 2nd Chapter 10 of Langstroth on the Hive and the Honey Bee This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Adam Marcicic, August 2009, Alexandria, Virginia Langstroth on the Hive and the Honey Bee by L. L. Langstroth 2nd Chapter 10 Artificial Swarming Part 1 of 4 The numerous efforts which have been made for the last 50 years or more to dispense with natural swarming plainly indicate the anxiety of aperions to find some better motive in 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 beekeeper may decide for himself in which way he can most advantageously propagate his bees. 1. The large number of swarms lost every year is a powerful argument against natural swarming. An eminent aperion has estimated that one fourth of the best swarms are lost every season. This estimate can hardly be considered too high if all who keep bees are taken into account. While some beekeepers are so careful that they seldom lose a swarm the majority either from the grossest negligence or from necessary hindrances during the swarming season are constantly incurring serious losses by the flight of the bees to the woods. It is next to impossible entirely to prevent such occurrences if bees are allowed to swarm at all. 2. The great amount of time and labor required by natural swarming has always been regarded as a decided objection to this mode of increase. As soon as the swarming season begins the apiary must be closely watched almost every day or some of the new swarms will be lost. If this business is entrusted to thoughtless children or careless adults many swarms will be lost by their neglect. It is very evident that but few persons who keep bees can always be on hand to watch them and to hive the new swarms. But in the height of the swarming season if any considerable number of colonies is kept the aparian to guard against serious losses should either be always on the spot himself or have someone who can be entrusted with the care of his bees. Even the Sabbath cannot be observed as a day of rest and often instead of being able to go to the house of God the beekeeper is compelled to labor among his bees as hard as on other days or even harder that he is as justifiable in hiving his bees on the Sabbath as in taking care of his stock can admit of no serious doubt but the very liability of being called to do so is with many a sufficient objection against aparian pursuits. The merchant mechanic and professional man are often so situated that they would take great interest in bees if they were not deterred from their cultivation by inability to take care of them during the swarming season and they are thus debarred from a pursuit which is intensely fascinating not merely to the lover of nature but to everyone possessed of an inquiring mind. No man who spends some of his leisure hours in studying the wonderful habits and instincts of bees will ever complain that he can find nothing to fill up his time out of the range of his business or the gratification of his appetites. Bees may be kept with great advantage even in large cities and those who are debarred from every other rural pursuit may still listen to the soothing hum of the industrious bee and harvest annually its delicious nectar. If the aparian could always be on hand during the swarming season it would still, in many instances, be exceedingly inconvenient for him to attend to his bees. How often is the farmer interrupted in the business of haymaking by the cry that his bees are swarming and by the time he has hived them perhaps a shower comes up and his hay is injured more than his swarm is worth. In this way, the keeping of a few bees instead of a source of profit often becomes rather an expensive luxury and if a large stock is kept the difficulties and embarrassments are often most seriously increased. If the weather becomes pleasant after a succession of days unfavorable for swarming it often happens that several swarms rise at once and cluster together to the great annoyance of the aparian and not unfrequently in the noise and confusion other swarms fly off and are entirely lost. I have seen the aparian so perplexed and exhausted under such circumstances as to be almost ready to wish that he had never seen a bee. 3. The managing of bees by natural swarming must, in our country, almost entirely prevent the establishment of large apiaries even if it were possible in this way to multiply bees with certainty and rapidity and without any of the perplexities which I have just described how few persons are so situated as to be able to give almost the whole of their time in the busiest part of the year to the management of their bees. The swarming season is with the farmer the very busiest part of the whole year and if he proposes to keep a large number of swarming hives he must not only devote nearly the whole of his time for a number of weeks to their supervision but at a season when labor commands the highest price he will often be compelled to hire additional assistance. I have long been convinced that, as a general rule the keeping of a few colonies in swarming hives costs more than they are worth and that the keeping of a very large number is entirely out of the question unless with those who are so situated that they can afford to devote their time for about two months every year almost entirely to their bees. The number of persons who can afford to do this must be very small and I have seldom heard of a beekeeper in our country who has an apiary unscale extensive enough to make beekeeping anything more than a subordinate pursuit. Multitudes have tried to make it a large and remunerating business but hitherto I believe that they have nearly all been disappointed in their expectations. In such countries as Poland and Russia where labor is deplorably cheap it may be done to great advantage but never to any considerable extent in our own. 4. A serious objection to natural swarming is the discouraging fact that bees often refuse to swarm at all and the aparian finds it impossible to multiply his colonies with any certainty or rapidity. Even although he may find himself in all respects favorably situated for the cultivation of bees and may be exceedingly anxious to engage in the business on a much more extensive scale. I am acquainted with many careful beekeepers who have managed their bees according to the most reliable information they could obtain never destroying any of their colonies and endeavoring to multiply them to the best of their ability who yet have not as many stocks as they had ten years ago. Most of them would abandon the pursuit if they looked upon beekeeping simply in the light of dollars and cents rather than as a source of pleasant recreation and some do not hesitate to say that much more money has been spent by the mass of those who have used patent hives than they have ever realized from their bees. It is a very simple matter to make calculations on paper which shall seem to point out a road to wealth almost as flattering as a tour to the gold mines of Australia or California only purchase a patent beehive and if it fulfills all or even a part of the promises of its sanguine inventor the fortune must, in the course of a few years be certainly realized but such are the disappointments resulting from the bees refusing often to swarm at all that if the hive could remedy all the other difficulties in the way of beekeeping it would still fail to answer the reasonable wishes of the experienced aparian. If every swarm of bees could be made to yield a profit of twenty dollars a year and if the aparian could be sure of selling his new swarms at the most extravagant prices he could not, like the growers of mulberry trees or the breeders of fancy fowls multiply his stock so as to meet the demand however extensive but would be entirely dependent upon the whims and caprices of his bees or rather upon the natural laws which control their swarming every practical beekeeper is well aware of the utter uncertainty of natural swarming under no circumstances can its occurrence be confidently relied on while some stocks swarm regularly and repeatedly others strong in numbers and rich in stores although the season may in all respects be propitious refuse to swarm at all such colonies on examination will often be found to have taken no steps for raising young queens in some cases the wings of the old mother will be found defective while in others she is abundantly able to fly but seems to prefer the riches of the old hive to the risks attending the formation of a new colony it frequently happens in our uncertain climate that when all the necessary preparations have been made for swarming the weather proves unpropitious for so long a time that the young queens coming to maturity before the old one can leave are all destroyed this is a very frequent occurrence and under such circumstances swarming is almost certain to be prevented for that season the young queens are frequently destroyed even although the weather is pleasant in consequence of some sudden and perhaps only temporary suspension of the honey harvest for bees seldom colonize even if all their preparations are completed unless the flowers are yielding an abundant supply of honey from these and other causes which my limits