256 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



depleting them unwisely, leaving foundation in place of 

 the brood. Looking at the record I find this was only 

 four frames of brood. No bees were taken with this 

 brood. An upper story was put on 237 and these four 

 frames of brood put in it with four empty combs. Of 

 course the queen and bees would soon be up in this up- 

 per story. 



Matters were left in this shape for nine days, the 

 plan being to visit the apiary every nine days throughout 

 the summer. A stormy day, however, might extend the 

 time to ten days, or Sunday coming on the ninth day 

 might shorten the time to eight days. 



At the expiration of the nine days, June 21, we re- 

 turned. We took the brood with queen-cells and all 

 bees from 235, and formed two nuclei. Just why we did 

 not start three I don't know, for usually we started a 

 nucleus with two frames of brood, and we must have had 

 more than four frames of brood. No measures were 

 taken to make these bees stay where they were put ; it 

 was not necessary with such queenless bees. 



Then we took the upper story of 237, with all its 

 brood and bees, and put it on 235, taking out the queen 

 and putting her back in the lower story on 237. Then 

 we looked to see what brood we could get in the seven 

 colonies that acted as feeders, without reducing any of 

 them to less than four or five brood. This time we found 

 six brood, which we took without any bees, and put on 



237- 



This was the regular program each time: forming 

 nuclei with the brood, bees, and cells on 235 ; putting all 

 brood and bees from 237 on 235, always leaving the 

 queen at 237; and then getting for 237 a fresh stock of 

 brood wherever it could be spared. 



As none of the assisting colonies were overdrawn, 

 they would be getting stronger, so that up to a certain 

 point more brood could be drawn each time. July 18, 



