TRANSFERRING FROM BOX HIVES TO MOVABLE FRAMES. 61 
the inexperienced will have but little trouble to find her 
by turning up the driving box on its side, and gently 
dipping the bees with a spoon, or ladle, from that to the 
entrance of another box, after the manner of hiving a 
natural swarm, looking over each spoonful carefully for 
the queen. <A few of the first spoonfuls may tura back 
toward the greater noise in the driving box ; but perse- 
verauce and a little sprinkling of water, will soon get 
them started the other way ; and if a bee is seen a trifle 
larger around the body and nearly twice the length of a 
worker, and considerably less bulky than a drone, you 
may be sure you have the queen. If she is not found the 
first time, exchange boxes and search again. When 
found, clip one of her wings, so that she shall be unable to 
fly. This will not impair her usefulness in any degree, 
for her wings are now of no use whatever, except to lead 
off a swarm to the woods. But, it should be remembered, 
that it is safe to clip the wings of FERTILE QUEENS ONLY. 
Att queens become fertile, if at all, within the first twen- 
ty-one days of their existenee ; otherwise they are drone 
layers. For this and other reasons, previously noticed, 
wis not safe to transfer a swarm, with their combs, from. 
box hives at any time between the issue of a first and any 
after swarm of the current year ; nor to “drive” a swarm 
at such times, for similar reasons (“ Why ?”), because, 
either no young queens are yet hatched, and we run 
the risk of destroying them in their cells, or they are 
unfertile, since they do not fly to meet the drones until 
after leading off their swarms, and if we drive out the only 
queen in the parent colony while there are no eggs in the 
combs from which the bees can rear another, its final de- 
struction becomes inevitable. The reasons are here given, 
that the inexperienced may not fall into an error, often 
