842 
TRANSFERRING 
of which time the majority of the bees will 
have crawled from the combs beneath, and 
clustered on the super cover (now on top). 
During the process of drumming it is ad¬ 
visable to lift the cover slightly to see how 
the bees are coming up. When a large 
After drumming, the bees crawl upward and cluster 
on the super cover. This is gently placed on the 
new hive, after which the operation of transferring 
the combs begins. 
cluster has formed, the super cover or flat 
board with its cluster of bees is lifted oft 
the hive and set down on the prepared new 
hive in such a way that the cluster will ex¬ 
tend down in the space between the frames 
as shown in cut above. If not all the bees 
are out of the original box hive, a second 
drumming may be applied with another 
super cover, but usually this is not neces¬ 
sary. If the first drumming be continued 
long enough there will be, of course, a few 
straggling bees left down among the combs. 
No attention need be paid to these, as 
they will not sting, having become complete¬ 
ly demoralized by the drumming. 
The plan that Mr. Sams somewhat pre¬ 
fers is to nail a couple of cleats even with 
the bottom edge of the gum, then turn it 
upside down. On top of this, place the new 
hive minus the bottom-board with a full 
sets of frames containing foundation, the 
hive resting crosswise on the cleats. The 
old gum .is then drummed on the side as be¬ 
fore explained until all the bees, or most of 
them, go up into the new hive. This they 
will do very readily, but lift it up once or 
twice to see when the bees have gone up. 
The hive is then lifted off with with its 
bees, and set down upon the bottom-board. 
It is not necessary that the two ends of 
the new hive sticking over on each side of 
the gum be closed up, for the bees will go 
up just the same. 
This plan has the merit that the bees are 
driven directly from the old gum into the 
new hive without the use of a super-cover 
or box. 
After the bees are drummed out, a common hand¬ 
saw is altogether the best tool for cutting the 
combs away from the sides of the box. 
The handsaw is now passed down be¬ 
tween the combs and the sides of the 
box if it is a square gum. A good hand¬ 
saw is better than a long knife for sep- 
In place of a super-cover or board Mr. Sams rec¬ 
ommends drumming the bees directly into the new 
hive, which is held in place by means of a couple 
of cross-cleats as shown. 
