154 PRODUCTION OF COMB HONEY 
not fully master his business will have a large part of his colonies 
building up so late that the harvest will ve half over before they 
are really ready for storing. Suitable spring protection, as dis- 
cussed in the chapter on wintering, wil] have an important bear- 
ing on the condition of the colonies at the opening of the harvest. 
Care of Weak Colonies.—Some bee-keepers take frames of 
brood from their best colonies in spring to give to the weak ones, 
thinking thereby to equalize the colonies aud bring all to the 
opening of the flow in strong condition. Unless the stronger 
colony has seven or eight frames of brood this is not good practice. 
A better plan will be to take all very weak colonies aud set them 
on top of the strong colonies, first removing the cover from the 
hive containing the strong colony and placing a queen excluder 
and a sheet of newspaper in its place. The queen excluder will 
keep the queens each in her own apartment and the paper will 
prevent the bees from fighting until they have become accus- 
tomed to the new condition and acquired a common odor or 
whatever it is that is characteristic of a colony and by means of 
which they recognize the numerous members of the same family. 
In a few days the bees will have made openings through the 
paper and the workers will mingle freely. Both queens will go 
on laying and the heat from the strong colony below will be of 
great help to the weak one above. In a few weeks they will 
have also become strong and may be again set back on their 
original stand. Two stronger colonies will result from a strong 
one and a weak one or even two weak ones, in this manner than 
by equalizing the brood and leaving them separate. 
If a colony is sufficiently strong that the hive is getting 
crowded before time to put on the supers, it may then very 
readily spare a frame or two of brood to assist those which are 
not so far advanced. 
Dr. Miller’s Plan.—Since Dr. Miller perhaps holds the 
world’s record of average production per colony, his system has 
attracted wide notice among the hee-keepers of the world at 
large. As before mentioned he uses the eight-frame Langstroth 
