72 BEES FOR PLEASUKE AND PROFIT. 



till at least forty-eight hours afterwards. A queen must not 

 he introduced by this method to a stock from which a nucleus 

 has been formed less than three clear days previously ; other- 

 wise the old bees, returning to the hive, will ball and kill the 

 new queen.* 



Shading Hives in Summer. 



Often in very hot weather many of the bees hang out of 

 the front of the hive in clusters, idly doing nothing, when, if 

 the hive were rendered cooler by being shaded, these bees would 

 be working busily in the fields. A very good way to shade a 

 hive is to place a piece of sacking over it, and weight it down 

 with stones, so that the wind may not blow it off. 



Autumn Management. 



In the autumn there is a good deal to be done in the apiary 

 Empty combs must be done up in parcels, with camphor to keep 

 away the wax moth, and put aside in some warm, dry room for 

 the winter. Stocks must be fed up and packed before cold 

 weather sets in ; weak ones united, and the apiary generally set 

 in order. 



Condemned Bees. 



Cottagers who keep bees in straw skeps, and kill them with 

 sulphur when they take their honey in the autumn, can often 

 be induced to sell the bees out of the hives for sixpence a stock, 

 if the apiarist will come and drive them out of the skeps. Two 

 or three such lots joined together and placed in a hive con- 

 taining empty combs, and then fed up for the winter, will 

 make a very good stock ; and this is a very good and cheap way 

 for the apiarist to procure bees, provided that he has previously 

 had some experience in handling them. The tyro — unaccus- 

 tomed to the management of bees — would be almost sure to 

 meet with failure. 



Driving. 



The operation of driving a stock of bees out of a straw skep 

 is performed as fcJlows : — Procure a large earthenware pan or 

 an ordinary pail, a little smaller than the skep, so that the 

 latter, when turned upside down and placed in it, will fit down 

 in the pail to about half its own depth, and be kept steady in 



* Anotlier mefhod of introducing queens is described on pa.e 105. 



