190 AUSTRALASIAN 



" dividing," or, as it is commonly but not very appropriately 

 termed, "artificial swarming." Each of these methods has 

 certain advantages; the modern system of movable frame 

 hives, the use of comb-foundation, and the aid of queen- 

 rearing give wonderful facilities for dividing colonies in a way 

 which wj.s quite impossible with the old straw skeps or box 

 hives. - * With them it was only practicable to force a colony to 

 swarm by " driving " the bees, and that process was properly 

 enough called artificial swarming; but the modern process of 

 dividing is quite a different thing, as we shall see presently. 

 The same improvements, however, which render this artificial 

 mode of increase so practicable, also give great facilities for 

 controlling to a great extent the operations of natural swarm- 

 ing. There has been considerable difference of opinion even 

 among experienced bee-keepers as to which mode of increase 

 should be practised. Many leading men still think that the 

 natural swarming system possesses advantages which more 

 than counterbalance some very obvious inconveniences which 

 attend it ; while on the other hand there are many among the 

 most advanced apiarists who are in favour of the dividing 

 method, which undoubtedly is capable of being carried out 

 with extraordinary success by experts. Some writers go so 

 far as to say that no intelligent bee-keeper' with a full know- 

 ledge of his business should allow a natural swarm to take 

 place in his apiary. I do not like to lay down such dog- 

 matical rules. I am firmly of opinion, after practising both 

 methods of increase pretty extensively, that except under 

 special circumstances or in the hands of expert apiarists, 

 natural swarming, controlled according to modern practice, is 

 productive of as good results as any known method of artificial 

 increase; and 1 am sure it will be wiser for the beginner to follow 

 its practice at first, and until he shall feel himself capable of 

 carrying out the non-swarming or dividing method with perfect 

 ease and certainty. I shall therefore say what has to be said 

 with respect to both systems, leaving it to the judgment of the 

 reader to determine whether the one or the other should be 

 adopted, either as a general rule or under special circumstances. 



NATURAL SWARMING. 



The natural instinct for swarming, with which bees are 

 endowed, is an admirable provision for the propagation of their 



