No. 4.] BEE KEEPING. 377 



hive up and move it to some place previously selected, aside from the 

 bee yard. Here you can proceed with less annoyance from the rest of 

 the bees. 



Place an empty hive or box on the old stand, in order to catch and 

 save the bees which are returning from the field. 



When every bee in the box hive is gorged with honey, turn the hive 

 upside down, pull off the bottom board, and substitute the forcing or 

 driving box, in which j'ou will collect the bees. If this does not make 

 good union with the sides of the old hive, you had best put a strip of 

 cloth temporarily around the joint, so that when the bees march up 

 from the combs they cannot take wing or boil over the sides of the hive, 

 but must go up into the driving box. When once they are fairly started 

 into the box, the cloth may be removed and the box tilted back on one 

 edge, which will receive the jar of the drumming. With the forcing or 

 driving box in position, as described, recommence your pounding. In 

 a few moments the bees will be seen to quit their combs and in regular 

 procession file up into the box. As is said above, the box may be tilted 

 back as soon as the procession is well started. 



It will be necessary to keep up this pounding until practically every 

 bee is off from the old combs, when, being sure you have the queen with 

 them, you may carefully lift the forcing box and bees, carry it to the 

 new hive, which should be placed near the old stand, and, as in hiving 

 a swarm, dump the bees either into or before the hive on a sheet, where- 

 upon the bees will enter as would a natural swarm. To avoid robbers, 

 do this in the late afternoon, or on a day when the bees are too busy 

 in the field to rob. 



The old hive should now be knocked apart, and what combs are 

 suitable should be fitted into empty frames. It is usually desirable to 

 save all the large, straight combs, especially those in which there is 

 brood ; but crooked combs are more bother to fit and manipulate than 

 their worth, and are usually melted for wax. 



Unless the transfer is made in very early spring (when the operation 

 should be done in the house, in order to prevent chilling), before there 

 is much honey in the fields, it is not necessary to feed or to give the 

 colony combs of honey. The clean honey is usually cut out and taken 

 to the house ; combs in which there are both honey and pollen mixed 

 are fed back to the bees. 



As fast as the combs are trimmed and precisely fitted to the inside of 

 the frames, they should be secured by several turns of string or tape or 

 by elastic bands about the frame. The frames may then be hung in 

 the hive, where the bees will fasten in the combs and remove the 

 bindings. 



After a little experience a neat operator can transfer rapidly, and do 

 a clean job. The only way to become expert is to begin now, and 

 develop your own mode of manipulation. 



