BEE CULTURE.

Evening Star, Issue 7361, 5 November 1887, Page 2

BEE CULTURE.

A number of persons interested inbee culture assembled at the Botanical Gardens this afternoon to witness a public exhibition. by the Otago Beekeepers' Association as to the beat way of transferring beos to a new hive. The operator was Mr T. G. Brickell, assisted by Mdsßrs Morris and Brown. The bees that it was desired to shift Jiad formed hives in two old candle boxes.' The first process in tjieir ejectment was to partially stupefy tho bees with tho fumes from rotten wood, which it was explained did the bees no harm. Mr Briokell then pulled the side out of the box, and also removed the top, covering it instead with a cloth, to which hundreds of the bqe'3 adhercij. The comb was then quickly and quietly oufc in sections, and being out to the proper jt was ad j ustei iff Jhe frames of the now hiye, being held in 'jL'ts pjace by ir.efal clasps. Sufficient of the comb being jreltfbyed, the fragments of tha bos were taken alongside the new hive, and the bees shaken out within an inch of the opening. The bees that stuck to the cloth were simply shaken in through the top, and in tho course of less than half an-hour from time of the candle-box being broken the colony had been depoiited ii thev n,e.v home—all but a few vagrants, who seemed' to bo ri-.Qre stupefied than the majority of their fellow- ?*£ second colony was also transferred Bucpessf U|fly, #nd yf t]b#uji anyone being stung, thouirti the »eea yerjßi flying about and alighting in dozens on the operators and those who stood by. The hires into which the bees were placed are made by Mr Brickell, and are after the style of tho Langetrojsh hiye < in general use in America; one point of difference, howr ever, being that Mr Briokell has provided a sloping roof instead of the flat one in the pure Langstroth. The exhibition was in all respeots a successful one, and some of the amateurs present doubtless gathered a few " wrinkles" as fco the best way of handling bees. '"