CONTROLLED INCREASE. 
279 
prevented the rise of the swarming fever ; but none 
pretended — even the most accomplished — to achieve 
anything like uniform success, until Mr. S. Simmins 
last year announced “ an original non-swarming 
system,’^ adapted to hives in present use, based 
upon purely natural principles, and resulting in “ a 
total absence of any desire to swarm.” If this an- 
nouncement be sustained by experience, it is hardly 
possible to exaggerate its importance. The author of 
the system has subsequently introduced a hive in 
which he has endeavoured to give the fullest facility 
for the application of his method ; but at present let 
us leave this out of view, and endeavour to understand 
the principle involved. About a quarter of a century 
ago, Mr. Pettigrew, a most conservative straw-hivist, 
wrote : “Can bees be prevented from swarming? Yes, 
by the use of ekes ; and what are these ? Additions 
or enlargements from below. Hives are eked by 
riddle-rims, or hoops made of four or five rolls of 
straw, of the same description as those in a straw 
hive, and the same width as the hives raised by them. 
These ekes are fastened to the hives by nails or 
staples going into both, and the junctions covered by 
any kind of cement or paste.” Here, then, is an old 
statement somewhat like Mr. Simmins’ (although not 
in the smallest degree invalidating his claim to 
originality); and, if examined, they will be found to 
mutually illumine one another. 
At A, Fig. 76, we have the section of the filled 
skep {sk), raised on its eke {e, e), by which, according to 
Mr. Pettigrew, swarming would be prevented. The 
brood-combs which were finished have become by 
