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domestic animals. 
mullen-stalks about a dozen in number, and tie these to the tops of 
poles ; the poles should be set in the ground so as to be easily taken 
up after the bees have settled on them ; by managing in this manner, 
the hive may be set in the apiary, before hiving, and the bees may be 
carried on the pole and laid by the side of the hive, when they will en- 
ter it; this saves the trouble of moving the hive after hiving, and con- 
sequently no bees will be lost. The mnllen tops should be attached to 
the poles so as to lie nearly horizontally. What there is in the mullen- 
stalks so attracting to the bees I know not, unless it is their rough, 
uneven surface, which affords the bees security against falling ; old dry 
weather-beaten stalks are as good as any.” 
Mr. Weeks directs that “when there are no fruit-trees nor shrubbery 
in the immediate vicinity of the bees, it is found that they will cluster 
on bushes artificially set down about the hives; say, take hemlock, 
cedar, or sugar-maple bushes, six, eight, or ten feet high ; sharpen the 
largest end, with the foliage remaining on the top, and set them down 
like bean-poles promiscuously round about the hives, two, three, or four 
rods distant; when the bees swarm, they will usually cluster in a body 
on some one of them, which may be pulled up, and the bees shaken off 
for the hive. Some apiarians confine a bunch of the seed-ends of dry 
mullen-stalks near the top of the bush, so as to represent, at a little dis- 
tance, a cluster of bees : this is said to be unfailing in catching swarms. 
Others recommend to drive down two stakes, two or three feet apart, 
and confine a stick of sufficient strength to each stake two or three feet 
from the ground, forming a cross-bar, so that, when a board twelve feet 
long is laid, one end resting on the cross-bar and the other on the ground, 
the bees will cluster under it, admitting it is at a reasonable distance, 
and yet so far from the old stock as to be out of hearing of their hum. 
Any one will know how to turn the board over, and set an empty hive 
over the bees. 
“The hiver is made of three rough boards, half an inch thick, seven 
inches wide, twenty-four inches long, nailed together like a common 
trough, open at both ends, — a strap of iron riveted on its outside, across 
the center of each board, with a shank or socket to insert a rod to 
handle it with, so that when inverted by means of the rod, and placed 
over the bees when alighting, it forms a kind of half hive, which they 
readily enter. There should be from a dozen to twenty half-inch holes 
bored through the top board, so as to let the alighting bees enter through 
the holes. When a small proportion of the bees are found in the hiver, 
it may be moved a few feet from the limb, which may be shaken with 
another rod with a hook on its end, which disengages the bees, and in 
a few moments the whole swarm will be found in the hiver. By the 
addition of ferules and joints, the hiver may be raised to any reasonable 
height. Thus the labor of climbing, the use of ladders, and cutting the 
limbs of precious fruit-trees, is entirely dispensed with. It likewise en- 
ables the apiarian, in large establishments, to divide out and keep sep- 
arate his swarms, which might otherwise alight many in one body.” 
Management Of Black Combs. — The combs in hives that have stood for 
several years become black and useless, because the bees never clear out 
the cells in which the brood has been reared, and the skius which the 
