In message <[log in to unmask]>, Automatic digest processor <[log in to unmask]> writes ><<<<Have you seen them actually do this? The swarm analogy doesn't make >sense to >me in this case because here we have an intact colony with brood. In my >experience with bees (although I admit no experience with skeps), bees will >not >abandon brood. Why would they do that in this set up?>>>>> Sorry to be so late replying, but have been ill for a few days, and came back still groggy and removed most of my mail. To answer. Yes! not with skeps, but I once got bees out of a wooden hive that was in a terrible state by inverting it and drumming on the side to drive them into a clean hive placed above. Beats should be slow and rhythmic, not a fast drumroll. Why it works I don't know, and the fact that they leave the brood may be something to do with the belief (how true I don't know) that a queen wont lay in cells that are upside down. -- Tom Speight