How 

 are such persons to manage bees on a plan, which seems 

 like bearding a lion in its very den I The truth is, that some 

 persons are so very timid, or suffer so dreadfully from the 

 sting of a bee, that they are every way disqualified from 

 having anything to do with them, and ought either to have 

 no bees upon their premises, or to entrust the care of them 

 to others. By managing bees according to the directions 

 furnished in this treatise, almost any one can learn, by using 

 a bee-dress, to superintend them, with very little risk ; while 

 those who are favorites with them, may dispense entirely 

 with any protection. I find, in short, that the risk of being 



