EQUALIZING STOCKS FOIl WINTER. 
23 
more like home than the hive uow occupying the old familiar 
spot, they will return and soon be at work as eagerly as ever. 
A few from the weak stock will, in the same manner, join 
the strong one. In this way colonies may be made equal in 
strength. I have known colonies of native bees, brought 
many miles in the winter, into the neighborhood of Italian 
bees, and before swarming time a considerable number of 
Italians would be in the native hive, thus showing that they 
do neighbor some. 
Ordinarily, when beos are not making honey, if a stranger 
attempts to enter a hive, it is roughly examined, and if it can 
not show the proper credentials, it is ejected forthwith. But 
the common mode of recognition is by the sense of smell. 
When I set my bees out in the spring, having had a great 
many of them together in a close cellar all winter, they have 
acquired the same odor. I can then take bees from one hive 
and put them into another, or unite them as I please, without 
producing a conflict. 
If it is desired to unite two colonies, if in open bottomed box 
hives, set one on top of the other, having holes in the top of the 
lower hive, which should be covered with wire cloth or other 
porous material to keep the bees apart for a week or ten days. 
The odor passing from the lower hive, through these holes, 
gives them all the common scent of one family. The cover- 
ings of the holes should then be removed and they will unite 
amicably. There might be an opening left in the upper hive 
for the bees to pass out and in until the coverings of the holes 
in the top of the lower hive are removed. The opening in 
the upper hive should then be closed to make the bees go 
down into and through the other hive and become one colony. 
A speedier way is to unite the bees, then smoke them well 
with tobacco, or, more generously, to sprinkle them with water 
well sweetened and strongly scented with peppermint or 
other essence, which will so obliterate, for the time being, 
the natural odor, that neither will know which to fight. If 
the bees to be united are in movable comb hives, put the 
fullest combs of both hives into one. If they are in 
box hives, invert the best one, or the one in which you 
wish the bees to remain ; blow a little smoke among the 
bees to drive them down off - the combs whilst you trim 
the ends of the combs square. Having driven the bees out 
of the other hive, cut out the combs and put them on their 
