132 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. 



CHAPTEE XXXI. 



ON DBIVINa AND SHAKING BEES FEOM HIVES AND 

 UNITING THEM TO OTHER SWAEMS. 



Ttough. often mentioned before in other cliapters of this 

 ■work, this matter deserves separate and distinct treatment. 



Take a hive full of comhs and bees, and an empty one 

 into -which the bees are to be driven. After the full hive 

 has got a few puffs of smoke, it is turned upside down, 

 the empty one placed on it, mouth to mouth, and a 

 table-cloth is tied round the junction of the two hives, 

 to prevent the escape of a single bee. The drumming or 

 driving now commences, simply by beating the bottom 

 hive with open hands, or little blocks of wood. This 

 beating confounds the bees, and causes them to run up- 

 wards. In running up into the empty hive the bees 

 make a great noise as in swarming, and this noise facili- 

 tates the work in hand. In hot weather all the bees, 

 or almost all, may be thus driven out of a large hive in 

 twenty minutes. The drumming should be continued 

 the whole time, for if the bees have time given them to 

 think, they will cease running, the noise will abate, and 

 those that are below will cleave to the brood-combs to 

 keep them warm. In driving bees the work should be 

 done quickly, allowing no time for play or palaver. 



In cold weather this work is more difficult to accom- 

 plish, the bees being then more disinclined to leave their 

 own comfortable habitations. But the work has to be 

 done, and the bee-master's ingenuity will not forsake him 

 in a job of this kind. About ten minutes before he 

 commences to drive his bees in cold weather, he will 

 remember to turn up their hive and pour about half a 



