Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/216

212 operation is very simple, more satisfactory, and less dependant on contingencies. Let a hive be prepared of precisely the same dimensions as the one to be operated on, and of the same construction, namely, opening vertically in two halves. Early in the morning, or in the evening, when the bees are all at home, let the hive be gently separated. The bees, always most irritable when idle, will dart out in no placid humour, and must therefore be kept from annoying the operator, by the use of smoke. Apply to each full half an empty one, carefully fastening them together by hooks and eyes previously arranged. We have thus two hives, each half full of bees, brood, and honey. One of them will possess the queen, and the other will have royal brood, or at all events, eggs and larvæ of all ages wherewith to originate a queen. As soon as they have recovered from the panic caused by the operation, and have all retired into the interior, let both doors be closed that there may be no communication between the two divided communities. Two or three hours afterwards, listen attentively to each, and it will be readily ascertained from the quiet state of the one, and the loud disorderly buzzing of the other, that the queen is present with the former, and that the other is distressed at the discovery of their loss. Carry off the one with the queen, and shut it up in a dark apartment for twenty-four hours, leaving the other in the original station. If this last had no royal brood at the time of the separation, it will, within twenty-four hours, have set about forming an artificial queen, and the operation