y years, they
have never been successfully employed for such a purpose. If Huber had
only contrived a plan for suspending his frames, instead of folding them
together like the leaves of a book, I believe that the cause of Apiarian
science would have been fifty years in advance of what it now is.

Dividing hives of various kinds have been used in this country. After
giving some of the best of them a thorough trial, and inventing others
which somewhat resembled the Huber hive, I found that they could not
possibly be made to answer any valuable end in securing artificial
swarms. For a long time I felt that the plan _ought_ to succeed, and it
was not until I had made numerous experiments with my hive substantially
as now constructed, that I ascertained the precise causes of failure.

It may be regarded as one of the laws of the bee-hive, that bees, when
not in possession of a mature queen, seldom build any comb except such
as being designed merely for storing honey, is _too coarse for the
rearing of workers_. Until I became acquainted with the discoveries of
Dzierzon, I supposed myself to be the only observer who had noticed
this remarkable fact, and who had been led by it, to modify the whole
system of artificial swarming. The perusal of Mr. Wagner's manuscript
translation of that author, showed me that he had arrived at precisely
similar results.

It may seem at first, very unaccountable that bees should go on to fill
their hives with comb unfit for breeding, when the young queen will so
soon require worker-cells for her eggs; but it must be borne in mind,
that bees, under such circumstances, are always in an _unnatural_ state.
They are attempting to rear a new queen in a hive which is only
partially filled with comb; whereas, if left to follow their own
instincts, they never construct royal cells except in hives which are
well filled with comb, for it is only in such hives that they make any
preparations for swarming. It must be confessed that they do not show
their ordinary sagacity in filling a hive with unsuitable comb; but if
it were not for a few instances of this kind of bad management, we
should perhaps, form too exalted an idea of their intelligence, and
should almost fail to notice the marked distinction between reason in
man, and even the most refined instincts of some of the animals by which
he is surrounded.

The determination of bees, when they have no mature queen, if they build
any comb at all, to buil