70 BEE-KEEPING FOR PROFIT 
a sheet should be spread over this board and 
the ground under the swarm. ‘The swarm 
should be shaken from the branch on to the 
sheet. 
Should the cluster be in too awkward a 
position for this to be done, a skep will have 
to be brought into requisition for transferring 
the swarm to their new quarters. The cluster 
may be shaken into the skep by gently raising 
the branch from which it is suspended and then 
giving it a sharp downward movement. The 
skep should be held firmly and gently turned 
right side up over the sheet on to which the 
bees should be shaken in front of the bar- 
frame hive. 
Should the bees be slow to run into the 
hive, those at the rear should be given a few 
gentle puffs from the smoker. 
Sometimes the swarm will contain more 
than one queen and consequently will split 
up into several clusters. In such a case each 
cluster has to be ‘‘shaken’’ separately. Oc- 
casionally it becomes necessary to ‘‘shake”’ 
a swarm two or three times if the queen is 
not hived. It sometimes happens, too, that 
the queen will come out again if the hive 
is objectionable to her, and almost certainly 
so if she be a virgin. 
