FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 69 



the bees should not communicate), the bees will, after standing 

 long enough, show signs of uneasiness by running over the 

 combs, all but the one pair that has the queen on, and. the quiet- 

 ness of the bees on that one pair is sufficient warrant for seek- 

 ing the queen there. 



If the bees get to running, it is hardly worth while to con- 

 tinue the^earch for the queen until they have quieted down. 

 Sometimes^ she will be on the side or the bottom of the hive, 

 and will be found only by lifting out all the combs. 



BEE-STRAINER. 



A strainer may be used for straining the bees through and 

 leaving the queen. A queen-excluder is fastened to the bottom 

 of an empty hive-body, and that makes the strainer. The 

 strainer is set over a hive-body in which there is a frame of 

 brood but no bees — at least it must be certain that the queen 

 cannot possible be in the hive-body under the strainer. Then 

 all the bees are shaken and brushed from the combs into the 

 strainer. The workers will go down through the excluder, be- 

 ing hurried by a little smoke if necessary, while the queen will 

 be left in the strainer. 



On the whole the queen is generally found so easily by the 

 ordinary looking over the combs that it is seldom that any other 

 plan is resorted to. 



It happens once in a great while that the queen is on the 

 cover when it is lifted off the hive, so it is well to glance over 

 the under surface of the cover as it is removed from the hive. 

 Once in a great while I have known the queen after no little 

 searching to be on the shoulder or some other part of the oper- 

 ator. How she managed to get there I don't know. 



CATCHING THE QUEEN. 



When the queen is found, she must be caught before she is 

 clipped. I want to catch her by the thorax or just back of the 

 thorax, and if she is in motion, by the time I reach for the 

 thorax it wUl have passed along out of reach. So I make a 

 reach more as if attempting to catch her by the head, and the 

 movement she makes is likely to bring my thumb and finger 

 down on each side of her thorax, and in that position she is 



