868 PUKCHASING STOCKS. 



" Some are filled with combs ; you don'c cut off such, 

 do you ?" 



" Certainly; I consider all the room for combs in a 

 hive over 2000 inches as worse than lost." 



" What will you ask to cut mine off? If I could 

 see it done otice, I might do it next time." 



" The charge will be light ; but if you intend to 

 keep bees, you should learn to do everything pertain- 

 ing to them, and not be dependent on any one; I, did 

 it before I ever saw or heard of its being doDei" I 

 then gave him full directions how to manage, but 

 .could not persuade him to undertake. 



HOW LARGE HIVES CAN BE MADE SMALLER. 



A short time after, I attended, on a cold day, with 

 a sharp saw, square, &c. I found his hives fourteen 

 inches. square insid§, and eighteen deep, holding about 

 3500 inches. Of this square, a little more than ten 

 inches in height, would make just the right size. 

 To work convenient, I inverted the hive on a barrel, 

 set on end, marked the length, and sawed it off, with- 

 out a bee leaving. It was very cold, (mercury at 6 

 deg.) The bees came to the edges of the combs, but 

 the cold drove them back. In a short time I had taken, 

 off six; four when done were just about full; the 

 other two were so when I began, but they were mark- 

 ed and sawed like the rest; when the combs were 

 attached, they were severed with a knife, and the 

 piece of the hive thus loose, was raised off, leaving 

 several inches of the combs projecting out of the hive. 

 I now cut off the first comb, even with the bottom of 