will not permit me to notice it is hitherto been found impossible in the uncertain climate of our northern states to multiply colonies very rapidly by natural swarming and beekeeping on this plan offers very poor inducements to those who are aware how little has been accomplished even by the most enthusiastic experienced and energetic aparyons the numerous perplexities which have ever attended natural swarming have for ages directed the attention of practical cultivators to the importance of devising some more reliable method of increasing their colonies Callumella who lived about the middle of the first century of the Christian era and who wrote 12 books on husbandry De Re Rustica has given directions for making artificial colonies he says you must examine the hive and view what honeycombs it has then afterwards from the wax which contains the seeds of the young bees you must cut away that part where in the offspring of the royal brood is animated for this is easy to be seen because at the very end of the wax works there appears, as it were a thimble-like process somewhat similar to an acorn rising higher and having a wider cavity than the rest of the holes where in the young bees of vulgar note are contained end quote hygienists who flourished before Callumella had evidently noticed the royal jelly for he speaks of cells larger than those of the common bees quote filled as it were with a solid substance of a red color out of which the wing king is at first formed end quote this ancient observer most undoubtedly have seen the queens-like jelly a portion of which is always found at the base of the royal cells after the queens have emerged the ancients generally called the queen a king although Aristotle says that some in his time called her the mother Swammerdam was the first to prove by dissection that the queen is a perfect female and the only one in the hive and that the drone is the male for reasons which I shall shortly mention the ancient methods of artificial increase appear to have met with but small success towards the close of the last century a new impulse was given to the artificial production of swarms by the discovery of Cyrock a German clergyman that bees are able to rear a queen from worker brood for want however of a more thorough knowledge of some important principles in the economy of the bee these efforts met with slender encouragement Huber after his splendid discoveries in the physiology of the bee perceived at once the importance of multiplying colonies has some method more reliable than that of natural swarming his leaf or book hive consisted of 12 frames each an inch and a half in width any one of which could be open at pleasure he recommends forming artificial swarms by dividing one of these hives into two parts adding to each part six empty frames after using a Huber hive for a number of years they became perfectly convinced that it could only be made serviceable by an adroit experienced and fearless a perian the bees fastened the frames in such a manner with their propolis that they cannot except with extreme care be opened without jarring the bees and exciting their anger nor can they be shut without constant danger of crushing them Huber nowhere speaks of having multiplied colonies extensively by such hives and although they have been in use more than 60 years they have never been successfully employed for such a purpose if Huber had only contrived the plan for suspending his frames instead of folding them together like the leaves of a book I believe that the cause of a perian science would have been 50 years in advance of what it is now 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 is now constructed that I ascertain the precise causes of failure it may be regarded as one of the laws of the beehive 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 sierçon 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 perosal 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 workers 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 you 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 and 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 build such as is suited only for storing honey and unfit for breeding will show at once the folly of attempting to multiply colonies by the dividing hives even if the aperion has been perfectly successful in dividing a colony and the part without a queen takes the necessary steps to supply her loss if the bees are sufficiently numerous to build a large quantity of new comb and they ought to be considered to make the artificial colony of any value they will build this comb in such a manner that it will answer only for storing honey while they will use the half of the hive with the old comb for the purposes of breeding the next year if an attempt is made to divide this hive one half will contain nearly all the brood and mature bees while the other having most of the honey and combs unfit for breeding the new colony formed from it will be a complete failure even with the Huber hive the plan of multiplying colonies by dividing a full hive into two parts and adding an empty half to each will be attended with serious difficulties although some of them may be remedied in consequence of the hive being constructed so as to divide into many parts the very attempt to remedy them will be found to require a degree of skill and knowledge far in advance of what can be expected of the great mass of beekeepers the common dividing hives separating into two parts can never under any circumstances be made of the least practical value and the business of multiplying colonies by them will be found far more laborious uncertain and vexatious than to rely on natural swarming I do not know of a solitary practical aperion who, on trial of this system has not been compelled to abandon it and allow the bees to swarm from his dividing hives in the old fashioned way some aperions have attempted to multiply their colonies by putting a piece of brood comb containing the materials for raising a new queen into an empty hive set in the place of a strong stock which has been removed to a new stand when thousands of its inmates were abroad in the fields this method is still worse than the one which has just been described in the dividing hive the bees already had a large amount of suitable comb for breeding while in this having next to none they build all their combs until the queen is hatched of a size unsuitable for rearing workers in the first case the queen-less part of the dividing hive may have had a young queen almost mature so that the process of building large combs would be short of continuance for as soon as the young queen begins to lay the bees at once commence building combs headed to the reception of worker eggs in some of my attempts to rear artificial swarms by moving a full stock as described above I have had combs built of enormous size nearly four inches through and these monster combs have afterwards been pieced out on their lower edge with worker cells for the accommodation of the young queen so uniformly do the bees with an unhatched queen build in the way described that I can often tell at a single glance by seeing what kind of comb they are building that a hive is queen-less or that having been so they have now a fertile young queen when a new colony is formed by dividing the old hive the queen-less part has thousands of cells filled with brood and eggs and young bees will be hourly hatching for at least three weeks and by this time the young queen will be laying eggs so that there will be an interval of not more than three weeks during which no accessions will be made to the numbers of the colony but when a new swarm is formed by moving not an egg will be deposited for nearly three weeks and not a bee will be hatched for nearly six weeks and during all this time the colony will rapidly decrease until by the time that the progeny of the young queen begins to emerge from their cells the number of bees in the new hive will be so small that it would be of no value even if its combs were of the best construction every observing beekeeper must have noticed how rapidly even a powerful swarm diminishes in number for the first three weeks after it has been hived in many cases before the young begin to hatch it does not contain one half its original number so very great is the mortality of bees during the height of the working season I have most thoroughly tested in the only way in which it can be practiced in the ordinary hives this last plan of artificial swarming and do not hesitate to say that it does not possess the very slightest practical value and as this is the method which aparyons have usually tried it is not strange that they have almost unanimously pronounced artificial swarming to be utterly worthless the experience of xerisone on this point has been the same with my own another method of artificial swarming has been zealously advocated which if it could only be made to answer would be of all conceivable plans the most effectual and as it would require the smallest amount of labor experience or skill would be everywhere practiced a number of hives must be put in connection with each other as to communicate by holes which allow the bees to travel