r home gone, will fly around in the air until becoming
exhausted, and will then settle on the leaves and bushes in bunches
and knots by the hundreds. If there was any nice white honey we
have it in the bucket and picking up the box start on the homeward
journey. Presuming we have a movable frame hive at home with an
inch of starter in the frames or, what would be better, a hive
filled with comb from the year previous, we place the hive on its
permanent stand and take the lid from the box and shake the bees
down at the entrance. For fear the queen has been left in the tree
it would be well to have an entrance guard placed on the hive, as
this would exclude the queen and as soon as the queen is seen the
guard can be removed. In a short time we can tell whether they take
kindly to their new home. The queen is a laying one and some pollen
should be taken in the following day. I always made sure I had the
queen and never had a bee so treated to swarm out after being
hived.

Now what about the bee in the tree? When we left it there were
thousands flying around and settling on the leaves and bushes,
other thousands in all stages of development in the combs. The ones
that are hanging on the bushes begin to make further investigation
and finding their brood soon cover it and with the bees hatching
out every hour soon make the colony almost as populous as it was
before the tree was cut. In taking the combs out we may have seen
some queen cells started. If so, so much the better. If not, there
certainly were eggs in some of the combs and in sixteen days at the
most they can rear a queen from these eggs. When this time has
elapsed, take your box and smoker. Take the combs out as before;
drive the bees into the box, and as the brood is nearly all hatched
out by this time you will have nearly as many bees as you got the
first time. These are brought home and treated as the first swarm
and the combs can be placed in the log again for the few remaining
bees that may have been left, to cluster on and these can be
brought home later and joined to the second swarm. By this method
you get two strong colonies from one tree. There is no help needed;
no heavy lifting and carrying of hives to and from the tree. By
following this plan you can soon have quite an apiary and be on
your way to enjoy the profits as well as the pleasures of bee
hunting. This plan is original with me and I believe it to be the
very best plan given so far, and I expe