MANAGING BEES. 63 



leaves an additional cocoon as often as the 

 transformation of one succeeds thai of another, 

 which often occurs in the course of the season. 

 Now in the course of a few years the cells be- 

 conne so contracted, in consequence of being 

 thus filled up, that the bees come forth but 

 mere dwarfs and sometimes cease to swarm. 

 Combs are rendered useless by being filled up 

 with old bread, which is never used except 

 ibr feeding young bees. A greater quantity 

 of this bread is stored up yearly than is used 

 by them, and in a few years they have but 

 little room to perform their ordinary labors. — 

 Hence the necessity of transferring them, or 

 the inhuman sentence of death must be passed 

 upon them, not by being hung by the neck 

 until they are dead, but by being tortured to 

 death by fire and brimstone. 



It is obvious to every cultivator that old 

 stocks should be transferred. I have repeat- 

 edly transferred them in the most approved 

 manner, by means of an apparatus constructed 

 for that purpose ; but the operation always re- 

 sulted in the loss of the colony afterwards, or 



