ITALIAN BEE KEEPING. 17 



as above desoribed, he leisurely proceeded to take the box to pieces. 

 When he had talcen away two adjoining sides, and the combs re- 

 mained exposed hanging from the inside of the lid, then, although 

 the box, combs, and table were covered with bees, he took off his 

 gloves and did the whole of the rest of the work in onr presence, 

 and was only stung twice, when he accidentally hurt two unnoticed 

 bees. He worked very patiently and quietly, sometimes with his 

 bare hands covered with bees, which he quietly allowed to crawl 

 back to their combs. He kept on the veil the whole time. One by 

 one he cut away the combs, and then cut them to the size of the 

 frames, fixing them in their places with the pegs, putting them on 

 each side of the comb. When he had got to about the middle of the 

 old hive he found the queen, for whom he had been on the look-out. 

 He carefully put her on the comb when it was arranged in the 

 frame, and nearly all the bees on the table at once began to flock to 

 the frame on which she was, and when it had been put with the 

 other frames, the bees seemed at once to settle into their new home. 

 He filled a, few more frames ; then, adding the end boards, and 

 throwing away the remnants of the old box, he carried the Htfcle 

 table, hive and all, and placed it in its permanent site. 



Anybody can operate in like manner on a common straw hive. 

 I have seen Don Giotto Ulivi transfer, to a frame hive, the comb 

 and bees from the stump of an old hollow chesnut tree which a 

 contadino had used as a hive ; but this was a much more difiionlt 

 operation. 



Making Aetipicial Swabms. 



In England the practice of making artificial swarms is already 

 much recommended, to avoid the constant watching which is 

 necessary in order not to lose the swarms from an old-fashioned 

 hive. In Italy also the plan of making artificial swarms is much 

 practised. It is based on the well-known fact that the bees can 

 transform into a queen any recently laid egg of a working bee. 



Artificial swarms are made by taking from a well-populated 

 hive bees enough to make a strong new swarm, at the same 

 time leaving enough for the old hive to prosper. With the 

 Giotto hive this may be done by taking about half the frames, 

 with the bees, from the old hive, replacing them by empty 

 ones, and also adding empty frames to the new hive. One hive will 

 then have the old queen ; and the other should have, amongst the 

 frames taken to make it, at least one frame with comb containing 

 newly deposited eggs, from one of which the bees will make to them- 

 selves a queen. In fact, if one found this distribution in a Giotto 

 hive, I think it would be very easy to cut a long, strong hive in two 

 (passinga knife between the middle frames), and, carrying away one- 



