GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



March. 1921 



l(ig he uses a narrow-bladed saw. A keyliole 

 or pruiiiiifj' saw is very good. This is run 

 elear around the inside of the gum, cutting 

 off the cross-sticks at the same time (see 

 Fig. 6). After the combs have been cut 

 loose, the box or gum is lifted off the combs, 

 leaving them standing. With a long-bladed 

 knife it is now perfectly simple to take out 



or gum is dumped in front of the entrance 

 of the modern hive, when the work is com- 

 plete. 



Another plan, but one that is somewhat 

 slower, is often used by Mr. Sams. A mod- 

 ern hive is prepared containing nine frames 

 of foundation and a frame of brood from 

 some oilier colony. This is placed on the 



Fie. 7. — Only the combs (.ontainiiis the brood are 

 fitted into brood-frames. A butcher-knife marks the 

 size of the piece or pieces to be cut, and then tlie 

 ^vhole slice is tut large so ns to fit snugly into the 

 frame. 



the pieces containing Ijrood and fit them into 

 the regular modern frames. All the other 

 combs except those containing honey are 

 dumped into a burlap sack. Those contain- 

 ing honey are retained by the family. 



Perhaps nearly every one is familiar witli 

 the process of fitting pieces of comb into a 

 frame. Only the squares containing brood 

 are used. They are sliced up into sizes that 

 will fit nicelv together when the frame is 



Pig. 9. — Sometimes one will liiul cuite a large square 

 of brood and fairly good combs in the old gum or 

 box hive; but most of the laood comb in the box 

 hive.s is irregular in shape, or contains too mnny 

 drone-cells. Such as are here shown are better than 

 the average. 



stand occupied by the old hive or gum. On 

 this is placed a bee-escape board with the 

 escape feeding downward. The gum is 

 turned upside down, when half of the bees 

 are drummed up on to a super-cover or 

 board, as before explained. In doing this it 

 is important that the queen be secured. The 

 bees with the queen are then dumped in 

 front of the entrance of the new hive. If 



Fig. 8. — Where there are several pieces of comb it 



is necessary to use strings to hold them in place. 



These are wound around the frames several times 



and tied. The bees will remove the string. 



laid over the whole and the size marked 

 out with a knife as shown in Fig. 7. These 

 squares are cut a little large, after which 

 the frame is crowded over them. The last 

 operation is to wind string around the 

 frame as in Fig. 8, and' tie. These frames 

 of brood, as fast as they are made up, are 

 then inserted in the space betweeir the 

 frames of foundation, Last of alU the box 



Fig. 10. — This picture shows a longer way of trans- 

 ferring, liut it avoids the necessity of cutting and 

 fitting combs of brood into frames. The objections 

 to the plan are the difficulty of getting the queen 

 into tl>e new hive and the length of time required 

 to complete the transfer. 



the queen goes in, all is well. The gum with 

 the rest of its bees is now placed on top of 

 the new hive with the bee-escape between. 

 It is left that way for three weeks, when, 

 if the queen was secured in the drumming, 

 the brood will have emerged and most of the 

 bees be l)elow. Tlie plan is shown in Fig. 10. 