from any one apartment to the others the bees on this plan are to colonize themselves and in time a single swarm will of its own accord multiply so as to form a large number of independent families each one possessing its own queen and all living in perfect harmony this method so beautiful and fascinating in theory has been repeatedly tried with various ingenious modifications but in every instance as far as I know it has proved an entire failure it will always be found if bees are allowed to pass from one hive to another that they will still for the most part confine their breeding operations to a single apartment if it is of the ordinary size while the others will be used chiefly for the storing of honey this is almost invariably the case if the additional room is given by collateral or side boxes as the queen seldom enters such apartments for the purpose of breeding if the new hive is directly below that in which the swarm is first lodged then if the connections are suitable the queen will be almost certain to descend and lay her eggs in the new combs as soon as they are commenced by the bees in this case the upper hive is almost entirely abandoned by her and the bees store the cells with honey as fast as the brood is hatched as their instincts impel them always if they can to keep their stores of honey above the breeding cells so long as bees have an abundance of room below their main hive they will never swarm but will use it in the way that I have described if the room is on the sides of their hive and very accessible they seldom swarm but if it is above them they frequently prefer to swarm rather than to take possession of it but in none of these cases do they ever, if left to themselves form separate and independent colonies I am aware that the Aperian by separating from the main hive with a slide an apartment that contains brood and directing to it by some artificial contrivance a considerable number of bees may succeed in rearing an artificial colony but unless all his hives admit of the most thorough inspection as he can never know their exact condition he must always work in the dark and will be much more likely to fail than succeed success indeed can only be possible when a skillful Aperian devotes a large portion of his time to watching and managing his bees as to compel them to colonize and even then it will be very uncertain so that this plausible theory to be reduced to even a most precarious practice requires more skill, care, labor and time than are necessary to manage the ordinary swarming hives the failure of so many attempts to increase colonies by artificial means as well in the hands of scientific and experienced Aperians as under the direction of those who are almost totally ignorant of the physiology of the bee has led many to prefer to use non-swarming hives in this way very large harvests of honey are often obtained from a powerful stock of bees but it is very evident that if the increase of new colonies were entirely discouraged the insect would soon be exterminated to prevent this the advocates of the non-swarming plan must either have their bees swarm to some extent or rely upon those who do my hive may be used as a non-swarmer and may be made more effectually to prevent swarming than any width which I am acquainted as in the spring c. number 34 page 104 ample accommodations may be given to the bees below their main works and when this is seasonably done swarming will never take place there are certain objections however which must always prevent the non-swarming plan from being the most successful mode of managing bees to say nothing of the loss to the beekeeper who has after some years only one stock when if the natural mode of increase had been allowed he ought to have a number it is usually found that after the bees have been kept in a non-swarming hive for several seasons they seem to work with much less vigor than usual of this anyone may convince himself who will compare the industry as working of a new swarm with that of a much more powerful stock in a non-swarming hive the former will work with such astonishing zeal that to one unacquainted with the facts it would be taken to be by far the more powerful stock as the fertility of the queen decreases by age the disadvantage of using non-swarming hives of the ordinary construction will be obvious this objection to the system can be remedied in my hive as the old queen can be easily caught and removed but when hives are used in which this cannot be done the apiary instead of containing a race of young queens in the full vigor of their reproductive powers will contain many that have passed their prime and these old queens may die when there are no eggs in the hive to enable the bees to replace them and thus the whole colony will perish if the beekeeper wishes to winter only a certain number of stocks I will in another place show him a way in which this can be done so as to obtain more honey from them than from an equal number kept on the non-swarming plan while at the same time they may all be maintained in the state of the highest health and vigor I shall now describe a method of artificial swarming which may be successfully practiced with almost any hive by those who have sufficient experience in the management of bees about the time that natural swarming may be expected a populous hive rich in stores is selected and what I shall call a force swarm is obtained from it by the following process choose that part of a pleasant day say from 10 am to 2 pm when the largest number of bees are abroad in the fields if any bees are clustered in front of the hive or on the bottom board puff among them a few whiffs of smoke from burning rags or paper so as to force them to go up among the combs this can be done with greater ease if the hive is elevated by small wedges about one quarter of an inch above the bottom board have an empty hive or box in readiness the diameter of which is as nearly as possible the same with that of the hive from which you intend to drive the swarm lift the hive very gently and without the slightest jar from its bottom board invert it and carry it in the same careful manner about a rod from its old stand as bees are always much more inclined to be peaceable when removed a short distance than when any operation is performed on the familiar spot if the hive is carefully placed on the ground upside down scarcely a single bee will fly out and there will be little danger of being stung timid and inexperienced aparians will, of course protect themselves with a bee dress and they may have an assistant sprinkle the hive gently with sugar water as soon as it is inverted after placing the hive in an inverted position on the ground the empty hive must be put over it and every crack from which a bee might escape must be carefully closed with paper or any convenient material the upper hive ought to be furnished with two or three slats about an inch and a half wide and fastened one third of the distance from the top so as to give the bees every opportunity to cluster as soon as the aparian is perfectly sure that the bees cannot escape he should place an empty hive upon the stand in which they were removed so that the multitudes which return from the fields may enter it instead of dispersing to other hives where some of them may meet with a very unkind reception although as a general rule a bee with a load of freshly gathered honey after the extent of his resources is ascertained is almost always welcomed by any hive to which he may carry his treasures while a poor unfortunate that ventures to present itself empty and poverty stricken is generally at once destroyed the one meets with his friendly reception as a wealthy gentleman who proposes to take up his abode in a country village while the other is as much an object of dislike as a pauper who is suspected of wishing to become a parish charge to return to our imprisoned bees beginning at the top or what is now as the hive is upside down the bottom their hive should be beaten smartly with two small rods on the front and back or on the sides to which the combs are attached so as to run no risk of loosening them if the hive when removed from its stand was put upon a stool or table or something not so solid as the ground the drumming will cause more motion and yet be less apt to start any of the combs these wrappings which certainly are not of a very spiritual character produce nevertheless a most decided effect upon the bees their first impulse is to sally out and wreak their vengeance upon those who have thus rudely assailed their honeyed home but as soon as they find that they are shut in a sudden fear that they are to be driven from their treasures seems to take possession of them if the two hives have glass windows so that all the operations can be witnessed the bees in a few moments will be seen most busily engaged in gorging themselves with honey during all this time the wrapping must be continued and in about 5 minutes nearly every bee will have filled itself to its utmost capacity and they are now prepared for their forced emigration a prodigious hum is heard and the bees begin to mount into the upper box in about 10 minutes from the time the wrapping began the mass of the bees