250 AUSTRALASIAN 
found to answer so well that many have adopted the plan 
since. The contrivance for placing on top of the frames to 
raise the mats or chaff cushion, shown in the engraving below, 
and which has been named after Mr. Hill, is made of small 
pieces of wood sawn or bent to form part of a circle of about 
11 inches in diameter ; the two centre pieces are 9 inches in 
length, and the two outside ones 8 inches. A thin piece of 
hoop iron 12 inches long is tacked on the back of the pieces to 
Fig. 116.—HILL’S DEVICE. 
keep them in position. I have tried them on small colonies 
and find them to answer very well indeed. The bees cluster 
on frosty nights right up in the space thus formed. Care must be 
taken that the side frames are well covered with mats. 
UNITING WEAK AND QUEENLESS COLONIES. 
The advisableness of keeping none but strong colonies, and 
of uniting together two or more of any found to be below a 
certain standard of strength, has been more than once pointed 
out in previous chapters ; but to impress it upon the mind of 
the reader I would here remark that special attention should 
be paid to the matter of uniting weak colonies in the early 
spring months and when preparing the hives for winter (see 
pages 232 and 246). Colonies that become queenless at a time 
when no queens are available should also be united as soon as 
discovered to others possessing queens. Queenless colonies 
are frequently to be found at the latter part of winter and in 
early spring. 
When the hives containing the colonies to be united are 
located some distance apart, move one a few feet every day 
till it is alongside the other. The queen may now be removed 
from one of the colonies, and in the evening place the frames 
on which the bees that still have a queen are clustered, to one 
