12 
ter for transferring purposes, they should be Sight-color- 
ed, as this would indicate the swarm to be a young one. 
Take your fingers and pull the combs apart- enough that 
you can see well into them ; by so doing you can ascer- 
tain the presence of young brood. If this is present, it 
will indicate a fertile queen in most cases. The comb 
should be mostly of the worker kind, as worker bees are 
what you wai'.t, and they can only bo reared in such 
comb, — it is easily distinguished frome drone comb, the 
cells of the latter being much larger than that of the 
workers. A good quantity of bees should he presont. — 
Mouldy combs, or those filled to excess with bee bread, 
should bo rejected ; the latter adds much to the weight 
and lessens the capacity of the hive for rearing young 
and all surplus stores, it lessens the value of the swarm 
in .proportion to the quantity present above their wants. 
In the absence of the above defects, with the advantages 
pointed out in addition to plenty of honey, such a colony 
may be considered a good one. 
In Scmsieu. — All the above requisites are necessary, 
with an increased quantity of honey and bees ; when a 
swarm leaves the parent hive and clusters, a peck of 
bees may be considered a good swarm. 
In Fali.. — T his is now the most difficult seasou to de- 
termine the true value of a swarm. In the Spring, the 
value lies in the amount of bees prgsent, with the other 
requisites given. Jn the Fall, the amount of honey 
present determines the value, and if the colony is three 
or four years old, or more, persons are very liable to be 
deceived as to their true value, on account of a large 
quantity of bee bread being pres, nt in such hives. — 
Young swayms that are heavy with a fair quantity of 
bees in them, at this season of the year, may be consid- 
ered the best. 
