38 AN EASY METHOD 



to deposit eggs for young bees, on account of her youth, for 

 several days, and sometimes weeks, after they are hived in 

 a new tenement ; at the same time, every night shows their 

 number less, by various misfortunes and accidents in their 

 journeys to the fields after food, and the bees become dis- 

 couraged or disheartened,, for want of numbers to constitute 

 their colony, abandon their tenement, and join with their 

 nearest neighbors, leaving their comb to the merciless de- 

 predations of the moth. These occurrences usually take_ 

 place before any eggs or young broods are found in the 

 comb. They are sometimes robbed by the adjoining hives, 

 and then the moths finish or destroy what is left. 



When bees are collected m drawers for the purpose of 

 equalizing colonies, by doubling, &c., unless they come out 

 the same day, they should be permitted to stand until evening 

 before they are united, it being a more favorable time for 

 them to become acquainted with each other by degrees ; and 

 the scent of the bees in the lower apartment will enter 

 through the apertures during the night so much, that there 

 is a greater degree of sameness in the peculiar smell of the 

 two colonies, which reduces their animosity, if they chance 

 to have any. 



Second swarms are generally about half as large as the 

 first, and third swarms half as large as second ones. 



Now if second swarms are doubled, so as to make them 

 equal in number with the first, the owner avails himself of 

 the advantage of a strong colony, which will not be likely to 

 become disheartened for want of numbers, nor overcome ty 

 robbers from stronger colonies. 



It is far less- trouble, and less expense, for the bee-owner 

 to equalize his colonies, than to prepare hives and drawers 

 of different sizes to fit his swarms. 



When colonial and hives are made as near alike as possi- 



