'28 THE PRACTICAL BEE GUIDE. 



may be varied as follows : — Remove one strong stock to a ne» 

 position, and place an empty hive upon its stand. Take, as 

 required, one, two, or more frames of brood from the other 

 stocks, returning- the adhering bees to their hives, and insert 

 the frames in the new hive, supplying their places with frames 

 of comb, or of wired foundation. Thus the first stock supplies 

 the bees, the others the brood, and none of them is appreciably 



227. Making Swarms for Sale — When swarms are being 

 prepared for sale, they may be made up from one, or more 

 stocks, as desired. If from one stock, the frame on which the 

 queen is found is removed, and the bees upon it, with the 

 queen, are brushed, or shaken into a swarm-box (160), or up- 

 turned skep, and as many more bees as are required are also 

 shaken in. If still more bees be required, the box, or skep, 

 may be placed upon the stand of the parent hive until a suffi- 

 cient number of flying bees have entered it. It may then be 

 prepared for transit (153). Another method is to set the 

 empty skep temporarily upon the stand of the parent hive; 

 a frame is then removed from the parent hive with the queen 

 and some bees ; the queen is picked off the frame and placed 

 at the entrance of the skep, and the bees are shaken off the 

 frame so that they may run in with the queen : the operation 

 is continued with other frames until sufficient bees have been 

 transferred to the skep, which is then prepared for transit, the 

 parent hive being returned to its stand. If bees of more than 

 one colony are required, care must be taken to include only 

 one queen in the swarm ; and the bees should all be dusted 

 with flour, or aspersed with thin, scented syrup to prevent 

 fighting. (160). 



228. One Swarm from a Stock and a Nucleus. — It will be 

 evident that one of the objections to swarming, both natural 

 and artificial, lies in the fact that the stock which has been 

 deprived of its queen, while the older bees are dying off rapidly, 

 must be without a laying queen for at least twenty-one 

 days (213). Careful bee-keepers overcome this objection by 

 having a supply of young, fertile queens in nucleus hives (290). 

 Where such queens can be had, artificial swarming may be 

 carried out without any waste of time, and therefore more 

 successfully. The following procedure may be adopted : — 

 Upon a fine day, when honey is coming in, secure the young 

 laying queen of the nucleus upon one of the frames, by a pipe- 

 cover cage (297), so that she shall have some honey at her 

 disposal. If the nucleus is in a small hive, transfer the bees 

 and combs to a suitable hive, and add sufficient frames of comb 

 or of foundation. Place the hive containing the nucleus on 

 the stand of a strong stock, removing the latter to the stand 



