34 DRIVING BEES. 



be so far induced to fall in with modern ideas as to allow 

 their bees to be driven, instead of smothering them. The 

 Ibees of two or three straw hives, if united and placed in a 

 frame hive, on empty combo, or full sheets of comb founda- 

 tion, and given about 20 lbs. of sugar in syrup, will make a 

 capital stock for the following season, at a very small cost. 

 In England, it is quite common for experts to go round, 

 about the end of August,, and drive those condemned bees, 

 as they are called, and afterwards sell them at is. 6d. per 

 pound to bee-keepers who wish to build up new stocks, or to 

 strengthen existing stocks with them. The operation of 

 driving bees is very simple, and only requires a little care to 

 make failure impossible. The requisites are an empty straw 

 hive and a piece of straining canvas, with twine, for each 

 lot of bees to be driven, an extra hive, a couple of kitchen 

 skewers, and the indispensable smoker. On arriving at the 

 scene of operations, the first thing is to give the stock to be 

 driven a puff or two of smoke, and a few taps with the open 

 hand, to alarm the bees. A stable-bucket is now placed 

 near the wall, in a quiet corner, and the stock is lifted off its 

 stand, and put top down in the bucket, one of the empty 

 hives being placed on the stand to receive the flying bees. 

 Another hive is put over the stock, so as to look Hke a 

 partly-opened watch, and it is fixed in that position with the 

 skewers, care being taken that what may be called the hinge 

 of the watch is at one of the sides of the stock hive towards 

 which the combs run. A gentle corrtinuous tapping on the 

 sides of the stock hive will now cause the bees to move, 

 slowly at first, up to the empty hive, from the top of which 

 they will cluster. Any bees seen hiding between the combs 

 can be set running by the smoker, and in about ten minutes 

 all but a few stragglers will have been driven out. The 

 hive and clustering bees must now be placed on the old stand 

 for a few minutes, to receive the bees from the decoy hive, 

 after which it can be packed as already described. The 

 treatment of driven bees after hiving is similar to that of 

 swarms, except that they require a liberal allowance of syrup 

 to provision them for the winter. If not taken a distance of 

 at least a mile from the old stand, many of them will fly 

 back, and get lost, and thus place the newly-formed stock 



