BEE-KEEPING. 



49 



chaser; if possible, let it be removed at least two miles 

 off, and remain there a week or ten days; after which, it 

 may be brought home in safety. Evening should be 

 chosen for the removal, or otherwise many may be 

 abroad ; but whenever it becomes a necessity that Bees 

 should be removed during the day, administer a puff of 

 smoke into the entrance of the hive. After this, those 

 at home will be disinclined to go out, and in the course 

 of half an hour all the Workers will have returned ; the 

 smoking should be repeated if it be found that the Bees 

 are recovering from the sedative before the necessary 

 time has expired. They should be moved or disturbed 

 as little as possible in bad weather, for if they be excited 

 and unable to take wing to relieve themselves within 

 the next day or two, dysentery will very likely be engen- 

 dered. The market value of a stock of Bees depends on 

 their abundance in the neighbourhood, the season of the 

 year, and the strength of the colony. Of course, in the 

 autumn, when the dangers of the winter are all to come, 

 they are not so valuable as in the spring, when they will, 

 probably, soon swarm. Having bought an old stock, we 

 have no option in the kind of hive to be used ; v^hatever 

 they are in must be made the best of, at any rate for a 

 time. A novice could not satisfactorily transfer the 

 Bees and combs while they are full of brood and 

 honey, but if it be particularly wished to locate them 

 in a frame hive, the transfer will become much easier 

 i6 to 21 days after the issue of a swarm ; at this time 

 the combs are free, or nearly so, of brood. Suppos- 

 ing the old Queen laid on the day of her departure, 

 her last Worker egg will be hatched in 21 days, and 

 the young Queen has not yet or only just began to 

 lay, the combs will, therefore, be hght and manageable. 

 The chapter on "Transferring" will give full instructions 



