336 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



should all be made populous, and rich, in stores, even if to 

 do it requires the number of colonies to be reduced one- 

 half, or more.* The bee-keeper who has ten strong 

 stocks in the Spring, will, by judicious management with 

 movable-comb hives, be able to close the season with a 

 larger Apiary than one who begins it with thirty, or more, 

 feeble colonies. 



If two or more colonies, which are to be united in the 

 Fall, are not close together, their hives must be gradually 

 approximated (p. 280), and the bees may then, with 

 proper precautions (p. 203), be put into the same hive. 



If the central combs of the hive are not Avell stored 

 with honey, they should be exchanged for such as are, so 

 that, when the cold compels the bees to recede from the 

 outer combs, they may cluster among their stores. If the 

 fullest honey-combs are not of worker" size, the caps of 

 their cells may be sliced off, and the combs put in the 

 upper apartment, where the bees can remove the honey, 

 and store it in the centre of the hive. In districts where 

 bees gather but little honey in the Fall, such precautions, 

 in cold climates, will be specially needed, as, often, after 

 breeding is over, their central combs will be almost 

 empty. 



As .bees are natives of a warm climate, they do not 

 instinctively place their honey where it will be most acces- 

 sible to them in cold weather, but simply where it will 

 least interfere with the raising of brood. Neither, if, while 

 the weather is warm, they can easily communicate through 

 the combs, of the hive, can they be depended on to make 

 such passages through them, as will allow them to pass 

 readily, in cold weather, from one to another. 



* Small colonies consume, proportionally much more food than large ones, and 

 often perish from inability to maintain sufficient heat. Stocks should not, how- 

 ever, be made over-populous, as their great internal heat would create restlessness, 

 and engender dysentery, by leading to an inordinate c;>n.;mnption of food (p. 256). 



