36 



affords merely increase. Moreover, these nuclei require considerable 

 attention, nursing and feeding, which means little economy. 



The modern methods of increase are based on an effort to keep 

 strong both the old and the new colony, without sacrifice of the 

 honey harvest. 



Shaking for Increase. 



This has virtue not only in increase but also in overcoming the 

 swarming nuisance. The principle has many modifications and is 

 commonly explained under heading of " shook " swarming. Here, 

 again, the natural impulse of the bees to swarm is taken advantage 

 of. A hive is prepared as for hiving a swarm, that is, an empty 

 hive is equipped with frames containing either full sheets of founda- 

 tion or foundation starters. This is set on the stand in place of the 

 colony to be shaken. The readiness of the colony is determined by 

 its preparations to swarm. A frame of sealed brood is set in the 

 center of the new hive. The queen is then placed on this frame. 

 A majority of the bees are next shaken from the combs in the old 

 hive, which, when completed, will have stocked the new one on the 

 old stand. The old hive, combs and the remaining bees (enough 

 should be left to care for the brood) is set on a new stand. The 

 newly formed colony will recover and build up rapidly, being almost 

 immediately ready for supers, which should be placed over a queen- 

 excluding zinc. This is done to prevent the queen from laying in 

 the section boxes. The colony from which the bees have been shaken 

 may be allowed to rear their new queen, or a cell, virgin queen or 

 mated queen may be provided them, at the beekeeper's discretion. 

 A laying queen, of course, builds up the colony more rapidly. 



The experienced beekeei^er can readily see how this procedure can 

 be used to advantage in treating for brood diseases of bees. Of 

 course, it is necessary to modify the method, using only half-inch 

 starters of foundation (strips one-half inch in width), and omitting 

 to put the sheet of brood into the new hive. The exchange of supers 

 should also be avoided. 



Another method, which is quite as satisfactory, is to establish a 

 new colony by the removal of frames of hatching brood with adher- 

 ing bees from several colonies. These, in a hive to which a queen 

 is introduced, rapidly establish a thrifty colony without materially 

 reducing the parent stocks. The force of bees can also be increased 

 by substituting this newly formed colony on the stand of another 

 strong colony and thus catching the returning field bees. The loss 

 to the populous colony which was removed is slight. After moving 

 the new colony in this way several times, remarkable increase in 

 strength can be obtained. Such procedure, or the transferring of 

 combs from hive to hive, in any case should be rigidly avoided in 

 any apiary where the presence of brood disease is suspected. 



