256 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
over those of the brood-nest. Lifting out a side one, 
carefully raising it in front of the eyes, and scan- 
ning the side towards us unsuccessfully, we bring the 
frame from position i to position 2, Fig. 71, by lower- 
ing the right hand and raising the left until the top bar 
becomes perpendicular. The frame is now, by a gentle 
swing, soon acquired, made to take, upon the ears 
held in our fingers as a perpendicular shaft, a half- 
revolution towards the right, which brings it into 
position 3, and thus the opposite face of the comb 
is presented to us. Reversing the up-and-down 
motion of the hands restores the top bar to the 
Fig. 71 .— The Four Positio.ns taken by a Comb during Examination. 
horizontal (position 4), with the comb inverted, but 
yet perpendicular, as we have kept it from the first, 
so that its weight in no way tends to loosen it from 
the frame. The previous movements, in an inverse 
order_, return the comb to position i, when we replace 
it in the hive, but as far from the next brood-comb 
as interior space will admit, lest the queen pass at 
once to it, and so elude us. Continue the search, 
and, when the queen is found, either hang the frame 
upon a comb-stand — of which the most portable form 
is seen in Fig. 72 (it is simply hooked on the side 
of the hive under operation, and requires caution in 
