s. If the Apiarian attempts to multiply his stocks so rapidly that
this cannot be done, I will ensure him ample cause to repent at leisure
of his folly. If however, the attempt at very rapid multiplication is
made only by those who are favorably situated, and who have skill in the
management of bees, a very large gain may be made in the number of
stocks, and they may all be strong and flourishing.

If a strong stock of bees in a hive of moderate size, which admits of
thorough inspection, is examined at the height of the honey harvest,
nearly all the cells will often be found filled with brood, honey or
bee-bread. The great laying of the queen, according to some writers, is
now over, not however as they erroneously imagine, because her fertility
has decreased, but merely because there is not _room_ in the hive for
all her eggs. She may often be seen restlessly traversing the combs,
seeking in vain for empty cells, until finding none, she is compelled to
extrude her eggs only to be devoured by the bees. (See p. 52.) If some
of the full combs are removed, and empty ones substituted in their
place, she will speedily fill them, laying at the rate of two or three
thousand a day! When my strong stocks are from time to time deprived of
one or two combs, if honey can easily be procured,[19] the bees proceed
at once to replace them, and the queen commences laying in the new combs
as soon as the cells are fairly started. If the combs are not removed
_too fast_, and care is taken not to deprive the stock of so much brood
that the bees cannot keep up a vigorous population, a queen in a hive so
managed, will lay her eggs in cells to be nurtured by the bees, instead
of being eaten up; and thus, in the course of the season, she may become
the mother of three or four times as many bees, as are reared in a hive
under other circumstances. By careful management, brood enough may, in
this way, be taken from a single hive, to build up a large number of
nuclei. Towards the close of the season however, as such a hive has been
constantly tasked in building comb and feeding young bees, almost all
its honey will have been used for these purposes, and although it may be
very populous, unless it is liberally fed, it will be sure to perish.
Since the discovery that unbolted rye flour will answer so admirably as
a substitute for pollen, we can supply the bees not only with honey,
when none can be obtained from the blossoms, but with an abundance of
be