416 Dyer's Retrocoupling Bee-boxes. 



swarm when put in, both the boxes may be used at first ; if 

 not, one will be sufficient. In a good season for honey the back> 

 ward box will be cemented to the board in about two months 

 from its first establishment, and when so it is a proper time 

 to take the backward box away. In proceeding to do this, in 

 the first place draw out the staples, and with a thin knife cut 

 through the cement that fastens the boxes together, and to the 

 box on which they stand. Then thrust in your piece of tin be- 

 tween the boxes, so that not one bee may pass from one box to 

 the other. Let them stand quite separated full half an hour, 

 and then inspect them at the glass windows ; if the bees are in 

 a great hurry and confusion in the back box and quiet in the 

 other, yon are so far right, and the queen is in safety ; but if 

 otherwise, the operation has not be'en successfully performed ; 

 the tin must be drawn back again, and the boxes made fast as 

 before, letting them stand nine or ten days longer, before you 

 make any attempt to take it away again. But, if the operation 

 has been successfully performed, open the door of the back 

 box to let the queen's prisoners come forth ; for the hurry and 

 confusion of the bees is owing to their having lost their sove- 

 reign. The bees let loose at the back door will come forth in 

 great haste, forty or fifty taking wing at a time, in a kind of 

 wild flutter, quite different from the appearance they have 

 when going to labour. No sooner do they see their fellows at 

 the front door quiet at work, but they enter boldly, as usual. 

 Now, if this operation be performed about midsummer, the 

 bees will fill another box, which you must immediately join to 

 the other as before ; but, if later in the season, and you take 

 only the half-filled box, then join the loose board, and leave 

 the bees with only one box. Observe always when a fresh 

 box is given to stop the door of the full one, and turn the 

 boxes so that the empty one may stand in front, for they will 

 fill the backward one with honey first ; besides, the young are 

 always deposited quite near the front. It is needless to state 

 that, by the use of these boxes, there can never be any occa- 

 sion to kill the bees, and that in a fine season much more 

 honey may be obtained than from the common straw hive. 



I shall conclude by noticing an opinion which I consider 

 erroneous, though believed by many, viz. that any place may 

 be overstocked with bees as well as with cattle. From long 

 experience I well know that, if there were but one stock of 

 bees in a large parish, and the season proved unfavourable, 

 they would be poor ; on the other hand, if there were one 

 hundred colonies in a small village, and the season good, all 

 the swarms that came in proper time would be rich. 



