Methods of Dividing, 259 



of foundation. These last may be all placed at one end, 

 or placed between the others, though not so as to greatly 

 divide brood. The new colony will have eight frames of 

 brood, comb, etc., three from the nucleus and five from 

 the old colony, a young laying queen, plenty of bees, those 

 of the previous nucleus and the young bees from the old 

 colony, and will work with a surprising vigor, often even 

 eclipsing the old colony. 



If the apiarist has several colonies, it is better to make 

 the new colony from several old colonies, as follows : Take 

 one frame of brood comb from each of six old colonies, or 

 two from each of three, and carry them, bees and all, and 

 place with the nucleus. Be sure that no queen is removed. 

 Fill all the hives with empty combs, or foundation, as 

 before. In this way we increase vvithout in the least dis- 

 turbing any of the colonies, and may add a colony every 

 day or two, or perhaps several, depending on the size of our 

 apiary, and can thus almost always, so experience says, pre- 

 vent swarming. 



By taking only brood that is all capped, we can safely 

 add one or two frames to each nucleus every week, with- 

 out adding any bees, as there would be no danger of loss 

 by chilling the brood. In this way, as we remove no 

 bees, we have to spend no time in looking for the queen, 

 and may build up our nuclei into full stocks, and keep back 

 the swarming impulse with great facility. 



These are unquestionably the best methods to divide, 

 and so I will not complicate the subject by detailing others. 

 The only objection that can be urged against them, and 

 even this does not apply to the last, is that we must seek 

 out the queen in each hive, or at least be sure that we do 

 not remove her, though this is by no means so tedious if 

 we have Italians or other races of yellow bees, as of course 

 we all will. I might give other methods which would 

 render unnecessary this caution, but they are to my mind 

 inferior, and not to be recommended. If we" proceed as 

 above described, the bees will seldom prepare to swarm at 

 all, and if they do they will be discovered in the act, by 

 such frequent examinations, and the work may be cut 

 short by at once dividing such colonies, as first explained. 



