I know Weeks, Colton, Miner and others, tell us the hive _must be full_ before we need expect a swarm; but experience is against them. Bees do sometimes cast a swarm before filling the hive. From close observation, I find when a hive is very large, say 4,000 cubic inches, and is filled with comb, the first season, that such seldom swarm except in very good years. SIZE OF HIVES NEEDED. But if such hive is only half full, or 2,000 inches, it is very common for them to swarm without adding any new comb; proving very conclusively that a hive that size, is sufficient for all their wants in the breeding season. When about 1,200 inches only had been filled the first year, I have known them to add combs until they had filled about 1,800, and then cast a swarm, proving also that a little less than 2,000 will do for breeding. I have tested the principle of giving room to prevent swarming, a little further. AN EXPERIMENT. In the spring of '47, I placed under five full hives, containing 2,000 solid or cubic inches, as many empty ones, the same size, without the top. I had a swarm from each; but two had added any new comb, and these but little. If these hives had been filled to the bottom with comb in the spring, it is very doubtful whether either of them would have swarmed. The only place we can put a good stock and not expect it to swarm in good seasons, is inside a building, where it is perfectly dark, and even here a few have been known to do it. If we could manage to get _a very large hive_ filled with combs, it would perhaps be as good a preventive as any. All the bees that could be reared in one season, would have sufficient room in the combs ready made for their labors, and there would be no necessity for their emigration. "But what becomes of all the bees raised in the course of several years?" To this question I shall not probably be able to give a satisfactory answer at present. BEES DO NOT INCREASE, IF FULL, AFTER THE FIRST YEAR, IN SAME HIVE. I only will notice the fact, that the bees somehow disappear, and there is no more at the end of five years than at the end of one. A stock of bees may contain 6,000 the first of May, and raise 20,000 in the course of the year; by the first of the next May, as a general thing, not one more will be found, even when no swarm had issued. GILLMORE'S SYSTEM DOUBTED.