. CHAPTER XIII. 



UNION OF STOCKS. TRANSFERRING BEES FROM THE COM- 

 MON HIVE. STARTING AN APIARY. 



Frequent allusions have been made to the importance, 

 for various reasons, of breaking up stocks and uniting them 

 to other families in the Apiary. Colonies which in the 

 early Spring, are found to be queenless, ought at once to be " 

 managed in this way, for even if not speedily destroyed by 

 their enemies, they are only consumers of the stores which 

 they gathered in their happier days. The same treatment 

 should also be extended to all that in the Fall, are found to 

 be in a similar condition. 



As small colonies, even though possessed of a healthy 

 queen, are never able to winter as advantageously as large 

 ones, the bees from several such colonies ought to be put 

 together, to enable them by keeping up the necessary sup- 

 ply of heat, to survive the Winter on a smaller supply of 

 food. A certa:in quantity of animal heat must be main- 

 tained by bees, in order to live at all, and if their numbers 

 are too small, they can only keep it up, by eating more than 

 they would otherwise require. A small swarm will thus 

 not unfrequently, consume as much honey as one contain- 

 ing two or three times as many bees. These are facts 

 which have been most thoroughly tested on a very large 

 scale. If a hundred persons arc required to occupy, with 

 comfort, a church that is capable of accommodating a thou- 



