68 MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION 



spring or in fact anytime after the mating of the queen is accom- 

 plished. 



This may be done by picking the queen from the comb by her 

 wings with the thumb and forefinger of the right hand. Then set- 

 ting the comb down take the queen carefully by the thorax between 

 the thumb and forefinger or first two fingers of the left hand and 

 with a pair of fine scissors clip the upper right wing about half way 

 up. Care must be exercised that in the operation a leg* is not clipp- 

 ed or that the queen is not squeezed too tightly. Then, laying the 

 scissors down the queen may again be taken by the wings and re- 

 turned to the comb. She should be handled as little as possible, as 

 the moisture from the hands tends to moisten and soil her. 



When the colony swarms the queen may be caught in front of 

 the hive and confined temporarily in an introducing cage on a bit 

 cf comb and placed in the shade somewhere where the bees will not 

 find her. It is obvious that the grass should be kept short in front 

 cf the hives, that the hives should not be placed high off the ground 

 and that a slanting board in front is very desirable so that, should 

 the bees swarm when no one is about, the queen may get safely 

 back into the hive. 



While the bees are in the air the parent colony is removed from 

 the stand and an empty hive with frames fitted up with foundation 

 or with full combs, put in its place on the old stand. The bees after 

 circling around in the air, missing their queen will return to the 

 old stand. To hasten their return the cage containing the queen 

 may be placed on the alighting board and, when they are well in the 

 notion of going in she may be released and allowed to run in with 

 the rest and the swarm is safely housed. 



Among the cardinal points sought usually by beekeepers in the 

 handling of swarms is to keep the strength or working force of the 

 colony together for the production of honey. This is why some, 

 not desiring to increase, prefer to have no swarms cast. In all 

 swarming operations it is desirable to lose as little time as possible, 

 not only in the working of the bees in honey gathering, but also in 

 the production of brood. The desirability of having good strong 

 colonies in the fall for wintering must not be lost sight of and also 

 incidentally the securing of good straight worker combs should be 

 remembered in manipulatin the colony at swarming time. 



In view of these considerations when swarms are hived by the 



