58 THE COTTAGE AND FARM BEE KEEPER. 



afford a handsome glass to grace his breakfast table, besides laying up 

 for themselves an abundant winter store. Here then will be seen the 

 advantage of the hole at the top of my Golding's hive, over which 

 some additional store room can be placed, (with or without the use of 

 an adapter,) by which means the'removal of the crown piece of wood 

 or straw is rendered unnecessary. The room supplied must, however, 

 be determined by circumstances of locality, season, and strength of 

 population. As to the time when such room additional should be 

 given, I refer the reader for instruction to Chapter V, of this book. 

 In the same chapter, also, will be found full directions for the manage- 

 ment of his hives in autumn and winter. In no material respect will 

 the proceedings of the cottager and amateur be different in these par- 

 ticulars. 



Where the system of management advocated in these pages is pur- 

 sued, and the prime swarms of the season, when plundered, are reuni- 

 ted to the stocks from which they severally issued, the value of the 

 advice given in Chapter II, with respect to the arrangement of hives, 

 will be very apparent at the season of the autumnal harvest. I repeat 

 here, therefore, that both stock and swarm should stand as near to- 

 gether as possible — say about one foot and a half distant from each 

 other, but distant from all other stocks at least three and a half or four 

 feet. But for an arrangement of this kind, the apiary would be in an 

 uproar every autumn from the invasion of their neighbors' hives, by 

 the inmates of the plundered swarms ; whereas they will now readily 

 and peaceably unite with their parent stocks, for which they will not 

 have far to search. It were an improvement, perhaps, instead of hav- 

 ing a, separate stand for each stock, to use what Mr. Taylor calls a 

 hive rcmge, (see Bee Keeper's Manual, page 32, 4th edition,) from two 

 and a half to three feet long, to accommodate each couplet of hives. 

 Thus, after effecting the union, (the two hives, parent and swarm, hav- 

 ing stood side by side on this range all the summer,) the old hive might 

 be slid a little to the right or left, so as to occupy the middle of the 

 range half way between the position previously occupied by the hives. 

 It would, in this case, be requisite to move the stock back in winter 

 to the extremity of the range, so that the swarm of the following 

 spring might stand at the proper distance from it. 



Should much brood be found on examining the prime swarms when 

 they come to be taken up, by all means let it be carefully preserved. 



