STOCKING AN APIARY 25 
and it takes a. six-pound lot, which sometimes 
means the contents of three skeps, to make a good 
colony for a frame hive. These bees are placed 
in a hive containing about six frames of founda- 
tion, or preferably.of empty combs, and fed up 
rapidly with good syrup, when usually they will 
turn out a good colony in the spring. This 
method of founding colonies is not advocated 
unless the bees can be had for nothing or for a 
small consideration. This is only possible when 
skeps are personally driven, when the rule is that 
the driver takes the bees for a trifling acknow- 
ledgment and the skeppist takes the honey. This 
done, stocks may be made up cheaply, but when 
the bees have to be bought, along with ‘comb 
foundation and sufficient sugar to feed them up for 
wintering, the total cost comes perilously near 
that of a prime swarm. Now a May swarm, nine 
times out of ten, will give a surplus, but “driven” 
bees cannot possibly give any return before the 
following season. Thus a season’s working is lost ; 
wintering risks have to be faced with bees which, 
be they ever so good, are rarely up to the stamina 
of a swarm for facing its rigours. Driven bees 
do not transmit disease. 
To summarize, it may be said that, putting aside 
the proviso regarding gratuitous “ driven’ bees, 
the choice should lie between stocks and swarms, 
with stocks for preference if properly bought, but 
for untutored hands swarms, and nothing but 
swarms. 
