r ^ -> 



Jounial of .\gncuUiirc , Victoria. [lo Sept., 1912. 



cells, therefore, depends upon the rate of egg-production by the queen and 

 the absence of worker comb already built. The ideal condition is that of 

 a newlv-hived swarm with a prolific queen. If the queen is defective in 

 laying owing to age or lack of vigour, and cannot keep pace with the comb- 

 builders, drone comb will be built. The same result will occur when the 

 l)ees from the first-laid eggs hatch out before the combs completely fill the 

 frames. As soon as bees hatch out, the queen again deposits eggs in the 

 cells, neglecing the new comb which is in cour.se of construction, and thus 

 causing the building of drone cells. After having hived a swarm on a set 

 of frames with starters, and allowed them to work for four or five days, 

 some of the frames in which little or no work has bet^n done should be 

 removed, and the number thus reduced to what they are likely to fill with 

 coml) in the first three weeks after hiving. This rule also applies to colonies 

 which have been shaken down, that is, deprived of their combs, on account 

 of fnulbrood. Once bees begin to hatch from the new combs, it is extremely 

 difiicult to get further worker combs built from starters, except by removing 

 all the combs but one or two, a procedure better left alone, as it would tend 

 to run the colonv down to :i \< i\ ^n ill ( lu \<Iiliti(in il w < iki 1 ci mbs are- 



FIG. 4. TWO SHALLOW FRAMES OF SEALED COMB. 



best secured by frames with full sheets of foundation given either al)Ove or 

 alongside the existing combs. 



In a good district with a fair honey flow on, large swarm.s with \igorous 

 queens may fill a section super with honey while building their brood combs 

 from .starters, but a queen-excluder should l)e used between sections and 

 frames. Such favorable conditions do not often obtain, however, and 

 miost bee-keepers prefer to hive their swarms on drawn combs of the pre- 

 vious sea.son, and when these combs are occupied, put a set of frames with 

 full sheets on top to get combs for the next season and for extracting pur- 

 poses. Once two or three sets of combs for each colonv are in existence, 

 there is no necessitv for further comb-building, as colonies can lie kept fullv 

 occupied by extracting the coml)s whenever thev are ready for it and return- 

 ing them to be refilled, while all the v.ax secreted is required for the 

 capping of the full combs. 



It should be understood that the less drone coml) there is in a hive, the 

 more likely will drone comb be built when starters are given to an estab- 

 lished hive between finished combs. Such a comb is shown in Fig. i of 

 the illustrations. Fig. 2 is an unsealed comb built on a full sheet of 

 foundation. Fig. 3 a comb completely sealed over, and Fig. 4 capped' 

 combs in half-depth or shallow frames. 



{I'o be continued.) 



