TRANSFERRING. 



311 



close together, it is desirable, in performing this operation, 

 that the decoy-hive, and the forcing-box, should be of the 

 same shape and even color with that of the parent-stock. If 

 they arc very unlike, and the returning bees attempt to enter 

 a neighboring hive, because it resembles their old home, the 

 adjoining hives should have sheets thrown over them, to hide 

 them from the bees, until the operation is completed. 



Fig. 118. 



HOUSE APIAEY OF ME. BLATT IN SWITZERLAND. 



576. To return to our imprisoned bees : their hive should 

 be beaten smartly with the palms of the hands, or two small 

 rods, on the sides to which the combs are attached, so as to 

 run no risk of loosening* them. These "rappings," although 



♦ There is little danger of loosening the combs of an old colony, but 

 the greatest caution is necessary when the combs of a hive are new. 

 If, in inverting such a hive, the troad sides of the combs, instead of 

 their edges, are incline,d downwards, the heat, and weight of the bees, 

 may loosen the combs, and ruin the colony. 



