Hives found to be queenless may be supplied either with matured queens or with queen-cells. If the latter are sufficiently numerous, their introduction may easily be effected by exchanging a comb in each hive; if they have to be cut out and place loosely in the new hive, a triangular piece of comb should then be removed with them, to be used as a block in preventing any pressure coming on them. A space must be cut out of the middle in the centre combs of the hive into which they are to be introduced. Special care must be taken not to bruise the royal embryos, as they are particularly sensitive to pressure. It is sometimes best to introduce royal brood into queenless hives in preference to matured unimpregnated queens, because, as mentioned at [page 8], bees are reluctant to receive virgin queens, whilst they will tolerate one hatched in the hive, who will speedily depart to seek a drone. Bee-masters mostly use small hives for queen-rearing, consisting of, say, four combs. By extracting from a populous hive four such frames of combs (with the bees on them), and having eggs in the first stage (see [page 9]), or better still a royal embryo, the bees will rear a queen or queens therefrom. Care will have to be exercised to ensure that there is a sufficient number of bees to mature the brood brought from the hive.[21]
[21] These weak little colonies should have small entrances, so as to be better able to defend themselves from the attacks of robber-bees, and they will require to be assisted and strengthened by feeding.
A colony of this character is technically called a "nucleus."
Such operations as queen-rearing should only be attempted in warm summer weather, and when drones are abundant.
A very great advantage that the Woodbury bar and frame hive affords, is the safety and convenience with which a stock of bees can in it be transported to any part of the kingdom: by a few additional arrangements, stocks have even been sent in it to distant countries. In many districts hives are removed to moors, and heaths in autumn, for the purpose of gathering heather honey. In this operation, the frames are a great support to the combs, very much lessening the risk of a break down and consequent loss.
From a hive that has been inhabited all the winter, we have not unfrequently lifted out the frames and removed the stock to a clean hive; and we believe that the change has always been useful The bees find a clean floor-board and a clean hive to breed in, free from insects that may have harboured in crevices about their former abode. When the change has been made, the old hive can be thoroughly cleaned and used in the same way for making the exchange with another stock. The process for handling will, of course, be the same as before described. We have found that, where this plan has been carried out, the bees seem to progress faster. Perhaps a little stirring up may be useful in arousing them from their winter doze. The time we recommend for doing this is in the beginning of April, but a fine warm day should be chosen.
DRIVING.
Driving is an operation by which bees are induced to vacate an old settled hive and to enter an empty one. Many apiarians prefer this mode of effecting an exchange of hives to the plan of fumigating the bees.
The greatest success attending such a transfer will be in the case of hives well filled with combs that are worked nearly to the floor-board; and it may be remarked, that bees are generally so far provident, that they leave an open space in which to pass underneath their combs over all the floor of the hive. When the old hive is inverted, the bees crawl up the combs, and thus more easily pass up into the new hive, which the operator places over the old one, with the intent that they should enter it.
The best time for performing this operation is about the middle of the day, and when the weather is warm. It is essential that the operator be protected with a bee-dress and gloves, as before described; and previous to commencing his task, he must provide all necessary implements. These are:—a couple of hives, one of which should correspond in shape and size with the hive from which the bees are to be driven; a cloth to tie round at the junction when the new hive is placed on the old one; some string to keep the cloth in its place; an empty pail to receive the top of the old hive, if one of the old conical shape, but if the stock of bees is in a square box-hive with a flat top, a firm stool will be the best; and a tube fumigator with some fungus, which will complete the material of war. The bucket or stool must be placed securely on the ground, about a yard from the place where the full hive stands; then a few puffs of smoke, blown in amongst the bees, will cause them to retreat up amongst the combs. The bee-master must now turn the hive[22] upside down very gently; letting it rest in the pail or on the stool; he then quickly places the empty hive over the full one, and ties the cloth round it, to prevent any escape of the bees. If the cloth be damped, it will cling the closer to the hives. The third hive is intended to be placed on the stand formerly occupied by the stock, so as to retain the few returning bees which had been absent in the fields. Care must be taken that all crevices through which it is possible for the bees to escape from the united hives should be effectually closed. When the two are fairly united, the operator will proceed by rapping the full hive gently with the hands or a couple of sticks, more particularly on that side where the combs are the most thickly placed—that is, if the hive be not equally filled. A stock is in the best condition for driving twenty-one days, or thereabouts, after a first swarm has issued; the brood will then have hatched out, the bees will quit more readily, and there will be no loss of larvæ in the cells.