CONTROLLED INCREASE. 
275 
queen, and keeping the apiary under a star of ill omen 
in consequence. 
11. Nothing tends more completely to profitlessness 
than prolonged queenlessness during the spring laying. 
If combs of eggs be given at intervals, this state- 
ment does not apply. 
12. Honey-production and rapid increase cannot co- 
exist. A mania for the making of swarms has, in its 
results, disgusted more young bee-keepers than all 
other causes of disaster put together. The manu- 
facturer of weak colonies has usually to pay for 
their maintainance in the summer, and mourn their 
decease in the spring ; so that, instead of profit, he 
loses his money, and his bees into the bargain. 
The greatest difficulty of the bee-master is yet to 
be studied ; for it is not in multiplying his colonies, 
but in preventing their multiplication, or in con- 
trolling absolutely the how and when of their increase, 
at the same time that he keeps them all at their 
highest strength, that he can best vindicate his title 
as an expert in the art ; while by no other means is 
it possible for him to attain distinguished success in 
honey-production, and emphatically so if this honev 
is to be sold in the comb. Advice as wise as it 
was quaint was given, many years since, by Mr. 
D. A. Jones, in my hearing, at a little private party 
of bee-keepers, in reply to the question, “What do 
you think the most important rule as affecting profit 
in the management of our stocks?” He said at once, 
“ Keep as few as you can.” Supplying the ellipsis 
which was conveyed by the smile and the twinkle of 
the eye, the reply would run, “ Keep your bees in 
