ARTIFICI^VL SWARMING. 
181 
Thousands of tlie bees that belong to B, as thej return 
from the fields,* will enter A, which thus seeures enough 
to develop the brood, rear a neiv queen, and gather, if the 
season is favorable, large surplus stores. 
If B had been first forced, and then removed, it would 
(p. 150) have been seriously injured; but as it loses fewer 
bees than if it had swarmed, and retains its queen, it 
will soon become almost as powerful as before it was re¬ 
moved.! 
This method of forming colonies may be practiced, on 
any pleasant day, from sunrise until late in the afternoon ; 
for if no bees are abroad to recruit the drummed hive, 
it may be shut up, until it can be put upon the stand of 
any strong stock which has already begun to fly with 
vigor. Of all the methods which I have devised for prac¬ 
ticing artificial swarming,]; ivith almost any kind of 
hive, this appears to be one of the simplest, safest, and 
♦ It is quite amusing to observe the actions of these bees, when they return to 
thoir old stand, if the strange hive Is like their own in size and outward appiti4r- 
unce, they go in os though all was light, but soon rush out in violent agitation, 
imagining that by some unaccountable mistake, they have entered the wrong 
plave. Taking wing to correct their blunder, they tind, to tlioir increasing surprise 
that they had directed their flight to the proper spot; ogiiia they enter, and iigain 
they tumble out, in bewildered crowds, until at length if they find a queen, or the 
uieaus of raising one, they make up their minds that if the strange hive is not 
home, it looks like it, stands whore it ought to be, and is, at all events, the only 
homo they are likely to got. No doub*^ they often feel ♦hut a very hard bargain 
has boon imposed upon thorn, but they are generally wise enough to make the best 
of it. They will bo altogether too much disconcerted to quarrel with any bees 
that were left in the hive when it was forced, who on their part give thorn a wel¬ 
come reception. 
t Might not a forced swarm be made to adhere to a now location, by thoroughly 
Bhaking them in an empty box — sue note on p. 1 C 3 — and then sotting them on their 
now stand, and permitting them to fly f The queen might be confined, fur safety, 
lu a queuQ'eage* 
X The Apiarian, by treating a natural swarm as ho bos been directed to treat a 
^uruod olio, eim secure an increase of one colony from two; and of nil the methods 
of voiiductiug natural swarming, in regions where rapid increase is not profitable^ 
this is the bust, provided the colonies do not stand too close together, and the 
hives ~ucd in the process'bre alike <d shape and color. 
