40 



To identiiy tne nive irom which a swarm has issued, remove a 

 liandful of bees from the swarm, sprinkle 



94. Identifying them lightly with water, dust them with 

 Hive from which flour in a cup or bowl, take them to a posi- 



Swarm Issued. tion in the ordinary line of flight to the 

 hives, throw them up in the air at about 

 twenty or thirty yards from the hives, and then watch the hive 

 entrances to ascertain which hive the floured bees will enter. 



The parent stock and swarm should be treated as follows : — 



95. Treatment of 5^^^°^ *^f ^^^^ ^^^^ ^,^^^^ the swarm 

 Parent Stock and T"^""^ ■? ^ temporary position about a yard 



Swarm from its original stand ; then place an 



empty hive on the stand thus vacated, and 

 prepare this hive as for receiving a swarm (75), except that 

 only two frames of foundation are required. Then open the 

 parent hive, and take from it the two frames which contain 

 most capped brood, brush the bees off them, and place them in 

 the new hive ; then transfer the front frame, probably contain- 

 ing pollen, from the parent hive to the front of the new hive, 

 and if the parent stock is a strong one of ten or eleven frames, 

 remove also the back frame from the parent hive to the back 

 of the new hive ; any queen cells on these frames should be 

 removed; then arrange these frames in the new hive in the 

 following order : — 



(1.) Front or pollen frame. 



(2.) Foundation frame. 



(3.) Capped brood frame. 



(4.) Foundation frame. 



(5.) Capped brood frame. 



(6.) Frame of honey (if parent hive is strong). 



The dummy should now be inserted, and all the frames 

 should be pushed forward into their correct positions (76). 

 Then place a board sixteen and one-half inches long by four 

 inches wide by half-an-inch thick, behind the dummy, resting 

 it on the sides of the body-box ; this board is thus placed to 

 prevent the bees passing down behind the dummy from a crate 

 of sections ; the top of this board should be flush with the top 

 of the bar-frames. Next place a new crate of sections on the 

 hive (110) , and over it place any crates that may have been on 

 the parent stock, without removing the bees from them. Then 

 cover and roof. Next place the parent stock on a new stand, if 

 possible not less than thirty feet from its old stand, after which 

 hive the swarm (76) in the new hive. This is the best proce- 

 dure to adopt with the first swarm when it is desired to get as 

 much honey as possible, and no serious objection exists to form- 

 ing a new stock. Firstly, it is the best known preventive of 

 after swarms or ' ' casts ' ' (100) , as all the bees which issue 

 from the parent hive on the day after swarming will return to 

 the new hive, leaving the parent stock too weak in bees to 

 allow casts to issue from it. Secondly, the bees in the new 



