FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 61 



To clean out the rabbet, the small end of the hive-tool 

 is well adapted. Holding it perpendicularly, with the 

 edge of the tool diagonally in the trough, I play it back- 

 ward and forward until the trough is emptied of propolis. 



The empty hive is now used to take the place of the 

 next hive to be overhauled, which in its turn is cleaned 

 and then used again, and so on. 



While the frames are being changed from one hive 

 to the other, observations and necessary changes are 

 made. If there is no cleaning of hives, then the work is 

 shortened. The dummy is taken out, and one frame is 

 also taken out so as to leave freer working room. This 

 one frame may be put in an empty hive standing con- 

 venient ; or it may be leaned against the hive being oper- 

 ated on, or against an adjoining hive. If the dummy was 

 on the near side, then the frames are all pushed toward 

 me, two or three being started at a time, and when all 

 are started the tool is pushed down between the farther 

 frame and the side of the hive, and all the frames at 

 one push shoved toward me enough to give plenty of room 

 at the farther side. If the frames are Hoffman (a few 

 hives contain Hoffman frames) then it is necessary to 

 start each frame separately before it can be lifted out. 



WATCHING FOR QUEEN. 



As the frames are being handled, the thing that 

 receives closer attention than anything else is to see the 

 queen so as to know whether she is clipped or not. For 

 if a colony should have an undipped queen there is a fair 

 chance that it might swarm and decamp ; and it is pos- 

 sible that almost any colony may have superseded its queen 

 the previous fall, leaving it with an undipped queen. 



IMPLEMENT FOR CLIPPING. 



If the queen is undipped, of course I clip her. Nearly 

 always I use a pair of scissors for clipping, although I 



