110 
THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
the plans of artificial increase should be used until 
the hive is quite well filled with bees, and the bees 
themselves are preparing for swarming. When 
the proper time has arrived, go to any colony from 
which you wish to take a swarm, and, after having 
removed the cover and quilt or honey-board, 
drive the bees out of the way with a little smoke I 
so that you can shave the capping off from some ( 
of the sealed honey at the tops of the frames. : 
unless you think they have plenty of unsealed | 
honey in the hive. Just previous to doing this, 
you should find the queen, and cage her on one | 
of the combs with one of the wire-cloth cages I 
which will push into the comb, as has been so 
often described. Having both of the above done, 
close the hive and beat on it with the fist, at the 
same time blowing smoke in at the entrance, just 1 
enough to frighten back the guards as they come 
out to drive off the intruder. Having the guards 
all turned back, give the hive several sharp blows, > 
enough to cause the bees to thoroughly fill them- 
selves with honey ; and if more than one swarm | 
is to be made, go to the next hive and prepare | 
them in the same way, while the first are filling j 
themselves ; otherwise you will have to wait till | 
the bees have their sacs full. When this is accom- 
plished, set the cap of any hive on a wide board a 1 
little way off from the old hive (any box will do), 
and proceed to shake the bees off the frames till 
you think you have about three-fourths of them, 
shaking them in front of the cap or box on the 
wide board, into which they will run as fast as 
they are shaken off, if the same is raised up a bee- | 
space on the side next where they are shaken. 
Lastly, take the frame having the queen on it, j 
and, after uncaging her, shake her and the bees | 
off this frame, letting them run in with the others. 
Now close the hive, when the returning bees from 
the field and what were left on the combs and j 
about the hive will make the colony in about the 1 
same condition it would have been in had it cast 
a swarm. Next take the cover having the bees in 
it ; carry it to the shade of some tree, and, after 
setting it down, lean it up against the tree with 
the open side out, exposed to the light. Leave 
them thus while you are making other swarms, or 
for about an hour, when they will conclude they 
are a separate colony, and will behave just like a 
natural swarm, having clustered in the box the I 
same as a swarm does on a limb. Now hive them 
as you would a natural swarm, and they will work 
the same, or as nearly so as is possible to have 
bees do outside of natural swarming. 
The next way, and the one which I prefer when 
I have laying queens to spare, is to proceed the 
same as above till you get ready to shake off the ; 
bees, when they are to be shaken into a box in- 
stead of in front of a cap. This box is to be made . 
of a size to hold about half a bushel, the two sides 
of which are to be of wire cloth, one permanently | 
nailed on, and the other is to have the wire cloth 
nailed to four small strips, so that four small nails, 
one through the centre of each strip, will hold it 
fast to the box, yet make it readily removable when 
we wish to get the bees out. In the top of the box 
is to be bored a hole of the right size to admit the 
small end of a large funnel, such as is used in 1 
putting up bees by the pound, and over this hole I 
is to be fixed a slide so that it can be closed as soon 
as the bees are in. Having the box and funnel, 
proceed to shake the same amount of bees down 
through it into the box as you did in the former 
case ; but instead of putting the queen with the 
bees in the box, uncage her and set the frame hav- 
ing her on back in the hive. In this case you leave 
the old colon)' - in the same conditions in which they 
would have been had they cast a swarm, with the 
exception that they have the old queen with them, 
so as to keep up egg-laying all the while. Now 
carry your box of bees to your bee-cellar, or some 
other cool dark place, and leave them undisturbed 
for four hours, when you are to go and get a queen 
in a round wire-cloth cage, from one of your nuclei, 
or one which you have bought ; and after getting 
where the box of bees is, jar the bees to the bottom 
of the box, by setting it on the floor suddenly, so 
that they will not be running out while you are 
putting in the queen, and immediately let your 
queen run through the hole into the box. Now 
close the hole and leave the bees till sunset or the 
next morning, when you will find them clustered 
and ready for hiving, the same as a natural 
swarm would be, having accepted the queen which 
you gave them, as their own mother. Hive as 
before, and the work is done. 
In using this latter plan it is best to take the bees 
between the hours of io and 12 a.m. In writing 
this out it seems like a good deal of work ; but 
where making many swarms, the work goes on 
rapidly, as the bees are filling themselves while 
you are working, so that there is no waiting. In 
this way swarms can be made about as fast as 
natural swarms could be cared for, while they 
work nearly as well after they are made. 
G. M. Doolittle. 
Borodino, N. Y., Jan. 17, 1889. 
COMB FOUNDATION. 
Comb foundation is made of several forms — 
that is, with different impressions of the cell base. 
Some is exactly like the natural comb, and is 
called “natural base others are made with the 
cell base flat, and are called flat-bottomed founda- 
tion , , It is also made of different thicknesses. 
Some will run about five square feet to the pound, 
and is known as thick foundation. This is the 
kind used in the frames of the brood nest. Thin 
foundation generally runs about seven feet to the 
pound, or even more, and is used almost ex- 
clusively for starters in section boxes. Both 
thick and thin foundation is made with cells of 
drone size, as well as worker size. The thin 
drone-sized foundation is always used for section 
boxes, and the thick for super frames for ex- 
tracting ; or for a frame or two in the brood nest 
when it is desired that a lot of drones shall be 
reared. 
AMERICAN SEEDS. 
Figwort, Spider Plant, Motherwort, Horsemint, 
Catnip, White Sage, Rocky Mountain Bee 
Plant. Assorted packets, 2s. 6d. and 5s. 
BEEKEEPERS’ SUPPLY CO., 
Franklin-street, Melbourne. 
