130 miner's AMERICAN 



cut the combs entirely off, nothing remained to be done 

 but to place the hive in its proper position in the apiary. 

 I allowed it to remain fifteen minutes, to quiet the 

 bees, and then went out and placed it in its position ; 

 and not a bee seemed to know that a change had taken 

 place in the size of the hive, so tranquil and' peaceable 

 were they. 



The time had now arrived for the bees to sally out, 

 and I deferred the operation of another hive until the 

 following morning. I thus continued cutting one off 

 every morning, until all were finished. ,^ - 



Thus, it will be seen, that if any of my readers should 

 have hives of a size that a portion of their length would 

 be desirable to cut off, the manner of accomplishing it 

 is easy. 



After cutting off my large hive^, I found that they 

 contained no more bees than hives one foot square, that 

 I possessed; and those of that size actually swarmeffl 

 first, and had also swarmed the preceding season, while 

 my large hives had not cast a swarm for a period of two 

 or three years ! 



This result renders it conclusive to my mind, that it 

 is folly for the apiarian to pay no regard to the proper 

 size of hives, or rather suppose that the size has but a 

 secondary bearing upon the prosperity of his, bees. The 

 size, sir, is everything; and until you learn this fact, 

 and act upon it, your time is spent in vain. 



SMALL HIVES NOT APPROPRIATE FOR SMALL SWARMS. 



Some apiarians consider that the hive should conform 



