Management in Bar-frame Hives. 63 



at the same time bruising the other cells round it. 

 The bees will at once turn all the enlarged cells into 

 queen cells. A good many cells can be obtained this 

 way, and after nine days will be ready to cut out. 

 This operation must be done carefully, and without 

 any shaking of the comb. If the bees are in the way, 

 sweep them off gently with a feather. When the cells 

 are cut out they can be introduced to the colonies 

 requiring them, taking care to remove the old queen 

 first. 



The conditions of success are to have only strong 

 colonies, and weak ones must be treated with Spartan 

 severity. If you have, say, ten colonies of strong bees 

 in the autumn and five weak colonies, take a weak 

 colony and mix it with a strong colony. This is done 

 by bringing the two hives to be united closer and 

 closer together each daj;. Then smoke the two hives, 

 and mix up the bees and frames of one hive with the 

 bees and frames of the other, and then remove the 

 empty hive some distance away. They will generally 

 settle down quietly if the work is carefully done. If 

 there should be too many frames to fill one hive, they 

 could easily be disposed of. Then treat the other 

 weak hives in the same way. A strong lot of bees is 

 the best to go through the winter. They can keep 

 one another warm, and will eat less. A good Scotch 

 bee-keeper once said that the best covering for bees in 

 winter is bees, and he was about right. 



Before winter sets in, i.e. in September, hives 



