140 ss low to re-inforce Bee-hives. 
fields. This operation may be very eafi- 
ly performed at any hour of the day ;-but , 
the fafeft time is when they are moft bufy at 
work, as they are not then fo ready to fting the 
operator. Inthis manner, I have taken off 
four artificial fwarms in one forenoon, and 
hardly received a fingle fting ; for the opera~ 
tion is quite eafily performed, efpecially 1 in the 
middle of the day. f 
In 
+ Indeed, there is hardly any thing that is requifite to be 
done about bees, that I would not take in hand to perform, with 
fufficient time and attention. 
I could put twenty hives, for inftance, into one, if neceffary : 
I can caufe my bees to rear as many Queens as I pleafe: I can 
rob my bees of part of their honey, at any time: I could carry 
100 bee hives to Lonpon or Russia: I could rear 5,000 bee- 
hives in a few years, if defired by any gentleman of pro- 
perty::I could travel through the flreets of Edinburgh with 
three fwarms of bees about me, unhurt: I can take a {warm out of 
any hive at any time: I can take 10,000 bees from ten dif- | 
ferent hives, and unite them into one hive; and I can re-in- 
force a weak hive with bees from any number of other hives, | 
and from being the worst, make it the gest hive in the county ; 
I can unite the bees of forty hives into thirty, twenty, or ten 
hives; and next Summer divide thefe ten hives again into, forty 
fw arms: If Ihave a weak hive fuffering by robbers, I can 
firengthen it with more bees, and make them fit to rob any hive 
in the neighbourhood: If I have a hive of bees perifhing with 
poverty or famine, I can make it the richeft hive in the place, or 
within many miles around: I can take a common bee ege, and 
caute 
