Management of Bees. 53 



down, and the brood be in the lower hive. As the 

 bees hatch out in the skep, the latter will be filled 

 with honey. It is perhaps preferable to leave the 

 skep on for some time, so as to make sure that the 

 transfer has taken place. The skep can then easily 

 be removed full of good honey, and the bees supered. 

 The latter method of transfer is now adopted as the 

 best. Some people drive the bees out, and then 

 put them into the bar-framed hive, but all things 

 considered, this is not so satisfactory as the way 

 previously advised. 



A very good way of getting good hives of bees is to 

 get ' condemned ' bees from cottagers, that is, bees 

 which would otherwise be destroyed. It used to be 

 the universal practice to wait till autumn, and then 

 take some of the hives and destroy the bees by 

 placing them over burning sulphur. Some people still 

 do it. This is a foolish plan. When this is about to 

 be done, it would be a good thing to go to these 

 persons and ask them to allow you to drive their bees 

 out of the skeps, and, of course, let them have all the 

 honey. This is all they would get if the bees were 

 destroyed. If a bar-frame hive is prepared with full 

 sheets of foundation, two or three of these lots of bees 

 could be mixed together and fed. This would in all 

 probability become a fine stock of bees. The method 

 of mixing is as follows : — Take the driven bees home 

 at sunset. We will suppose you have three lots. 

 Take up one lot and sprinkle them with a little syrup 



