138 DR. MILLER^S 



dangers. One is that the strange bees introduced will kill the 

 queen (there is not very much danger that they will harm the 

 queen-cells) ; and the other is that the brood will be chilled or 

 starved. Generally more danger of chilling than starving. 



Unless a nucleus has bees enough to cover three frames, it is 

 better not to introduce a frame of brood with adhering bees, lest 

 the queen be endangered. With regard to brood, there is little 

 danger of harm being done if bees enough go with it to cover an 

 additional frame. 



In any case, the more mature the brood the better, and if the 

 brood is all sealed you may give a frame without a"ny adhering 

 bees, and it will be safe in a nucleus of two or three frames, even • 

 if there appear to be only enough bees present to cover well the 

 two or three frames already present. One reason for this is in the 

 fact fhat it does not require so much heat for sealed as for un- 

 sealed brood. As soon as most of the young bees have emerged 

 from the frames given, it can be exchanged for another, and this 

 will generally allow you to add a frame each week. 



A nice way to do to have frames of brood ready to give to 

 nuclei is to put an excluder over a strong colony with an empty 

 hive-body over it, and put into this frames of brood from other 

 colonies ; then, a week or ten days later, there being no young 

 brood present, the frames will be fine for nuclei, whether you take 

 with them the adhering bees or not. 



Q. Being anxious to increase as fast as possible, I would like 

 to have your opinion about it. I read one article by W. Z, 

 Hutchinson, saying that he made his increas'e by taking two or 

 three frames of brood from strong colonies and giving them a 

 laying queen; but not being able to buy my queens, would it do to 

 take a queen from one colony and let the bees rear a new queen? 

 Please give me some of your best plans. 



A. It is not easy to say what may be the best plan for you. 

 What is best for one is not always best for another. But taking 

 the plan you mention, you can do very well with a little variation. 

 Decide which colony you think has the queen of best blood, and 

 see that it is strong, if necessary giving it frames of hatching- 

 brood from other colonies to strengthen it. You may even fill 

 two stories with brood. Call this hive A. When the time comes 

 for bees to begin making preparations for swarming, take the 

 queen with 2 or 3 frames of brood and adhering bees, and put 

 them in hive B, on a stand a rod or more distant. About eight or 

 ten days after taking the queen away from A — don't delay longer 



