soon open a hundred hives and
perform any necessary operation upon them, without any bee-dress, and
yet with very little risk of being stung, but I almost despair of being
able to convince even the most experienced Apiarians, of the ease and
safety with which bees may be managed on my plan, until they have
actually been eye-witnesses of its successful operation.

I can make an artificial colony in the way above described in ten
minutes from the time that I open the hive, and if I see the queen as
quickly as I often do, in not more than five minutes. Fifteen minutes
will be a very liberal allowance of time to complete the whole work. If
I had an Apiary of a hundred colonies, in less than a week, if the
weather was pleasant, I could without any assistance easily finish the
business of swarming for the whole season.

But how can the Apiarian, if he delays the formation of artificial
swarms until nearly the season for natural swarming, be sure that his
bees will not swarm in the usual way? Must he not still be constantly on
hand, or run the risk of losing many of his best swarms? I come now to
the entirely novel plan by which such objections are completely
obviated. If the Apiarian decides that he can most advantageously
multiply his colonies by artificial swarming, he must see that all his
fertile queens are deprived of their wings, so as to be unable to lead
off new swarms. As an old queen never leaves the hive except to
accompany a new swarm, the loss of her wings does not, in the least
interfere with her usefulness, or with the attachment of the bees.
Occasionally, a wingless queen is so bent on emigrating, that in spite
of her inability to fly, she tries to go off with a swarm; she has "a
will," but contrary to the old maxim she can find "no way," but
helplessly falls upon the ground instead of gaily mounting into the air.
If the bees succeed in finding her, they will never desert her, but
cluster directly around her, and may thus be easily secured by the
Apiarian. If she is not found, the bees will return to the parent stock
to await the maturity of the young queens. The Apiarian will ordinarily
be prepared to form his artificial colonies before any of these young
queens are hatched.

The following is the best plan for removing the wings from the queens.
Every hive which contains a young queen, ought to be examined about a
week after she has hatched, (see Chapter on Loss of the Queen,) in order
to ascertain that sh