THOUSAND ANSWERS 265 



Q. If you should find your bees weak in the spring in numbers, 

 what would be the'best way to strengthen them? 



A. If I found a colony very weak in early spring, I wouldn't 

 try to strengthen it. I would unite it with a stronger colony, or 

 else I would wait till other colonies were so strong that they had 

 at least six frames of brood each, and then I would swap its 

 flame of brood for one from another colony. The frame taken 

 from the weak colony would likely not be very well "filled with 

 sealed brood, and the one given should be well filled. Afterward 

 more brood could be added, when the sealed brood had pretty 

 well hatched out. 



Q. In putting frames of capped brood into inferior colonies, 

 is it not of importance to put in first one, or may a greater num- 

 ber be put in? I imagine that the surface of brood must be pro- 

 portionate to the number of bees in a colony relatively weak. 



A. You must use caution or you may have a lot of dead brood. 

 If all the brood in the comb be sealed, and if it be old enough to 

 bt hatching out, then very little care is needed, for such advanced 

 brood will keep up its own heat nearly as well as the mature bees. 

 But you will seldom have such combs, and if there be considerable 

 unsealed brood, or brood that has been sealed only a short time, 

 then there must be enough bees in the hive to cover it well. One 

 way to avoid chilling is to take the frame of brood with the ad- 

 hering bees. Only if you add too many strange bees you may 

 jeopardize the queen. Let the strange bees never be more than 

 half as many as the bees already in the weak colony. 



Q. As a rule, every beekeeper has some weaklings in his yard, 

 I don't care how much attention he gives them. To strengthen 

 them, what is your plan, to swap frames, or go to strong colonies, 

 give them a good shaking and leave them with the queen and one 

 frame of brood in the hive on the old stand, and put the rest of 

 the brood under the weak colony? Very likely there would be 

 queen-cells started. 



A. Early in the season the former plan ; at the approach of 

 swarming, the latter. 



Q. Did you ever practice the strengthening of a weak colony 

 by reversing the hives, respectively, of a weak and a strong col- 

 ony? As you seem to understand German, I will state that Ber- 

 lepsch recommends this during a "volltracht," which, I suppose, 

 means "full-flow." This looks very easy, only may be too late for 

 securing full advantage from the strengthened colony. 



A. I think I never tried strengthening in that way. There is 

 danger of the death of the queen in the weaker colony unless in 



