SPRING MANAGEMENT. 818 
Mr. Neighbour tells us in “The Apiary” that he 
once obtained a swarm from a cottage hive by a 
much simpler method, in virtue of his having 
accidentally caught the queen in a super—a rare 
piece of good fortune for the purpose in hand, but, 
as he would doubtless maintain if it happened at 
the present date, the result of a neglect of proper 
precaution in giving her majesty access to such a 
position. Promptly closing the glass with a slide, he 
substituted an cmpty hive between it and the stand, 
and to this the bees on the wing of course 
returned, and had to make the best of their lot by 
building new combs, to which when ready the queen 
was allowed to betake herself (having been detained 
in the super with a few bees during the interval) ; 
while the full hive was removed to another stand 
and a new queen called into being by the starting 
of royal cells or the hatching of a princess already 
contained in one. 
The above may be alluded to as a transition case 
which points us to the advantage possessed by 
frame hives. The purpose which a rare accident 
secured for once with a skep can. with certainty be 
accomplished at any time where the combs one by 
season. His views are conveyed in a passage in the “Shilling Bee- 
Book:” “Though I can give no satisfactory reasons for the fact, yet 
it certainly is one, thit bees brought from a distance very generally 
thrive better than families long domiciled on the spot. | am borne out 
in this opinion by the concurrent testimony of my apiarian friends. 
Whether they ply more vigorously on finding themselves in a str nge 
situation, or what can be the reason, I leave others to guess at.” An 
American author obs rves on this subject, “I am strongly persua led 
that the decay of many stocks may be attributed to the fact that the 
bees have become enfeebled by close breeding. The cultivator should 
guard against this evil by occasionally changing his stocks.” 
