254 DR. miller's 



Q. How do you like putting a hive with one frame of brood 

 over the colony to be transferred, and a queen-excluder between, 

 when you catch the queen in the upper hive? 



A. It will work all right. Here is something you may like 

 better: Drum out all the bees, putting them in the new hive on 

 the old stand, with a frame of brood, put on an excluder, and 

 then the old hive. In 21 days the worker-brood will be gone from 

 the old hive above and it can be taken away and the combs melted 

 up. 



y. When transferring bees, will it hurt to have the old hive 

 wrong side up until the brood hatches? 

 A. No. 



Q. Will the following plan work well for transferring? Say 

 I have five colonies in box-hives and wish to transfer, and I go 

 to a hive to be transferred and smoke and drum out all the bees 

 into the frame-hive except some to care for the brood that is in 

 the hive at this time, which we suppose is in ?ilay or June; after 

 which I set the old hive, for say five days, with its entrance 

 closed over the frame-hive and with a wire-cloth between. After 

 five days I replace the wire-cloth with a queen excluder, which I 

 let stajf for fifteen days, or one day before all the brood is 

 hatched, then I put on an escape-board in its place; and when 

 they have all gone down, take the old hive off, sa"e all the good 

 combs, and melt the others. 



A. Yes; only it is hardly necessary to leave the wire-cloth as 

 long as five days. Likely two da\s would be long enough — just 

 long enough for the queen to get started laying below. Indeed, 

 it might work all right to give the excluder at the start, and the 

 less time the wire-cloth is left the better it will be for the brood 

 above it. 



Transferring From Movable-Frame Hives. — Q. Will j^ou please 

 tell me how to transfer bees from one hive to another? The hive 

 the\- are m is poor, and I would like to get them into one with 

 9 frames. 



A. Just exactly how it should be done, provided the bees are 

 now in a frame hive, depends upon the size of the frame now in 

 use compared with one to which you wish to transfer them. If 

 the frame is shallower than the old one. you will cut down the 

 comb so as to make it the right depth. If the new frame is 

 deeper, put the comb in, and then cut pieces to wedge in on top, 

 or which may be more easily managed, turn the comb so the 

 present top and bottom may be at the sides, and then cut the 

 comb just deep enough to go in the frame. Before taking out 



