76 The Townsend Bee Book 
art of making bees stay where they are put in the different ma 
ipulations, large quantities of unsealed brood will be lost by t 
bees deserting the hive in the new quarters and returning to t 
parent hive. Let us now consider the 
SOMERFORD PLAN FOR MAKING INCREASE 
This is a good one; but in order to work this system to tl 
best advantage, one ought to have a very good stock of bees. T! 
idea, in brief, is as follows: During either a natural or artifici 
flow of honey, the queen is removed from a colony that is vei 
strong and in good condition to build queen-cells. In ten day 
when the queen-cells are ripe and all the brood sealed, the colox 
is ready to be divided. 
The average beekeeper will have no trouble with the plan 1 
to the time the division is to be made; but the difficult part com: 
when the attempt is made to compel the bees to stay in their respe 
tive places on the new stands. We will suppose that it is early : 
the season, and that two frames of brood have been selected wi 
at least one good queen-cell, and that the bees from a third fran 
have been shaken on to the first two frames. The difficulty no 
consists in trying to make a good percentage of these bees sta 
with the brood on the new stand. 
In preparing the hive for these little colonies, a lath is naile 
over the entrance through which a %%-inch hole had previous] 
been bored, which hole, however, is now corked up. The thir 
night after the little swarm is made, and after the bees hay 
stopped flying for the day, this cork should be removed from tk 
83-inch hole at the entrance, when the bees will be found ready 1 
come out; for during the confinement they will have been gnawin 
at every opening where a particle of light could be seen. On th 
account, if the entrance were thus opened during the middle « 
the day, every bee that could fly would rush out and many of thei 
would go back to the old stand, for it would be natural that the 
should prefer the old home to the prison from which they hav 
just escaped. The consequence would be that but a very sma 
number would be left at this new stand, with about as many bee 
at the old stand as there were before the division was made. Suc 
a small swarm or nucleus would have a hard slow pull in order t 
get in shape for winter, and many times it would have to be helpe 
The small entrance, consisting only of a 34-inch hole, and also th 
time at which this entrance is opened, makes the plan successft 
where it otherwise would be uncertain and perhaps an actu: 
failure. For instance, if this $g-inch entrance were opened lat 
