ABILITY TO SUPPLY A QUEEN. 23 
downward, taking from the top full ones either of honey- 
combs or bees; as wanted, supplying empty ones under- 
neath. Sometimes this seems to work, both swarms, when 
a division is thus made, prospering for a time; at other 
times one or the other of the two portions proving a fail- 
ure altogether. It was not till after several years that 
this system, so fascinating in theory, was found ‘to be 
worthless and the reasons pointed out. As this mode of 
multiplication sometimes seems to work and at other times 
to fail, and these failures result at different times from 
different causes, we shall be under the necessity of in- 
quiring what the bees of each division do under every 
phase of circumstances. Let three boxes, A, B, C, placed 
one above the other, represent one of these hives, A being 
at the top. In attempting to artificially swarm the bees 
with this hive, suppose A to be moved to a new location, 
and a new box, D, placed beneath B C—if the queen 
and most of the bees happen to be left in 6 C—what will 
be the result? I venture to say, that in ninety-nine cases 
out of a hundred the bees will leave A and go back to 
B C, carrying the honey with them. Now suppose the 
queen to be taken in the box A, what will be the result? 
In nine times out of ten, the establishment of a new colony 
in A, especially if a considerable number of bees and 
brood in the combs accompany the queen thither. But 
the greater portion of the swarm will return to the accus- 
tomed spot, B C D, which is sought to be prevented by 
removing B C D also a little distance. In either case 
considerable new comb will be built in D before the ma- 
turity of the young queen, the quantity being in propor- 
tion to the number of bees in the hive, not unfrequently 
filling it wp with worthless combs; since every colony of 
bees, while destitute of a queen, build drone combs only. 
