CONTROLLED INCREASE. 
265 
into artificially-swarmed stocks will be here remembered; 
but in every apiary of fair size, managed on the 
movable-comb principle, laying queens, and not queen- 
cells merely, should be raised in advance, so that, 
as a rule, neither part of the colonies we swarm or 
divide need suffer, even for twenty-four hours, the 
losses involved in queenlessness. Hereafter, too, we 
must learn that queens of the highest type can only 
be secured by certain precautions, which are impossible 
when stocks are allowed to re-queen themselves as 
best they may ; but experience will show that, in 
practice, even the most expert cannot invariably 
accomplish all that theory indicates as desirable, and 
that, as in many other matters, we must rather be 
content with what we can, than what we would, achieve. 
The proprietor of a single stock, which must first 
be very strong, can hardly do better than proceed 
thus ; On the morning of a fine day, let him take 
one, or better two, combs of sealed or well-advanced 
brood, and place them, with the queen, in a new hive, 
adding on each side two frames of comb, or, if these 
are not possessed, foundation, closing up the five or 
six frames with a division-board, and placing the 
whole on the original stand, while the parent goes to 
a new station, which need not be distant if the hive 
receive a half-rotation. Each bee that has already 
become a forager will, at her first flight, return to 
her accustomed place, and join the new-made colony, 
which is thus sufficiently strengthened to enable it 
to make progress. The gap left in the parent stock 
by the removal of some of its frames must be closed 
by pushing the remaining ones together, to conserve 
