BEES, BEE-HIVES, AND BEE CULTURE. 79 



time that robber bees cannot find an ci\trance, and also bo far 

 enougli from the apiarian to be out of danger of being broken or 

 overturned by him. 



Advantages op Bah and Fiiame Hives. — It will be asked 

 why all this trouble about bar and frames with straight combs built 

 upon them ? We have shown the full command which the bee- 

 keeper has over a hive so constituted, and we now proceed to show 

 how in skilful hands these advantages may be used successfully; 

 though, in tlie hands of the unpractised and unskilful the contrary 

 may be the result. 



All the bars and frames in an apiary ought to be of precisely the 

 same dimensions, so as to fit every hive. This is essential for the 

 strengthening of weak hives. A hive that is weakly may often be 

 advantageously strengthened by having put into it a comb of 

 brood from a populous stock, to which an empty frame from 

 the weak one may be given; no bees must be on the brood- 

 comb — these should be shaken off or gently dislodged with a 

 feather into the hive from which the comb is taken. The frames 

 of the hive from which the comb has been taken, should be, one 

 by one, placed so as to fill in the vacancy, leaving the empty frame 

 nearest the side. When a hive has been in use many years, the 

 combs become very black, and every bee that is bred in a cell leaves 

 a film behind. It may be understood how in this way the cells 

 become contracted, so that the bees that are bred in them are 

 correspondingly reduced in size. After the lapse of say five years, it 

 may be necessary to begin to remove the old combs. This may be 

 done by cutting away the comb or by substituting an empty frame 

 for one with old black comb, gradually moving the frames towards 

 each other. By taking two away in this manner in the spring or 

 summer of every season, the combs in course of five years may all 

 be reconstructed and fresh clean ones be secured for breeding in, 

 instead of the old black ones that otherwise would remain as long as 

 the stock could live in the hive. 



Artificial Swarming. — Every bee-keeper knows the anxiety 

 there is in watching and expecting a swarm to come forth, fearful 

 lest his favorites should, " like riches, take wing and fly away," a mis- 

 chance that it is desirable to prevent. In our description of natural 

 swarming this will be found fully treated of; we propose here merely 

 to point out how, with the moveable frames, this work of nature 



