SWARMING AND HIVING. 155 



lead, and they should be mixed so as to dry as quickly as 

 possible. Thin hives ought never to stand in the sun, and 

 then, when heated to an insufferable degree, be used for a 

 new swarm. Bees often refuse to enter such hives at all, 

 and at best, are very slow in taking possession of them. It 

 should be borne in mind, that bees, when they swarm, are 

 greatly excited, and unnaturally heated. The temperature 

 of the hive, at the moment of swarming, rises very suddenly, 

 and many of the bees are often drenched with such a pro- 

 fuse perspiration that they are unable to take wing and join 

 the departing colony. The attempt to make bees enter a 

 heated hive, in a blazing sun, is as irrational as.it would be 

 to try to force a panting crowd of human beings into the 

 suffocating atmosphere of a close garret. If bees are put 

 in hives through which the heat of the sun can penetrate, 

 the process should be accomplished in the shade, or the hive 

 covered with a sheet, or shaded with leafy boughs. 



If a hive with movable frames is used, the Apiarian can 

 use all his good worker-comb, by attaching it firmly to the 

 frames, with melted wax or resin. Such, however, is the 

 shape of these frames, that the bees will, without any guide 

 combs, build their combs with great regularity. This result 

 has only been obtained by me after years of careful and 

 laborious experiment. 



Drone combs should never be attached to the frames as a 

 guide, unless it is desired to have the bees follow the pattern, 

 and build large ranges of drone comb, to breed a vast horde 

 of useless consumers. Such comb, if white, may be used 

 to great advantage in the surplus honey-boxe^; if old and 

 discolored, it should be melted for wax. Every piece of 

 good worker-comb, if large enough to be attached to a 

 frame, should be used both for its intrinsic value, and be- 

 cause bees are so wonderfully pleased when they find such 



