SHIPPING BEES TO CALIFORNIA. 259 



more weak ones. We lifted each comb out of the 

 boxes, and after cleaning them carefully, transferred 

 bees and all into hives that were prepared to receive 

 them ; the frames fitting nicely, it required but a few 

 minutes to transfer a colony. Thus in a short time 

 we had them working in clean new hives. We fed 

 them syrup daily whilst a scarcity of honey existed 

 (in the manner described in the chapter on feeding), 

 which caused them to breed very rapidly. 



After the close of our sales of bees, we had, on the 

 fifteenth of March, 1859, sixty-eight colonies, which 

 we reserved as stock to propagate from ; this stock 

 was increased during the summer to four hundred 

 and twenty-two, by dividing, or artificial swarms, 

 without a single natural swarm in the whole lot! 

 being an increase of five and one-fifth from each col- 

 ony, all of which, with a very few exceptions, were 

 strong, well filled, vigorous stocks for wintering. Of 

 this number two hundred and eighty-four were sold 

 at one hundred dollars each. The remaining one 

 hundred and thirty-four colonies we retained to prop- 

 agate from during the present summer of 1860. 



PECULIARITIES OF BEES IN CALIFORNIA. 



Whilst in California, I visited all the principal 

 bee-keepers in the State, although scattered over a 

 great district of country. I found bees every where 

 prospering and increasing beyond any thing I had 

 ever before seen in any of the Atlantic States. The 

 moth or worms appear harmless, affecting the bees 

 but little, although they seem sufficiently numerous 



