HOW TO KEEP BEES. 27 



body directly on another, letting the bees mingle at will; or the 

 combs with bees on them may all be put in one body; or the bees 

 m.ay be shaken from the combs before a hive and allowed to crawl in. 

 Queenless bees unite more readily than those having a queen. If 

 one of the queens is not removed by the beekeeper the bees attend, 

 to the matter, at least one queen or the other is soon despatched. 



MOVING COLONIES. 



Do not change the location of the hives in the apiary after the bees 

 have begun to fly in the spring, unless one of these two methods is 

 followed: either moving but about a foot each day; or confining the 

 bees to the hive and placing them in a cool cellar for three or four 

 days and then liberating them at night and placing some obstruction, 

 such as a bunch of grass or a bush, before the entrance. This assists 

 in making them "take their location" when starting out the next 

 day. When confined to the hives they should have wire cloth over 

 the top of the hive and over the entrance. If the weather is hot, a 

 sponge or roll of cloth saturated with water should be laid on the wire. 



ROBBING. 



When working among the bees take pains not to spill any honey 

 about or leave comb containing honey where the bees can get at it. 

 Sweets so exposed may start robbing and this is particularly likely 

 to occur if little or no food is to be found in the fields. Robbing once 

 well under way is an unpleasant, even a serious matter. The easiest 

 way the writer has found to stop it has been to put an abundance 

 of syrup or honey a few rods from the apiary and get the bees started 

 on it by walking among the hives with a comb of honey until it was 

 well covered with bees and then gently carrying it to the food and 

 leaving it. If enough food is put there to keep the bees busy until 

 dark and the empty receptacles left there for the bees to smell over 

 the next day, the evil is generally stopped without further trouble. 



