342 



GLEANING-S IN BEE CULTURE 



Fig. fi. — Another view of the switching-device by itself. 



it, as seen in the cut. The entrance to the 

 hive on the left, containing the foundation, 

 is left open. The rear openings of the con- 

 troller between the two hives are closed, and 

 the feeder end closed with a shutter. The 

 bees now have access to both hives across 

 the front vestibule of the controller. 



Thus arranged they may be left to work 

 and investigate the new combination, and 

 become established in using the new en- 

 trance. Transferring should be done when 

 the bees are fiying well, but may be done at 

 any time if circumstances demand. If there 

 is a honey-flow, and the bees are well afield, 

 about noon, push in the slide on the right 

 side, seen on top of the swarm-controlier, 

 provided with a Porter bee-escape, closing 

 the entrance to the box hive containing the 

 bees. The bees can now leave this hive, 

 but can not return. Returning to the com- 

 mon entrance in the controller they enter 

 the new hive on the left. There will be 

 some commotion for a time on account of 

 the absence of the queen. Two combs of 

 honey and brood can be given in the be- 

 ginning from some colony that can spare 

 them, and this will very greatly aid in sat- 

 isfying their discontent. If, however, they 

 are black bees, as they generally are, a lay- 

 ing Italian queen is given in the evening of 

 the first day. When the bee-escape is ad- 

 justed, closing the entrance to the old hive, 

 the bees 

 having be- 

 come estab- 

 lished in 

 using the 

 controller 

 entrance, 

 the box hive 

 may now 

 have an en- 

 trance or 

 exit made 

 on the side 

 opposite the 

 controller 

 entrance; 

 and all bees 

 leaving this 

 exit will re- 

 turn to the 

 con troller 

 entrance 



and enter the new hive. A 

 sufficient number of bees 

 should be left in the box hive, 

 however, to nurse the brood. 

 In fourteen days the escape 

 is removed, and in its place a 

 slide of perforated zinc is 

 fixed; then smoke the remain- 

 ing bees from the top of the 

 box hive, and they will go 

 over to the annex. All the 

 entrances between the two 

 hives, front and rear, should 

 now be open except the per- 

 forated zinc, so that the bees 

 may readily retreat from the 

 smoke. The call of their 

 comrades will draw them over, and the 

 trouble of clearing the old hive of the rem- 

 nant of young bees is thus greatly facilitat- 

 ed. Do not forget to place a slide of per- 

 forated zinc over both openings of the box 

 hive to prevent the old queen from entering 

 the new hive with the young bees. The 

 old queen can now be killed by fumigating. 

 As the box hive is not joined to the con- 

 troller (simply set against it), it may be set 

 aside some distance while fumigating. It 

 is now returned to its original position 

 against the controller, all slides removed, 

 giving the bees free access to the hive, 

 front and rear. Mutilate the combs by 

 pushing a stick through them, breaking 

 the honey-cells. This will induce the bees 

 in the new hive to transfer the honey in a 

 short time. 



The box hive now contains nothing but 

 the empty combs, which should be re- 

 moved, torn down, and the wax rendered 

 before the worms get into it. After the old 

 queen in the box hive ceases laying, 

 and has been deprived of her bees for a 

 time, she shrinks, becoming smaller in the 

 abdomen; and there is then danger, by the 

 above process, that she may slip through 

 the perforated zinc along with the bees when 

 smoked out, and thus endanger the safety 

 of the valuable queen in the new hive. To 

 obviate this risk, the old queen in the box 



Fig. 7.— iStoring empty extracting-combs in extra bodies over the " annex. 



