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box be raised upon the divider, this latter being withdrawn, and every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.