DRIVING SWARMS FROM BOX HIVES. 
57 
DRIVING OR FORCED SWARMING. 
The discovery that when a queen is removed from the hive in 
the swarming season, the bees will supply her place by rearing 
a queen from an egg or young larvie that otherwise would have 
roduced a worker, led to the practice of forced swarming or 
driving from the box hive. The object is to drive out a portion 
of the bees with the queen to form the new colony, leaving 
those remaining in the old hive to rear a queen from worker 
brood. 
For driving bees, a warm day should be chosen, and if the 
driven swarm is to be put into a movable-comb hive, prepare it 
by inserting a frame taken from another stock containing honey 
and young brood, to keep the swarm from absconding. Imme- 
diately upon removing the stock to be drummed, let an assistant 
put the new hive thus prepared in its place. If the weather be 
pleasant and bees in full flight, enough will return from the fields 
to keep the brood warm by clustering upon the comb inserted, 
and they will thus be prevented from entering contiguous hives. 
Before removing the stock to be drummed, blow under a few 
whiffs of smoke, to drive the bees up among the combs. Care- 
fully invert the hive, a little away from other stocks, in the 
shade. Having ready a “ driving box,” (an empty hive will do,) 
place it upon the old stock, so that the hives shall fit closely, 
mouth to mouth. "Wrap a strip of cloth around the junction of 
the two hives, closing all apertures so that not a bee can escape. 
Now, with two light sticks, rap smartly around the lower hive 
for two or three minutes, then wait a few minutes for the bees to 
