64 BEE-KEEPING FOR PROFIT 
stored and sealed by a strong hive that is 
kept especially for such a purpose. 
Whenever inside feeding is adopted, the 
entrance aperture to the hive should be re- 
duced so as to keep out bodies of raiders. 
The most efficient means of securing this is 
to place along the entrance a piece of per- 
forated zinc with holes just large enough for 
one bee to pass through at a time. This 
prevents a rush of marauders and allows ample 
ventilation in the hive. 
Uniting Stocks.—This procedure is not so 
common among English bee-keepers as it is 
with those in other parts of the world where 
the conditions are more favourable to a suc- 
cessful result. The reasons are chiefly because 
we can very seldom secure that the bees all 
work on the same flowers, and because most 
of our English bees are cross-breeds and there- 
fore more addicted to fighting. It is not to 
be expected that a broken breed of bees will 
unite peacefully with a pure breed. 
However, uniting is sometimes resorted to, 
and the method of procedure generally adopted 
in England is as follows. The hives to be 
united are brought nearer to each other 
gradually, not more than a yard or so at a 
time, and on fine days only, when the bees are 
