MAKING RAPID INCREASE 1il 
strong colony toward the end of the season and use them to 
strengthen the little colonies that have been building up from 
the nuclei formed from the earlier divisions. When the season 
of honey production is nearly over, a frame of sealed brood may 
be taken from a strong colony without injuring it in the least, as 
the bees will emerge too late for the honey flow and the colony 
will already be sufficiently strong to winter well. At the same 
time emerging brood will do wonders for the weak ones if given 
a short time before the honey flow ceases, and will be valuable 
at any time. 
If a large amount of increase is made in one season it will be 
necessary to make a liberal allowance for expenses of queens, and 
foundation, and considerable feeding of honey or sugar are also 
likely to be necessary. Unless one has had considerable experi- 
ence with bees, too rapid increase is likely to lead to disaster. 
For the average person the Alexander plan is perhaps the safest 
that can be recommended. It is better to undertake to make but 
two colonies from one at most, unless it is done by experts of 
long experience. If this division is made early and the two 
colonies become strong again while there is a considerable period 
of honey flow still to come, the same operation can be repeated 
a second time, thus giving four colonies in all from one to start 
with. There are important factors in making increase that are 
not readily apparent to the novice, even though he read direc- 
tions carefully, and he should be content to go slow and advance 
surely rather than take the risk of closing the season with fewer 
colonies that he began it with. 
Making Rapid Increase—The following account of Dr. 
Miller’s method of increasing from nine colonies to fifty-six in 
one season will show the possibilities of making rapid increase 
in a favorable season: 
On June 12 the best queen in the apiary was taken from her 
hive and placed on a set of empty combs. Her brood was removed 
to the stand of another colony, which in turn was moved to a 
new location. There were thus three colonies instead of two. 