with their queen will have ascended and will hang clustered just like a natural swarm the part with the expelled bees must now be gently lifted off and should be placed upon a bottom board with the gauze wire ventilator so that the bees may be confined and yet have plenty of air a shallow vessel or a piece of old comb containing water ought to be first placed on the bottom board if no gauze wire bottom board is at hand the hive must be wedged up so as to admit an abundance of air and be set in a shady place a hive from which the bees were driven must now be set without crushing any of the bees on its old spot in the place of the decoy hive that all the bees which have returned from abroad may enter before this change is made these bees will be running in and out of the empty hive as soon as they see page 72 but as soon as the opportunity is given them they will crowd into their well-known home and if there are no royal cells started will proceed almost at once to construct them and the next day they will act as though the force swarm had left of its own accord when the operation is delayed until about the season for natural swarming the hive will contain immature queens if the bees were intending to swarm and a new queen will soon take the place of the old one just as in natural swarming if it is performed too early and before the drones have made their appearance the young queen may not be seasonably impregnated and the parent stock will perish it will be obvious that this whole process in order to be successfully performed requires a knowledge of the most important points in the economy of the beehive indeed the same remark may be made of almost any operation and those who are willing to remain ignorant of the laws which regulate the breeding of bees ought not to depart in the least from the old fashion mode of management all such deviations will only be attended with a wanton's sacrifice of bees a man may use the common swarming hives a whole lifetime and yet remain ignorant of the very first principles in the physiology of the bee unless he gains his information from other sources while by the use of my hives any intelligent cultivator may in a single season verify for himself the discoveries which have only been made by the accumulated toil of many observers for more than 2,000 years the ease with which a Perians may now by the sight of their own eyes gain a knowledge of all the important facts in the economy of the hive will stimulate them most powerfully to study the nature of the bee and thus to prepare themselves for an enlightened system of management in giving directions for the creation of force swarms I advise that it should be done during the pleasantest part of the day when the largest number of bees are foraging abroad if the operation is performed when all the bees are at home and they are all driven into the empty hive the old hive will be so depopulated that many of the young will perish for want of suitable attention and the parent stock will be greatly deteriorated in value if only a part of the bees are expelled the queen may be left behind and the whole operation will be a failure and at best it will be difficult to make a suitable division of the hives between the two hives indeed under any circumstances this is the most difficult part of the process and it requires no little judgment to equalize the two colonies some recommend placing the forced swarm on the old stand and removing the parent hive with the bees that are deemed sufficient to a new place if this is done and the bees have their liberty so many of them will leave for the familiar spot that the hive will be almost deserted and a very large proportion of its brood will perish the bees in this hive if it is to be set in a new place must have water given to them and be so shut up as to have an abundance of air until late in the afternoon of the third day when the hive may be open and they will take wing almost as though they were intending to swarm some will even then return to the place where they originally stood and join the forced swarm but the most of them after hovering in the air for a short time will re-enter the hive during the time that they had been shut up thousands of young bees will have emerged from their cells and these, knowing no other home will aid in taking care of the larvae and in carrying on the work of the hive instead of trying to make an equitable division at the time of driving out the bees I prefer to expel all that I can and to rely upon the bees returning from their gatherings to replenish the old stock if the number appears to be too small I open temporarily the entrance of the hive containing the forced swarm and permit as many as I judge best to come out and enter their old abode it must here be borne in mind that bees which are thus ejected from a hive do not, in all respects act like a natural swarm which having left the parent stock of its own accord never seeks unless it has lost its queen to return whereas many of the forced swarm as soon as they leave the hive into which they have been driven will return to their former abode the same is true of bees which are moved to any distance not far enough to be beyond the limits of their previous excursions in search of food if we could only make our bees when moved or forced to swarm adhere to their hives as faithfully as a natural swarm many difficulties which now perplex us would be at once removed having ascertained that the parent hive contains a sufficient number of bees to carry on operations about sunset after the bees are all at home it may be removed to a new stand and the bees after being supplied with water must be shut up according to the directions previously given if the hive is so constructed that water cannot be conveniently given them the following plan I have found to answer most admirably bore a small hole towards the top on the front side and with a straw water may be injected with scarcely any trouble a mouthful once or twice a day will be sufficient if the bees are confined without water they will not be able to prepare the food for the larvae and multitudes of them must necessarily perish the expelled colony must be placed on the same evening precisely where the hive from which they were driven stood and have their liberty given to them the next morning they will work with as much vigor as though they had swarmed in the natural way the directions which have here been given for creating forced swarms will be found to differ in some important respects from any which other aperions have previously furnished I have already shown that it is difficult to secure the right number of bees for the parent stock unless it is set temporarily on its old stand so as to catch up the returning bees the common plan has been to try to leave in it as many bees as are needed and then to shut it up for a few days having placed it in a new spot while the forced swarm is immediately replaced so that all the stragglers may be added to it if we could always be sure of driving out the queen and with her as many bees as we want and no more this would undoubtedly be the simplest plan but for the reasons already assigned it will be found a very precarious operation some aperions recommend putting the forced swarm in a new place in the apiary but as large numbers of the bees will be sure when they go out to work to return to the familiar spot the new colony will often be so seriously depopulated as to be of but little value if the aperion can remove his forced swarms some two or three miles off he may give them their liberty at once and in the course of a few weeks he can without risk bring them back to his apiary if he chooses he may allow the parent stock to remain on the old stand and confine the forced swarm until about an hour before the sunset of the third day they must in the meantime be supplied with both honey and water and if they cannot be kept cool and quiet they should be removed into the cellar until they are placed in their new position many will even then return to the old spot but not enough to interfere seriously with their prosperity if the bees cannot, as in my hives be kept cool and dark they will be excessively uneasy and may suffer very seriously from so long confinement hence the very great importance of settling them in the cellar it may seem strange that bees when their hive is moved or when they are forcibly expelled from it should not adhere to the new spot this is when they have swarmed of their own accord in each case, as soon as a bee leaves its new place it flies with its head turned towards the hive in order to mark the surrounding objects that it may be able to return to the same spot but when they have not emigrated of their own accord many of them seem when they rise in the air or return from work entirely to forget that their location has been changed and they return to the place where they have lived so long and if no hive is there they often die on the deserted and desolate yet home-like spot if on the contrary they swarmed of their own accord they sell them if ever make such a mistake it may truly be said that quote a bee removed against its will is of the same opinion still end quote I have been thus minute in describing the whole