1910 



GLEANIXCJH IX BEE CULTURE 



521 



THE ABC AND X Y Z PLAN OF TRANSFERRING FROM A BEE-TREE; THE BEES TRANSFER 



THEMSELVES. 



TRANSFERRING FROM A BEE-TREE WITH- 

 OUT MUTILATING THE TREE. 



BY GEO. W. BEARD. 



In the fall of 1908 I cut a bee-tree — that 

 is, I cut out the top containing the bees and 

 lowered it to the ground with a rope. I 

 then brought the log home and stood it up 

 in the fork of a peach-tree. 



In the spring of 1909 the colony proved to 

 be in good shape; and, although I liked the 

 novelty of having it in the log, I knew that, 

 if they were in a good hive, they might re- 

 imburse me for skinning my shins in 

 climbing that tree. But how M'as I to get 

 them out of that log ? 



About this time I received a golden queen 

 which I had ordered, and in introducing I 

 put the old queen on two frames of brood 

 and one of honey to hold in reserve in case 

 the new queen was killed. The new queen 

 was accepted, and as I am only an amateur 

 I didn't like to kill the old queen. To be 

 sure, I could put the brood back in the hive; 

 but the queen ? 



A few days later, while reading in my 



ABC and X Y Z (and, by the way, if an 

 amateur hasn't that book he should get it 

 at once) I found on page 48 these words: 

 "How to get bees out of bee-trees," etc. 

 Right there I found what to do with my 

 old queen w^hich was now doing well in the 

 three-frame nucleus. I placed a barrel be- 

 side the log, and on the barrel I put a hive 

 containing five frames of full-sheet founda- 

 tion. The hole in the log was about three 

 inches in diameter, so I sawed out a board 

 six inches square and made a one-inch hole 

 in the center and fastened a Porter bee- 

 escape over the hole. Next I made a, 3)4- 

 inch cloth ring by twisting a cloth and 

 tying the ends together. 



Placing the escape-board, cloth ring, nails, 

 and hammer so they would be handy, I 

 put the three-frame nucleus with the old 

 queen in the hive on the barrel. Then, 

 using the cloth ring as a washer, I nailed 

 the escape-board over the hole in the log, 

 being careful to place the escape so the bees 

 could come out but could not get back in. 

 This was done when the most bees were 

 flying; and before I could get away the 

 board and corner of the hive were covered 



