most thoroughly dried. The smell of fresh paint is well
known to be exceedingly injurious to human beings, and is such an
abomination to the bees, that they will often desert a new hive sooner
than put up with it. If the hives cannot be painted in ample season,
then such paints should be used, as contain no white lead, and they
should be mixed in such a manner as to dry as quickly as possible. Thin
hives ought never to stand in the sun, and then, when heated to an
insufferable degree, be used for a new swarm. Bees often refuse to enter
such hives at all, and at best, are very slow in taking possession of
them. It should be borne in mind, that bees, when they swarm, are
greatly excited, and unnaturally heated. The temperature of the hive, at
the moment of swarming, rises very suddenly, and many of the bees are
often drenched with such a profuse perspiration that they are unable to
take wing and join the departing colony. The attempt to make bees enter
a heated hive in a blazing sun, is as irrational as it would be to try
to force a panting crowd of human beings into the suffocating atmosphere
of a close garret. If bees are to be put in hives through which the
heat of the sun can penetrate, the process should be accomplished in the
shade, or if this cannot conveniently be done, the hive should be
covered with a sheet, or shaded with leafy boughs. If a hive with my
movable frames is used, these should all be furnished, or at least,
every other one, with a small piece of worker-comb, attached to the
center of the frame, with melted wax or rosin. Without such a guide
comb, the bees will almost always work some of the combs out of the true
direction, and this will interfere with their easy removal. A sheet of
comb, not larger than five inches square, will answer for all the frames
of one hive. If even so small a piece of comb as this cannot be
procured, let a thin line of melted wax be drawn, lengthwise, over the
middle of each frame, and let the colony be examined, on the second day
after hiving, and all the frames which contain irregular comb, be
removed. This comb may be cut off, and attached so as to serve as a
proper guide to the bees. The possession of six frames containing good
worker comb, and wrought with perfect accuracy, may be made by the
following device, to answer a most admirable end. Put them into a hive
with six empty frames; first a frame with comb, then an empty one, &c.
After the bees have had possession of