TRANSFERRING OF BEES. 415 



abound not so much with flowers, and where equal care and 

 attention are not bestowed on their hives, the profit obtained 

 from the bees is much less considerable. In some parts of 

 the kingdom, a good stock of two years old may produce 

 two pounds and a half of wax, and from twenty to thirty 

 pounds of honey or more." 



We grant that these details are interesting, and well 

 calculated to excite in country persons and landed pro- 

 prietors an active disposition to encourage the culture of 

 the bee ; but still they are not wholly satisfactory. It is 

 not that we doubt the advantage derived from the transport- 

 ation of hives into a fresh pasturage, having ourselves ex- 

 perienced the benefit, when it can be done without any 

 great inconvenience or expense ; but in the details just 

 given, there is a great inaccuracy, and several very gross 

 contradictions are manifest. 



In the first place, in regard to the information of M. 

 Bomare, extracted from the Memoirs of M. Duhamel, re- 

 lative to the ample collection of honey and wax which is 

 extracted in July from hives which have sent forth several 

 swarms, all the bees of which are afterwards transferred into 

 empty hives, it appears to be enveloped in great doubt. It is 

 well known that the hives, from which two or three swarms 

 have emigrated in the course of a month, are continually occu- 

 pied with the re-peopling of the hive, as the brood combs will 

 sufficiently testify; and if that re-peopling cannot be fully 

 established, the hive so situated seldom survives the winter. 

 In a climate, however, similar to that of London or Edin- 

 burgh, the bees do not in general begin to swarm before 

 the month of June, and before the second swarm is thrown, 

 that month is far advanced. How then can we expect to 

 extract from those hives a sufficient crop in the month of 

 July ? much less can we expect to form a good stock by 

 removing the bees into an empty hive. 



We are further recommended to take particular care of 



