The Townsend Bee Book 35 
queen-cells started during this time, if you look down between the 
combs you will find little clusters of bees hanging together; and 
if the weather is warm, perhaps some may be seen crowding out at 
the entrance. These bees that have clustered in this hive have 
learned the art of shirking, and there is nothing to do but let them 
swarm, because that alone will bring back that energy and hustle 
they had before coming to this stage of stagnation that I have 
explained above. 
The case cited above is, perhaps, an extreme one, but I assure 
you that bees do not have to come to this stage of development to 
be worth only half a colony from a surplus-honey view-point. 
Some take brood from the strong to build up the weak, doing 
this previous to the honey-flow, with the express purpose of pre- 
venting this stagnation on the part of the strong, and at the same 
time building up the weak. Such procedure, if practiced in an 
intelligent manner, so that the weak and the strong shall be 
equalized, will produce good results, because none will be too 
strong too soon. When this is properly done they will all work 
with the energy of a newly hived swarm; then if theré are still 
left more weak colonies than can be built up into colonies in time 
to take advantage of the honey-flow, such colonies can be allowed 
to build up into colonies of their own will, or they can be used in 
an almost unlimited number of ways at the option of the apiarist. 
The shifting of brood by the experienced, for any reason 
whatever, should be done on a small scale, and for experimental 
purposes only. 
Since I have been in the business more extensively, a different 
system of management has been found necessary; namely, a 
scheme for using double-story ten-frame hives. A system that is 
all right, and which works well with one home yard of bees, may 
not work at all with an outyard or with extensive beekeeping 
where more bees are kept than the apiarist himself can care for, 
necessitating the work being done by others, and these, many 
times, perhaps of small experience. 
It is a fact that a very large hive containing an amount of 
honey in excess of that needed to carry the colony through spring, 
with an abundance of comb room, will not swarm nor acquire the 
swarming fever, until the honey season is on, when the bees, as- 
sisted by the queen, get the hive nearly full of brood and honey. 
A ten-frame Langstroth hive, two stories high, is ample in 
size to hold back the swarming fever until the white-honey season 
is on in June. Colonies in such a hive, that are good to strong, 
during the period of warm weather previous to the honey-flow, 
