NATURAL INCREASE. 
15 
will be our subject ; and, since artificial colonies are in 
circumstances altogether similar to natural ones, the 
method of aiding and best utilising our hived bees 
may well be deferred. The parent colony, however, 
now demands both our study and attention. Here 
we find a widely-extended brood-nest, comprising, 
perhaps, 40,000 or 50,000 pupae,* larvae, and eggs, 
testifying to the activity of the queen, who furnished 
this number of cells during the twenty or twenty-one 
days before her departure ; and although, possibly, 
20,000 emigrants have left, yet a sufficient number of 
bees, ordered by that hidden wisdom we call instinct, 
has remained to carry on the -work of tending the 
multitude of advancing grubs, maintaining the tem- 
perature, and completing the work of raising new 
queens already in progress when the swarm left- 
Except under quite unusual circumstances, abundant 
honey is in store. Narrowing the doorway, to assist 
in husbanding heat, and to make the work of defence 
against robbers easy, is all that is required ; and even 
this may be omitted, unless the weather should take 
an unfavourable turn. For reasons presently made 
clear, it is generally desirable, however, to place the 
swarm on the stand the parent hive occupied, and 
carry the latter to a new position. This adds to the 
swarm all the flying bees that had preferred “ the 
old house at home,” and, of course, proportionately 
weakens the parent stock, which should now be more 
carefully guarded against chill, and would benefit by 
* Nymphs, or chrysalids (N, Fig. 4, Vol. I.) ; all these terms apply 
equally to the condition assumed afcer sealing, cocoon-spinning, and the 
last moult but one. 
