Spring Management 
259 
with a strong one. If desired, the number can be restored 
by subsequent division. This is one of the most important 
points in spring management. 
Cleaning the hives. 
When the weather becomes settled, it is desirable, espe¬ 
cially where comb-honey is produced, to subject the hive to a 
spring house-cleaning. If the bottom board is cleaned of 
debris and the propolis is scraped from the frames and 
rabbets, it will not only facilitate future manipulations but, 
when the sections are put on, there will be less propolis avail¬ 
able to discolor them. Beekeepers, however, are not so 
devoted to a spring house-cleaning as are housewives. While 
Caucasian bees were kept in the apiary of the Bureau of 
Entomology the removal of propolis in the spring was prac¬ 
tically a necessity. This may be done quickly in the spring, 
while the propolis is brittle. Dr. Miller uses a hoe to remove 
propolis and burr combs from the top-bars of the brood 
frames. 
Equalizing the colonies. 
Not all colonies increase in population equally fast, even 
with the best of management. The differences may be due 
to a variety of causes. If some colonies have more stores 
than they need, thereby reducing the space available for 
brood-rearing, combs of honey may be removed and given 
to colonies that need more stores, returning to the rich 
colonies empty combs removed from those to which honey is 
given. Similarly, if some hives contain more brood than the 
average, colonies may be equalized by taking combs of 
emerging brood with the adhering workers away from those 
abundantly supplied, giving them to weaker colonies, care 
being exercised not to transfer the queen. The weakest 
colonies in the apiary should be assisted in this way only 
after all the others are equalized; then they are given any 
frames of brood still available, and are thus built up as rapidly 
as possible. Another method of equalizing is to shake bees 
