A large swarm will probably carry with them some five or six pounds of honey from the parent stock. I only guess at this, because I am uncertain what the bees weigh exactly. "I can tell you," some one exclaims, "I saw some weighed,--so many weigh just eight ounces." Are you sure there was nothing but bees weighed? Was there no honey, bee-bread, fæces, or other substance, that might deceive you? "Can't say; I never thought of that!" Now it is important, if we weigh bees to know _their_ weight, to be sure we weigh nothing else. It is evident, that if five thousand weigh three pounds, when nothing is in their sacks, they would weigh, when filled with honey, several pounds more. Hence, the fallacy of judging of the size of a swarm by weight, as one swarm might issue with half the honey of another. Perhaps eight pounds, for large swarms, might be an average for bees and honey. This honey, whatever it amounts to, cannot be stored till combs are constructed to hold it. This principle holds good till the hive is full. That is, whenever they have more honey than the combs will hold, if there is room in the hive, they construct more. But they seem to go no farther than this in comb-making. However large the swarm may be, this compulsion appears necessary to fill the hive. Drone-cells are seldom made in the top of the hive, but a part are generally joined on the worker-cells, a little distance from the top; others near the bottom. There seems to be no rule about the number of such cells. Some hives will contain twice the number of others. It may depend on the yield of honey at the time; when very plenty, more drone-cells, &c. If the hive be very large, no doubt an unprofitable number would be constructed. Where the large and small cells join, there will be some cells of irregular shape; some with four or five angles; the distance from one angle to the other is also varied. Even where two combs of cells the same size join, making a straight comb, they are not always perfect. SOME WAX WASTED. When constructing comb, they are constantly wasting wax, either accidentally or voluntarily. The next morning after a swarm is located, the scales may be found, and will continue to increase as long as they are working it; the quantity often amounts to a handful or more. It is the best test of comb-making that I can give. Clean off the board and look the next morning, you will find the scales in proportion to their progress. Some will be nearly round as at first; others more or less worked up, and a part will be like fine saw-dust. Huber and some others have divided the working bees into different classes, denominating some wax-workers, others nurses, and pollen gatherers, &c. It may be partially true, but how it was found out is the mystery. The angles in the cells used for brood, are gradually filled, and after a time become round, both at the ends and sides. WATER NECESSARY TO COMB-MAKING.