gain, if there is no stocks to be transferred in the
spring, keep them till the swarming season. If a swarm put into an
empty hive would just fill it, the same swarm put into one containing
fifteen pounds of honey, it seems plain, would make that number of
pounds in boxes. The advantage is, in the comparative value of box or
cap honey over that stored in the hive; the difference being from
thirty to a hundred per cent.

ADVANTAGES IN TRANSFERRING.

I would now like to show the advantages I derived in transferring the
twenty swarms before mentioned. We will suppose that each family, from
the first of October till April, consumed twenty pounds of honey. That
in the centre combs, where there is most bee-bread, &c., is eaten
first; if any is left, it is at the top and outside. If I had attempted
to take out and strain this twenty pounds in the fall, it would have
been so mixed with dead brood, and bee-bread, that I probably should
have rejected most of it. The remainder, when strained, might have been
five pounds, not more. The market price for it is about ten cents per
pound; amount fifty cents. We will say the new hive kept through the
winter to receive the bees in the spring contained fifteen pounds; this
would also have averaged about ten cents per pound, amounting to $1.50.
All that a stock of this kind costs me appears to be just $2.00, and
worth at least $5.00. The advantage in changing twenty would be $60.00.
The labor of transferring will offset against the trouble of straining,
preparing, and the expense of getting the honey to market.

ANOTHER METHOD OF UNITING TWO FAMILIES.

I have occasionally adopted yet another method of making a good stock
from two poor ones, which the reader may prefer. When all your old
stocks have been reinforced that need it, and you still have some
swarms with too few bees and too little honey for safety as they are,
two or more can be united. The fact, which has been thoroughly tested,
that two families of bees, when united and wintered in one hive, will
consume but little, if any more, than each of them would separately, is
a very important principle in this matter. If each family should have
fifteen pounds of honey, they would consume it all, and probably starve
at last, after eating thirty pounds. But if the contents of both were
in one hive, it would be amply sufficient, and some to spare in the
spring.

UNITING COMB AND HONEY AS WELL AS BEES.

The process of uniting t