process of creating forced swarms not merely on account of the importance of this plan in multiplying colonies but because the driving or drumming out of bees from a common hive is employed with great success in a variety of ways which will be hereafter specified I doubt not that many beekeepers on reading this mode of creating colonies are ready to object that it not only requires more skill but more time and labor than to allow them to swarm and then to hide them in the old fashioned way as practiced with ordinary hives it is undoubtedly liable to this serious objection and I would easily with my basket-hiver undertake to hide four natural swarms in the time that it would require to create one forced swarm to say nothing of the care which must be bestowed upon the artificial swarms with their parent stocks after the driving process has been completed for this reason I do not advise the beekeeper to force his swarms from the common hives until he has first ascertained that they are not likely to swarm in tolerably good season of their own accord unless he is afraid that they will come out during his absence and he camp to the woods End of 2nd Chapter 10 End of Part 1 of 4 2nd Chapter 10 of Langstroth on the Hive and the Honeybee This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Adam Marcetic August 2009 Alexandria, Virginia Langstroth on the Hive and the Honeybee by L. L. Langstroth 2nd Chapter 10 Artificial Swarming Part 2 of 4 I have been thus minute in describing the whole process of creating force swarms not merely on account of the importance of the plan in multiplying colonies but because the driving or drumming out of bees from a common hive is employed with great success in a variety of ways which will be hereafter specified I doubt not that many beekeepers on reading this mode of creating colonies are ready to object that it not only requires more skill but more time and labor than to allow them to swarm and then to hive them in the old fashioned way As practiced with ordinary hives it is undoubtedly liable to this serious objection and I would easily with my basket hiver undertake to hive 4 natural swarms in the time that it would require to create one force swarm to say nothing of the care which must be bestowed upon the artificial swarms with their parent stocks after the driving process has been completed For this reason I do not advise the beekeeper to force his swarms from the common hives until he is first ascertained that they are not likely to swarm in tolerably good season of their own accord unless he is afraid that they will come out during his absence and de-camp to the woods By the aid of my hives this process may be expediously performed an empty hive with its frames furnished by guide combs must be in readiness The cover of the full hive should be removed and the bees gently sprinkled with sugar water from a watering pot that discharges a fine stream In about two minutes the frames may be taken out and the bees, by a quick motion shaken on a sheet directly in front of their hive As fast as a comb is deprived of its bees it should be set in a proper position in the new hive and an empty frame put in its place Two or three of the combs containing brood, eggs, etc. should be left in the old hive as well as to give them greater encouragement as to prevent them from being dissatisfied if their queen should by any possibility, be taken from them In removing the frames from the bees I always look for the queen and if I see her, as I generally do I return to the hive the frame which contains her without shaking off the bees In that case I put several of the necessary combs into the new hive with all the bees upon them In dislodging the bees upon the sheet I do not shake them all off from the frames but leave about one quarter of them on and put them with the combs into the new hive I never knew the queen to be left on a frame after it was shaken so that the larger portion of the bees would fall off as soon as the operation is completed and the necessary number of bees have been transferred with their comb to the new hive It should be managed according to the directions previously given in the case of the old hive from which a swarm was drummed out If in the operation the aperion does not see the queen he must, in the course of the third day examine the hive having the larger portion of bees and if they have commenced building royal cells among the combs given to them he may be certain that she is in the other hive The comb containing the royal cells may then be transferred to that hive and the queen searched for and returned with the combs on which she is found to her proper place A little experience, however will enable the operator to be sure from the first that the queen is with the right division To most persons it would seem to be of little consequence in which hive the queen is placed But if the bees which have only a few frames of comb are compelled to rear another they will be sure to fill their hive with comb unfit for breeding purposes and will also be so long before they can have additions to their number as to be of but little value If many swarms are to be created in this manner and the operation is delayed until near swarming time in some of them numerous royal cells will be found so that each stock which has no queen may have one nearly mature given to it and thus much valuable time may be saved By making a few forced swarms about a week or 10 days before the time in which the most will be made the aperion may be sure of having an abundance of sealed queens almost mature so that every swarm may have one If he can give each hive that needs it an unhatched queen without removing her from her frame so much the better but if he has not enough frames with sealed queens while some of them contain more queens he must proceed as follows with a very sharp knife carefully cut out a queen cell on a piece of comb and inch or more square cut up place in one of the combs of the hive to which this cell is to be given just about large enough to receive it in a natural position and if it is not secure put a little melted wax with a feather where the edges meet will soon faceted so as to make it all right unless very great care is used in transferring these royal cells the enclosed queens will be destroyed as their bodies until they are nearly mature are so exceedingly soft that a very slight compression of their cell often kills them for this reason I prefer not to remove them until they are within 3 or 4 days of hatching as the forcing of a swarm may always be conducted with my hives in such a manner that the aperion can be sure to affect a suitable division of the bees the process may be performed at any time when the sun is above the horizon and the weather is not too unpleasant it ought not to be attempted when the weather is so cool as to endanger the destruction of the brood by a chill and never unless when there is not only sufficient light to enable the aperion to see distinctly but enough for the bees that take wing to see the hive and direct their flight to its entrance if hives are meddled with when it is dark the bees are always more irascible and as they cannot see where to fly they will constantly be a lighting upon the person of the beekeeper who will be almost sure to receive some stings I have seldom attempted night work upon my bees without having occasion most thoroughly to rue my folly if the weather is not too cool early in the morning before the bees are stirring will be the best time as there will be less danger of annoyance from robber bees if honey water is used instead of sugar water in sprinkling the bees when their hive is first open the smell will be almost certain to entice marauders from other hives to attempt to take possession of treasures which do not belong to them and when they once commence such a pilfer in course of life they will be very loth to lay it aside when the honey harvest is abundant and this is the very time for forcing swarms bees with proper precautions are seldom inclined to rob I have sometimes found it difficult to induce them to notice honeycombs which I wish them to empty even when they were placed in an exposed situation this subject however will be more fully treated in the remarks on robbing perhaps some of my readers will hardly be able to convince themselves that bees may be dealt with after the fashion I have been describing without becoming greatly enraged so far as this from being the case that in my operations I often use neither sugar water nor bee dress although I do not recommend the neglect of such precautions the artificial swarm may be created with perfect safety even at midday when thousands of bees are returning to the hive for these bees being laden with honey never venture upon making an attack while those at home may be easily pacified I find a very great advantage in the peculiar shape of my hive which allows the top to be easily removed and the sugar water to be sprinkled upon the bees before they attempt to take wing if like the siercone hive it opened on the end it would be impossible for me to use the sweetened water so as to make it run down between all the ridges of comb and I should be forced as he does to employ smoke in all my operations Hubert thus speaks of the pacific effect produced upon the bees by the use of his leaf hive quote on opening the hive no stings are to be dreaded for one of the most singular and valuable properties attending my construction is it's rendering the bees tractable I ascribe their tranquility to the manner in which they are affected by the sudden admission of light they appear rather to testify fear than anger many retire and entering the cells seem to conceal themselves end quote I will admit that Hubert has here fallen into an error which he would not have made had he used his own eyes the bees do indeed enter the cells when the frames are exposed but not to conceal themselves they imagine that their sweets thus unceremoniously exposed to the light of day are to be taken from them and they fill themselves to their utmost capacity in order to save all that they can I always expect them to appropriate the contents of the open cells as soon as I remove their frames from the hive it is not merely the sudden admission of light but it's introduction from an unexpected quarter that seems for the time to disarm the hostility of the bees they appear for a few moments almost as much confounded as we should be if without any warning the roof and ceiling of a house should suddenly fly off into the air before they recover from their amazement the sweet libation is poured out upon them and surprise is quickly converted into pleasure rather than anger I believe that in the working season almost all the bees near the top are gorged with honey and that this is the reason why opening the hive from above is so easily affected the bees below that are disposed to resent any intrusions are met in their threatening ascent with an avalanche of nectar which, like a soft answer most effectually turneth away wrath who would ever be willing to use the sickening fumes of the disgusting weed when so much pleasure instead of pain may be given to his bees that bees never seem to be prepared to make an instant assault from the top of their hive but only near the entrance anyone may be convinced of who will put my frames into a suspended hive with a movable bottom which may be made to drop at pleasure if now for any purpose he attempts to meddle with the combs from below he will find that unless he uses smoke the bees will almost if not quite unmanageable I shall now give some directions which will generally assist the aperion in his operations he must bear in mind that nothing irritates bees more than a sudden jar and that this must in all cases be most carefully avoided the inside cover of the hive or as I shall term it the honey board the surplus honey receptacle stand upon it can never be firmly attached by the bees it may always be readily loosened with a thin knife or better still with an apothecary spatula which will be very useful for many purposes in the apiary when the honey board is removed its lower surface will be usually covered with bees and it should be carefully not to crush them there is not the least danger that one of them will offer to sting as they are completely bewildered by the sudden introduction of light and their removal from the hive as soon as the cover is disposed of the aperion should sprinkle the bees with the sweet solution this should descend from the watering pot in a fine stream so as not to drench the bees it should fall upon the tops of the frames as well as between the ranges of comb the bees will at once accept the proffered treat and will begin lapping it up as peaceably as so many chickens helping themselves to corn while they are thus engaged the frames must be very gently pried by a stick from their attachments to the rabbits on which they rest done without any jar and without wounding or enraging a single bee they may all be loosened preparatory to removing them in less than a minute by this time the sprinkled bees will have filled themselves or if all have not done so the grateful intelligence that sweets have been furnished them will diffuse an unusual good nature through all the honeyed realm the aperion should now remove one of the outside frames taking hold of its two ends which rest upon the rabbits and carefully lifting it out without inclining it from its perpendicular position so as not to injure a single bee the removal of the next comb and of all the succeeding ones will be more easily affected as there will be more room to operate to advantage if bees were disposed to fly away at once from their combs as soon as they were taken out it would be very difficult to manage them but so far as they are from doing this that they adhere to them with the most wonderful tenacity I have sometimes removed all the combs and arranged them in a continued line and the bees have not only refused to leave them but have stoutly defended them against the thieving propensities of other bees by shaking off the bees from the combs upon a sheet and securing the queen I can on any pleasant day exhibit nearly all the appearances of natural swarming the bees as soon as they miss their queen will rise into the air and by placing her on the twig of a tree around her in the manner already described a word as to the manner of catching the queen I seize her very gently as I spy her among the bees and by taking care to crush none of them run not the least risk of being stung the queen herself never stings even if handled ever so roughly in removing the frames from the hive it will be found very convenient to have a box with suitable rabbits in which they may be temporarily put and covered over with a piece of cotton cloth they may thus be very easily protected from the cold and from robbing bees if they are to be kept out of the hive for some time and such a box will be very convenient to receive frames that are lifted out for examination in returning the frames to a hive care must be taken not to crush the bees where their ends rest upon the rabbits they must be put in slowly so that a bee when he feels the slightest pressure may have a chance to creep from under them before he is heard the honey cover for convenience is generally in two pieces these cannot be laid down on the hive without danger of killing many bees they are therefore very carefully slid on so that any bees which may be in the way are pushed before them instead of being crushed if any bees are upon such parts of the hive as to be imprisoned if the outside cover is closed it should be left a little open until they have flown to the entrance of the hive it cannot be too deeply impressed upon the beekeeper that all his motions must be slow and gentle and that the bees must not be injured or breathed upon if he will carefully follow the directions I have given he may soon open a hundred hives and perform any necessary operation upon them without any bee-dries and yet with very little risk of being stung but I almost despair of being able to convince even the most experienced Aperians of the ease and safety with which bees may be managed on my plan until they have actually benign 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 Aperian if he delays the formation of artificial swarms until nearly the season for natural swarming he 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 Aperian 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 that 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 Aperian if she is not found the bees will return to the parent stock to await the maturity of the young queens the Aperian 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 the young queen ought to be examined about a week after she is hatched see chapter on the loss of the queen in order to ascertain that she has been impregnated and has begun to lay eggs some of the central combs or those on which the bees are most thickly clustered should first be lifted out for she will almost always be found on one of them the Aperian when he has caught her should remove the wings on one side with a pair of scissors taking care not to hurt her on examining his hives next season let him remove one of the two remaining wings from the queen the third season he may deprive her of her last wing bees always have four wings a pair on each side this plan saves him the trouble of marking his hives so as to know the age of the queens they contain as the fertility of the queen generally decreases after the second year I prefer just before the drones are destroyed to kill all the old queens that have entered their third year in this way I guard against some of my stocks becoming queenless in consequence of the queen dying of old age when there is no worker hive from which they can rear another or of having a worthless drone laying queen whose impregnation has been retarded those old queens are removed at that period of the year when their colony is strong in numbers and as the honey harvest is by this time nearly over their removal is often a positive benefit instead of a loss the population is prevented from being overcrowded at a time when the bees are consumers and not producers and when the young queen reared in place of the old one matures she will rapidly fill the cells with eggs and raise a large number of bees to take advantage of the late honey harvest