TRANSFERRING 
841 
selected during a dearth of honey, when 
the bees are inclined to rob. 
A day should be selected when the weath¬ 
er is warm—preferably between the hours 
of 9 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon. 
Sometimes it is desirable to transfer during 
a dearth of honey in midsummer. A day 
should then be selected when there is a 
slight mist or rain, as there will be no 
flying bees. While the bees will be in¬ 
clined to sting more at such times, and the 
operator will have to use more smoke and 
proceed as cautiously as possible, there 
will be no trouble from robbing. 
At the end of the transferring,, all drip¬ 
pings of honey should be disposed ofj and 
if honey gets on the grass or on the ground, 
a pail of water should be dashed over it to 
wash it away. Should foul brood be pres¬ 
ent in the locality, the precaution of clean¬ 
ing up everything in the way of sweets is 
doubly important. 
Sometimes the bos hives or log gums 
have to be carried quite a distance. In 
that case the gums should be put inside of 
burlap sacks and tied. They can be moved 
at any time, but preferably in the morning 
or in the evening. On arrival at their per¬ 
manent home the sacks should be removed 
and the hives placed on the spots where 
the bees will be after transferring. 
The methods that are now to be described 
are used by C. L. Sams, Bee Extension 
Agent for North Carolina. He has had 
more experience in transferring, probably, 
than any other man in the United States. 
The tools necessary for transferring are 
a wide board, butcher-knife, and a hand¬ 
saw -— preferably one having a narrow 
blade. In the case of a round gum a sort 
of keyhole saw with a long blade is better 
than a common handsaw. There should be, 
of course, modern hives with empty frames, 
frames containing full sheets of founda¬ 
tion, a 'pail of water, tin pans and last, but 
by no means least important, a bee-smoker, 
with plenty of fuel well ignited. 
HOW TO TRANSFER. 
The first operation is to blow- smoke into 
the entrance of the box hive. This is then 
removed a few feet from its stand and 
turned upside down, and more smoke is 
blown over the combs to drive down any 
bees that may be left which would resent 
intrusion. A modern hive with its movable 
frames is now placed where the box hive 
stood, with the entrance pointing in the 
same direction. This hive should contain, 
Smoking the bees in the bos hive preparatory to 
transferring. The box hive is first turned upside 
down, and then the smoking is begun. 
preferably, four or five frames having 
full sheets of foundation. Part of the 
frames should be on one side of the hive 
and the rest on the other, leaving a space 
in the center. Wherever possible a frame 
of brood and a little honey should be 
added from some other hive. 
The next operation is to blow more smoke 
over the combs in the box hive, now itp- 
side down. As soon as the bees are driven 
down, some five or six inches of the combs 
is broken off or cut off. A super cover or 
any flat board or even the top of the hive 
Mr. Sams drumming on the hive to drive the bees 
up against the top board so he can remove them 
and then cut out the combs. Courthouse officials of 
Wilmington, with an inborn sense of safety and a 
snap, look out from within. 
is set over the box hive. A vigorous drum¬ 
ming, with blows not too hard, with a ham¬ 
mer, is now applied to the sides of the box 
hive. This drumming is kept up continu¬ 
ously for eight or ten minutes, at the end 
