Btt-lici' pny.i ill Victoria. 27 



not. If no increase is wanted, the bees remaining in the old box may, 

 after turning it open side upwards, be drummed up into an empty 

 box placed on top (as in robbing box hives), and the bees thrown down 

 in front of the frame hive containing the swarm. 



The contents of the box hive may now be disposed of in the way 

 usual with box hives. The combs will contain a considerable amount 

 of brood (much more than when box hives are robbed at the usual 

 time), and the many thousands of young bees, which would in the 

 ordinary course have hatched within the following three weeks, may 

 be saved if, instead of drumming the remaining bees off at once, this 

 operation is deferred for twenty-two days, to allow all worker brood 

 to hatch out. By this time there will be a young fertile queen, and 

 the bees, after being drummed off, are hived on frames in the same 

 way as the swarm, if increase is desired, or, if not, the old queen which 

 went with the swarm may be removed from the frame hive and the 

 driven bees with the j^oung queen united with the bees of the frame hive 

 by running them in towards evening after blowing a puff of smoke into 

 the hive. 



When re-uniting, as described, is intended, it is best to hive the 

 swarm, in the first instance, on the spot occupied by the box hive from 

 whence it came and place the old box alongside, with the entrance facing 

 in a different direction from that of the frame hive. This will serve 

 two purposes — first, the old bees which remained in the box after the 

 swarm left it, when returning from their foraging flights, will go to 

 the spot they are used to and .join the swarm, with the result that no 

 after swarm will come from the box hive ; and, secondly, there will be 

 no bees flying back after uniting, as would be the case if the new and 

 the old hive were some distance apart. 



Transferring at Robbing Time. 



All hives do not swarm every year, and there may be a number still 

 left in box hives when the swarming season is over. These may be 

 transferred at the time usually selected for robbing by box hive bee- 

 keepers. At this time, which varies in different localities and seasons, 

 there is generally a maximum of honey and a minimum of brood, so that 

 the saving of it is of no great consequence, and the transfer is best 

 effected by robbing the boxes in the usual way, but putting the bees 

 into frame hives instead of empty boxes. If any of the stocks are too 

 small, two may be put together into one frame hive. As far as possible, 

 adjoining boxes only should be united, otherwise the bees which had 

 their hive taken away altogether will enter the hive nearest their old 

 location. Hives which did not swarm during the season, and particu- 

 larly those which are weak in bees, may be suspected of disease. The 

 box should be raised on one side and a piece of brood comb broken out, 

 the box lowered again, the comb taken indoors and carefully examined 

 for foul-brood. This is done by removing the caps of some of the 

 brood cells, especially those which look darker than the surrounding 

 ones, and any that have sunken in instead of raised caps. This prick- 

 ing open of the cells should be done with a toothpick, a wooden match, 

 or straw. Healthy larvse are of pearly whiteness and plump ; diseased 



