80 TRANSPORTING BEES. 
will be a whitish or straw color. If two years old, a light brown or 
copper color. If from two to three years old, a darker brown, and if , 
over that, a still darker or nearly black. A colony more than two 
years old (if in the same old combs) are not considered, generally 
speaking, worth as much as those younger, merely on account of the 
age of the brood-combs, as the longer they are used the thicker they 
become, and the cells smaller, and consequently every generation or 
brood of bees that are hatched in the same combs must necessarily be 
smaller, and more puny and feeble. Old combs, also, are more liable 
to contain moths than new ones. The strength or number of bees 
may be ascertained by raising the hive, and looking into it, or by a 
slight rap upon the side of the hive. If it is a populous family the 
buzz or noise produced by the bees will be loud, and continued for two 
seconds or more. If it be a weak family it will be quiet, and of short 
duration. 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
TRANSPORTING BEES. 
THE proper time to move or transport bees is after they have 
ceased their labors in the fall, and before they commence in the 
spring. 
In large hives or boxes there is more danger of the combs breaking 
down than in small ones. I have found not the least difficulty in 
transporting bees in my hives, I have carried them when full of 
honey and bees one hundred and fifty miles, by carriage and rail- 
road, without injuring them at all, as they are well supplied with ven- 
tilation, and perfectly secure from’ escaping from the hive, to harm 
any one. 
In transporting bees in the common hive, if the combs are new, and 
well stored with honey, it will render them less liable to break down, 
to set the hive with the bottom up, with a cloth tied or made secure 
