STOCK-HIVES. 131 



swarm can nearly fill its hive with combs and store up 

 25 lb. of food. 



When the bees creep together by reason of cold weather 

 the ekes may be taken from them ; and if some combs 

 have been built down into the ekes, they should be 

 shortened or pared to fit. 



These sugar-fed stocks are generally very prosperous 

 ones in the following year, their combs being young and 

 containing scarcely any bee-bread. Almost every ceU 

 yields brood in spring. But it should be understood that 

 combs made from sugar are more brittle and easily broken 

 than combs made from honey gathered in the fields. We 

 have frequently known every hive in an apiary put down 

 for honey, and all the stocks made as now described. We 

 think it was in 1864 when a cousin of ours realised £40 

 profit from nine stocks. He found all his hives too 

 heavy for keeping, hence he took all the honey, and 

 formed his stocks by feeding. 



In a year or two after, we found him forming stocks in 

 the same way. He had his hives placed over holes or 

 pits in the ground about a foot square, and the syrup in 

 dishes at the bottom of these pits. The hives were weU 

 covered ; and in this novel and rustic way he succeeded 

 in furnishing his apiary with hives of surpassing worth 

 and strength. 



