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to swarm your bees. In no case should you compel a 
colony of bees, which do not have their hive filled 
with comb, to raise a queen from brood given to them ; 
as a queenless colony that is building comb, will only 
build drone-comb of irregular thickness for the storing 
of honey. In such combs no eggs can be deposited by 
the queen ; the breeding room is consequently dimin- 
ished, and weak colonies the result. 
DRIVING BEES, OR FORCED SWARMING. 
Although forming swarms by the driving system can- 
not be recommended as the best, as the reader will be 
enabled to judge when comparing it with the other 
methods described— I shall give the particulars, as they 
embody the directions to be observed in driving the 
bees from the common hive before transferring the 
colony to the movable-comb hive; besides, it is the only 
method of making an artificial swarm from the common 
hive. The main principle in this method is to drive out a 
portion of the bees with the queen, to form the new 
swarm, leaving those bees which are absent while the 
stock is forced, and the remaining young bees in the 
old hive, to rear a queen from the worker-brood. (See 
Huber’s discourses under the head of “ Loss of 
Queen.”) 
For driving bees, choose that time of day when a 
large number of them are absent gathering forage. 
