STOCK-HIVES. 171 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



THE SELECTION AND PREPARATION OF STOOK-HIVES 

 FOE ANOTHER YEAR. 



This is a very important matter in the profitaMe manage- 

 ment of bees, and " bad luck " is often the consequence of 

 inattention to it. When we see our hedgerows and the 

 fruit-trees of our orchards covered with blossoms in spring, 

 we should not forget that we are indebted to the autumn 

 suns of last year for the beauty and abundance that meet 

 our eyes. Those suns ripened the wood, filled the buds, 

 and set the flowers before the cold and snows of winter 

 came. This year's suns can develop those buds into 

 blossoms and fruit. So the autumn treatment of bees is 

 to be considered of primary importance. 



In selecting hives for keeping, one should have his eye 

 on many points. 



Those that are full of combs, well built, and as free 

 from drone-cells as possible, are to be preferred to those 

 that are not full of combs, or that contain much drone- 

 comb. In the spring months, or in prospect of breed- 

 ing young queens for swarming, bees do build much 

 drone-comb, hence it is very desu-able to select hives in 

 autumn that are fiUed with combs, or nearly so ; for, as 

 we have seen in the chapter on the sex of eggs, it is 

 the number of drone-cells in a hive that determine the 

 number of drones bred in it. 



