170 A Modern Bee-Farm 



the parent colony and facing the same way. Within ten: 

 days the young queens will be hatching out when a cast 

 or second swarm would issue from the old stock. This 

 appears to have been overlooked ; therefore I advise 

 transfering on the seventh day after the issue of the first 

 swarm, first carefully removing one of the queen cells 

 before druming on the hive. While shifting the combs,, 

 cut out all the other royal cells, and after the operation 

 return the one previously removed, which meanwhile 

 should have been placed above the first swarm between the 

 quilting to prevent chill. As soon as the young queen 

 hatched therefrom is laying freely, destroy the other and 

 unite the two colonies on the second evening following, 

 when supers may be at once put on. 



It is better that transfering operations be carried out in 

 some warm room, or manipulating house, first laying a 

 sheet of paper on the table whereon the tapes are to be 

 arranged, with the frames on those, so that all is in 

 readiness for tying as soon as the combs are fitted. While 

 it is not absolutely necessary that the combs be fitted in 

 just the same way up as they were built, it is not desirable 

 to have them inverted, but to save material it is often 

 advisable to put them in on end, or half inverted, as I 

 have done for many years past. Certainly there is the 

 brood to handle if transferred before the twenty-one days 

 have expired, but with ordinary care this is not damaged, 

 except where the knife cuts a straight line, and that is far 

 preferable to having the combs full of honey. 



Other Plans of Transfering, 



such as the following, may commend themselves to either 

 the novice, or those who have little time to spare. 



The first is to place the fixed-comb hive upon the 

 frames of the modern hive, with a slatted board between,. 



