106 AUSTRALIAN BEE LORE AND BEE CULTURE- 



bees, commence to drive them into the box placed over to receive 

 them. This cannot be accomplished with the gentle tapping given 

 in the case of driving them from a box hive. Heavy thuds with 

 the head of the axe will do it. Sometimes even this fails. In 

 that case, disturb them by brushing them rather roughly with a 

 bunch of ferns ; at the same time drive in amongst them two or 

 three clouds of smoke. They will very soon begin to travel into 

 the box put to receive them. All the time you are preparing to 

 drive them, and whilst you are doing so, keep a constant watch 

 for the queen. If she is seen moving into the box let her go, all 

 the bees will soon follow. If she is seen moving away from the 

 box, pick her up by the wing or the thorax — do not touch her 

 abdomen, you may permanently ruin her laying powers — and put 

 her in the box. Do not put her in the box unless there is a 

 handful of bees clustered therein. There will now be no further 

 trouble as regards securing the bees. In a little while you may 

 remove the box a little further afield. In a few minutes the bees 

 will be seen making towards it like a flock of sheep. Do not be 

 in a hurry to go to work to get out the comb ; it will soon be 

 deserted by the bees. Of course there will be a few stragglers on 

 each bit of comb as you remove it; these brush off near the box. 

 As each bit of comb is removed it will be seen that most of what it 

 contains is both brood and honey. Cut away the latter, dropping 

 it into the tub with the honey. When the brood comb is much 

 besmeared with honey you will find it more difficult to adjust in 

 the frames. So far so good. Now let us see what comes after. 

 You have the box containing the bees ; a tub containing the brood ; 

 and a tub with the honey. If it be early in the day when you 

 began work there may be a lot of bees still out foraging. In this 

 case it is just as well to leave the box of bees where they are. 

 Of course if it be too far from home you must put up wich the loss 

 of the few hundred bees that are away ; otherwise you can leave the 

 bees where they are till sundown. Take home the tub of brood 

 and that of honey. I do not care what you do with the latter. 

 Here it is none of my business to say anything about it. I want 

 you to look after the bees and brood. At home you have, or ought 

 to have, a bar-frame hive. If you are only going to transfer the 

 bees to a box-hive, remember it is only one remove from where 

 you took them. You know all about that method of doing things, 

 I want you to become a bee master. There is a wide gap between 

 getting honey out of a log, as you have been doing, and obtaining 

 the comb honey from the one-pound sections taken out of a Lang- 



