THE APIARY. 
367 
most important that evidence should be given of their 
freedom from disease (see Foul Brood), or pitiable 
failure may await us. In selecting sleeps, smoke, and 
turn up, choosing those that have swarmed the year 
before, and possessing, consequently, a young queen- 
Give preference to large, flat plates of comb, in which 
drone-sized cells are not over-abundant (especially if 
it is intended to transfer to frame hives). Casts of 
the year before will give these desirable conditions, but 
their hives should be full of comb. In the autumn 
the bees ought to be strong in numbers, and in the 
early spring there should be at least four or five 
seams of them. We may get evidence of the pre- 
sence of a fertile queen by finding sealed brood. 
Drive the bees up between the combs by smoke, and 
separate the combs somewhat with the fingers, to get 
a view of the cappings. It is only exceptionally 
desirable to buy stocks in frame hives, on account of 
the difficulty of transit and the higher cost. Colonies 
and artificial swarms in changing hands should not 
travel less than a mile, or many of the bees will go 
back to their old quarters and be lost. 
The miserable practice of sulphuring bees still con- 
tinues in some districts. In the autumn, the colonies 
of medium weight are selected to stand the winter. 
The heavy ones for their honey, and the light ones 
because they would starve if left, are “taken up’’ — 
i.e.j a. hollow is made in the ground, to receive at 
night a lighted rag, which has been dipped into 
melted sulphur, when the skep is stood over it. The 
bees, technically called “condemned bees,” feeling the 
stifling fume, creep into their cells, or drop into the 
