till about ten days after the old one dies, and it is ten days more before she begins to lay. But there is the risk of the loss of the whole, for if the queen dies when she is not laying, the bees cannot raise a successor.

Now, in the swarming system, the bee - master may have nothing but young queens in his hives, by destroying the queens of the first swarms when the bees are united in the autumn. We hope we have made this matter so plain and simple that none will misunderstand our meaning. If the bee-keeping reader is seeking knowledge on the question before us, we trust he begins now to feel his feet touching pretty solid ground.

But some bee-keepers say, "We don't want swarms; we want supers of honeycomb: it is not an increase of hives, but an increase of pure honeycomb we are aiming at." And the question may be urged whether the swarming or non-swarming system is best for getting most supers of honeycomb. At present we could not answer this question with any degree of certainty, for we have not tested. it by experiment. And even if fairly tested by actual experiment in one season or locality, the same experiment in another locality or season may produce different results. We are strongly inclined to believe that the swarming system will yield more supers than the non-swarming one, if the bee-keeper understands his work, and earnestly sets his wits to the task of getting all the supers possible. But tell us how you would set your wits to the task of getting supers and swarms too? Well, we would have our hives well filled with bees in autumn, as already described. They would be ready to swarm very early in May; but before they were ready to swarm we would put a super to hold 8 lb. or 10 lb. on each. If the weather permitted, and the hives did not swarm, these supers would be filled in fourteen or sixteen days. After

cutting the supers off we would swarm all the hives artificially—that is, a swarm from each hive would be taken off and put in a 16-inch hive, which is the smallest size we use. The stock would be left full of brood, with sufficient bees to hatch it. On each a super should be placed, for every day the populations of the hives would be augmented by the brood coming to perfection. Probably no combs will be made in the supers for ten or fourteen days, when second swarms may be expected to issue. When these second swarms are thrown off, the best way is to throw them back on the front of the hives whence they came. They creep into their hives and rarely come a second time. The hives are now full of bees, with no brood to feed or attend to. At this time the bees generally gather a great deal of honey, and will fill supers, weather permitting. I know an experienced bee-keeper who succeeds thus in obtaining supers from hives which do not throw off second swarms. In about three weeks from the time the first swarms were put into the 16-inch hives, supers should be placed on them—that is, if the weather has been at all favourable, for they will then be full of combs with brood coming to perfection every day. These young swarms will not be long in filling their supers from the fields of white clover now at their best. Here we see the likelihood of having three supers from one hive managed on the swarming system. With two strong hives in the middle of July, there is left the probability, if not the certainty, of getting a super of honey from each of them before the season closes. If the season be favourable, all this may be done under good management. Then there will remain a hive of honey for further profit, the bees of which will be united to the other, to be kept for stock; and this stock will be incomparably better for keeping than one that has never swarmed at all.

It were easy to suggest other ways of obtaining supers of comb on the swarming system. The great difficulty in obtaining supers is the tendency of the bees to swarm; and this difficulty is greater by half in the non-swarming system of management, for it is the nature of bees to colonise, and therefore great care is necessary to prevent hives from casting off swarms when supers on them are nearly full. In the hands of ignorant people, hives that have received supers often swarm before a bit of comb is built in them.

On the conviction that it is a waste of material and loss of time to make swarms fill empty hives, the non-swarming system has been introduced in every shape and form, and generally introduced with the assertion that more honeycomb will be obtained. In certain seasons it is well known that a great deal of pure honeycomb has been yielded by hives managed on the non-swarming mode. In 1863 Mr George Fox of Kingsbridge, Devonshire, got from two hives two glass boxes (or supers) of pure honeycomb, weighing respectively 109 lb. and 112 lb., their gross weights being 123 lb. and 126 lb., but the empty boxes were 14 lb. each. These magnificent supers and results seem to throw into the shade all other results of bee-keeping. But in the same year Mr Fox got "an octagon box of fine white comb," which weighed 93 lb. 4 oz., from a swarm of June 28, 1863. Here is a late swarm yielding a super 93 lb. If the swarm had come off four or six weeks sooner, which is the usual time, the probability is great that it would have overtaken and outrun those that never swarmed at all. Well might Mr Fox say, as he does in a letter before us, "These glasses were exceedingly beautiful, but the risk and fatigue of removing them were great; and as I never like to ask assistance, in case of an accident, I had to exert myself too

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much. And I assure you it was no joke carrying about those 126 lb. and 123 lb. glasses, and some little difficulty in getting the bees to leave them."

SUPER

HIVE

Mr Fox's supers were filled on the adjusting principle. The above sketch will enable the reader to form a pretty correct idea as to the way in which it is carried out, and how Mr F. succeeded in inducing his bees to fill so large glasses. The supers fitted or slipped over the outsides of the hives, and were let down so far that their crowns were not far from the crowns of the hives. The bees had not far to go to make a commencement in them; but as soon as the combs came down, the supers were raised bit by bit till they were filled. The sides of the supers being glass, Mr Fox could see when to raise them. He says: "The season of 1863 was better for honey than any of the twelve years going before; but, notwithstanding, such large fine glasses of honey could not have been obtained, except by working the hives upon his adjusting principle." Kingsbridge, too, he says, is a good place for bees; and we add this remark, that it has an able man to manage them.

Supers about 10 lb. weight are most readily sold. We got one 22 lb. weight from a swarm last year. From the non-swarmers, supers are got by cutting them off as soon they, are full and putting empty ones in their places to be filled.

Both systems of management could be well carried out in the same apiary. Suppose the owner has ten stockhives, five of which are permitted to swarm, and five prevented from swarming: the non-swarming hives would be greatly helped and strengthened by receiving extra swarms in autumn from the others.

We conclude this chapter as we began, by saying that, with an eye to profit, we greatly prefer the swarming mode of management. Hives that do not swarm are often affected and made useless by that awful and incurable disease of "foul brood."