In filling the frames with combs cut from a box hive, the largest and straightest sheets having the most sealed worker brood in them should be selected first and so cut that the frame will slip over them snugly, taking pains, as far as possible, to have the comb placed in the frame in the same position in which it was built, since most of the cells, instead of being horizontal, are inclined upward, the inclination of the deeper store cells being greatest. The comb, if not heavy, can be held in place temporarily by slender wire nails pushed through holes punched in the side and top bars. Before the introduction of wire nails the writer used long thorns pulled from thorn-apple trees, which served the purpose very well. In the case of combs heavy with honey or brood or pieced more or less it will be safer to use, in addition to a few wire nails, a pair or two of transferring sticks. These are simply slender strips of wood slightly longer than the depth of the frame and notched at each end. By placing such a stick on either side of the comb and winding annealed wire around the top and bottom ends so as to draw the sticks firmly against the surface of the combs the latter will be held securely in the frames. The midrib between the rows of cells should be pressed neither to one side nor the other; thus, if cells on one side are deeper than those on the other, they should be shaved down, unless the honey will be cut into too much, in which case the comb maybe allowed to project on one side until it has been fastened in the frame and the hive has been generally put in order by the bees, the point being not to force them to try to manage too much running honey at one time, lest robbing be induced. In many instances the comb when pressed into the frame will seem to be so firm as not to need nails or sticks, but in the heat of the hive, and with the weight of the bees that will cluster on it to repair the cut edges and fasten them to the bars of the frame, unsupported combs are very apt to give way, creating disastrous confusion. Thus the sticks, nails, or their equivalent should always be used (fig. 54). All frames should be filled with perfectly straight combs so as to be interchangeable. With care in fitting in and some trimming and pressing into shape afterwards, fully three-fourths of the worker combs cut from box hives can be made into good, serviceable combs in frame hives. The process is much facilitated if such combs are used in the extractor during the first season or two after transferring. [Illustration: Fig. 54.--Transferred comb and inserted queen cell. (Original.)]