150 
THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 
one half will contain nearly all the brood, while the 
other, having most of its combs fit only for storing honey, 
or raising drones, will be a complete failure. 
Even with a Huber-hive, the plan of multiplying colo- 
nies by dividing a full hive into two parts, and adding an 
empty half to each, will be found to require a degree of 
skill and knowledge, far in advance of what can be 
expected of ordinary bee-keepers. The same remarks are 
substantially true of all frame or bar-hives which do not 
allow sufficient play between the parts to which the combs 
are attached ; for, as the bees usually build their combs 
slightly waving, and some thicker than others, nearly 
insuperable practical difficulties will be found in making 
the necessary interchanges of comb, in such hives. 
The attempt to multiply colonies by the common divid- 
ing-hives, will be found far more laborious and uncertain 
than by natural swarming. Every practical bee-keeper 
who has given it a fair trial, has been glad to abandon it, 
and return to the old-fashioned way. 
Some Apiarians have attempted to multiply their colo- 
nies, by removing, when thousands of its inmates are rang- 
ing the fields, a strong stock to a new stand, and setting 
in its place an empty hive, with a piece of brood-comb, 
suitable for raising a queen. This method is still worse 
than the one just described. One half of the dividing- 
hive was filled with breeding comb, while this empty hive 
having next to none, all that is built before the queen 
hatches, will be of a size unsuitable for rearing workers. 
The queenless part of the dividing-hive might also have 
contained a young queen almost mature, so that the build- 
ing of large combs would have quickly ceased ; for as 
soon as the young queen hatches, the bees commence 
building worker-combs.* When a new colony is formed 
* In attempting to rear artificial swarms by moving a full stock, my bees have 
built combs nearly four inches thick; and have afterwards pieced their lower 
