342 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
fight is taken out of them. The hive from which they 
were driven is now placed upon a board or cloth, and 
raised in front, and the bees are shaken upon the 
board. As they run into the hive, the alien queen 
(with accompanying bees, if any) is dropped into their 
midst, and all joyfully enter together. 
“ I have experimented’ on this plan with many hundreds 
of colonies — condemned bees and others — and can truth- 
fullv assert that it has never failed in a single instance. 
O 
The same method is easy of application to colonies in 
frame hives, by removing their queen, and shaking or 
brushing the bees from their combs, and allowing them 
to run into an empty skep placed on the stand of their 
hive. The combs are returned, the frame hive takes 
the place of the skep, out of which the bees are shaken 
as before, and the new queen is dropped amongst 
them as they run into their former abode. Neither 
syrup nor scent is used, as I have found them quite 
unnecessary; and the operation is performed in a 
more cleanly manner without either, there being, more- 
over, less danger of attracting robber bees. The 
method may be practised at any time ; indeed, I have 
introduced queens thus in mid-winter, by removing 
the hive to a warm room." 
^^Ten bees have fully realised that they are irre- 
mediably motherless, they will commonly accord a 
friendly greeting to any queen offered them ; and many 
times, when I have found a stock in this state, I have 
simply put a fertile mother on the top bar of one of 
the frames, and watched results. As a rule, a few 
bees make inquiries, and she walks down, a most 
welcome guest. Singularly, such stocks furnish both 
