liao FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



I have reduced the trouble to a minimum. I will give you my 

 plan and you can judge for yourself. 



As I have already told you, my hives stand in pairs, and I 

 kept them so, years before I thought of double hives. Some 

 time before the change is made to double hives, the entrances of 

 the hives are closed at one side, so that the liees become accus- 

 tomed to using the same side of the entrance that they will use 

 when thrown in(a the double hive, that is, the riuht-haud colony 

 will use the right-hand side of its entrance, and the left-hand 

 colony will use the left-hand side of its entrance. Each colony 

 will have four of its combs so solid with honey that it will be 

 well provisioned. 



Remembering that the two colonies of a pair are on the same 

 stand, we now remove both hives from the stand and set the 

 double hive on the middle of the stand. Then the four combs 

 from the right-hand hive will be put with their bees in the 

 right-hand side of the double colony, and the rest of the bees 

 brushed from the other combs. The left-hand side is treated 

 the same way. Some bees will still be left in the depopulated 

 hives ; so these hives can be set at each side, the entrance of the 

 empty hive at the proper entrance of the double hive, and left 

 there long enough for the bees to crawl in and join their com- 

 panions. 



The matter is now accomplished and it has been no long or 

 diffleult job. The bees use the new entrance almost as readily 

 as the old. To them their hive seems moved less than its width 

 to one side, and there is no possible danger of their entering the 

 wrong place. I have tried it, and watched the result, therefore 

 I speak of not wliat the bees otinht to do, but what they rlo do. 



CHANGING FROM DOUBLE TO SINGLE HIVES. 



Can we as easily get them back into two liives in the spring 

 when they become crowded in this double hive? Just exactly 

 as easily. We simply reverse the operation. Take the double 

 hive from its place and replace it with the two hivts, then re- 

 move the contents of the double hive and put them in the proper 

 single hi^es, and the bees will go every time to the right place. 

 I speak again from personal observation as to what the bees 

 actually do. 



