Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/231

Rh and, ill the next place, we have the industrious collectors themselves ready in another season to renew their labours and add to our riches,—and requiring only to be united to some well-provisioned stock-hive which can afford to maintain them. It is pitiable to reflect that the small degree of additional trouble required in uniting them, should prove so effectual an obstacle to this conservative practice. Yet the operation with each hive so treated, need not occupy more than fifteen or twenty minutes. In the evening when all are quiet, turn up the hive which is to be operated upon, fixing it in a chair from which the stuffed bottom has been removed; place an empty hive above it, wrap a cloth round the point of junction, to prevent the bees from coming out, and annoying the operator; then, with a short stick or stone in each hand, beat round the sides but gently for fear of loosening the combs. In five minutes, the panic-struck insects will hastily mount into the empty hive, with