85 
Cmx to be given to Bees. 
good harmony. It is advisable to effect this 
union at nightfall. 
If, however, the bee-master is anxious to 
preserve hives in which neither honey nor bees 
abound, he should place them in a room. If the 
hive is one on improved principles, the empty 
comb should be taken out and filled with syrup 
poured into the cells. The comb should then be 
returned to the hive. 
If the hive be made on the old principle, the 
syrup may either be poured into a small wooden 
trough, or else into some empty comb. This 
should be placed at the top of the hive, under a 
super or hive of some kind. 
By adopting this method, we have preserved 
many weak stocks at a small cost compared to 
the value of the hive so treated. 
The preservation of weak stocks may prove 
extremely useful in the spring ; for even the 
most populous colonies are liable to lose their queens. 
In this case, the strongest hive may be preserved 
by joining it to a feeble stock in which the quee7t 
is in existence. 
If your small stocks happen to be Ligurian, 
and the queen in a strong hive of black bees 
has died, by joining the small Italian swarm 
