ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 
147 
the demand for them ; but would be entirely dependent 
upon the caprices of his bees, or rather upon the natural 
laws which control their swarming. 
Every practical bee-keeper is aware of the uncertainty 
of natural swarming. Under no circumstances, can it be 
confidently relied on. While some stocks swarm regularly, 
and repeatedly, others, equally strong in numbers, and 
lieh in stores, refuse to swarm, even in seasons in all 
respects highly propitious. Such colonies, on examination, 
will often be found to have taken no steps for raising 
young queens. In some cases, the wings of the old 
mother are defective, while in others, she seems to prefer 
the riches of the old hive, to the risks attending the for- 
mation of a new colony. It frequently happens that, when 
all the preparations have been made for swarming, the 
weather proves so unpropitious that the young queens 
appi oach maturity before the old ones can leave, and are 
all destroyed. Under such circumstances, swarming, for 
that season, is almost certain to be prevented. The young 
queens are also sometimes destroyed, because of some 
sudden, and perhaps only temporary, suspension of the 
honey-harvest ; for bees seldom colonize, even if all their 
preparations are completed, unless the blossoms are yield- 
ing an abundant supply of honey. From these and other 
causes, which my limits will not permit me to notice, it 
has hitherto been found impossible, in the uncertain dim- 
ate of our Northern States, for any but the most expe- 
rienced and energetic Apiarians, to multiply colonies very 
rapidly by natural swarming. 
The numerous perplexities pertaining to natural swarm- 
ing, have, for ages, directed the attention of cultivators to 
the importance of devising some more reliable method 
for increasing their colonies* 
* Hr. Scudamore quotes Columella, who. about the middle of the first eon- 
u>\ of ihc Clnisthn Eta, wrote twclw books on husbandry — u De re ru^Mca " m 
