184 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



live and do well for a much longer time than many 

 writers would have us believe. 



To prune in the manner I have described, early in 

 the spring, be careful to feed, which will induce the 

 bees to build new combs to fill up the vacancy ; in a 

 short time all will be full again. 



I find, in choosing the time for pruning, my expe- 

 rience differs from Mr. Quinby's. Perhaps this arises 

 from the fact of his wintering bees in the house, 

 which I cannot approve of or recommend for general 

 practice, for reasons given in another place. As cold 

 weather approaches, bees cluster pretty near the 

 lower end of the brood combs ; this is generally 

 where the last brood emerges, where the empty cells 

 are found, if there are any in the hive. As winter 

 advances the bees ascend higher and higher, just in 

 proportion as they consume the honey from the upper 

 edge of their cluster. When spring opens, we gen- 

 erally find the main body of the cluster over two- 

 thirds of the distance from bottom to top of the 

 combs. This is when they commence to rear 

 brood largely, although they may have had some for 

 weeks or months previously, yet as it emerges the 

 cluster moves steadily upward ; hence, on the appear- 

 ance of warm weather, in the spring, quite enough 

 combs are empty in the lower part of the hive to 

 permit pruning without interfering with the brood 

 or eggs. Probably it would be otherwise with bees 

 wintered in a warm room. 



But little now remains to be done until the swarm- 

 ing season arrives, except to put on the honey boxes 

 on the approach of the clover season. 



