S4t On the Management of Bees. 



out at work in autumn, or by throwing the loose combs of the 

 taken hives from whence the honey lias flowed, on the grass be- 

 fore the bee-house, from whence they will issue in great numbers 

 to suck the refuse honey remaining in the combs ; and they may 

 be then watched on their return to the hive, and their numbers 

 calculated. This attention to the number of bees, as well as to 

 the weight of the hive, is a matter of observation indispensably 

 necessary, and on which every thing depends. It often happens 

 that a hive heavy in honey has overswarmed itself, and the num- 

 ber remaining in the hive is small ; such is perfectly unfit to be 

 carried through the winter. I have always weighed my hives at 

 the close of autumn, not by guess, but accurately by the scale 

 and weights ; I weigh them with the board on which they stand, 

 having before ascertained pretty nearly the weight of the stand. 

 If the hive weighs twenty-five pounds, it will safely get through 

 the winter without feeding; I have had some have gone through 

 it which weighed twenty-two or twenty-three pounds only ; but 

 upon these, without feeding, I cannot absolutely decide on their 

 abilities to pass the months of winter and the early part of the 

 spring. But with the aid of feeding, it is perfectly easy to 

 bring any hive through the winter. And here I beg leave to give 

 the most decided contradiction to any author who has treated it 

 as an idle, useless, and almost impossible expedient to save such 

 a hive during the season. Many have done so, and many such 

 assertions I have often heard made, but from which I totally disf- 

 sent, and from repeated experience am enabled to contradict 

 them. I have had many supported by these means during nearly 

 the whole winter, and those at the ensuing season have thriven 

 out of measure, and become my best for the ensuing year. 



It fre(juently happens, that in a late and wet season, the swarms 

 come out in the latter part of June, and also numerous, strong, 

 and large casts of the same description ; they have not time to 

 complete their store of combs and honey, but they are valuable 

 for their numbers and their future promise ; their industry only 

 enables them to half fill their hives, and gather a support for a 

 few winter months. Nothing is of more facility than to bring 

 those hives through the winter by feeding; and when that is done, 

 the remaining half of the hive is filled early in the succeeding 

 Tear ; and though they probably will not swarm, from having their 

 hive to fill with co.nbs, as well as honey, I have always found the 

 quantity of the latter to be considerable, and the number of bees 

 great in proportion : their attention is undiverted by throwing 

 out swarms; their brood is employed at home, in what, if hived 

 in a new dwelling, they would be called upon to do, filling it with 

 comb as well as with honey. 



For 



