t an Apiary may constantly
contain a stock of young queens, in the full vigor of their
re-productive powers.

I trust that these remarks will convince intelligent Apiarians, that I
have not spoken boastfully or at random, in asserting that natural
swarming can be carried on with much greater certainty and success, by
the use of my hives, than in any other way; and that they will see that
many of the most perplexing embarrassments and mortifying
discouragements under which they have hitherto prosecuted it, may be
effectually remedied.

FOOTNOTES:

[16] Dr. Scudamore, an English physician who has written a small tract
on the formation of artificial swarms, says that he once knew "as many
as ten swarms go forth at once, and settle and mingle together, forming
literally a monster meeting!" Instances are on record of a much larger
number of swarms clustering together. A venerable clergyman, in Western
Massachusetts, related to me the following remarkable occurrence. In the
Apiary of one of his parishioners, five swarms lit in one mass. As there
was no hive which would hold them, a very large box was roughly nailed
together, and the bees were hived in it. They were taken up by sulphur
in the Fall, when it was perfectly evident that the five swarms had
occupied the same box as independent colonies. Four of them had
commenced their works, each one near a corner, and the fifth one in the
middle, and there was a distinct interval separating the works of the
different colonies. In Cotton's "My Bee Book," there is a cut
illustrating a hive in which two colonies had built in the same manner.

CHAPTER X.

ARTIFICIAL SWARMING.

The numerous efforts which have been made for the last fifty years or
more, to dispense with natural swarming, plainly indicate the anxiety of
Apiarians to find some better mode of increasing their colonies.

Although I am able to propagate bees by natural swarming, with a
rapidity and certainty unattainable except by the complete control of
all the combs in the hive, still there are difficulties in this mode of
increase, inherent to the system itself, and therefore entirely
incapable of being removed by any kind of hive. Before describing the
various methods which I employ to increase colonies by artificial means,
I shall first enumerate these difficulties, in order that each
individual bee-keeper may decide for himself, in which way he can most
advantageously propagate his bees.

1. The lar