244 ARTIFICIAL SWAKMING. 



If it is desirable to make a large number of swarms, and 

 the parent colony is strong in hatching bees, only a few of 

 the combs need be shaken in front of the new hive contain- 

 ing the queen, and the parent colony, with the adhering 

 young bees, may be set in a new place. 



By this method, one swarm is made from each of the 

 hives set apart for increase, and although the colonies 

 thus divided are not so strong as when one swarm is made 

 from two hives ; yet, in ordinary localities and seasons, 

 they become strong enough for all purposes, long before 

 the season is over, especially if young queens are introduced 

 (S33) in the colonies made queenless, and comb-founda- 

 tion is used in full sheets in the frames (674). 



477. If the mother-colony has not been supplied with a 

 fertile queen, it cannot for a long time part with another 

 swarm, without being seriously weakened. 



Second-swarming, as is well known, often very much in- 

 jures the parent-stock, although its queens are rapidly ma- 

 turing ; but the forced mother-stock may have to start them 

 almost from the egg. By giving it a fertile (533) queen, 

 and retaining enough adhering bees to develop the brood, 

 another swarm may be taken away in ten or twelve days in 

 a good season, and the mother-stock left in a far better con- 

 dition than if it had parted with two natural swarms. In 

 favorable seasons and localities, this process may be re- 

 peated two or three times, at intervals of ten days, and if 

 no combs are removed, the mother-stock will still be well 

 supplied with brood and mature bees. Indeed, the judi- 

 cious removal of bees, at proper* intervals, often leaves it, 

 at the close of the Summer, better supplied than non-swarm- 



»If a stock of tiees, in a hive of moderate size, Is examined, at the height oi 

 the honey-harvest, nearly all the cells -will often be fonnd full of brood, honey, 

 or bee-bread The great laying of the queen is over— not as some imagine, be- 

 cause lier fertility has decreased, but simply for want of room for more brood. 

 A queen in such a colony, or in a hive having few bees, often appears almost 

 as slender as one stiU unfertile; but if she has plenty of bees and empty comb 

 given her, her proportions will soon become very much enlarged. 



