Swarm Control. 15 
actually occupy it, the brood-chamber, therefore, being relieved of 
many thousand young bees that are not yet old enough for field work. 
In either comb-honey production or extracted-honey production, 
if the colonies are not strong when the first super is given they may 
refuse to expand into and occupy it or they may take possession of 
only a small portion of it. Such colonies usually store any honey 
they may accumulate at this time in the combs of the brood-chamber 
adjacent to the brood, and if in this way they surround themselves 
with honey and seal it they are not inclined to pass this finished 
work readily to expand into the supers beyond. In this way they 
may block off and occupy only a small portion of their hive and 
crowd this limited area even though empty combs are used in the 
supers above, whereas strong colonies readily expand beyond such 
barriers. For this reason it is sometimes more difficult to prevent 
swarming in colonies of medium strength than in strong ones. Any 
barrier of any kind between the brood-nest and the supers becomes 
especially objectionable in, colonies of deficient strength. Some 
strains of bees are more inclined to limit their activities to a portion 
of the hive in this way than other strains, and may be more inclined 
to swarm for this reason. 
The first super usually should be given before the bees need it, and 
especially in extracted-honey production it should be given as soon 
as the bees are strong enough to occupy it, in order to furnish a place 
outside of the brood-nest for the multitude of oncoming young bees. 
This first super for extracted-honey production should be supplied 
with empty combs, or at least half of its frames should contain empty 
combs. If no empty combs are available for this purpose, some of 
the combs of brood should be put into the super to start work there 
promptly and distribute the bees over greater surface. The first 
comb-honey supers are usually put on a little later than supers for 
extracted honey and should contain some sections in which the combs 
are already built, which were saved from the previous year. ‘These 
combs usually induce the bees to occupy the super earlier than when 
only foundation is used in the sections. 
As work progresses in the first super and the cells are being built 
out to full length, the room that can be occupied by bees decreases, 
making it necessary, if the super has been completely occupied, for 
some of the bees to go elsewhere. When the honey is finally ripened 
and sealed, few bees remain in the supers. Therefore, if a second 
super is not given until the first one is finished, most of the super 
workers are forced to go back into the brood-chamber. In the mean- 
time there is no place for the oncoming young bees to take up inside 
work before they are old enough to begin to work in the fields. The 
super workers, forced out of the super back into the brood-chamber. 
