76 



BEES FOE PLEASURE AND PROFIT. 



for extracted the doubling-box is filled with frames, and the 

 bees from each of the two stocks are then allowed to go up, 

 whereupon they will mingle and work quite amicably together. 

 Some bee-keepers prefer to use section racks made in two 

 divisions, but if this is done great care must be taken to see 

 that the bees are able to pass freely from one division of the 

 section rack to the other. 



The dummy board must in all cases be made of pierced 

 wood ; not of perforated zinc or wire netting, since it has been 

 found that when either of the latter materials are used the 

 bees of each of the two stocks will cluster as far as possible 



Fig. 40.— A "Wells" Hive. 



away from the dividing dummy, only "approaching it when 

 absolutely crowded beyond possibility of staying in any other 

 portion of the hive. This is fatal to the success of the system. 



When the bees in one side of a " Wells " hive prepare to 

 swarm, the bees in the other side do the same, and, the two 

 young queens coming off together, unless some one is at hand 

 to catch one of them, one is sure to be destroyed. 



Mr. Wells recommends that when one of these hives 

 swarms, all the brood combs containing queen cells should be 

 removed and formed into nuclei, their place in the old hive 

 being filled up with frames of empty comb or of full sheets of 

 foundation, and the swarm then be returned to the old hive, 



