can spare; therefore, weigh every hive, and
deduct from it the weight of the hive and the bees, as ascertained when
the swarm entered it at first, as above directed.

To live through the winter, a hive must have at least sixteen pounds of
honey, and if you wish it to swarm early, it ought to have twenty-five
or even thirty pounds.

When you determine on taking away the honey from a hive, either for your
own use or for distributing it to other hives, proceed as follows:--

The first fine calm morning after the honey season is over, go to your
hive provided with a tobacco-pipe in your mouth, a large dish for the
honey in one hand, and a long knife with the point bent, and a goose or
turkey feather in your other. Blow two or three full puffs of smoke in
at the door, then turn the hive upside down on the ground, so as to
stand steadily, and immediately give the bees, who will collect on the
edge of the comb to see what is going on, a little more smoke. This will
stupify them so completely, that not above one or two will be able to
fly out, and they will be so sick, that they will not dream of stinging
you. Begin at one side of the hive, and cut out a comb, having first
sent down a puff of smoke to make the bees go away to the middle and the
other side. Proceed thus,--sweeping the bees off every comb back into
the hive with the feather, till you come to the centre comb. The only
nicety consists in blowing away the bees to prevent any of them being
crushed. If the operation be neatly done, scarcely any bees will be
killed. Take the hive now and replace it on its stand as before.

The next thing to be done is to join the bees, from which the honey has
been so taken, to another hive in which you wish them to be
accommodated, which may be done as follows:--In the evening, if you look
into the hive which has been deprived of its honey, you will find all
the bees hanging in the centre, just like a new swarm. Bring the hive
near the one to which they are to be joined,--get about a table spoonful
of raw honey or syrup, so thin as to pour easily, and have it in a jug
beside the hive which is to receive the strangers,--blow a few whiffs of
tobacco smoke in the door of the hive, then turn it up and give them an
additional puff or two, and pour the honey or syrup from the jug all
over the bees between the combs, so that they may be quite smeared over.
Then spread a clean linen cloth on the ground in front of the hive, with
one edge o