128. Refer to illustrations 1, 2, and 3 to see the difference in appearance between the queen, a drone, and a worker. If the bees have been carefully handled and a minimum of smoke used up to this point, the queen will usually be found crawling quietly over the surface of the comb, or she may even continue egg laying during examination. In searching for the queen, look for a small circle of bees standing on the comb with their heads all towards the queen, she forming the center of the circle. If the bees are not properly handled, it is sometimes a very difficult job to find the queen in a full colony of bees. See illustration 29 to learn just what this circle of bees looks like on the comb.

129. When the queen is not located, set the lower hive body off the bottom board and place another hive body that contains all worker combs or full sheets of foundation in its place. Then put two or three combs of brood in the center of this newly placed body of empty combs or foundation. If in a locality where the swarming is intense, it may be well to place only one comb of brood in this new hive body, filling it out the rest of the way with empty drawn comb or full foundations. If the swarming is not intense more brood may be placed in this new body. In localities having slower honey flows the bees would have more trouble to get this body filled with brood and honey by the time the flow is over and a belter start would be required, such as two or three frames of brood. You will have to learn to apply this method for your own locality, as the method varies according to the intensity of the swarming and this is regulated by the rapidity with which the colonies increase their numerical strength and according to other conditions in each locality.

130. When the new body has been prepared with one or more combs of brood in it, place a queen excluder squarely over it. See figure 48. Place a body of empty worker combs over this queen excluder. Remove the frames from the two bodies you have left, shaking the bees off of each frame in front of this new hive until all the bees have been shaken off in front. It is well to be careful the queen is not on the inside of the bodies after the bees have been shaken off the combs. It may be safer to also shake all the bees out of these hive bodies in front of the new hive. (It is only necessary to shake the bees off the combs when the queen is not found.) When you have removed the bees and frames from one body in this way, set this empty body on top of the super just placed on the hive over the queen excluder and replace the combs of brood in it. Repeat the same operation with the second body so that your hive now consists of a bottom board and body of part brood and part empty combs in which the queen is confined by the excluder and super with two queenless bodies of brood above the excluder, the cover over all.

131. If you do not understand how to shake bees off combs see paragraph 111. In shaking the bees in front of this prepared hive be sure that they have no difficulty in getting into this hive for the queen is expected to be with them. You can lay a newspaper or some pieces of wood in front of the hive so that they lead up from the ground to the hive entrance, allowing the bees to crawl up into the hive over them. Be sure to remember that it is of extreme importance that the queen is not placed in the two bodies of comb above the excluder. When this operation is completed, the hive will appear as shown in figure 48 The left hand illustration shows the two bodies as they appeared before this shaking and the second as they appeared following the operation. Also see figures 41 and 42.

132. Now let's see what this manipulation has accomplished. In the first place, the queen is isolated from the main body of brood which is in principle just what happens in swarming where the queen goes out to a new home and leaves the brood behind. The bees have an empty super in which to store nectar right away. As it requires but 21 days from the egg until the full grown worker bee emerges from the cell, all of the brood in the two upper bodies above the excluder may be expected to have entirely emerged three weeks from the date of this manipulation. In fact, a good share of it will be emerging at the time of the manipulation and part of it will emerge each of the following days, allowing storage space. The queen, of course, immediately goes to work to fill the comb below with eggs, and if she is young and vigorous will occupy all these combs within a short time. If foundation has been used below she will probably occupy the cells with eggs as fast as the foundation is drawn out, prohibiting the bees from storing nectar to any extent below the excluder. If drawn combs have been used, the bees are not likely to store any considerable quantity of nectar below the excluder because most of the young bees that ripen the honey are on the brood above. Therefore, if adequate honey storage space is provided above the excluder at all times during the flow, the bees will, of their own accord, take most of the nectar to the upper bodies that are now supers and queenless. Of course, as fast as the brood emerges in the bodies now above the excluders, these empty combs will be open for the storing of nectar. The faster the brood emerges the faster the bees will be automatically given room for storage.