A. YEAR AMONG THE BEES. 
13 
she may mend them in this way : She takes a common tea 
knife with a thin, narrow, sharp blade, cuts out the piece of 
drone comb if the hole is not already made, lays the frame 
over a piece of worker comb, (this piece of worker comb may 
be the part or whole of some old or objectionable comb), with 
the point of the knife marks out the exact size and shape of 
the hole, removes the frame, cuts out the piece, and crowds 
it into the hole. Or, the following plan may be used, and is 
always used if the frame is wired : After the hole is made, 
(the mice have probably made the holes in the wired frames), 
the cells on one side are cut away to the base for a distance 
of % to }4 inch from the hole, and a piece of foundation cut 
to the right size is placed over the hole and the edge pressed 
down upon the base that surrounds the hole. The founda- 
tion must not be too cold. Before fall these patches cannot 
be detected, unless by the lighter color where the foundation 
has been used. 
When all the frames are properly placed in the new hive, 
the now empty one is removed from the stand, and the full 
one takes its place. Sometimes I make this change when 
half the frames are in each hive, as they are then easier to 
lift. The quilt and cover being put on the hive, the old hive 
is placed in front or a little to one side, with one corner of its 
alighting-board resting on the alighting-board of the full 
hive, and in 10 or 15 minutes the few stragglers left in the old 
hive will have crawled in with the rest of the colony. 
In this way the whole apiary is gone over, the hives being 
cleaned as fast as they are emptied, and then filled up again. 
The number-tags are removed from the hives at the time of 
cleaning, and when all colonies are overhauled the numbers 
are put on the hives in proper numerical order. The same 
number remains on the same stand through the entire season, 
and if, for any reason, two hives are exchanged, their number- 
tags are changed, and the record-book changed accordingly. 
No duplicate numbers are used, for it would make confusion 
if there were a No. 1 or No. 2 in the Wilson as well as the 
home apiary. 
