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 de-
scribed. 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 Ib. on each. If the
weather permitted, and the hives did not swarm, these
supers would be filled in fourteen or sixteen days, After


SWARMING OR NON-SWARMING. lll


cutting the supers off we would swarm all the hives arti-
ficially—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.
