314 THE BEE-KEEPER’S MANUAL. 
one can be extracted and the royal person readily made 
a prisoner. But this is very far from the only, or 
indeed the chief, advantage of movable frames, 
especially if all in an apiary are made of the same 
size. For we can then transfer along with her 
majesty the frame that she is on, and one or two 
more frames if we please from the same hive; and 
can next add thereto other frames from other hives 
—one, two, or three apiece as each is able to spare 
them—and then, by either setting the newly-fur- 
nished hive on the stand of one of the old ones, or 
else by obtaining a swarm from a distance, we can 
make sure of having bees enough to maintain the 
warmth needful for the brood. This is a mode of 
starting a new colony on the strongest scale; but it 
will at once be observed that if only the one comb 
upon which the queen was found was supplied, the 
colony would still be in a better position by that 
one comb than was the cottage hive in Mr. 
Neighbour’s case; and yet the latter, he tells us, 
prospered. 
In transferring hives to different stands in the 
way here pointed out, there is no danger of the 
entire loss of the bees, for whether these fly to their 
old or their new location they are equally sure of 
being among their own frienls—a totally different 
thing from the promiscuous transters sometimes re- 
commended as measures for equalising colonies, for 
here, unless during a rich honey-season, a battle may 
be the result, or at least an encasement of the queen. 
The stock that is removed is, however, certain to lose 
a large portion of its population, and if this loss is 
