any stock may, with their
combs, &c., all be transferred, in a few minutes, to a clean hive; and
their hive, after being thoroughly cleansed, may be used for another
transferred stock; and in this way, with one spare hive, the bees may
all be lodged in habitations from which every speck of dirt has been
removed. They will thus have hives which can by no possibility, harbor
any of the eggs, or larvae of the moth, and which may be made perfectly
free from the least smell of must or mould or anything offensive to the
delicate senses of the bees. In making this thorough cleansing of all
the hives, the Apiarian will necessarily gain an exact knowledge of the
true condition of each stock, and will know which have spare honey, and
which require food: in short, which are in need of help in any respect,
and which have the requisite strength to lend a helping hand to others.
If any hive needs repairing, it may be put into perfect order, before it
is used again. Hives managed in this fashion, if the roofs and outside
covers are occasionally painted anew, will last for generations, and
will be found, on the score of cheapness, preferable, in the long run,
to any other kind. But I ought to beg pardon of the Genius of American
cheapness, who so kindly presides over the making of most of our
manufactures, and under whose shrewd tuition we are fast beginning to
believe that cheapness in the first cost of an article, is the main
point to which our attention should be directed!

Let us to be sure, save all that we can in the cost of construction, by
the greatest economy in the use of materials; let us compel every minute
to yield the greatest possible practical result, by the employment of
the most skillful workmen and the most ingenious machinery; but do let
us learn that slighting an article, so as to get up a mere sham, having
all the appearance of reality, with none of the substance, is the
poorest possible kind of pretended economy; to say nothing of the
tendency of such a system, to encourage in all the pursuits of life, the
narrow and selfish policy of doing nothing thoroughly, but everything
with reference to mere outside show, or the urgent necessities of the
present moment.

We have yet to describe under what circumstances, by far the larger
proportion of hives, become queenless. After the first swarm has gone
out with the old mother, then both the parent stock and all the
subsequent swarms, will have each a young queen which