112 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



Strong colonies will more than overbalance the benefit to 

 the weaklings. If any taking from one colony to give 

 another is done in the spring, it will be to take from the 

 weak to give to those not so weak. If one colony has 

 four frames of brood and another two, taking from the 

 stronger a frame for the weaker would leave both so 

 weak they would not build up very rapidly, whereas tak- 

 ing one from the two-frame colony and giving it to the 

 four-frame colony would make the latter build up so much 

 faster that it could pay back with interest the borrowed 

 frame. 



GIVING BROOD TO V/EAKER. 



Not till a colony has six or eight frames of brood is 

 it desirable to draw from it brood for weaker colonies, 

 and there's no hurry about it then. When a colony has 

 its hive so crowded with brood that the queen seems to 

 need more room, then a frame of brood can be taken 

 from it to help others. The first to be helped are not 

 the weakest, but the strongest of those with less than 

 four frames of brood. When the three-framers are all 

 brought up to four frames, it is time enough to help the 

 weaker ones. Toward the last the little fellows can be 

 helped up quite rapidly. Perhaps a colony with two or 

 three brood (if you will allow me to use brood for short 

 when I mean frames of brood) has had brood taken from 

 it, leaving it with only one brood. It has stood so for 

 several weeks, and now it can have three or four brood 

 given to it, setting it well on its feet. 



When brood is thus taken, generally the adhering 

 bees are taken with the brood, of course making sure 

 that no queen is taken. Where a single brood is given 

 with adhering bees to a colony, I have never known any 

 harm to come to the queen of the reinforced colony. In 

 rare cases I have had the queen killed when several 

 frames of brood have been given at a time to a very weak 



