39 
taken off, above the old hive, at the same time 
corking some tow or rags between the hives, to 
prevent the bees rushing out, if the mouths do 
not exactly fit; then by a continued rapping on 
the sides of the old hive, the bees will ascend and 
join the young colony. In about the space of 
half an hour the new hive may be taken off, the 
protector hooked on and placed in the exact situa- 
tion of the old hive. The old hive may now be 
removed a few rods and remain bottom upwards 
for the night; in the morning, by rapping again 
upon the sides of the old hive, if any bees remain 
they will immediately fly to, and enter the new 
hive, or if the bees refuse to leave the old hive, it 
may be taken in pieces and the bees carefully 
brushed from the combs, and the honey removed 
to some place of deposit; in the last case, the 
only resort for the bees is to join the new colony, 
which is immediately done. Bees may be trans- 
ferred to empty hives in the same manner as to 
hives containing bees. In either case care should 
be taken to place the new hive in the exact situa- 
tion of the old. The prosperity of the colony de- 
pends much on the time of transferring. The 
time of transferring to an empty hive, should be 
in about fifteen days after the first swarm has is- 
sued, that the hive maybe furnished with a queen 
to govern the colony. If transferred before the 
colony is furnished with a queen, the bees will 
soon disappear — either join a neighboring colony 
or die. I have this season taken four stocks of 
bees from my own apiary, and transferred them 
to empty hives with perfect success. Transfer- 
ring should be done as early in the season as 
practicable, that the bees may be enabled to gather 
honey sufficient for wintering. 
In every apiary, the empty hives should be 
