GQ 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEIER. 



run around by using a little smoke. 

 Often you will not see the queen 

 while she is standing still, but as soon 

 as she begins to move you will see her. 

 Look over the frames carefully as you 

 put them back into the hive. If there 

 are any bunches of bees make them 

 scatter with a little smoke or shake 

 them off a foot or two away from the 

 entrance so that you can get a good 

 view of them as they run in. If you 

 do not find her on the combs or in 

 the hive they were set in, you have 

 overlooked her. If the bees are 

 Italians yon might go over them again , 

 but if they are blacks you had better 

 close the hive for at least half an hour 

 and then try it again. 



I often find queens, especially black 

 ones, by the driving process. Take 

 any box, one side of which is about 

 the same in width as the end of your 

 hive. Remove the top of the hive, or 

 if it is a box hive turn it upside 

 down. Lean your box, bottom up, 

 on the back end of the hive at an 

 angle of about forty-five degrees, so 

 that you can easily see up into the 

 box and over the top of the hive. It 

 will be better if the edge of the box 

 is beveled and a couple of little strips 

 of tin nailed on that will just catch 

 the inside edge of the hive. The box 

 may be held in place with one hand, 

 or you may tack a prop to it, which 

 will leave both hands free. 



Now blow a good volume of smoke 

 in at the entrance and pound on the 

 hive with a hammer or anything that 

 is convenient. The object is to make 

 the bees go up into the box. If you 

 manage right you can make them all 

 go up within five minutes. Smoke 

 has a tendency to make them leave 

 the combs and pile up on top of the 



frames and the drumming persuades 

 them to go up into the box. Do not 

 smoke them all the time, but by a 

 judicious combination of smoking and 

 drumming, keep a stream of bees 

 moving upward. You are to keep 

 your eyes wide open that you may see 

 the queen as she goes up. Very often 

 she will be among the first ones, and 

 I often find a queen by this method 

 in less time than I could remove a 

 single frame from the hive. Some- 

 times, though, all the smoking and 

 drumming will not make her go up 

 and she will stay below with only two 

 or three dozen bees. Oftener you will 

 fail to see her as she goes up. 



Remove the drumming box, turn 

 it over and tip it from side so side to 

 make the bees run about, or pour 

 them on the ground or on a sheet or 

 board about two feet from the entrance 

 and run them back into the hiue, 

 picking up the queeu as she goes in. 

 The advantages of this method are 

 that by it queens may be found in box 

 hives almost as easily as in frame 

 hives. Black queens are found about 

 as readily as any. If bees are very 

 cross you will get fewer stings in this 

 way than any other. No honey need 

 be broken and the combs are not ex- 

 posed to robbers. If robbers are al- 

 ready bad though, the colony is for a 

 time in poor shape for defense, if the 

 smoking and the drumming has been 

 long continued. 



When colonies are small, a few 

 puffs of smoke on top • of the frames 

 will drive the queen down on the 

 bottom board, where she may be 

 found by simply lifting off the hive. 

 This method, made public by James 

 Heddon, is perhaps the best of all 

 when colonies are not too strong. 



