106 INCREASE 
her on this comb of brood in the new hive. Care should be used 
to see that no queen cells are left. On top of the new hive which 
contains the queen and the empty combs, place a queen excluder 
and set the old hive on top of it. After about five days look 
over the combs carefully, and if queen cells are started above 
the excluder the old hive should then be removed to a new loca- 
tion. If no cells are started the bees may be left until all young 
larve are capped, when they can be removed. At the end of 
twenty-four hours after removing the hive to the new location it 
should be provided with a queen or a ripe cell. Mr. Alexander 
preferred giving a laying queen, so that no time would be lost. 
He reported that with him this method entirely prevented 
swarming. Huis plan was to make the increase early in spring, 
as soon as the colonies were strong enough, but in many loeali- 
ties the divided colonies could not build up in time for the clover 
flow, and the crop would be short as a result. In such localities 
the division should be made toward the close of the main flow. 
A Somewhat Similar Plan.—<A very common practice in use 
for half a century is to take a single frame of brood from a 
strong colony and place this frame, together with the queen and 
frame of honey, in a new hive and add combs or frames of founda- 
tion to fill up the remaining space. The old hive is then removed 
to a new location, and the new hive placed on the original stand. 
The field bees will return to the queen in the new hive, on the 
old stand. This plan should only be undertaken in very warm 
weather, when there is less danger of loss of the hatching larve. 
The only difference between this plan and the one above described 
is that in this case the division is made at once instead of leaving 
the young bees over the new hive for a few days until the larvee 
have been capped over. There is a greater loss of bees by this 
method than the former one, unless the operation is carefully 
performed, as there are not likely to be enough nurse bees left 
in the hive to care for the young larvae. Divisions without pro- 
vision for caring for all the young brood are expensive, and not 
to be recommended. If the colony is disturbed as little as pos- 
