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DR. MILLER S 
dangers. One is that the strange bees introduced will kill the 
queen (there is not very much danger that they will harm the 
queen-cells) ; and the other is that the brood will be chilled or 
starved. Generally more danger of chilling than starving. 
Unless a nucleus has bees enough to cover three frames, it is 
better not to introduce a frame of brood with adhering bees, lest 
the queen be endangered. With regard to brood, there is little 
danger of harm being done if bees enough go with it to cover an 
additional frame. 
In any case, the more mature the brood the better, and if the 
brood is all sealed you may give a frame without any adhering 
bees, and it will be safe in a nucleus of two or three frames, even 
if there appear to be only enough bees present to cover well the 
two or three frames already present. One reason for this is in the 
fact that it does not require so much heat for scaled as for un- 
sealed brood. As soon as most of the young bees have emerged 
from the frames given, it can be exchanged for another, and this 
will generally allow you to add a frame each week. 
A nice way to do to have frames of brood ready to give to 
nuclei is to put an excluder over a strong colony with an empty 
hive-body over it, and put into this frames of brood from other 
colonies; then, a week or ten days later, there being no young 
brood present, the frames will be fine for nuclei, whether you take 
with them the adhering bees or not. 
Q. Being anxious to increase as fast as possible, I would like 
to have your opinion about it. I read one article by W. Z. 
Hutchinson, saying that he made his increase by taking two or 
three frames of brood from strong colonies and giving them a 
laying queen ; but not being able to buy my queens, would it do to 
take a queen from one colony and let the bees rear a new queen? 
Please give me some of your best plans. 
A. It is not easy to say what may be the best plan for you. 
What is best for one is not always best for another. But taking 
the plan you mention, you can do very well with a little variation. 
Decide which colony you think has the queen of best blood, and 
see that it is strong, if necessary giving it frames of hatching- 
brood from other colonies to strengthen it. You may even fill 
two stories with brood. Call this hive A. When the time comes 
for bees to begin making preparations for swarming, take the 
queen with 2 or 3 frames of brood and adhering bees, and put 
them in hive B, on a stand a rod or more distant. About eight or 
ten days after taking the queen away from A — don’t delay longer 
