i6o THE APIARY. 



.and no string- or band will be needed. Practice makes 

 perfect in bee-tending, as in other matters, and when a 

 light hand is gained, there is little danger of the apiarian 

 being stung. 



If the weather be wet the next day or so after hiving-, 

 it will be well to give a little assistance to the new 

 colony in the shape of food, for although, when a swarm 

 leaves a hive, almost every bee composing it fills itself 

 with honey, we have known not a few instances, in case 

 ■of very wet weather, in which the whole swarm has 

 been starved for the want of this little timely help. Of 

 course, the first work of the bees is to build themselves 

 combs, and these combs being produced by the secre- 

 tion of wax from honey, a great drain upon their 

 resources immediately begins, and any little outlay at 

 .this juncture is abundantly compensated by its enabling- 

 these industrious emigrants the more quickly to push 

 forward the furnishing of their new home. 



Clean combs from hives that may have lost their bees 

 are readily accepted, and cause a great saving in time 

 and; material to the bees; these combs may easily be 

 fixed by cutting them the proper size to fit within the 

 frames, and making them firm by tying with tape or 

 fixing them with pliable wire. In any case where the 

 combs are too small to fit within the frame, a tempo- 

 rary bar may be fixed, and held firm by being sprung- 

 within the two upright sides of a frame, and thus pushed 

 up until it presses the comb ; then a piece of tape wound 



