178 MANUAL OP THE APIARY. 



hives with empty frames — if the frames are filled with empty 

 comb it will be still better, if not it will pay to give starters 

 or full frames of 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 contain at least seven frame* 

 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 frames. The empty frames may be all 

 placed at one end, or placed between the others, though not 

 so as 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 

 fertile 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. Only, he sure that no queen is removed. 

 Fill all the hives with empty combs, or foundation instead of 

 frames, 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 always, so my 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, 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 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 queea 

 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, as- 



