t if crowded outside, it indicates want of room, and the boxes
can make but little difference. It is better to have one box well
filled than two half full, which might be the case if the bees were not
numerous. The object of putting on boxes before swarming, is to employ
a portion of the bees, that otherwise would remain idly clustering
outside two or three weeks, as they often do, while preparing the young
queens for swarming. But when all the bees can be profitably engaged in
the body of the hive, more room is unnecessary.

MAKING HOLES AFTER THE HIVE IS FULL.

Whenever it is required to put boxes on a hive that has no holes
through the top, it need not prevent your getting a few pounds of the
purest honey that may be had, just as well as to have a portion of the
bees idle. I always endeavor to ascertain in what direction the sheets
of comb are made, and then mark off the row of holes on the top, at
right angles with them.

ADVANTAGE OF PROPER ARRANGEMENT.

Two inches being nearly the right distance, each one will be so made
that a bee arriving at the top of the hive between any two sheets will
be able to find a passage into the box, without the task of a long
search for it; which I can imagine to be the case when only one hole
for a passage is made, or when the row of holes is parallel with the
combs. A hive might contain eight or ten sheets of comb, and a bee
desirous of entering the box might go up between any two, many times,
before it found the passage. It has been urged that every bee soon
learns all passages and places about the hive, and consequently will
know the direct road to the box. This may be true, but when we
recollect that all within the hive is perfect darkness--that this path
must be found by the sense of feeling alone--that this sense must be
its guide in all its future travels--that perhaps a thousand or two
young workers are added every week, and these have to learn by the same
means--it would seem, if we studied our own interest, we would give
them all the facility possible for entering the boxes. What way so easy
for them as to have a passage, when they get to the top, between each
comb? That bees do not know all roads about the hive, can be partially
proved by opening the door of a glass hive. Most of the bees about
leaving, instead of going to the bottom for their exit, where they have
departed many times, seem to know nothing of the way, but vainly try to
get out through the glass, w