130 AUSTRALIAN BEE LORE AND BEE CULTURE- 



pieces of comb, seen in the frame to the left, are cut to fit each 

 other as near as possible, and are also held by tapes. Sometimes 

 wires are used in lieu of tapes. I always prefer the latter. These 

 frames are now ready to be placed in the bar-frame hive prior 

 to the bees taking possession of their new home. Care must be 

 taken in transferring the comb to the frames that it is put in 

 correctly, and not reversed, i.e., upside down. 



Fig. 5. You see bees are quite harmless under transferring, 

 and can be handled as easily as chickens. After drumming, the 

 box with the driven bees was put on one side out of the way, but 

 is now brought back and is resting on their old home, from which 

 all the brood combs have been transferred. To your right is unused 

 comb, some of that which had fallen, drone comb and empty 

 worker comb, for in transferring we never use these, nor the comb 

 with stored honey. The smoke bellows is there, but it has done 

 its work long since, notwithstanding the advice of the ancient 

 Virgil. The bees are now ready to be placed in their new quar- 

 ters where the frames with the transferred comb have already 

 been placed as in Fig. 6, where thousands of bees are seen still 

 clinging to their old home. Other thousands are in the transfer 

 box ready to be tumbled pell mell, as seen in Fig. 7, where the 

 onlookers' intense interest is plainly seen. Half an hour ago and 

 you dare not handle those bees as here seen. What has made 

 the difference ? They have been subdued ; we have obtained do- 

 minion over them. The manipulator is jerking them from the 

 transferring box, from which they are falling like sand, and are 

 piling up on the top of the frames. Yet not one of them puts 

 on that angry tone so indicative of something sharper to follow. 

 What would our grandfathers have thought of seeing anyone 

 handling bees as the manipulator is here doing? And yet anyone 

 can do it when they have been shown how. 



Fig. 8. What a transition. Look at it. The past and the 

 present. The old and the new. The old, with its accessories for 

 disease and enemies. A home for bees where they could store 

 honey in its purity for winter consumption, but man in obtaining 

 it for his use had to destroy the bees or the brood comb, or both, 

 with the destruction of the honey-comb, at the same time receiving 

 many a reminder from the bees. And what did he obtain ? Honey, 

 mixed with bee-bread, and broken comb and bee-eggs, and crushed 

 larvae, etc., too numerous to mention. The old, where all the 

 interesting sights in the natural history of the bees that the sages 



