CHAPTER XVII.

ON REMOVING BEES FROM COMMON STRAW-HIVES TO STORIFYING HIVES OR BOXES.

Many plans have been suggested for transferring bees from hives to boxes; but excepting in the case of a recent swarm, I would not recommend any, but an experienced apiarian, to attempt an immediate transfer.

In the case of a recent swarm, the method of effecting the object is simple and easy; for if, when the bees have retired for the night, the hive be placed upon a middle board, with a divider underneath it, and the whole be inverted upon a small tub or a peck measure, and an empty box be raised upon the divider, this latter being withdrawn, and every opening besides what is necessary for admitting air being well secured, the bees will all probably have ascended into the box by morning, when with the assistance of the dividers they may be placed in the bee-house or any where else that the proprietor chooses, just as if they had been originally hived in the box. If the ascent have not taken place in the morning, it may be effected by drumming smartly with two sticks, upon the sides of the hive: in this way, the ascent may be known by the loud humming noise by which it will be accompanied.

I have said that the above plan is only to be recommended in cases of recent swarming: by this I mean, in swarms of the day on which it is attempted, and before any works are constructed in the hives, to such an extent as to make the bees tenacious of their new habitation; for wherever they form a settlement, though even for the short time that they occupy a bush or tree before hiving, there are always to be seen the rudiments of one or more combs, showing, that they always intend, (so far as one can give bees credit for intention,) to take up their abode, permanently, upon the very spot on which they first cluster round their Royal Leader.

If however, from want of forethought or from any other causes, a swarm have been allowed, for a longer period, to occupy a hive from which it is desirable to dislodge it, in that case I would recommend the apiarian, towards night, to place the hive upon a middle board with a divider underneath it, to lute the junction with clay, so as to prevent the bees from escaping, and to invert the whole upon a stool that has had an opening made in it of sufficient size to allow the hive to sink about half-way through it. Then, if he raise a couple of empty boxes upon the divider, in the manner already directed for super-hiving, and having adjusted the whole, withdraw the divider, the bees will soon desist from carrying on their works in the hive, and commence new ones in the upper box; the hive at the period of deprivation may be separated from the boxes in the usual way.

The middle board that is used on this occasion, provided the colony be designed to stand out of doors, must have a resting board attached to the edge of it, for the bees to alight upon. And as it is intended to serve as a substitute for a floor board, it must be made to correspond with the floor boards in its construction, so far as respects its giving liberty for the bees to have ingress and egress, and its affording a power to shut them in.

If it should be thought more convenient, an entrance could readily be formed, by cutting a piece out of the lower edge of the box, in which also a groove might be cut for a slide to run in.