254 
DR. MILLER S 
Q. How do you like putting a hive with one frame of brood 
over the colony to be transferred, and a queen-cxcludcr between, 
when you catch the queen in the upper hive? 
A. It will work all right. Here is something you may like 
better: Drum out all the bees, putting them in the new hive on 
the old stand, with a frame of brood, put on an excluder, and 
then the old hive. In 21 days the worker-brood will be gone from 
the old hive above and it can be taken away and the combs melted 
up. 
Q. When transferring bees, will it hurt to have the old hive 
wrong side up until the brood hatches? 
A. No. 
Q. Will the following plan work well for transferring? Say 
I have five colonies in box-hives and wish to transfer, and I go 
to a hive to be transferred and smoke and drum out all the bees 
into the frame-hive except some to care for the brood that is in 
the hive at this time, which we suppose is in May or June; after 
which I set the old hive, for say five days, with its entrance 
closed over the frame-hive and with a wire-cloth between. After 
five days I replace the wire-cloth with a queen excluder, which I 
let stay for fifteen days, or one day before all the brood is 
hatched, then I put on an escape-board in its place; and when 
they have all gone down, take the old hive off, save all the good 
combs, and melt the others. 
A. Yes; only it is hardly necessary to leave the wire-cloth as 
long as five days. Likely two days would be long enough — just 
long enough for the queen to get started laying below. Indeed, 
it might work all right to give the excluder at the start, and the 
less time the wire-cloth is left the better it will be for the brood 
above it. 
Transferring From Movable-Frame Hives. — Q. Will you please 
tell me how to transfer bees from one hive to another? The hive 
they are in is poor, and I would like to get them into one with 
9 frames. 
A. Just exactly how it should be done, provided the bees are 
now in a frame hive, depends upon the size of the frame now in 
use compared with one to which you wish to transfer them. If 
the frame is shallower than the old one, you will cut down the 
comb so as to make it the right depth. If the new frame is 
deeper, put the comb in, and then cut pieces to wedge in on top, 
or which may be more easily managed, turn the comb so the 
present top and bottom may be at the sides, and then cut the 
comb just deep enough to go in the frame. Before taking out 
