hive from a swarm in May. A few pounds of refuse honey were given to the nadir, which is now (Jan. 20) a strong hive. This nadiring is an old practice of ours when we seek both honey and stock-hives from swarms of the current year. But would it not be more profitable to super them instead? Perhaps it would, if honeycomb realises a much higher price than run honey; but two things are to be considered. 1st, That nadirs give the bees more scope for breeding, and hence nadired hives gain weight faster than supered hives, all things being equal. 2dly, That nadirs are generally better for stocks than supered hives, inasmuch as supered hives are almost always too full of honey and too scant of bees for keeping. Bees much more naturally fill a nadir than a super. Where run honey commands as high a price as honeycomb, either eking or nadiring hives when full is much more profitable than supering them. Every shrewd bee-keeper will soon find out which system of enlargement puts most money into his pocket. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, eking and nadiring prevent swarming. The use of supers does not prevent swarming. A considerable risk is run by bee-keepers who super only; swarms are so apt to leave their hives.

Nadirs may be used sometimes as artificial swarmers. Suppose a hive is nearly, but not quite, ready for swarming it will be quite ready in five or six days, but we shall not be able to see it for fourteen days. Well, to save ourselves from any anxiety about losing a swarm, we put a nadir below it. When we return to it, a fortnight afterwards, the nadir is one-third filled with combs. The two are cut asunder, without smoking, and placed on separate boards, then on separate stands, six or ten feet apart. It is fortunate when the queen is in the nadir hive, for, otherwise, the bees in it would be apt to

build too many drone-combs. This mode may be called an artifice or strategy for those who cannot find time to visit their hives often; and it is a substitute for artificial swarming.

We wish the reader to know that we consider nadirs inferior to ekes when weight of honey is the only object sought. They are adopted when both honey and stocks are sought from hives that become full rather late in the season. For gaining great profits in a favourable year, and for continued prosperity for a succession of years, the system of having strong hives and early swarms lifts itself up in statuesque form far above all the other systems of managing bees. Supers, nadirs, and ekes are useful, profitable, and indispensable for hives that require enlarging later in the season. The question of which is best, the interests

and aims of the bee-master must determine.

CHAPTER XXVI.

ARTIFICIAL SWARMING.

Ir does not pay to wait and watch for hives casting, and it does not pay to lose swarms; in fact it grieves a poor man very much to know that in his absence a swarm of his has been lost. The adoption of the invaluable invention of swarming artificially saves the bee-keeper from a world of anxiety and the loss of swarms. Who was the inventor of this we cannot tell. My father adopted it, if he did not invent it, nearly seventy years ago. He swarmed his bees artificially before he knew the value of fustian smoke for stupefying them. After finishing his day's work he often swarmed three and four hives on an evening; and the only bee-dress he used was a cabbageblade hung over his face; and this was for ever cast away when he was taught by the Irishman to use the smoke of fustian rags.

The late Dr Campbell, author of many works, and editor of many periodicals, once said, "Thank God for shorthand!" Artificial swarming, like shorthand, is a great and useful invention. The bother of bee-keeping would be too great for us if we did not swarm artificially. We can easily take off four swarms in an hour; and with the assistance of a lad to drum a bit, we could take off six swarms, place them all in proper places, and cover them up in less than an hour. The process of artificial swarm

ing is a very simple affair-so simple that no bee-keeper can see it done without understanding it pretty well.

It is much more easily performed and sooner done than we can describe it with our pen. Given a hive ready for swarming, and a skep prepared to receive the swarm, another empty hive and a table-cloth or piece of calico are required. These are placed some yards-it does not matter how many-from the old hive to be swarmed.

A few puffs of smoke are blown into the hive, which is then carried to where the empty hive and calico are. It is turned upside down, or placed on its crown; then the empty hive is placed on and over it, the calico rolled round the junction of the two to keep all the bees in. The hive to receive and contain the swarm for good is placed on the board of the old hive with a view to prevent the bees flying about and going into other hives. The reason why the hive with cross-sticks is not first placed on the hive to receive the swarm is owing to the difficulty of seeing the queen in it. The bees hang in clusters on the sticks, hence they are first driven into an empty hive, in which the queen is easily seen, then shaken into the other prepared to receive the swarm. Now the driving or drumming commences, which is simply done by beating the bottom hive with open hands for five or ten minutes. This drumming causes the bees to run up into the empty hive, and in nineteen cases out of twenty the queen goes with the bees or swarm so drummed up. But to be quite sure that the queen is with the swarm, we take the hive (now containing the swarm) off the parent hive, turn it upside down, exposing the whole swarm to view in order to see the queen. She is easily distinguished, and when we have seen her, we take the swarm back to the old stand, and shake them all into

the hive ready for them, the calico meanwhile being spread over the old hive. The swarm is now placed three or six feet to the right, and the mother hive as far to the left of the spot or stand on which it stood before. Both are covered, and the work is done. How easy and simple this work is how soon over, and how natural it appears! It is just about as easily done as shaking a natural swarm from a branch into an empty hive. And look at the advantages the bees are not allowed to waste their time in clustering about the door of the hive before swarming, and this clustering, in some cases and seasons, continues for weeks. The artificial system prevents this waste of precious time. Again, the bee-keeper can use it at his convenience-morning, noon, or evening, and when there is the appearance of a continuation of fine weather.

It is

a great advantage to a swarm to get three or four fine days after being put into an empty hive. In the chapter on feeding bees, the advantage of attending to young swarms in showery weather will be pointed out. Where swarms are taken off, there is a greater certainty of getting second swarms, and this is an important affair in an apiary of large hives, for in a honey season large hives that do not send out second colonies become far too heavy for stockhives. In mentioning the advantage of second swarms, I am aware that the great bulk of English apiarians do not agree to what we say; but we are fully convinced that as soon as they adopt larger hives, and seek the largest quantity of honey possible from them, they will consider second swarms an advantage, and that not a small one.

Many other favourable views of the advantages of artificial swarming could be presented here, but we think that the fact of its answering as well as natural swarming, and that it can be done in a few minutes by business or working men in the cool of the day, after labour has been laid