200 A Modern Bee-Farm 
the knife cuts a straight line, and that is far preferable to 
having the combs full of honey. ' 
The edges of the combs should be cut evenly, and well 
matched to fill out the frame, when they will be more 
quickly repaired by the bees. 
Other Plans of Transferring, 
such as the following, may commend themselves to either 
the novice, or those who have little time to spare. 
The first is to place the fixed-comb hive upon the 
frames of the modern hive, with a slatted board between, 
and allow the bees to work downwards on the combs or 
foundation placed for them. Towards the end of the 
season the stock will have its brood located in the frames, 
while honey will probably occupy the whole of the upper 
combs. This can then be removed, but the stock must 
not be allowed to starve, as it is quite likely very little 
store will be in the brood combs. 
The other method is that of placing the ates or other 
fixed-comb hive in an inverted position immediately under 
| the frame-hive, allowing communication through an opening 
in an improvised floor. In this case the inverted combs 
will be gradually emptied of everything. The stock will 
then take up its abode in the frames, and also work in 
supers above. These empty combs can then be transferred 
at leisure. 
Uniting Two Stocks or Swarms 
when furnishing the bar-frame hive will always prove the 
more satisfactory process in the end; and this fact should 
never be lost sight of. ; 
When uniting either stocks or swarms it is most desirable 
that only one queen be left, otherwise there will be some 
loss of workers as they “ball” the surplus queen, killing each 