and to prepare the hive to winter most advantageously the certainty, rapidity and ease of making artificial swarms with my hives will be such as to amaze the most who have had the greatest experience and success in the management of bees instead of weeks wasted in watching the apiary in addition to all the other vexations and embarrassments which are so often found to attend reliance on natural swarming the aparian will find not only all his new colonies in a very short time but that he can, if he chooses entirely prevent the issue of all after swarms in order to do this he ought to examine the stocks which are raising young queens in season to cut out all the queen cells but one before the larvae come to maturity if he gave them a sealed queen nearly mature they will raise no others and no swarming for that season will take place if the aparian wishes to do more than to double his stocks in one season and is favorably situated for practicing natural swarming he can allow the stocks that raise young queens to swarm if they will and he can strengthen the small swarms by giving them comb with honey and maturing brood from other hives or he can after an interval of about three weeks make one swarm from every two good ones in his apiary in a way that will soon be described I do not know that I can find a better place in which to impress certain highly important principles upon the intention of the beekeeper I am afraid that in spite of all that I can say any persons as soon as they find themselves able to multiply colonies at pleasure will so over do the matter as to run the risk of losing all their bees if the aparian aims at obtaining a large quantity of honey in any one season he cannot at the furthest more than double the number of his stocks nor can he do this unless they are all strong and the season favorable the moment that he aims in any one season at a more rapid increase he must not only renounce the idea of having any surplus honey but must expect to purchase food for the support of his colonies unless he is willing to see them all perish by starvation the time food care and skill required to multiply the stocks with very great rapidity in our short and uncertain climate are so great that not one aparian in a hundred can expect to make it profitable while the great mass of those who attempted will be almost sure at the close of the season to find themselves in possession of stocks which have been so managed as to be a very little value the mother methods of artificial swarming which I have employed to great advantage I shall endeavor to impress upon the mind of the beekeeper the great importance of thoroughly understanding each season the precise object at which he is aiming before he enters on the work of increasing his colonies if his object is in any one season to get the largest yield honey he must at once make up his mind to be content with a very moderate increase of stocks if, on the contrary he desires to multiply his colonies say three or four fold he must be prepared not only to relinquish the expectation of obtaining any surplus honey if the season should prove unfavorable but to purchase food for the support of his bees rapid multiplication of colonies and large harvests of surplus honey cannot, in the very nature of things, be secure in our climate in any one season if the number of colonies is to be increased to a large extent then the bees in the apiary will be tasked to the utmost in building new comb as well as in rearing brood for these purposes they must consume the supply of honey which, under other circumstances, they would have stored up, apart for their own use in the main hive and the balance for their owner in the spare honey boxes to make this matter perfectly plain, let us suppose a colony to swarm if the new hive into which the swarm is put holds, as it ought a bushel, it will require about 2 pounds of wax to fill it with comb and at least 40 pounds of honey will be used in its manufacture if the season is favorable and the swarm was large and early, they may gather, not only enough to build this comb and store it with honey sufficient for their own use, but a number of pounds in addition for the benefit of their owner if the old stock does not swarm again it will rapidly replenish its numbers and as it has no new comb to build in the main hive which already contains much honey it will be able to store up a generous allowance in the upper boxes these favorable results are all on the supposition that the season was ordinarily productive in honey and that the hive was so powerful in numbers as to be able to swarm early if the season should prove to be very unfavorable the first swarm cannot be expected to gather more than enough for its own use while the parent stock will yield only a small return the profits of the beekeeper in such an unfortunate season will be mainly in the increase of his stocks if the swarm was late in consequence of the stock being weak in spring the early part of the honey harvest will pass away and the bees will be able to obtain from it but a small share of honey during all this time of comparative inactivity the orchards may present quote one boundless blush one white impurpled shower of mingled blossoms end quote and tens of thousands of bees from stronger stocks may be engaged all day in sipping the fragrant sweets so that every gale which fans its odoriferous wings about their dwellings dispenses quote native perfumes and whispers once they stole these balmy spoils end quote by the time that the stock is prepared to swarm if it swarms at all that season the honey harvest is almost over and the new colony will seldom be able to gather enough for its own use so that unless fed it must perish the succeeding winter beekeeping with colonies feeble in the spring is most emphatically nothing but folly and vex station of the spirit I have shown how the beekeeper with a strong stock hive which has swarmed early and but once may in a favorable season realize handsome profits from his bees if the parent stock throws a second swarm then as a general rule unless this swarm was very early and the honey season good if managed on the ordinary plan it will seldom prove of any value it will almost always perish in the winter if it does not desert its hive in the fall and the family from which it issued will not only gather no surplus honey unless it was secured before the first swarm issued but will very often perish likewise thus the inexperienced owner who is so delighted with the rapid increase of his colonies this season with no more colonies than he had the year before and has very often lost all the time he has bestowed upon his bees I can to be sure on my plan prevent the death of the bees and can build up all the feeble colonies so as to make them strong and powerful but only by giving up all idea of obtaining a single pound of honey from the first swarm I must take combs containing maturing brood to strengthen my weak swarms and this first swarm however powerful or early instead of being able to store its combs with honey will be constantly tasked in building new combs to replace those taken away so that when the honey harvest closes it will have scarcely any honey and must be fed to prevent it from starving any man who has sense enough to be entrusted with bees can from these remarks understand exactly why it is impossible to multiply colonies rapidly in any one season and yet obtain from them large supplies of honey even the doubling of stocks in one season will very often be too rapid to increase if the greatest quantity of spare honey is to be obtained from them and when the largest yield of honey is desired I much prefer to form in a way soon to be described only one new stock from two old ones this will give even more from three than could have been obtained from the two on the ordinary non-swarming plan I would very strongly dissuade any but experienced a pair from attempting at the furthest to do more than to triple their stocks in one year in order to furnish directions for very rapid multiplication sufficiently full and explicit to be of any value to the inexperience I should have to write a book on this one topic and even then the most of those who would undertake it would be sure at first to fail I have no doubt that with 10 strong stocks of bees in a good location in one favorable season I could so increase them as to have on the approach of winter 100 good colonies but I should expect to feed hundreds of pounds of honey to devote nearly all my time to their management and to bring the work experience of many years and the wisdom acquired by numerous failures after all what we most need in order to be successful in the cultivation of bees is a certain rather than a rapid multiplication of stocks it would require but a very few years to stock our whole country with bees if colonies could only be doubled annually and an increase of even one third would before long give us bees enough this rate of increase I should always encourage in the swarming season even if in the fall I reduced my stocks see union of stocks to the spring number in the long run it will keep the colonies in a much more prosperous condition and secure them the largest yield of honey I have