372 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
a great help in taking condemned stocks. Its watery 
solution, wiped over the floor-board, will make the bees 
leave the latter and cluster more quickly in the skep, 
which should be propped high to avoid its fumes. 
Capturing colonies which have located themselves 
In undesirable situations, occasionally provides the 
means of augmenting our stocks. The statement that 
the plan of procedure will depend on circumstances Is 
not very helpful. The dilflcultles are of one kind, 
and so may be best explained by relating in short 
two expeditions in which the writer endeavoured to 
restore to civilised courses bees that had hoped, perhaps, 
to bid adieu to the trammels of bar-framers, the dull 
uniformity of foundation, and the innovation of section 
boxes, by hieing away to the seclusion of a double- 
brick wall in one case, and the roof of a church In the 
other. The double wall formed part of an old structure 
and through an aperture eight feet from the ground, 
the result of decay, the swarm had evidently entered, 
and had utilised an interspace only q^in. wide from 
front to back. A bricklayer cut out some front bricks 
to lay the colony open to view, and this work acted 
like the hive-beating in driving, completely quieting 
the bees, which made no remonstrance during the 
dismantling of their home. The bricklayer soon 
lost courage, and so I had to trench upon masonic 
mysteries, lifting out the honeycombs as it was possible 
to free them. These I found about 3ft. bin. deep^ 
and supported at intervals by cross bricks; but, un- 
fortunately, as we came upon the brood-combs, the 
queen, with the greater number of bees, retreated into 
the recess, beyond reach. All the brood-combs, by 
