THE APIARY. 
429 
cloth, and inverted in all but chilly weather. Combs 
always travel best in the inverted position, because 
the heavy honey then rests immediately upon the 
base, and tends to hold the comb, instead of drawing it 
from its attachments; but in cold times, bees would get 
too much chilled in inverted hives. In cold weather, 
both frame hives and skeps can be carried in the natural 
position, the mouths being closed with perforated zinc. 
Frame hives with strong colonies, in warm weather, 
should be covered by cheese-cloth, or perforated zinc, 
above and beneath, and the frames should be held in 
position by nailing two strips, which run across the line 
of the ears. The nails need be only partly driven 
home, so that they may be easily drawn. With 
sufficient fixing they permit to the frames a certain 
amount of swung, wffiich relieves the energy of an 
accidental blow. Frames too firmly fixed are much 
more likely to arrive wdth combs broken dowm ; on 
this account I do not think sticks betw’een the frame 
sides to preserve the interspace desirable. For cart 
carriage, a smooth bedding of straw’ is of great 
service. 
Should it be required to send off several colonies 
when many of their bees are abroad in the fields, the 
returning foragers may be saved by giving them a 
nucleus in the centre of the space cleared ; and, in the 
same manner, when bees must be moved small dis- 
tances at awkw’ard times, a little ingenuity wall permit 
the last moved, and preferably queenless, colony, to 
gather up the w’anderers; or, by the aid of the latter, 
a nucleus may be started. 
In re-arranging the apiary, our notions of symmetry 
