As soon as you have become possessed of a Ligurian queen and her
attendants, steps should be taken for removing the common queen from
the stock, or swarm, to which the strangers are to be united.
Where _bar hives_ are in use the operation is sufficiently easy, but
should not be attempted without the protection afforded by a Bee-dress
and a thick pair of wollen gloves. The services of an assistant
similarly accoutred will be found very useful, but are not absolutely
indispensable.
The middle of a fine day is the best time for the operation, which
should be commenced by removing the stock a little either to the right
or left of its usual position, which must be occupied by an empty hive,
from which the top board and comb-bars have been removed. The top
board of the full hive must then be shifted on one side sufficiently
to expose a single bar, which may be carefully withdrawn after the
attachments of the comb have been severed from the back and front
of the hire by a bent knife. Both sides of the comb must be rigidly
scrutinised, and any cluster of Bees gently dispersed with a feather,
until it becomes evident that the queen is not present, when it may be
placed in the empty hive. The same process must be repeated with each
successive comb until the queen is discovered and secured, when the
Bees may be either allowed to remain in the hive to which they have
been transferred, or replaced in their original domicile. Sometimes the
queen is not to be found on any of the combs, but may be detected among
the stragglers remaining in the hive. In practised hands her discovery
may be reckoned on with tolerable certainty during the first removal;
but if she succeed in escaping detection the process must be repeated
until she is secured.
With _common hives_ or boxes driving is the best method to adopt; and
the Bees, having been expelled from their habitation, may be knocked
out on a cloth and searched over until the queen is discovered.
Should the Bee-keeper be unable to perform the operation of driving,
fumigation may be resorted to and the queen secured whilst the Bees are
in a state of insensibility.
Should the queen have been removed, and the Bees restored to their
original hive and position in the apiary, measures must now be taken
to introduce the Italian sovereign to her future subjects. The first
step will be carefully to remove the lid of the small box, replacing it
with a slip of perforated zinc without permitting the Bees to escape.
The whole must then be inverted over an opening in the top of the hive
containing the queenless stock, where it should remain undisturbed till
the next day, when the perforated zinc divider may be withdrawn, and
the union will be complete. The small box itself need not be removed
till the third day, when the Bees will be found to have quitted it.
After the lapse of about thirty days young Ligurians may, probably, be
discovered taking their flight.