212 NUMERICAL STRENGTH OF A HIVE. 



of the bee. In the management of the swarms, however, it 

 becomes almost imperative on the individual, who professes 

 to guide the uninitiated through the mazes of apiarian science, 

 to point out to him those errors and fallacies, which the dis- 

 tempered imagination of some pseudo-naturalists has intro- 

 duced into the practical department of the apiary, an 

 adherence to which will be followed by the most disastrous 

 consequences, and discourage the young apiarian altogether 

 from one of the most pleasing and profitable pursuits of an 

 English garden. 



It is generally admitted by all experienced keepers of bees, 

 that a second swarm is very seldom worth preserving, and, 

 in fact, it is a rare occurrence that a second swarm sur- 

 vives the winter in this country. This circumstance may 

 not arise so much from the actual want of honey in the fields, 

 as from the paucity of the number of bees to collect it. At the 

 time when the second swarms are generally thrown off, the 

 richest portion of the honey season is but at its commence- 

 ment; July and August are the most abundant months in the 

 year for the collection of honey, and therefore, as far as the 

 amassing of their winter store is to be considered, a second 

 swarm stands as good a chance of collecting a sufficiency for 

 its support as a first, and the two following circumstances 

 will show that as the prosperity of a hive greatly depends on 

 its numerical force, it ought to be the aim and study of the 

 skilful apiarian to increase that force by all the means in his 

 power. The numerical strength of a first and second swarm 

 is in the ratio of about three to one. The former generally 

 possesses strength sufficient to amass a sufficiency of food 

 for its winter support, but this is seldom the case with a 

 second swarm. If, however, it should so happen that two 

 second swarms are thrown off the same day, and a junction 

 of them immediately takes place, such a hive then generally 

 stands on an equality with a first swarm, and by the increase 

 of numerical power, the resources of the community are 



