DRIVING OB naUMMING BEES. SS 



by a decided downward jerk, the most of tkem will be at once dislodged. 

 Oive tliem no time to recover their astonishment, but repeat the process 

 and after three or iowi shakes, hardly a bee will remain. Of course a sheeu 

 must be spread to receive them, but the method of treatment will depend 

 upon our object. It is at all times difficult to drive from hives but partially 

 filled with comb, since the bees claster in its unoccupied parts rather than 

 leave ; while the attempt must not be made with very young colonies whose 

 combs are so tender that breakage must follow the necessary beating. 



We must also caution against driving after hot days, when much hDnev 

 has been gathered, or this will commence to run from the combs as soon as 

 the skep is inverted, while our jarring will so shake it out that the bees may 

 be hopelessly glued together, from which cause not only may we fail in 

 obtaining a forced swarm, but the colony will be damaged, and perhaps, 

 even the queen killed. Let us attempt the operation on the following 

 morning, when the limpid newly-gathered honey will have considerably 

 thickened by evaporation, and further the process of sealing, i.e., the 

 capping of the store cells with their waxen lids, will have progressed during 

 the night, while also the temperature will have dropped, making the combs 

 less liable to collapse 



