64 
BEE-CULTURE. 
little of avarice. I admit that after-swarms sometimes do well 
and, where all the circumstances are favorable, they may be. 
tolerated. But, in four cases out of five, it is better either to 
prevent after-swarms or run them back when they swarm, or 
unite two or three of them to make them very strong. To 
prevent a swarm from issuing, or to put it back, insures the 
safety of the old stock from all the etfects of weakness, and 
the honey that would have been made by the bees in a new 
hive would be made in surplus boxes of the old one. The 
united force of two or three small swarms will often make one’ 
very good one; which nothing but experience seems sufficient 
to convince most persons is worth more than three or four 
poor ones. Therefore, prevent after-swarming if you can; if 
not, put them back into the hive they came out of, destroying 
the queen, if you can find her ; or, put two or three small 
swarms together. If you can kill all the queens but one, do 
so. A swarm can generally be run into another several days 
after they have been hived. It is often the case, that a col- 
ony will destroy a few intruders to their hive ; while a whole 
colony, run in at once, will overwhelm them, and they receive 
them as their equals. Should there be any show of resistance, 
a few' whiffs of tobacco-smoke among them will generally re- 
store peace. 
The plan I have just recommended — of supplying queens 
or queen-cells — has these advantages : They prevent the apia- 
rian the disadvantages of after-swarms where they are not 
wanted ; from five to ten thousand more bees will be reared by 
not having to wait for the development of queens in the or- 
dinary way ; and*, what is certainly a matter of the highest 
importance is, the bee-keeper can always furnish queens bred 
from his best stocks, whether they be native or Italian. Some few 
stocks of bees seem prosperous from generation to generation, 
producing most all the profits of the apiary ; while others, 
seemingly with the same facilities, get nothing done. Always 
breeding from the best producers, I am fully convinced, will 
very materially improve the thrift of the apiary. Some 
queens breed but little; to remove such, and give them a 
good one, is desirable. Prom my own experience, also, I 
feel fully convinced that during the first and second years of 
a queen’s life she is more prolific than in the after-part ; 
and it is an advantage to replace the old queeu with a 
young one. Keeping such a journal as I have recommended, 
