410 INSECTS AFFECTIXG VEGETATION 



Transferring should not be delayed until spring merely because 

 that season is best for the work. It may be done at any time during 

 the active season, but, whenever possible, during a honey flow, to 

 prevent robbing. If necessary, it may be done in a tent such as is 

 often used in manipulating colonies. By choosing a time of the 

 day when the largest number of bees are in the field the work will 

 be lessened. 



The box hive should be moved a few feet from its stand and 

 in its place should be put a hive containing either full sheets of 

 foundation or empty combs. The box hive should be turned upside 

 down and a small, empty box fitted on it. By drumming continu- 

 ously on the box hive for a considerable time the bees will be made 

 to desert their combs and go to the upper box, and when most of 

 them are clustered above the box may be carried to the new hive and 

 the bees dumped in front of the entrance. The queen will usually 

 be seen as the bees enter the hive, but in case she has not left tho 

 old combs, more drumming will induce her to leave. It is necessary 

 that the queen be in the hive before this manipulation is finished. 

 The old box hive containing brood may now be placed right side up 

 in a new location and in twenty-one days all of the worker brood will 

 have emerged and probably some new queens will have been reared. 

 These bees may then be drummed out and united with their former 

 hive mates by smoking the colony and the drummed bees vigorously 

 and allowing the latter to enter the hive through a perforated zinc 

 to keep out the young queens. The wax in the box hive may then be 

 melted up and any honey which it may contain used as the bee 

 keeper sees fit. By this method good straight combs are obtained. If 

 little honey is being gathered, the colony in the hive must be pro- 

 vided with food. 



If, on the other hand, the operator desires to save the combs of 

 the box hive, the bees may be drummed into a box and the brood 

 combs and other fairly good combs cut to fit frames and tied in place 

 or held with rubber bands, strings, or strips of wood until the bees 

 can repair the damage and fill up the breaks. These frames can then 

 be hung in a hive on the old stand and the bees allowed to go in. 

 The cutting of combs containing brood with more or less bees on 

 them is a disagreeable job, and, since the combs so obtained are 

 usually of little value in an apiary, the first method is recommended. 



Colonies often take up their abode in walls of houses and it is 

 often necessary to remove them to prevent damage from melting 

 combs. If the cavity in which the combs are built can be reached, 

 the method of procedure is like that of transferring, except that 

 drumming is impractical and the bees must simply be subdued with 

 smoke and the combs cut out with the bees on them. 



Another method which is often better is to place a bee escape 

 over the entrance to the cavity, so that the bees can come out, but 

 can not return. A cone of wire cloth about 8 inches high with a hole 

 at the apex just large enough for one bee to pass will serve as a bee 

 escape, or a regular bee escape such as are sold by dealers may be 

 used. A hive which they can enter is then placed beside the entrance, 



