FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 51 



I have also used manilla tags with figures printed on 

 them, but the figures are not seen at so great a distance 

 as on the white tin tags. The tin tags cost more in the 

 first place, but are cheaper in the long run, for they last 

 twenty years or more, while the manilla scarcely last a 

 fifth of that time in satisfactory shape. 



ORDER OF NUMBERS. 



When the hives are put on the stands in the spring, 

 the numbers are all mixed up. The first thing to be 

 done is to enter upon the record-book these numbers. The 

 first hive in the first row should be No. i, the next No. 2, 

 and so on; but in the place of No. i stands perhaps 231, 

 on the place of No. 2 stands 174, etc. So, on the new 

 record-book I write No. i (231) on the first page at the 

 top ; one-third the way down the page, I write No. 2(174), 

 and so on. 



Just as soon as convenient the tags are taken off the 

 hives where they are wrong, and the right ones put on. 

 If on No. I the tag says 231, then that tag is taken off 

 and the tag that says i is put on. 



THE RECORD-BOOK. 



I can tell more or less of the history of every colony 

 of bees since I began keeping bees in 1861. At first I 

 kept the record of each colony from year to year in the 

 same book, but for a good many years I have had a new 

 book each year. The book I like is 12x51/2 inches, con- 

 taining about 160 pages (Fig. 17). Three colonies are 

 kept on each page, so the book is a good deal larger than 

 I need, for I have never had quite 400 colonies. But a 

 good many pages are used for memoranda and other 

 things, and it is better to have too much room in the 

 book than too little. While the size of the book is not 

 so very important, the binding is. If the book were 



