MillerThousand AnswersBeekeepingQuestions.pdf - BioBees

THOUSAND ANSWERS 137The earlier you start a colony the less need of its being strong,as it has a longer time to build up before winter.It is not easy to say what may be the best way for you. Whatmay be best for one may not be the best for another. Perhapsthe easiest way is to take half the combs, bees and all, out of ahive and put into another hive, filling out each hive with combsor frames filled with foundation, setting the hives side by side,as nearly as possible on the old location, trusting to the queenlesspart to rear its own queen.A better way is to look four days later and see which hivecontains eggs, and give a laying queen to the other part. That,•of course, involves buying and introducing a queen.If you want the bees to rear their own queen, here is a betterplan : Find the queen and put her with two frames and all adheringbees into another hive on a new stand. A week liter anumber of queen-cells will be in the now queenless colony, whenyou let the hives exchange places, and the bees will do the rest.If you want to have more than one new colony, you can dividethe queenless part, putting the larger half on an entirely newstand.Increase, Artificial, Nucleus Plan.—Q. Give me a good wayfor artificial increase.A. Take from the strong colony two frames of brood withadhering bees and queen, put on a new stand and imprison themfor three days. A week after the queen is taken away, let thetwo hives swap places. That will double the number. If you wantto make more out of that one colony, you can divide the oldcolony into two or more nuclei at the time of swapping places,being sure that each has a good queen-cell located centrallywhere the bees will keep it warm, and then if necessary you canstrengthen these nuclei after the queens get to laying by givingthem brood from other colonies.Q. I have a colony of Italian bees from which I intend tomake increase. If I make nuclei from it, will it be safe to giveframes of brood with adhering bees from other colonies? Or isthere danger that the bees will kill the queen or destroy thequeen-cells? If this is not safe, how fast can frames of broodwithout bees be given? I understand if too much brood is givenat once some will starve.A. It requires judgment in giving frames of brood with adheringbees, as it depends upon the strength of the nucleus howmuch can be given at a time. You evidently have in mind two