In this manner several swarmings take place in the course of the summer between the months of April and August. A good stock of bees usually produces three swarms in a favourable season: each swarm containing not only the young bees recently hatched, but also a portion of the old inhabitants. The duration of life of the different individuals is various: the male bees only live a few months, the workers only one or two years, and the queen only four or five. Such is, in brief, the birth, parentage, education, life, character, and behaviour of the honey-bee, and it will be only necessary now to say a few words regarding the management of these insects, with a view to instruction, amusement, and profit. HOW TO GET A STOCK OF BEES. They must be purchased, and the purchaser must take care and procure them of some one upon whom he may depend. This will save a great deal of trouble. The hive should be weighed before and after a swarm is placed in it, and a note kept of its weight, a judgment may then be formed of the quantity of honey it contains in the autumn. The hives should be sheltered by a wall, a hedge, or a tuft of trees, in order that the bees may get to the door of the hives with ease. This they cannot do if there are gusts of air sweeping round it, in which case, numbers of them will fall to the ground about the hive, from which, perhaps, they will not be able to rise before the chill and damp of the evening comes on and destroys them. There must be water near the hives, as the working bees drink a great deal in the spring, and they are very fond of walking along straws which float in the water and sipping as much as they want. The door of the hive should look towards the forenoon sun, and the hive should not be raised above eighteen inches from the ground. We will now suppose that your bees have laid up their winter store, and that you wish to share it with them. We say share it, because we do not suppose you are so cruel and foolish as to wish to kill your bees. You might as well kill a cow for the purpose of getting milk. The more bees you have, the more honey,--that is certain. About the latter end of September, the flowering season is over, and few flowers remain for the bees to get honey from. This is the best time to ascertain what honey they 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:--