170 
BUILDING UP COLONIES 
southern States and in a strictly buckwheat 
region, the main honey flow may come as 
much as two months after the bees have 
passed the peak of spring brood-rearing, 
assuming that the colonies were normal in 
strength and had sufficient food to have 
reached their maximum in brood-rearing in 
the spring. In such cases some beekeepers 
resort to such measures as stimulative feed¬ 
ing or spreading the brood, to induce more 
brood-rearing just previous to the main 
honey flow. Others move their bees to an¬ 
other location to gather a crop of honey 
from some earlier source while the colonies 
are strong, and then move them back again 
for the later honey flow. (See Migratory 
Beekeeping.) Some southern beekeepers 
sell package bees to utilize the excess of 
workers which would be too old to be of 
use when the honey flow comes on later; 
while still others divide the colonies before 
they reach their maximum in. spring brood- 
rearing, performing the division at a time 
which will permit both colonies to build up 
to the greatest strength in time for the be¬ 
lated honey flow. The last-named plan has 
been used quite successfully in the buck¬ 
wheat region. 
When the main honey flow comes at the 
same time that the bees are rearing the 
great horde of “harvest hands” in the 
spring, as too often happens in the case of 
weaker colonies and an early honey flow, of 
course a full crop of honey cannot be se¬ 
cured, for the field force is then small and 
the amount of brood to feed is large. The 
only hope in such cases is that the honey 
flow will last long enough later to gather 
some surplus before it closes, but the rem¬ 
edy is better wintering and earlier building 
up. 
When there is a possibility of a honey 
flow still earlier, at the beginning of the 
heavy brood-rearing period of spring, as 
sometimes happens in the North when the 
maples yield profusely, or in the citrus re¬ 
gion when the bloom comes unusually early 
and the bees are late in building up, brood¬ 
rearing is greatly stimulated and but little 
honey is stored because of a lack of “har¬ 
vest hands.” 
During the latter half of the building-up 
pei’iod, some beekeepers make a practice of 
equalizing the brood among the colonies in 
order to build them up alike in strength. 
This should not be attempted until the 
strongest colonies have at least six or seven 
frames of brood. At this time a frame of 
brood, most of which is nearly ready to 
emerge, may be taken from each of the 
strongest colonies and together with the 
adhering bees given to the colonies which 
are less strong, but not to the weakest 
ones. Care must be taken to be sure that 
the queen is not taken away with these 
frames of brood. The comb of brood in 
each case should be given adjacent to the 
other combs of brood in the weaker colony 
to keep the brood-nest as compact as pos¬ 
sible, thus preventing any brood being 
chilled during cool nights. The bees on the 
empty comb taken from the weaker colony 
to make room for the frame of brood are 
shaken back into their hive, and the empty 
comb is given to the colony from ~which the 
brood was taken, placing it between the 
outer comb of brood and the comb which 
contains honey and pollen at the side of 
the brood-nest. The weakest colonies are 
left until after all of' the medium colonies 
have been brought up to the same number 
of combs of brood as the strongest ones, 
after which these may be built up quickly 
by giving them several frames of emerging 
brood from the stronger colonies. When 
several combs of emerging brood with ad¬ 
hering bees are given at one time the combs 
from different colonies should be alternated 
to mix the bees so there will be no fighting. 
When equalizing the brood in this way, it 
frequently happens that the stores may also 
be equalized, taking frames of honey from 
colonies having more than they need and 
giving to those having less than they need. 
If at the beginning of the honey flow 
more combs of brood are needed than can 
be drawn from the stronger colonies, they 
may be drawn from weak colonies, thus re¬ 
ducing these to one or two frame nuclei 
which are then left to build up to full colo¬ 
nies for winter. 
If either of the brood diseases is present 
in the apiary, it is not safe to exchange the 
combs in this way. 
It is sometimes advisable to unite two or 
more weak or medium colonies to make one 
stronger colony, but it is usually best not 
to do this early in the spring. It should 
be done at the beginning of the honey flow. 
See Uniting. Also read carefully the ar- 
