OASTS, OR AFTER- SWARMS. 
63 
one, after the first swarm. This prevents after-swarms. But 
when tho box-hive is used, it is not very convenient to get at 
all the cells. I therefore adopt what I consider in many re- 
spects a much superior plan : one that is practical, and that 
I hope to see largely put in practice. It is this : Have some 
young queens reared on the plan given for rearing Italian 
queens ; give one of these young queens to the old colony as 
soon as the swarm has left. They are then in good condition 
for receiving a strange queen, and she will generally proceed 
'to destroy the embryo queens, thus preventing after-swarms. 
This queen will be laying eggs at the rate of perhaps one 
thousand per day, for eighteen or twenty days, before a young 
queen of their own rearing could be laying; as it would be 
Shout ten days before she would hatch, and about ten more 
before she would be laying. In absence of a hatched queen, 
a queen in the cell nearly ready to hatch could be given them, 
which would generally prevent after-swarming. She would 
be hatched before many young bees would have emerged to 
make the hive throng. So they would not be much inclined 
to swarm, and would let her destroy the embryos. A hive 
that has given off a swarm from six to ten days previous, 
would furnish the necessary nymphs. Or, remove the queen 
from a colony a week or more before the time you expect 
swarms, and it will produce the necessary cells. Queens in 
the cells will rarely be received any other way than kindly. 
A hatched queen that is not fertile, will not be received nearly 
so well as one that is already a mother. A fertile queen, 
even if she is a stranger in the hive, will be clustered over 
by the bees, ami fed through the meshes of the wire cage; 
whilst an unfertilized queen will be noticed but little more 
than a worker Such have always to take care of themselves 
until they become mothers. If the apiarian wishes to change 
his native bees to Italians, or improve his Italians, he can do 
it very conveniently by supplying the queens or cells from his 
best Italian stock. Every thing considered, I think it best not 
to aim at more than one swarm from each old stock. Any ono 
who thinks this is too slow a way of getting along, should 
calculate the product of five hives of bees, just doubling them- 
selves each year for twelve years, allowing the surplus honey 
to pay the expenses. At the end of twelve years sell the 
whole stock at the rate of ten dollars each. I am not sure but 
he will conclude that a desire for a faster increase savors a 
