TRANSFERRING FROM BUILDINGS, TREES, ETC. 33 
to remove a comb containing brood from a strong colony, shake 
off the bees, and replace the comb with a frame containing foun- 
dation. The comb taken away can then be placed in the hive 
which is to be placed over the colony to be transferred. Care 
should be taken to see that no entrance is open in the box or 
keg, but that the bees must enter by way of the new hive. The 
bees seem to have an aversion to leaving honey and brood below 
the entrance, and if conditions are right they will soon move 
upstairs. Three weeks must elapse after the queen begins laying 
above to allow time for all brood to hatch, when the box hive 
may be taken away. If honey still remains it can be extracted 
and the combs rendered into wax. 
When one transfers by the old method of cutting and fitting, 
usually a part of the combs will have to be discarded after the 
colony is successfully transferred, because of too much drone 
comb, crooked, or otherwise unsuitable combs. By this later 
method of gradual transfer, the bees are moved with little dis- 
turbance and no muss. The old combs are valuable for little but 
the wax they contain, and that is all saved. 
Another Plan.—Some bee-keepers practice the method of 
drumming the bees up from the old hive into the new one above. 
When, after a few minutes pounding on the hive with sticks, 
most of the bees, including the queen, have gone above, the new 
hive is placed on the old stand and the old hive taken away. At 
the end of three weeks, when all brood has hatched, the young bees 
are united with the old colony and the old hive destroyed. Even 
though the old hive be left in place under the new one while the 
bees are moving upstairs, it is a good plan to drum them above 
to begin with, and then place a queen excluder under the new 
hive to prevent the queen from going down again. 
Transferring from Buildings, Trees, Etc.—Nearly every 
bee-keeper of experience has been called on to remove a colony 
of bees from the side of some dwelling house, where they had 
found entrance through a crevice. Instead of tearing off a lot 
of boards and possibly injuring the building, one should begin 
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