112 - QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Fes., 1902. 
them pretty close, as the black queens are rather hard to see, and we want to 
be sure that she goes in with them. As soon as you see her, pick her up by 
both wings and place her in the hive; the bees will soon all follow herin. If we 
do not see the queen, we had better drum and smoke out all the remaining bees 
from the old hive, and shake them in front of the new hive, drive all of the 
bees into the new hive, and then remove it from the old stand, placing it at one 
side, so as to be out of the way. Now place the old hive back on its former 
stand, still leaving it inverted, as we want the bottom or open part to be 
upward so that the combs are inverted, place a queen-excluding honey board 
on what is now the top of the old hive, and set the new hive on the honey 
board. 
Of course the new hive is not to have any bottom board, the honey board 
taking the place of the bottom board. Leave an entrance into the new hive 
directly above where the one was in the old hive (the entrance may be formed 
by lying pieces of lath under three sides of the hive, between the hive and honey 
board, lean a wide board from the ground to the entrance of the new hive, so 
as to prevent the bees from going to the place where the old entrance was. 
They will alight upon this board and crawl up to the entrance to the new 
hive, attracted thither by the humming of their sisters. 
Leave the hives thus for twenty-one days. By this time all the brood will 
be hatched in old hive, and the young bees gone up to the colony in the new 
hive, and if sufficient empty combs were given the bees in the new hive they 
- will have carried up all the honey from the old hive. I have never known bees 
to rear a queen in the old hive when following this method of transferring, 
whereas with the Heddon plan they will always do so; and, besides, we have to 
unite the young bees that hatch in the old hive with those in the new hive. 
With my method, the young bees go up to the others as fast as they hatch, 
only enough bees staying below to keep the brood warm and feed the larva. 
This I consider a great advantage over all other metheds, as we have the full 
working force of the colony in the one hive. 
When all the brood has hatched from the combs in the old hive remove 
the old hive, and set the new hive on a bottom board in the place that the old 
hive oceupied ; always have the entrance face the same way that the old one 
did, thus avoiding as much as possible confusing the returning bees. 
The colony should now be a prosperous one and ready for a super, which 
should be placed upon it if there honey is coming in, and the bees have all the 
frames full of combs, and said combs full of brood and honey. 
Tf we gave all full frames or comb to the bees when transferring them, 
they may need a super before all the brood has hatched from the combs in the 
old hive; this should be given as soon as needed, otherwise the bees will fill the 
combs in the old hive with honey, and we want to avoid this, as the combs in 
the old hive are so much better to handle when free from honey. 
We are now ready to dispose of the old hive and its contents ; many advise 
melting up the old combs and burning the old hive. From a supply dealer’s 
point of view, no doubt, this is the best and only way, but from the apiarist’s 
standpoint I say it is all wrong. My advice is to save all the straight worker- 
comb and fix it into brood-frames, and the straight drone comb may be fixed in 
frames for the extracting super. 
To transfer bees from one size frame hive to another, I remove the hive to 
be transferred to one side and set the new hive on the old stand, having it filled 
with frames full of worker-comb, or, if these are not to be had, frames filled 
with foundation or frames with starters will do, but the comb is by all odds the 
best. Now find the queen in the old hive and pick her off the comb, set her on 
the centre frame in the new hive, and shake the bees off of the frame over her. 
You want to be smart about it, or else she will take wing, unless her wings are 
clipped. Shake the bees off from three or four frames in front of the new 
