FIFTT YEARS AMONG THE BEES 81 



from her proper home. So I let her crawl upon a leaf, little 

 stick or other object, lay this on the frames, and she will di- 

 rectly g'o down into the cluster. 



Not always, however. Too often she will run about over 

 tlie tops of the frames, and even over the side of the hive, and 

 when thus excited there is some danger she may be balled when 

 she gets down in the hive. So I like better to have a frame of 

 brood covered with bees, lying flat, or held flat, by an assistant, 

 and then I drop the queen right among the bees on the middle 

 of the comb. 



Fiy. 25 — Home from the Oiit-apiaril. 



On this first visit I also generally enter in the reeoid book 

 the amount of brood present. If the record is "2 br," or "3 

 br," it means that two combs or three combs are fairly well 

 filled with brood— at least half filled with brood. If the record 

 is "br in 2," that means that brood is found in two combs, but 

 that at least one of them is less than half full. So you will 

 see that "br in .3" might be a good deal less than "2 br", for 

 "2 br" might mean two very full combs, and at the least will 

 be as much as one very full comb, while "br in 3" may mean 

 tliere is only a little spot of brood in each of three combs. 



Any other item that needs especial mention will be record- 



