the queen has not commenced working in the new hive, the excluder must, 

 of course, be removed and replaced after the queen ascends. Supers may 

 be added to the new hive as required and the work of the colony proceeds 

 normally. The success of this plan depends on getting the queen to ascend 

 and commence working in the new hive, and after that is accomplished, in 

 preventing her return to the box-hive. After the queen has been estab- 

 lished in the upper new hive and when the queen excluder is in position 

 close up the outside entrance to the box-hive- and provide an entrance to 

 the new hive by inserting wedges between the two hive-bodies above the 

 excluder. A sloping alighting-board, extending from the new entrance 

 to the ground, will aid the bees in making a speedy entrance. Twenty-one 

 days after the queen excluder was placed between the hives, with the queen 

 above, all the worker bees will have emerged from, their cells in the box- 

 hive. Next prepare an escape-board by tacking a strip of wood just over 

 the edge of the circular hole in the bee-escape. This strip is to aid the 

 bees in climbing up to the Porter bee-escape. Place the board, with bee- 

 escape upside down, between the hives in place of the queen excluder. 

 Two days after the escape has been placed between the hive-bodies, nJl 

 the bees will have gone above and the old box can be broken up and the 

 combs rendered into wax. 



_The self transfer method is one of the iest if the colonies are strong 

 and no disease exists. Weak or diseased colonies should he treated hy 

 another m.ethod. See transferring diseased colonics. 



The Dieect ^Iethod. 



There are one or two variations practised in the direct method of 

 transferring, but in any case the result is the same, in that all the trans- 

 ferring is completed in the one operation and the box-hive is destroyed 

 at once. 



If the beekeeper is sure that there is no American foulbrood present, 

 the following method is used: 



A new hive is prepared with empty frames. There are needed also 

 an empty box into which to drum the bees, a smoker, veil, hive-tool, butcher 

 knife, large bowl, a Iroard, some fine string and a pail of clean water. 

 Eemove the box-hive a few feet from its stand and place the newly-pre- 

 pared hive where the l)ox-hive stood. This is done to catch the returning 

 bees. Tear off part of the cover from the box-hive and turn it upside down, 

 tilted as in the case of the Heddon method. Now drum the bees up into 

 the box by continued drumming on the sides and occasional puffing in 

 of smoke at the bottom of the box-hive. After a few minutes shake the 

 cluster of bees from the box, in front of the entrance of the new hive, 

 and continue the drumming until practically all of the bees are out of the 

 box-hive, uniting these bees with those already in the new hive. When 

 all the bees that can be drummed out are removed from the box-hive, tear 



