EQUALIZING STOCKS FOR WINTER. 
23 
weak, cliange the relative positions of the hives, putting the 
strong one on the stand of the weak oue, and the weak one 
on the stand of the strong one. The bees from the strong 
hive will go out in great numbers for honey, not noticing as 
they leave that they have been moved, and on returning will 
enter the weak colony. Being filled with honey they will 
be kindly received. On entering they feel lost on finding 
themselves in a strange family, and will immediately hurry 
out to rectify the mistake ; but on looking around in vain for 
something more like home than the hive now 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 num- 
ber of Italians would be in the native hive, thus showing 
that they do neighbor some. 
Ordinarily, when bees 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 edor. 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 porus 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 coverings of the holes should then be removed, aud 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 
ot 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 sprinklo them with wa- 
