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 

 larvse 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. His plan was to make the increase early in spring, 

 as soon as the colonies were strong enough, but in many locali- 

 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 larvae. 

 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 fonner 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- 