never myself hesitated to sacrifice one or more colonies in order to ascertain a single fact and it would require a separate volume quite as large as this to detail the various experiments which I have made on the subject of artificial swarming the practical beekeeper however should never for a moment lose sight of the important distinction between an apiary managed principally for the purpose of experiment and discovery and one conducted almost exclusively with reference to pecuniary profit any beekeeper can easily experiment with my hives but I would recommend him to do so at first on a small scale and if profit is his object to follow the directions furnished by the bees until he is sure that he has discovered others which are preferable these cautions are given to prevent persons from incurring serious losses and disappointments if they use hives which if they are not on their guard may tempt them into rash and unprofitable courses by allowing so easily but the practical aparian remember that the less he disturbs his stocks on which he relies for surplus honey the better after they are properly lodged in their new hive they ought by all means to be allowed to carry on their labors without any interruption the object of giving the control over every comb in the hive is not to enable him to be putting them in and out and subjecting the bees to all sorts of annoyances unless he is conducting a course of experiments such interference will be almost as silly as the conduct of children who pull up the seeds which they have planted to see whether they have sprouted or how much they have grown if after these cautions any still choose to disregard their losses will fall not upon the hive but upon their own mismanagement let me not for a moment be understood as wishing to discourage the investigation or to intimate that perfection has been so nearly attained that no more important discoveries remain to be made on the contrary I should be glad to learn that many who have the time and means are disposed to use the facilities furnished by hives which give the control of each comb to experiment on a large scale and I hope that every intelligent beekeeper who follows my plans will experiment at least on a small scale in this way we may soon expect to see more satisfactorily elucidated some points in the natural history of the bee which are still involved in doubt having described the way in which four swarms are made both in common hives and in my own when the aperian wishes in one season merely to double his colonies I shall now show in what way he can secure the largest yield of honey by forming only one new colony from two old ones early in the season before the bees fly out or better still after they cease to fly in the previous fall the two hives from which the new colony is to be formed should be placed near each other unless they are already not more than a foot apart when the time for forming the artificial colony has arrived these hives should be removed from their stand and drum them precisely in the manner already described if all the bees are at home I sometimes shut up the hives on their stand and drum long enough to cause the bees to fill themselves before the hive is removed timid aperians may find some advantage in this course as the bees will all be quiet after they are well drummed and the hive may then be removed with greater safety in five minutes I can in this way reduce any swarm to a peaceable condition after the force swarms are secured the removed hives are replaced in order to catch up all the returning bees and the force swarms must be shut up until towards sunset unless it is judged best to keep the entrances temporarily open so as to secure the return of a sufficient number of bees to the parent stocks the old stocks are now moved to a new place and managed according to the previous directions if neither of the expelled swarms was driven into the hive intended for the new colony then the proper hive must be placed as near as possible in the center of the space previously occupied by the original colonies one of the swarms must now be shaken out upon a sheet in front of this hive which should be elevated so as to enable the bees to enter it readily as soon as they are shaken out they should be gently sprinkled with sugar water scented with peppermint or any other fragrant odor diligent search must now be made for the queen and if found she should carefully removed and given to the hive to which she belongs if the queen of the first swarm has been found the second colony may be shaken out and sprinkled in the same way and allowed to enter without any further trouble if the queen of the first colony was not found then that of the second one must be sought for if neither can be found a little experience will very seldom happen one of the queens will soon kill the other and reign over the united family the next day the doubled colony will be found working with amazing vigor and it will not only fill its main hive but will in an ordinary season gather large quantities of surplus honey besides the aperion who relies upon swarming can double his new colonies if they issue at the same time by hiding them together or if this cannot be done he may hide them in separate hives and then towards evening set one hive on a sheet and shake down the bees from the other so that they can enter and join the first it may be safely done even if several days have elapsed before the second colony swarms although in this case I prefer after turning up their hive to sprinkle the oldest swarm with scented sugar water and then to give the new swarm the same treatment I have doubled natural swarms in this way repeatedly and have never, when they were early failed to secure from them a large quantity of honey in sprinkling bees the operator remember that they are not to be drenched or almost drowned as in this case they will require a long time to enter the hive bees seem to recognize each other by the sense of smell and when they are made to have the same odor they will always mingle peaceably this is the reason I use a few drops of peppermint in the sugar water if one of the queens will be returned to her own colony it will of course save them the time which would otherwise be lost in raising another I do not know that I can better illustrate the importance of the inexperienced aperion following closely my directions then by supposing him to return the queen to the colony to which she does not belong now I can easily imagine a beekeeper made do so conceiving that I am foolishly precise in my directions and that the queen might be just as well given to one hive as to the other but if this is done before at least 24 hours have elapsed since they were deprived of their own she will almost certainly be destroyed the bees do not sting a queen to death but have a curious mode of and while I utterly repudiate the notion that these directions may not be modified and improved I am quite certain that this cannot be done by any but those who have considerable experience in the management of bees the formation of one new swarm from two old colonies may, of course be very much simplified by the use of my hives the two old hives are first opened and sprinkled and the bees taken from them and put into the new hive in the same way in which the process was conducted when only one colony was expelled some brood comb being given to the united family there will be no difficulty in rightly proportioning the bees one queen may always be caught and preserved and the operation may be performed at any time when the sun is above the horizon I have no doubt that those who have a strong stock of bees and who are anxious to realize their greatest profits in honey will find this mode of increase by far the simplest and best if judiciously practiced they will find that their colonies may always be kept powerful and that they may be managed with very great economy in time and labor as aparions may be so situated as to wish to increase their bees quite rapidly I shall give such methods as from numerous experiments many of them conducted on a large scale I have found to be the best I wish it however to be most distinctly understood that I do not consider very rapid multiplication as likely to succeed except in the hands of skillful aparions but under ordinary circumstances it requires too much time care and honey to be a very great practical value its chief merit consists in the short time which it requires to build up an apiary after trying my mode of management for a few seasons a beekeeper may find out that he is in all respects favorably situated for taking care of a large stock of bees and to have acquired both skill and confidence and that he has 10 powerful colonies if he is willing to do without surplus honey for one season and the honey harvest should be very productive he may without feeding and without very much labor safely increase his 10 colonies to 30 if he chooses to feed largely he may possibly end the season with 50 or 60 or even more but he will probably end it in such a manner as most thoroughly to disgust him with his folly and to teach him that in beekeeping as well as in other things haste makes waste end of second chapter 10 end of part 2 of 4