TRANSFERRING FROM BUILDINGS, TREES, ETC. 33 



to remove a comb containing brood from a strong colony, shake 

 off the bees, and replace the comb with a frame containing foun- 

 dation. The comb taken away can then be placed in the hive 

 which is to be placed over the colony to be transferred. Care 

 should be taken to see that no entrance is open in the box or 

 keg, but that the bees must enter by way of the new hive. The 

 bees seem to have an aversion to leaving honey and brood below 

 the entrance, and if conditions are right they will soon move 

 upstairs. Three weeks must elapse after the queen begins laying 

 above to allow time for all brood to hatch, when the box hive 

 may be taken away. If honey still remains it can be extracted 

 and the combs rendered into wax. 



When one transfers by the old method of cutting and fitting, 

 usually a part of the combs will have to be discarded after the 

 colony is successfully transferred, because of too much drone 

 comb, crooked, or otherwise unsuitable combs. By this later 

 method of gradual transfer, the bees are moved with little dis- 

 turbance and no muss. The old combs are valuable for little but 

 the wax they contain, and that is all saved. 



Another Plan. — Some bee-keepers practice the method of 

 drumming the bees up from the old hive into the new one above. 

 When, after a few minutes pounding on the hive with sticks, 

 most of the bees, including the queen, have gone above, the new 

 hive is placed on the old stand and the old hive taken away. At 

 the end of three weeks, when all brood has hatched, the young bees 

 are united with the old colony and the old hive destroyed. Even 

 though the old hive be left in place under the new one while the 

 bees are moving upstairs, it is a good plan to drum them above 

 to begin with, and then place a queen excluder under the new 

 hive to prevent the queen from going down again. 



Transferring from Buildings. Trees, Etc. — l^early every 

 bee-keeper of experience has been called on to remove a colony 

 of bees from the side of some dwelling house, where they had 

 found entrance through a crevice. Instead of tearing off a lot 

 of boards and possibly injuring the building, one should begin 

 3 



