128 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. 



th-in and ligiit, altogetlier -weighing not more than 7 lb., 

 being held together by eight screw-nails. As soon as the 

 bees are placed, the nails are withdrawn, the rails tied 

 together, and carried home. When only two hives are 

 removed, a common " yoke " placed across the shoulders, 

 the hives hanging like a couple of pails of water, is a safe 

 mode of carriage. 



In our practice we do not remove swarms to a distance, 

 simply because we have not time to do so. The most of 

 OUT hives are placed in cottage and market gardens some 

 miles from home ; and being a florist, our busiest time is 

 in the swarming month. May. The evening is the best 

 time to swarm artificially, but then we have most customers 

 to speak to. So we go and swarm our bees about mid- 

 day, when they are busy at work, place the stocks and 

 swarms as far asunder as convenient, and find that they 

 do very weU. We have no anxiety or trouble with first 

 swarms, and could swarm 100 a^month during the hour 

 for dinner, if they were all in our own garden. 



It wiU be seen and understood that we take care to see 

 that the old queen goes with every first swarm. Hence 

 we look for her, and the way and time of doing so has 

 been already described. But it is not absolutely neces- 

 sary to see the queen in every swarm, or even to look for 

 her. Young beginners, mere 'prentice hands in bee- 

 management, wiE succeed beyond their expectations by 

 drumming rather more than half the bees of a hive ready 

 for swarming into one prepared with sticks and guide- 

 comb for the swarm, and placing them right and left off 

 the old stand. And when no time is spent in looking 

 for the queen, anybody can take off a swarm, artificially, 

 in ten minutes at most, and often in five minutes. It 

 should be remembered that five minutes is quite long 

 enough to drum in hot weather ; when weather is cooler 



