TEE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



December 



funnel, down through which they will 

 go into the box. If I have not previ- 

 ously disposed of the queen, I catch and 

 cage her when I find her. In this way 

 the bees are shaken from all the combs 

 into the box. When well filled with 

 honey, even the closest sticking Ital- 

 ians are quite easily shaken off the 

 combs. 



Right here I will tell how to shake 

 bees off combs, as many seem to be un- 

 able to get the bees off, short of brush- 

 ing. The bee braces itself only against 

 falling off the comb downward, for the 

 thought that it is possible to fall up- 

 ward off the comb never seems to enter 

 its head, so it holds tenaciously only 

 from the upper side. Taking advan- 

 tage of this fact, I take the projections 

 of the top bar to the frame and place 

 thera on the two middle fingers of each 

 hand, letting the frame hang on them, 

 as it were. Now raise the frame up 

 quickly by raising the hands six inches 

 or more, and then with a quick motion 

 strike down. This quick downward mo- 

 tion causes the ends of the frame to 

 jump from the ends of the fingers and 

 strike the ball of the hand, thus giving 

 the comb a sudden jar with a down- 

 ward motion at the same time, while 

 the impetus of the bees is still upward. 

 This takes them all unawares and thus 

 dislodges them from the comb, while 

 any quantity of downward shakes 

 would loosen but few of them. In this 

 way I can clear a comb entirely of bees 

 by giving it three or four such jars. 

 But to return: 



As soon as all of the bees from the 

 first hive are in the box I proceed to 

 the second, and shake them into the 

 box with the first, and in the same 

 manner, and thus keep on till all are in 

 the box which I have decided are to go 

 into one colony. I now proceed to se- 

 lect the queen I wish for them, and 

 when I have done so I place a stopper 

 in the cage having a hole in it filled 

 with the "Good" or queen candy, such 

 as is used in shipping queens in the 



mails. 



I see I have forgotten something, and 

 that is to say, that while not actually 

 shaking bees in the funnel I keep a 

 cloth in it, which prevents any of the 

 bees from crawling or flying out. To 

 remove the funnel I set the cage or box 

 down suddenly, which causes the bees 

 to all go to the bottom of the box in a 

 heap, when the funnel is removed and 

 the hole covered. I now thoroughly 

 mix the bees by tumbling them from 

 one side of the box to the other, when 

 the box is again set down suddenly, 

 and while the bees are at the bottom 

 the caged queen is slipped through the 

 hole and the cage suspended near the 

 top of the box by means of a wire at- 

 tached to the cage and hooked over 

 the top of the outside of the box. As 

 soon as the bees can crawl to the top 

 they cluster about the queen, hanging 

 to the cage and the top of the box, and 

 while thus hanging eat out the candy in 

 the stopper, and if you have gauged 

 the amount of candy in it right, she 

 will be set at liberty in from four to six 

 hours, when the bees will receive her 

 kindly, and thus you have the selected 

 queen successfully introduced. 



As soon as the queen is in, the box is 

 set in the cellar or some cool dark 

 place and left. If the caging is done in 

 the forenoon the box is not disturbed 

 till about sunset, while if the caging is 

 done in the afternoon the bees are left 

 in the box until early the next morn- 

 ing. At sunset or early morning, as 

 the case may be, a hive is placed where 

 I wish the united colony to stay, and 

 prepared with enough frames of sealed 

 stores for the bees to winter on, select- 

 ing the richest combs from the whole 

 lot from which the bees have been 

 shaken. While the hive is thus pre* 

 pared the box of bees is brought from. 

 the cellar, the removable wire-cloth 

 side taken off and the bees emptied out 

 in front of the entrance and hived, just 

 as a natural swarm is hived. In this 

 way all are united peaceably, the se- 



