CRITERIA OF THE MAGNITUDE OF A SWARM. 255 



swarm, but the country people are generally afflicted with 

 the notion that the greater the hive, the greater the quantity 

 of honey, than which nothing can be more fallacious. The 

 labour of the bees appears to have its limit, and it is not an 

 enlarged space which will induce them to exceed it : but the 

 great difficulty of proportioning the hive to the size of the 

 swarm, proceeds from the impossibility of determining the 

 magnitude of a swarm on its first settling. The hotter the 

 weather, the larger the swarm will appear ; on the principle 

 that the bees extend themselves to admit the air between 

 them ; and from appearance, the proprietor might be led to 

 conclude that the swarm is a very large one ; but let the 

 coolness of the evening come on, and the bees have 

 grouped themselves closer together, and a doubt is then 

 actually raised, whether it can possibly be the same swarm, 

 that was seen in the middle of the day. 



The weight is certainly a criterion of the magnitude of a 

 swarm, but even this cannot always be depended upon ; for 

 although it may appear paradoxical, yet a large swarm and 

 a middling one will often weigh nearly the same, and this 

 arises from the quantity of food which the bees may have 

 brought with them from the parent hive, and also from the 

 number of drones. A middling swarm will often have more 

 drones than a large one, and thus the proprietor becomes 

 deceived in the weight. There is also another circumstance 

 to be taken into the account, which is, that all swarms will 

 not work alike ; the greater the fecundity of the queen, the 

 greater the activity of the bees, and thus one swarm will fill 

 a story in fifteen or twenty days, whilst another will scarcely 

 fill it during the whole season. 



A boasted advantage of the storifying system is, that the 

 upper stories may be taken off full of honey, and by sub- 

 stituting empty ones at the bottom, a great benefit is ob- 

 tained by the regular renewal of the combs, which is said to 

 possess a favourable influence, both on the quantity and the 

 m 4 



