THE MODE BY SUFFOCATION. 



same diameter over it; being fitted, that the bees 

 cannot escape, tie a large sheet or cloth round them 

 where they join. Beat the sides of the full hive with 

 the hand or a stick, in those parts to which the combs 

 are attache^, parallel with the entrance. 



The bees, alarmed, will all ascend into the new 

 hive in a few minutes, which will be known by a 

 general humming, and the hive may be then placed 

 upon the pedestal. The old hive must be then taken 

 in-doors and the honey-comb cut out secundum artem, 

 and to the proper extent, leaving the bees a winter 

 store, that is, the weight of the hive should not be 

 under eighteen or twenty pounds. Attention should 

 be paid, not to cut into two or three combs at once, 

 but having commenced cutting one, to pursue it to 

 the top of the hive. This business finished, the hive 

 should be inspected and made perfectly clean. It may 

 how be returned to its pedestal, and the other hive 

 containing the bees being reversed, the old one placed 

 over it, and being so left till morning, the bees will 

 be then found in their native domicile. 



In the performance of this operation, particular 

 attention should be paid to the part of the hive 

 which is to be beaten, for if it be done indiscrimi- 

 nately, the ruin of the hive will be the consequence, 

 owing to the fraction of the combs. The operator 

 cannot err if he places the entrance on his right hand, 

 and then beat the hive on that and the opposite side. 



The common mode of destroying bees by SUFFO- 

 CATION, in order to take the whole produce of the 

 hive, is as follows. The easiest method of perform- 

 ing this operation, is to dig a hole, in which put a 

 p 5 



