130 THE HIVE AND HONET-BEE. 



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used for new swarms. Bees, when they swarm, 'being 

 unnaturally excited and heated, often refuse to enter such 

 hives, and at hest' are slow in taking possession of them. 

 The temperature of the parent-stock, at the moment of 

 swarming, rises very suddenly, and many bees are often- 

 so di-enched with perspiration, that they are unable to 

 take wing and join the emigrating colony. To attempt 

 to make swarming bees enter a heated hive in a blazing 

 sun, is, therefore, as irrational as it would be to force a 

 panting crowd of human beings into the suffocating at- 

 mosphere of a close garret. If the process of hiving can- 

 not be conducted in the shade, the hive should be covered 

 with a sheet, or with leafy boughs. 



In the movable-comb hive, the Apiarian can use all his 

 good worker-comb, by fastening it in the frames. Such, 

 however, is, the shape of the. artificial guide-combs in 

 these frames, that the bees, even in an empty hive, will 

 almost always build their combs with great regularity, 

 if they are not furnished with too much empty room. I 

 have, in a. few instances, known them to bmld their combs 

 directly across, fi-om frame to frame, so that they could 

 not be removed without cutting them to pieces. This 

 may easily be prevented, by attaching a piece of guide- 

 comb to a single frame (see p. 72). While the hive should 

 be set so as to incline fi-om rear to front, to shed the 

 rain, there ought not to be the least pitch from side to 

 side, or it will prevent the fi-ames from hanging plumb, 

 and compel the bees to buUd crooked combs. Drone- 

 combs should never be put in the fi-ames, or the iees will 

 follow the pattern, and build comb suitable only for breed- 

 ing a horde of useless consumers. Such comb, if white, 

 may be used to great advantage in the surplus honey- 

 boxes ; if old, it should be melted for wax. 



JIvery piece of good worker-comb, if large enough to 



