*78 
MANAGEMENT OF HONEY-BEES.-NO. 9 . 
-swarm. The following spring would find the hive 
full of comb, but only half full of bees; and it 
would require the third year to replenish, and so it 
would continue ad infinitum yearly replenishing its 
lost population, and at the end of fifty years you 
would have no more bees than when you com¬ 
menced ! 
The other hive would be plumply filled the first 
year; the second year a couple of prime swarms 
might be calculated on ; the third year, we will say, 
only one swarm each (a very low estimate), we 
now have six swarms; the fourth year we will dou¬ 
ble to a certainty, and the fifth year the same, 
making twenty-four swarms, while the larger hive 
** stands alone in its glory,” if not entirely annihi¬ 
lated by the ravages of the moth, the more probable 
result of the two. In each hive there is but one 
-queen, which is the source of all the increase. The 
eggs are laid by her. A hive one foot square is as 
large as she can use. In such a hive all the workers 
that she desires to carry out her ends can be fully 
accommodated. Ten thousand bees to a hive in the 
spring are all-sufficient—more would be but an in¬ 
cumbrance ; hence, we find, that though there be 
one hundred thousand in a large hive during the 
breeding season, the following spring finds them 
departed to that “ bourne whence they never return.” 
The principal laying of the queen depends much 
upon the mildness of the spring and much upon the 
strength of the Stock. I am fully satisfied that many 
of my stocks are in progress of breeding through the 
entire winter, to some extent. Indeed that such is 
the case with any populous stock we have abun¬ 
dant proof, in cases -where the stock has been de¬ 
stroyed in the heart of winter, as an experiment to 
test the fact. Where such is the case, there is not 
that diminution in the number of the bees from fall 
to spring that ordinarily occurs. In weak stocks, 
the internal heat necessary for the maturing of the 
young brood cannot be produced, and we find that 
such stocks are compelled to await the approach of 
warm weather. Here we have the basis of prospe¬ 
rity in a nut-shell. If we cannot so manage that 
our hives will be populous to their greatest capa¬ 
city we may as well give up the idea of perfect 
success at once. 
If the hive be well filled, the queen is fully aware 
that a large portion of her increase, which the laws 
of nature compel her to give, must leave her domi¬ 
cil ; and she also, through instinct, learns that each 
swarm must be provided with a queen-regent, like 
herself, in order to perpetuate their species. These 
queens, or rather princesses, are produced from the 
common egg from which issue the workers, or from 
a common worker-grub, in its primary stages of ad¬ 
vancement by a particular treatment. This fact is 
shown by the mode of artificial swarming, now 
practised to some extent; the philosophy of which 
is this : If a piece of comb, containing the young 
brood of different stages of maturity, be attached to 
the top of an empty hive, and a quantity of bees be 
placed therein, having no queen, they will select a 
certain aged grub from the comb afforded them, and 
by a particular process of nursing and feeding (the 
nature of which never was nor ever will be known 
by us) they will produce a perfect queen, and pro¬ 
ceed in their avocation as usual. Without this 
piece of comb no power or ingenuity of man 
could cause the bees to perform a single day’s 
labor. 
As each swarm requires a princess from the old 
stock from two to six are generally produced every 
spring, and such as are not wanted are immediately 
put to death, as it is entirely out of the question for 
more than one to exist in the same hive, unless it 
be during the short period awaiting the issue of a 
swarm. A very remarkable circumstance occurs 
in the development of these young princesses ; they 
are so timed in their maturity as to is*ue from their 
cells respectively just as they are wanted to take 
their departure with the swarms. That is, giving 
them a short period after quitting their cells to gain 
strength for the journey, say forty-eight hours. It 
must here be borne in mind, that where there is suf¬ 
ficient room, as in very large hives, the queen sees 
no necessity of swarming, and consequently takes 
no measures to furnish the young princesses. 
Indeed it often occurs that she neglects to do this 
in cases where the greatest necessity exists for 
them, and as a swarm never leaves in such a case 
we find many of our hives loaded with bees, cluster¬ 
ing around and below during the entire warm season, 
which we watch with anxiety from day to day, or 
hour to hour, wondering what can keep thetn spell¬ 
bound to their tenement! As the needle invaria¬ 
bly points to the north pole, and no human power 
can change this law of nature, so is the queen-bee 
the load-stone that draws every bee to her. The 
broiling rays of a summer-sun, famine, nay, the pros¬ 
pect of a certain death cannot move them. But 
when a young queen sallies forth on the wing of 
uncertain destiny, she is the magnet that draws 
after her a goodly portion of the animated mass. 
Whither she goes they follow, and as she would 
gather her subjects around her, preparatory to the j 
journey, she selects a slender branch of some small 
tree and alights. The bees at once commence clus¬ 
tering around her, perhaps some few minutes before 
the last have left the hive. Whether the bees ever 
select a habitation before leaving the hive is a mat¬ 
ter of doubt with me. They sometimes do take at 
once, after issuing, to some suitable tenement, such 
as a decayed hive, or some hole in a building, or 
perhaps they may cluster for a few minutes, and 
then rapidly take their flight to the forest. All of 
this may be and probably is concerted after swarm¬ 
ing. In confirmation of this, I once had a swarm 
issue from the hive in which the day previous it 
had been lodged, and after revolving a long time in 
the air, settled down upon the very hive from which 
they had just issued. Now here is an instance 
where a particular location is fixed upon while on 
the wing. What caused this singular operation I. 
cannot say, unless it was that they took s'-me dis¬ 
like to the hive and afterwards concluded to try it 
again. In order to remove such a difficulty, I took 
another hive, and as soon as they had fully clus- 
tered set it upon a table, and also set the hive with 
the bees upon its side near it; then with a dusting 
brush swept them gently down upon the table, and ■ 
they quietly entered the new hive, and did well. 
The number of bees produced from April to July, 
in a strong stock, may be Estimated at from 20,000 
to 30,000. The first swarms I have generally found 
to be the largest, though some consider that in gene¬ 
ral the second are. The third are usually small 
