Someone wrote:
> > these bees should be obtained by shaking from the brood nest...

And Allen warned:
> Remember, folks, that those frames you are shaking may contain pupae at
> a delicate stage.
>
> Maybe not all the deformed wings we see on bees at the entrances are due
> to varroa or a virus.
>

May i suggest an alternative. (I will humbly accept getting slammed if there are any faults in this method).

Isn't a combination of smoking and drumming a better way to get bees into a new box? Me and a friend tried this to make up a starter: we put a box of empty frames on top of the brood nest with an excluder between and then smoked the bees from the entrance while tapping on the brood nest. Within minutes, bees poured through the excluder and filled up the empty box. No risk of getting the queen in there and no shaking of brood in delicate age. Is this bad? Is the smoke worse than the shaking for uncapped larva?

/Mats Andersson, Stockholm Sweden

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