9^ 



boxes be added to each hive (as it increases) there 

 will 1)6 room for 108 hives. — The boxes (which will 

 prevent the cruel system of smothering) are to be 

 twenty inches square by nine in depth, with at the 

 bottom, six openings cut out, about nine inches lon^ 

 and half an inch asunder, just Mifficiently wide to 

 allow the bees a ft-ee pasnage in and out. If these 

 boxes be placed xmder the hive when near swarming-^ 

 the bees will work down into the box, and in due 

 time fill it with honey — a second box may afterwards 

 be placed, and even a third one may sometimes be 

 required. 



Autuiiin is the l)est season for purchasing stocks, 

 and when buying them you should examine the 

 combs, in order to ascertain the age of the hives; 

 the combs of that season are white, those of the 

 former year of a darkisih yellow ; where the combs 

 are black, the hives should be rejected altogether. 

 If you cannot obtain hives in Autumn, you may en- 

 deavour to purchase them in Spring after the severity 

 of the cold is past. At this season bees which are in 

 good condition, will get into the fields early in the 

 morning, return loaded, enter boldly, and will not 

 come out of the hive in bad weather, (for when they 

 do, this indicates that they are in great want of pro- 

 visions,) they are alert on the least disturbance, and 

 bi/ the loudness of their humming, give testimony of 

 their strength. 



Summer is an improper time for buying bees, be- 

 cause the heat of the weather softens the wax, and 

 thereby renders the coml)s liable to break ; the honey 

 too, being then thinner than at other times, is more 

 apt to run out of the cells, which, besides the loss 

 of the honey, is. attended with the (hsadvantage of 

 destroying many of the bees. A Jirst and strong 

 swarta may indeed be bought, (no one gives a stock 

 grattiilotisly,) and, if leave can be oI)tained, per- 

 mitted to stand in the same garden till the Autumn, 

 or else carried away in the night after it has been 



