Fig. 10
In placing the bees on the stand it is not necessary to use smoke of any kind. First, place a bottom-board in position and quietly raise the box containing the bees, letting the rear end strike the bottom-board in such a way that the combs will not be disturbed and gradually lowering the hive so as not to crush any bees.
The box of drones may be so placed against the front end of the bottom-board that all the young bees, if any are left in the box, may run out, leaving the drones below the metal to perish.
Just such a frame as is used for the wire screen cover may be used to nail the metal to, as the entire top of the box should be covered in order to catch all the drones.
How to catch and destroy drones in full colonies will be explained under the head of “Drone and Queen-traps.”
DESCRIPTION OF QUEEN-CELL FRAME
In my early experience in rearing queens I used combs in standard L frames to attach the strips of comb containing the eggs for queen-cells. While such an arrangement worked well in 3-frame nucleus colonies, there are disadvantages in so doing when used in full colonies and by my present system of queen-rearing; therefore I adopted the all-wood frame and in combination with the wood-strips as shown in fig. [5] and it works nicely.
Figure 11
The frame is a standard L style into which are nailed two pieces of wood A A. There are four notches cut in on the inner edges two inches a part, into which the four pieces of wood are placed and are thus held firmly in position.