72 MANUAL OF APICULTURE. 



bees from their combs, cut out the latter, and fit them into frames. If 

 the combs thus fitted in are hekl temporarily in place in the frames, 

 the bees, under whose care they should be placed at once, will fasten 

 them securely in a few hours or days at most. To drive the bees from 

 the box hive proceed as follows: Toward the middle of a pleasant day 

 blow smoke into the hive to be transferred, and after the bees have 

 been given a few minutes in which to lap up their fill of honey, invert 

 the hive and place over the open end an empty box, or the frame hive 

 itself, making- whichever is used fit closely on the hive (fig. 53). By 

 rapping continuously for some minutes on the hive the bees will be 

 impelled to leave it and cluster in the upper box. A loud humming 

 will denote that they are moving. The hive thus vacated may then be 

 taken into a closed room and one side pried off to facilitate the removal 

 of the combs. The box containing the bees is to be placed meanwhile 

 on the spot originally occupied by the box hive, the bees being allowed 

 to go in and out without restraint, only two i)recautions being neces- 

 sary, namely, to shade the box well and provide for ventilation by 

 propping it up from the bottom, leaving also, if possible, an opening at 

 the top. When the combs have been fitted into frames, the hive con- 

 taining them is placed on the original stand and the bees shaken from 

 the box in front of it. 



In filling the frames with combs cut from a box hive, the largest and 

 straightest sheets having the most sealed worker brood in them should 

 be selected first and so cut that the frame will slip over them snugly, 

 taking pains, as far as possible, to have the comb placed in the frame 

 in the same i)osition in which it was built, since most of the cells, instead 

 of being horizontal, are inclined upward, the inclination of the deeper 

 store cells being greatest. The comb, if not heavy, can be held in place 

 temporarily by slender wire nails pushed through holes punched in the 

 side and toj) bars. Before the introduction of wire nails the writer used 

 long thorns pulled from thorn-apple trees, which served the purpose 

 very well. In the case of combs heavy with honey or brood or pieced 

 more or Jess it will be safer to use, in addition to a few wire nails, a pair 

 or two of transferring sticks. These are simply slender strips of wood 

 slightly longer than the depth of the frame and notched at each end. 

 By placing such a stick on either side of the comb and winding annealed 

 wire around the top and bottom ends so as to draw the sticks firmly 

 against the surface of the combs the latter will be held securely in the 

 frames. The midrib between the rows of cells should be pressed neither 

 to one side nor the other; thus, if cells on one side are deeper than those 

 on the other, they should be shaved down, unless the honey will be cut 

 into too much, in which case the comb maybe allowed to project on one 

 side until it has been fastened in the frame and the hive has been gen- 

 erally put in order by the bees, the point being not to force them to try 

 to manage too much running honey at one time, lest robbing be induced. 

 In many instances the comb when pressed into the frame will seem to 



