PREVENTING AFTER-SWARMS — ARTIFICIAL INCREASE. 99 



young queen is at hand and it is desirable to replace tbe old queen, all 

 cells but one may be destroyed, but tbis must on no account be jarred 

 or dented. Tbe danger of overlooking a cell wbere tbe bive is crowded 

 witb bees makes this method somewhat uncertain; moreover, when the 

 bees have once got tbe '^ swarming fever" they may swarm again with- 

 out preparation in tbe way of queen cells. It is also very troublesome 

 to remove supers to get at tbe brood combs. These difficulties will 

 induce many who may wish to limit tbe number of their colonies to 

 prefer hiving tbe swarms on starters of foundation on the old stands 

 and giving them tbe supers, while tbe parent colonies are placed near 

 them witb entrances turned away for a few days. The flight bees return, 

 of cour.<e, to the old stand. Tbe parent colony should be turned a little 

 each day so as to briug it in five or six days side by side witb tbe bive 

 containing tbe swarm, which is on tbe old stand, and make its front 

 face in tbe same way. By lifting it a day or so later, while the young 

 bees are flymg, over to tbe opposite side of tbe old stand and turning 

 its entrance away froDi tbat of the bive on this stand, tbe bees that are 

 flying, as well as those that have marked their last location, will join the 

 swarm: and if tbe same operation be repeated at tbe end of another 

 week most of tbe remaining bees will find their way within a day or 

 two into the hive on the old stand. About this time — tbat is, some fif- 

 teen or sixteen days after tbe issuance of the first swarm — the young 

 queen will commence laying and may be put in place of the old one 

 which issued with tbe swarm. If honey is still coming in, tbe young 

 queen, with accompanying bees, may usually be safeh^ introduced at this 

 time by shaking them in front of tbe hive from which tbe queen has 

 been removed, both lots of bees having been smoked beforehand so as 

 to get them to fill themselves with honey; or tbe two combs between 

 which the queen is found may be lifted, with adhering bees, and placed 

 in tbe center of tbe colony to which the queen is to be given. Before 

 doing this it is best to smoke tbe latter pretty thoroughly, and if two 

 of the brood combs from this hive have been removed a few hours before 

 and placed, after their bees have been shaken off, in the colony to be 

 united, and all other combs taken away from tbe latter, the bees, with 

 their queen, will be clustered on these brood combs, and they may be 

 lifted up without disturbance and placed in tbe middle of tbe other bive, 

 whose su])ers and cover are to be put in place at once and tbe bees left 

 to quiet down and resume storing. Under these circumstances the loss 

 of a queen will be very rare; nevertheless, in tbe case of an excep- 

 tionally valuable one, cages and other methods are advisable. (See 

 Chapter IX.) 



ARTIFICIAL 1>CKEASE. 



The time lost in watching for swai^ms and hiving them, the occasional 

 losses of swarms, and the vexations attendant upon their issuance, such 

 as their clustering in tall trees, uniting and killing queens, and the 

 delay in their swarming when tbe time has come for it, have led be^ 



