CHAPTER XVII. 
REUNION OF THE PARENT STOCK WITH A SECOND OR THIRD 
SWARM. 
Wuen an old stock hive, that has been occupied by the bees for 
three or more years, and the combs have become thick and unfit for 
breeding, throws off a second or third swarm, and thereby be- 
comes weak, they should be reunited to the last issue, as neither will 
usually be worth anything if permitted to remain separate. This re- 
union may be accomplised in the following manner. Hive the swarm 
as usual, and at sunset of the same day, after smoking the old colony 
slightly with burning cloth, remove it a short distance from its loca- 
tion, and set the hive containing the new swarm where the old one 
formerly stood; turn the old hive upside down, with the bottom off 
and drum smartly on its sides, with sticks about the size of flour-bar- 
rel hoops; the bees will soon commence leaving, and return to their 
former alighting place, and enter the hive with the new swarm. If 
some burning rags are kept around the hive during the operation, the 
bees will not be as likely to show fight, and will leave the hive more 
readily. 
If it is late in the season, they may require feeding; this should be 
done during the month of October or November. In uniting the old 
colony with the swarm, considerable honey is frequently obtained 
from the old hive, and the bees introduced into a hive with new and 
healthy combs, and a good colony obtained from the two weak ones, 
that in all probability would not have survived the winter, had they 
not been united. 
