304 THB bbb-kbepbe's guidb ; 



shake the bees into the new hive ; only be sure that the queen 

 still remains in the old hive. Fill both the hives with empty- 

 frames — if the frames are filled with empty comb it will be 

 still better ; if not, it will always pay to give at least starters 

 of comb or foundation — and return the new hive to its former 

 position. The old bees will return to the old colony, while the 

 young- ones will remain peaceably with the new queen. The 

 old colony will now possess at least seven frames of brood, 

 honey, etc., the old queen, and plenty of bees, so that they 

 will work on as though naught had transpired, though perhaps 

 moved to a little harder effort, by the added space and five 

 empty combs or frames with starters or full sheets of founda- 

 tion. These last may all be placed at one end, or placed 

 between the others, though not so as greatly to 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 sur- 

 prising 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 frames with starters of foun- 

 dation, as before. In this way we increase without in the 

 least disturbing 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, 

 prevent swarming. 



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

 one or two frames to each nucleus every week, without 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 colonies, 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 



