196 AUSTRALASIAN 
that the bee-keeper can lay his hand on the necessary appliances 
at a moment’s notice. All the new hives likely to be required 
for the season’s increase should be placed in position, according 
to the directions given in Chapter V., great attention being 
paid to the proper bedding and levelling of the bottom boards. 
In the next place it is necessary to have some kind of 
SWARM-BOX 
or other contrivance in which to take a swarm previous to 
hiving it. Some form of box is generally used, though a 
round-bottomed bag with a light hoop of stout wire or cane 
sewn round the mouth of it to keep it open is a very handy 
device, especially for fastening to the end of a light pole to 
take a swarm settled above arm’s reach. The bag, if large 
enough, may be put right round the cluster, and with the aid 
of the hoop the bees can be scraped, as it were, off the branch, 
and so be taken with ease. Mr. T. J. Mulvany, jun., uses for 
this purpose a light box about 20 inches long by 10 or 11 wide 
and deep, to which is attached an open sack of stout calico 
about two feet long. One end of this sack-like appendage is 
tacked round the open part of the box, the other end being 
open and bell-mouthed, just large enough to fit over a Lang- 
stroth hive. In each end of the box there is a ventilating 
hole about 3 inches in diameter, over which is tacked per- 
forated zinc. ‘The mode of using it in taking a swarm will be 
described further on. As a receiving box when driving bees, 
or for carrying a swarm in, I do not know of a more handy 
contrivance. Ihave had one in use—that Mr. Mulvany kindly 
presented me with—through two seasons, and I have found it 
of great service. The main points to look to in whatever form 
of implement may be chosen are lightness, strength, dura- 
bility, and handiness. With regard to the latter feature, each 
individual bee-keeper will have his own ideas; and I need 
only here remark that I find a plain box made out of 3-inch 
Se 18 inches square by 10 inches deep to suit me very 
well. 
TAKING AND HIVING SWARMS. 
To many people the taking of a swarm and hiving it appears 
rather a dangerous operation, whereas there is nothing con- 
nected with the work that need excite the least alarm or 
