pport 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, a part 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, about
a bushel, it will require about two pounds of wax to fill it with comb,
and at least forty 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 to 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 bee-keeper, 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

"One boundless blush, one white empurpled shower
Of mingled blossoms,"

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

"Native perfumes, and whispers whence they stole[18]
Those balmy spoils."

By the time that the feeble st