be only accelerated. If, on the contrary, I had taken,
from time to time, combs sufficient to form three or four nuclei, and
had strengthened the new colonies, in such a way as not to draw too
severely upon the resources of the parent stock, I might expect to see
them all, in due time, strong and flourishing.

In the Spring of the year, if I desire to determine the strength of a
colony principally to raising young bees, I can easily effect it by the
following plan. A box is made, of the same inside dimensions with the
lower hive, into which the combs and bees of a full hive can all be
transferred, as soon as the bees are gathering honey enough to build new
combs. This box is now set over the old hive, which contains its
complement of frames with guide combs, or better still, with empty
combs. As soon as the bees begin to build, they take possession of the
lower hive, through which they go in and out, and the queen descends
with them, in order to lay her eggs in the lower combs. As soon as the
old apartment becomes pretty well filled, a large number of combs with
maturing bees, may be taken from the upper one, and when the hive below
is full, they may all be safely removed. If none of the upper combs are
removed, they will be filled with honey, as soon as the brood is
hatched; and as they will contain large stores of bee-bread, they will
answer admirably for replenishing stocks which have an insufficient
supply. In no other way, so far as I know, can so much honey be secured,
and if quantity, not quality, is aimed at, or if the test of quality is
its fitness for the use of the bees, I would recommend this mode as
superior to any other. If two swarms are hived together, or a very
powerful stock is lodged in a hive, so that at once they can have access
to the upper apartment, an extraordinary quantity of honey can be
secured, and of a very excellent quality. As soon as the bees have
raised one generation of young, in the combs of the upper box, or rather
in a part of them, they will use it chiefly for storing honey, and all
that it contains may be taken from them. In flavor, it will be found to
be nearly as good as honey stored in what is called "virgin comb."

In the Chapter on the Requisites of a good hive, I have said that in
size it should be adapted to the natural instincts of the bee, and yet
admit of enlarging or contracting, according to the wants of the colony
placed in it. I never use a hive, the main apartment