STORIFYING. 113 



Keys states, that upon the storifying plan, three 

 pecks of bees will collect more honey in a season, 

 than four pecks divided into two families, upon 

 the common plan, and that the proportion of pure 

 honey and pure wax will likewise be greater. He 

 observes, that a good storified colony has, under 

 favourable circumstances, received an accession of 

 thirty pounds of honey in seven days ; whereas if 

 a swarm had been sent off, the increase, in the 

 same period, would not, probably, have been more 

 than five pounds. 



This difference of increase is owing, I conceive, 

 to the divided family occupying a larger proportion 

 of its workers as nurses, than the storified family 

 employs, there being in the former the brood of 

 two queens, in the latter the brood of only one, to 

 be attended to. The one establishment is in fact 

 divided, so as to form two establishments, and 

 there must be of course, an observance of the 

 accustomed peculiarities of dignity and office, in 

 each of the two, as there was in the one ; conse- 

 quently, fewer collecting bees can be spared from 

 the divided family, than would have been at liberty 

 in their undivided state ; and this reasoning will 

 apply with increasing force as the number of 

 duplets and triplets is increased. 



In single hiving, if rainy weather occur at the 

 time the bees are prepared to throw off a swarm, 

 and the hive be filled with comb to its utmost 



